Customer Reviews for Peak Design - Travel Backpack 45L - Black
Customer Rating
5
Attractive, Sturdy, good for petite frames (30L)
on April 13, 2022
Posted by: Alice
I’m petite and I was looking for a bag for 3-5 day trips. After trying several bags, I found the 30L travel backpack was perfect for me. It’s very roomy - large enough for several changes of clothes, extra shoes, books, toiletries etc. it’s got great internal organization. And it doesn’t make me feel like I’m going to tip over. Plus, it’s good looking. Excited to travel with this bag!
I am almost overwhelmed by the versatility of this pack, and the cleverness of the design. It will serve me well in the years to come. There are a couple of caveats: 1) the padding on the shoulder and waist straps is not that thick, but that is because they are designed to be neatly tucked into the pack; and 2) if you don’t use the snaps to compress the pack it is nearly impossible to put it under the seat in front of you on a plane. I know that the pack was intended to be the carryon item, but I had hoped to use this as my “personal item” that I could stow under the seat in front of me. It is also rather pricey, but as I said, beautiful design is expensive.
I bought this backpack prior to a domestic trip for 5 days. It held all the clothes and items I wanted for the trip. All of the external straps stow in the bag; which makes it fit in the overhead compartments of domestic flights really well. Multiple carry straps so you can literally grab the bag from anywhere on it and carry it. It distributes weight well. The backpack is comfortable to carry even when fully loaded. There are too many little features to name, but there is a lot of organization in this bag. Great product. Would work for international travel and as a gear bag as well. Wonderful and responsive customer service.
First, customer service has been great! The first bag I received was sliced in transit but the PD team walked me through the warranty process and I was able to get a replacement quickly and painlessly. I was able to get very speedy responses from the text services.
I just returned from a week in Belize with the bag. I’m 5’4” with a petite frame and easily carried it on the plane in the 35L set up (~30lbs). One word of warning—the snaps to convert from 40L to 35L are very hard for me to snap. It fit easily in the overhead storage. Once we arrived, it was great to be wheels-free on all of the dirt roads. I was able to stay fairly organized in the bag throughout the week thanks to all of the pockets. On the way home I checked the bag—it held up to the airline abuse well but (to no surprise) came back a little dirty. I was able to wipe it clean a little but would recommend the black bag if you wanted to avoid that. Otherwise, the sage green is a beautiful gender neutral color and the fabric and zippers feel nice and sturdy.
I haven’t seen this comment in other reviews so maybe it’s a fit issue for me alone, but the shoulder straps rotate inward and dig into my shoulders and chest making uncomfortable to wear for even 20 minutes. In every other way the bag is perfect, but the straps issue makes it unusable for me.
I was looking for a carry-on bag for short to medium length trips with enough room and options to prevent the need to check a bag. The 45L Travel Backpack ended up being exactly what I needed. It had more room and pockets than I ended up needing with the items in mind I wanted to bring. Paired with the Medium and Small packing cubes, this did everything I needed. Looking forward to continue using this on all of my trips going forward!