while planning our On a 20-day trip to Asia in 2018, my boyfriend at the time was adamant that none of us would check any luggage. As a proud overpacker, this intention shocked and horrified me. I like options and hate having to mess things up. I wanted to bring 30 pairs of shoes and 348 pairs of underwear; I definitely didn’t want to painstakingly build a capsule wardrobe and strategically compile packing cubes. Ultimately, though, I settled for single-bag travel, and the Osprey Farpoint 40 quickly turned me into legitimately loving the light-bag travel life.
If you want the perfect backpack, or the most durable suitcase, or the best tote to carry your totes, my colleagues have plenty of recommendations worth browsing. But if you want a bag that makes carrying (to the plane, train, or automobile) and carrying (from hotel to hostel back to hotel again) a delightfully pain-free experience, the Farpoint is my favorite.
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Photograph: Laurin Strampe -
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Osprey
Farpoint 40L Travel Backpack
During that trip of about three weeks in 2018, my boyfriend and I constantly visited Shanghai, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Busan, Seoul, and Hong Kong. We took many flights and trains, and we stayed in both spacious rooms and cramped quarters. In the years since, I have taken my Osprey Farpoint to the East and West coasts of the United States. It’s stayed with me in three homes, accompanied me on dozens of road trips, and stayed with me in hundreds of hotels. I’ve used it for trips as long as three weeks and as quick as one night. I’ve thrown it down stairs, sat on top of it on the subway, used it to protect my head from the rain, stuffed it into extremely loaded vehicle trunks, and completely packed it almost every time I took it anywhere. It’s still working just as it did on that first trip.
Needless to say, this bag is cavernous. Its 40-liter capacity allows you to load it to the brink of being too heavy to carry on, but I never had any problems getting it on a plane, partly thanks to the compression straps that help you compress the silhouette. (According to Osprey’s website, the Farpoint meets domestic carry-on size requirements.) And it offers so many pockets it’s hard to keep track of them.
The outer shell has two mesh slots that are perfect for shoes or water bottles, as well as a small compartment where I like to stash my keys and passport. The pack has two main compartments, the first of which is a laptop compartment, equipped with a zippered sleeve ideal for e-readers or tablets. The largest body pocket has two built-in compression straps to help you achieve the “sit on top of the suitcase to close it” effect when you’re ready to zip up. On the opposite side, there’s another zipped mesh pocket that extends across the entire shell, which I use to stash my socks, underwear, toiletries, and other items I need but don’t want mixed in with my clothes.
Somehow, the Farpoint makes it not only possible to carry everything I need, but also comfortable. Yes, when you wear a full-to-the-edge Farpoint, you’ll look like a turtle peeking out from under a shell. But you won’t need to move slowly because of its stabilization design. The shoulder and hip straps are padded, and there are clip straps for your hips and chest. The chest strap also has a built-in whistle, which won’t necessarily increase your comfort, but may come in handy if you’re hiking. (I use the whistle mostly for fun or to annoy my camp mates at festivals.)
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