Hello travellers, today we're taking like a look at the TOPO Designs Travel Bag 30L
As the name suggests this is a 30 litre version of the backpack
It also comes to know larger 40 litre version which has a larger size but mostly the same design.
I opted for the 30 liter because I'm used to a smaller backpack for travelling.
20 litres is what I have found to be the optimal size for myself personally.
But I know some people prefer a larger capacity backpack especially for longer trips.
The TOPO 30L bag is really well-built
and with some solid features and quality components that make it an absolute joy to travel with.
The bag comes in three colors of which I have the color called Ballistic Black.
It's made from a water-resistant 1000d nylon fabric
however water still will penetrate through the zippers and the seams if exposed to enough water.
The front of the bag has two rows of vertical daisy chain webbing.
Which I found very useful when paired with the HEROCLIP
During my trip in Krabi I switched to some water shoes from Decathlon.
I used the HEROCLIP to hang my sneakers from the back of the bag
with the daisy chain webbing whilst not in use.
There's a small vertical access pocket on the front of the bag
which inside has two more vertical zipped pockets and a small clip for keys
the next larger front pocket has two slip pockets inside and I found one of
them useful for storing my passport wallet and the other for the Nintendo Switch while travelling.
It's surprisingly expansive and can expand to fit even the
TRTL neck pillow which I will be doing a review of soon.
In addition to the two slip pockets, there's a single large zippered pocket on the top section.
I didn't use this pocket much but I imagine it would be useful for documents or other slim items.
Moving on to the main compartment you'll find a large spacious area for your main items.
And on the inside flap there are two extra mesh zippered pockets.
I used them mainly for organizing random documents papers and souvenirs that I picked up while travelling.
The bag has three main grab handles which make it very easy to grab the bag wherever you store it
Whether in the overhead bin or under your seat. The zippers are very nice and smooth
And if you look closely you'll see there's also some little loops at the end of each zipper.
This is a security or either a deterrent feature for pickpockets.
If you slip the zipper under here it makes them much more difficult to open without you noticing.
However I did find it a little bit difficult to push the zippers into
this area and so I didn't really use this very much.
Some other interesting features of the bag are that it can be carried in a sling form.
The actual backpack straps can also be unclipped and tucked away into their own pocket.
And the bag does come with a sling strap that attaches to two dedicated buckles on the side.
Around the back of the bag you also see there's a dedicated laptop compartment.
Which perfectly fit my 13-inch MacBook Pro without any trouble
although for larger laptops they will need to be sort of shimmied in on an
angle to get through the narrow pocket opening
In front of the laptop compartment is a luggage pass-through sleeve which is actually separate from
where the backpack straps slip into. So the backpack straps won't interfere with
sliding it through a rolling luggage suitcase. In addition to all this you'll
see some clips and buckles around the bag. There is one on the top and one on
the bottom of the bag which are actually designed to
attach a smaller TOPO Designs backpack if you wish.
you could also use these for hanging shoes or hats
because they're just a simple clip. there are also two more small buckles where
you can clip a slim waist strap that comes included. personally I found these
buckles a little bit difficult to clip and unclip in any kind of quick manner but
it might just be something that takes a little bit of getting used to.
backpack straps are very comfortable and have load bearing adjustments at the top
that would work quite well. there's also some vertical daisy chain webbing on the
front of each strap where you can slip through a sternum strap. the sternum
straps sit in the webbing in a fairly loose but secure manner which makes it
feel like it could fall off when not in use. but during my travels I didn't
notice them falling out or coming loose and so I think it's actually a fairly
secure fit. now onto some of the things that didn't really like about this bag.
The first and perhaps the biggest issue that I had with the bag
itself was that it weighs 24 ounces or 1.2 kilograms whilst empty.
This weight caused me to carefully consider my packing weight as I was flying with a
budget carrier and budget carriers always weigh your carry-on bags if you
depart from Australia. this wasn't the case when I was departing from Asia.
so it took me a few configurations to keep my bag under the 7 kg or
15 pound carry-on limit. the other small thing I didn't really like about this
bag is the clips they used to connect the straps to the bag. they're not
particularly easy or quick to unclip and clip especially if you want to quickly
unclip the carry-on straps and slip them in the back of the bag in hurry.
Finally, in terms of price the bag is USD$199 or AUD$288 which is not
cheap but it is comparable to similarly featured and sized backpacks.
Especially of the same material on the same quality. for the quality and the features that
you get with this bag I can certainly highly recommend it as a 'one bag' for travel.
Overall I really enjoyed using this bag as my carry-on backpack and I liked it a lot
more than I thought I would. It's just a touch heavy for me as I prefer my bags
to be at or below 2 pounds or 1 kilogram while empty. but it is extremely well
built and I know that it will last for a very long time and other similar bags
are also a similar weight while empty. so that's it, thanks very much for watching
be sure to let me know down in the comments what travel bag you prefer
while traveling or what you think about this one. And be sure to stay subscribed
to keep up to date with future videos