The Best Backpacking Backpacks for Travel

Two different products get called a travel backpack. One is a clamshell bag that unzips like a suitcase, has lockable zips, a stowable harness and no real frame — luggage with straps. The other is a backpacking pack you also fly with. This site ranks the second kind, because that is what we have maker-published weights and load figures for, and because a pack that carries 15 kg up a hill will carry anything an airport can throw at it.

That choice has consequences, and they are worth stating up front rather than in the small print. A trail pack is a top-loader or a roll-top: to reach the bottom you take things out. It has exposed mesh pockets and webbing that a baggage belt can catch. Most have no lockable zip. In exchange you get a frame, a hipbelt that actually transfers load, a published torso fit and, in the ultralight cases here, less than a third of the weight of a wheeled case.

Trail pack or travel pack?

How we picked

Full rubric at our methodology page. The gate for this page: a maker-published volume between 55 and 65 L — big enough for a fortnight, small enough that no airline charges you an oversize fee — plus a published torso range or torso-adjustment system, and a maker-published weight. The reference is the Osprey Rook 65 at 1,678 g (3 lb 11.2 oz), Osprey's entry-level framed pack. Grams saved against it per dollar of list price is 35% of the score, weight alone 20%, carry and capacity 25%, materials 10%, ease 10%.

The torso-range requirement is doing real work here. Travel packs are often bought online in a hurry, sight unseen, and the single biggest cause of a pack that hurts is a torso length that does not match the wearer. Every pack below publishes a range in inches so you can measure yourself once and buy with confidence. That requirement also excludes both of the cheap frameless packs we rank, which publish no torso sizing at all.

The evidence side by side

The three light packs.

The two framed packs with suitcase-style access.

Read the warranty row as carefully as the weight row. Airline handling is the roughest treatment a pack gets, and Osprey's All Mighty Guarantee — repair of any damage for any reason — is worth real money on a bag that spends time on conveyor belts. Granite Gear and Kelty cover defects for the life of the product; Durston covers defects for one year.

Who each pick is for

1. Granite Gear Virga3 55: the best travel pack overall

762 g (1 lb 10.9 oz) for 55 L, with an adjustable torso of 18-21 in on the Regular and 21-24 in on the Long, a Re-Fit hipbelt spanning 26-42 in, Robic 100D and 210D nylon with a DWR, and five pockets including two on the belt. It saves 916 g (2 lb 0.3 oz) vs the Osprey Rook 65, giving it a value figure of Value 4.6/10, the best here.

For travel the useful detail is Granite Gear's published stripped weight of 1.18 lb. Pull the lid and the belt and you have a sub-550 g daypack for wandering a city, with no need to carry a second bag. The load rating is 25 lb, which is the lowest here and plenty for clothes, a laptop and a few books.

Buy it if you want one bag that can be a 55 L hauler and a daypack. Skip it if you are carrying more than about 11 kg: it is frameless, and Granite Gear says so.

2. Durston Kakwa 55: the long-trip load carrier

55 L inside plus 15 L of outside pockets for 70 L total, at 895 g (1 lb 15.6 oz), on a removable hollow aluminum inverted-U frame rated to 45 lb — the highest load rating of any sub-kilogram pack we track. Torso sizes run 15-22 in across three options and the hipbelt spans 29-42 in. It saves 783 g (1 lb 11.6 oz) vs the Osprey Rook 65.

The roll-top is the travel trade-off. It compresses beautifully and it sheds rain, and it cannot be padlocked. The other is Durston's one-year defect warranty, the shortest here, on a pack made from Ultra 200X.

Buy it if your trip is months rather than weeks and the pack is carrying real weight. Skip it if lockable access or a long warranty is part of why you are buying.

3. Osprey Exos 58: the best pack to fly with

1,320 g (2 lb 14.6 oz) for 58 L (61 L in L/XL), on a 4 mm LightWire frame with an AirSpeed suspended mesh back panel and 4 in of torso adjustment, rated for 30-35 lb. Torso sizes are 17-20.5 in and 19.5-23 in. It saves 358 g (12.6 oz) vs the Osprey Rook 65, and it asks a higher MSRP band more than the Virga3.

Three travel-specific reasons it is here. The removable floating lid zips, so you can get at the top of the pack in a queue without opening the main bag. The suspended mesh back panel is the difference between a damp shirt and a soaked one in a hot city. And the All Mighty Guarantee means Osprey repairs any damage for any reason — the single most useful warranty on this page for a bag that gets thrown.

Buy it if you are flying often and want the pack to survive it. Skip it if the budget is tight: the Asher 55 below covers most of the same ground.

4. Kelty Asher 55: the budget travel pack

1,420 g (3 lb 2.1 oz) for 55 L in 600D polyester oxford, on an advanced perimeter frame with FIT-Pro torso adjustment from 15.5 to 21 in, a 28-50 in waist belt and an optimal carry range of 25-45 lb. It saves 258 g (9.1 oz) vs the Osprey Rook 65, and Kelty covers it for the life of the product against defects.

Its travel feature is the sleeping-bag compartment: a zipped lower section that, on a trip with no sleeping bag in it, becomes suitcase-style access to the bottom of the pack. That single zip is the thing most ultralight packs do not have, and it is why people who travel with a pack keep buying framed ones. The downside is one hipbelt pocket, on the right side only.

Buy it if you want bottom access and a lifetime defect warranty for the least money. Skip it if your torso is longer than 21 in, which is the top of Kelty's range.

5. Osprey Rook 65: the most features

The class reference: 1,678 g (3 lb 11.2 oz) for a listed 62 L, one size with 4 in of torso adjustment, a 4 mm LightWire peripheral frame, a tensioned mesh back panel, 600D recycled polyester, a fixed top lid, a sleeping-bag compartment and — uniquely here — an integrated removable raincover.

For travel that raincover is genuinely useful: it turns the pack into something you can leave on a roof rack or a station platform in the wet, and it doubles as a rough flight cover that keeps straps from snagging. The price is weight. At 1,678 g it is the reference, so it saves no grams against itself.

Buy it if you want a raincover, a lid and bottom access in one bag with Osprey's guarantee. Skip it if base weight matters at all — everything above it here is lighter.

Will it go in the cabin?

What you can do is make the pack behave. Cinch the compression straps hard, stow or remove the lid, tuck the hipbelt, and put the pack inside a cheap duffel or the Rook's raincover so nothing can catch. The Virga3 is the one pack here that genuinely shrinks: stripped of lid and belt it is a small bag, and Granite Gear publishes that weight.

If cabin-only is the actual requirement, buy a 40 L bag rather than trying to squash a 55. That is a different product from everything we rank, and we would rather say so than pretend.

What missed the cut

Clamshell travel packs. The zip-around bags sold specifically for one-bag travel are outside what this site covers: we rank gear by grams saved per dollar against a backpacking reference, and a bag with no frame and no load rating cannot be scored that way honestly. If you never walk far with it, one of those is probably the right buy and this is the wrong page.

The 3F UL Gear QiDian packs. Both are cheap, light and genuinely good value — they top our budget ultralight ranking — and neither publishes a torso size. For a pack you cannot try on before a trip, that is disqualifying.

The Gossamer Gear Mariposa 60. Excellent pack, seven outside pockets, and that is the problem for travel: the pockets are mesh and stretch knit, which is exactly what a baggage belt tears. It is ranked on the comfort page instead.

Packs over 65 L. The Osprey Atmos AG 65 and Kelty Glendale 65 are both fine bags, and at over 2 kg empty they are a lot of luggage before you put anything in them. Both are ranked on the men's fit page.

How to choose a backpacking pack for travel

1. Measure your torso before you look at anything else. Every pack here publishes a range in inches. Buying the wrong length is the one mistake no feature list will fix.
2. Decide whether you need to lock it. Roll-tops and drawcords do not take a padlock. If that matters, you want the Exos, the Asher or the Rook.
3. Check the warranty, not just the fabric. Osprey repairs any damage for any reason. Granite Gear and Kelty cover defects for the product's life. Durston covers defects for one year.
4. Prefer a second entry if you will live out of it. A bottom compartment or a zipped lid means you are not emptying the bag on a hostel floor every morning.
5. Count on checking it. 55 L does not go in a cabin. Compress it, stow loose straps, and put it in a cover or duffel.
6. Be honest about the weight you will carry. 25 lb for the Virga3, 30-35 for the Exos, 45 for the Kakwa. Our guide to pack weight is the sanity check.

Mistakes to avoid

• Buying a 65 L pack because it is only a little heavier. An empty pack you carry through three airports is weight you never use. 55 L is enough for a fortnight if you pack like a backpacker.
• Assuming a frameless pack is fine because the load is clothes. Clothes are bulky and light, which suits frameless packs well — right up until you add a laptop, a water bottle and two days of food.
• Leaving straps loose at check-in. Loose webbing and mesh pockets are what conveyor systems destroy. Cinch everything, stow the belt, cover the bag.
• Ignoring the back panel in hot countries. The Exos and Rook use tensioned mesh with a gap behind your back; the ultralight packs sit flat against you. In 35 °C that is not a small difference.
• Owning two bags when one would do. If you also backpack, buy the trail pack and travel with it. If you never will, buy luggage. Owning a compromise of both usually means owning neither well.