Few days away travelling bag

I’ve got an osprey Farpoint 55, it’s a 40 with discrete attachments for a separate 15l daypack. Brilliant for a week away with work, especially as I can put my day work stuff in the smaller bag (laptop, bottle, notebook etc) and not have to drag the 40l bag to meetings.

Slightly off topic but I reccomend getting some compression bags (is that the correct name?)

Great for organising your contents and if there is two of you, get his and theirs colours.

The laptop is loaded at the front of the bag (ie away from your back) so it’s a bit more comfy than one where the laptop is pushing into your back with relatively little padding

So the weight is further from your back and therefore exerting more force? Can’t think of anything worse.

@duncancallum doesn’t meet the brief. Not sure Matt is the suit wearing type either but still a good spot, half the price of a Henty Wingman.

I’ve the Patagonia MLC, excellent bit of kit for plane trips, weekends away.

I’d second the Patagonia MLC. Was very hard to find the smallest under seat version, but when we did, it’s been excellent. Almost paid for itself on the many Ryan Air flights from Dublin to the UK.

looking at this myself now.

has anyone got any experience of the decathlon bag mentioned somewhere near the start ?

The last trip away we did was Ryanair. Mrs BigJohn took the big bag and to save money I just plumped for underseat bag only. I got a natty IQ underseat bag from Argos. A smashing bit of kit which was viewed with suspicion by the staff at the gate who pointed at the bag check frame. It plopped in with a satisfying swoosh causing the 2 gate staff to look at each other and say “I want one of them!”.

Osprey fanboi here; I use a Porter 46l for such duties.

I like the full top-opening for ease of access to stuff rather than blindly digging about in the guts of the bag trying to find your toothbrush on a traditional rucksack (*edit – it looks like the Farpoint does the same thing. Which means I’m not entirely sure what the difference between them actually is?!)

Padded laptop/iPad sleeve built in, couple of internal pockets that swallow wash-bags, chargers and all that guff and a handy top-pocket for passport/quick access.

Originally bought for a 3 week trip to Oz & New Zealand and regularly used for weekends away in the post-parenting age since and it’s going strong. Carry-on friendly as long as you’re not on full cheap-ass mode and trying to squash it into Ryanair’s measuring cage (*it won’t fit). The straps cleverly unclip and tuck away into the back so it can quickly convert to a hold bag too if needed.

Seems like it’s had a slight refresh and updated name since I got it – https://www.osprey.com/gb/osprey-sojourn-porter-46-f23?color=Graphite%2520Purple

I do like the

That Decathlon bag looks great. Very clever design. Patagonia very similar[ly well thought out], but 3x the cost

Have a look at Cabin Zero, we have 4 of them in our family of various flavours and have been quite impressed.  They were used for 3 weeks interrailing Summer 2023, various City breaks and then 2 weeks in Canada this summer.  Surprisingly capacious if packed well.

https://www.cabinzero.com/

The Osprey mentioned up there pops up as a recommendation on https://www.reddit.com/r/onebag/ fairly often.

I’ve got the Osprey bag that everybody recommends on page one. Mine’s ten years old now, done inumerable trips abroad and at home, it’s my go-to week/end travel bag, and looks pretty much still brand new, nothing’s broken, all the straps, zips and pockets all still function like they should. If it ever dies, I’ll buy another.