Product Review: Osprey Farpoint 40 Travel Backpack
- Molly Stillwell
- Dec 14, 2016
- 4 min read
This past October I departed on a month long journey across 6 countries. I knew this journey would have unique demands and that I would need to find the right gear that supported those things that were most important to me.
In preparation for this, I started doing some research into what different backpacks were being suggested for this kind of travel. In the process I found various options. But, I ended up time after time seeing the Osprey Farpoint 40 bag coming up as the top pick. Therefore, when nothing else quite fit, I ordered it.
While at first it seemed promising, it didn’t floor me right away and I was left with some doubt but figured I would try packing it and wearing it to see if that changed things.
After doing this, I was feeling pretty good about how things looked…until literally the day I was leaving. When the last few things were added it just reached this point that I knew this was not what I wanted.
Perfect.
In terms of what I did like about this bag:
– The straps were well shaped and comfortable
-The black color was nice for keeping things looking clean and the neon color inside, while not my favorite, did make it easy to spot if I left my bag unzipped
-The support of the sturdy waist strap was nice, but also made moving around down narrow bus and plane aisle much harder
-It did also have some nice inside pockets for storing smaller items besides the main compartment
-The size. One of the main reasons I went for this bag, it was large but still technically counted as a carry on size (although when it was actually full and I was traversing real life, this wasn’t as true as I had hoped)
However, in terms of things I did not like about this bag.. the list was longer:
-How bulky it was when filled. I felt like I had an extra 10 feet sticking off my back and often hit people and things as I was moving around
-The challenge to get in and out of it. The way the straps are designed they reach across the entier front of the bag which made it challenging to get quick access to anything except for the small top pocket which was constantly frustrating
-The water bottle holders are also on the front of the bag which I hated! I couldn’t reach to grab the water while I was wearing it and because the straps have to cross over these pockets it was incredibly hard to even fit a bottle in them. Even if I had, it just added even more width to the bag, which I didn’t want. And, whatever I did put in there just got smashed. This was terrible
-The inside was pretty bare, no extra pockets or anything. It had straps to tie down clothes or things and then had a zipped pocket on the inside of the front but everything I put in it just fell down to the bottom of the bag making it bulkier in the middle
-The lack of a designated laptop pocket. I will never make this mistake again, it’s too important not to have and not having it here was a major inconvince especially going through security at the airport every week or few days
-The basic design of the bag. If you can see in the image above, this bag has a small narrow bottom and then a wide middle, so when you put this bag down it falls forward ever time and this makes it harder to manage as your traveling trying to do added ovens million other things!
Ultimately, for me, this bag became unusable and I had to devise a plan for how I was going to make it through the rest of the trip.
At first I thought of shipping home the things I was done using. Then I found out it would be something like $500 to ship a large box to Washington from Abu Dhabi haha
Sooo, instead, I found and bought another larger rolling suitcase and basically just put this pack inside it! Haha
This was I was able to roll it and round with me and I didn’t have to worry and roundabout packing it just so to make everything work.
Luckily, I had packed another smaller backpack as well that became my carry on with the most important items while I checked the other two rolling bags. Thank goodness this solved my problem, except the challenge of now managing two rolling bags and a backpack.
I basically moved from feeling like a packing pro (from other trips) to feeling like a total complete amateur and a total mess !
I can see now that I lost sight of what elements were most important to me and, as a result, chose a bag that failed me.
While this bag might work well for some, it was far from my perfect travel bag.
Lessons learned, and this time it was the hard way.
And so, the hunt continues!
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