Having the right backpack or daypack makes your travels more or less comfortable. It is essential to find one that best suits your needs.
This blog post focuses on the backpack as a daypack carrying your essentials (such as delicious snacks!) while travelling (and even as a carry-on for planes). This smaller backpack is capable of being your carry-on bag on planes or buses while your larger backpack is checked into the cargo hold.
Before researching and looking for a daypack that has all the right features for you, there are questions you need to first ask yourself to help you find your ideal daypack.
Questions to answer to help you find your daypack
What would you use the daypack for?
Are you using it to carry just essential stuff (water, snacks, some clothing, more snacks, important documents and/or medication) while walking around a city?
Or will you also use the daypack for outdoor activities as well (such as hiking)?
An urban daypack is different to a daypack for hiking.
A hiking daypack can be bigger in size and has more features to accommodate the strenuous activity of trekking across demanding terrain, features such as an adjustable hip belt and shoulder strap, walking pole attachments, a pocket for a hydration bladder, air flow points, and better padding for increased comfort.
In my opinion, a daypack designed with outdoor activities in mind is always the better daypack as they are normally made out of stronger materials, have more features, be more suitable in different environments, and would be more comfortable walking around with.
What do you envision carrying in your daypack?
What you think you’ll carry in your daypack will affect how big your daypack may need to be to pack everything in (which will also affect the weight of your daypack).
If you think you would be only carrying the essentials such as some snacks, a water bottle, a jacket, toiletries, important documents and medication, you may look at daypacks that are around 20 litre capacity.
If you see yourself carrying bigger things like a DSLR or mirrorless camera and/or a laptop (especially as a carry-on and one-piece plane luggage), you may need a much bigger daypack around 30-35 litre capacity to fit everything in.
Think you’ll carry fragile things like a camera or laptop? You will need to consider daypacks with additional internal padding and even different compartments.
What you think you will carry will also affect the weight of the daypack overall.
The more stuff you carry, the heavier your daypack will obviously be.
This affects comfort (You would want a daypack with good padding) and you will also have to think about carry-on luggage weight – You don’t want to risk exceeding the weight limit and pay for excess charges for your daypack.
Closed pockets or top load and floating lid?
Most daypacks are divided between a daypack with a traditional main zipped compartment and a daypack with a floating lid.
A daypack with a floating lid allows top loading access and typically has a roll-top shoot (with a drawstring to tighten/ the top opening) that expands for more luggage capacity which is handy. Such top loader daypacks are found in mostly daypacks with hiking in mind.
Beware that such top loaders typically don’t have any security zips to secure it.
Once you know what you’re using your daypack for, along with what you think you will carry in it, you can move forward in finding a daypack that best suits your needs.
Here are the recommended essential things you look for in a good daypack.
Stretch side pockets
Also, by having a water bottle outside and on the side, it becomes easier for you to grab your water bottle while walking, instead of having to handle your daypack and searching inside your daypack for your water bottle.
The side pockets should ideally have adjustable straps as an option to secure things in place.
Multiple pockets and compartments
It’s always great to have a daypack with multiple pockets and compartments for organisation. It’s also good to have internal zip pockets as well to store important valuables and documents.
Small enough to be carry-on luggage
Daypacks come in various sizes but most tend to be small enough to be allowed as carry-on luggage onboard flights so you can avoid paying exorbitant luggage fees.
Bigger hiking daypacks, such as 35 litres and more, may push carry-on luggage size limits.
Do note that every airline has different maximum carry-on luggage dimensions and limits.
Learn more:
Carry-on luggage sizes for over 50 major airlines
Lightweight
Daypacks vary greatly in weight due to materials used, capacity size, and other features.
Choose a daypack that is well-balanced between material type and its thickness (for strength) and weight (the heavier the daypack, the less weight of total items you can carry on board flights).
Speaking of material…
Made from strong fabrics
You want a daypack that can handle anything you throw at it. The last thing you want is to have rips and tears in your daypack or a broken strap!
Daypacks come in different materials (and also thickness), some stronger and durable than others, along with different kinds of stitching (double-stitching is always better, along with having six to ten stitches per inch of material).
The strength of a fabric depends on both the material used and its thickness, expressed as a unit of measurement called “denier”.
The denier measurement expresses fibre thickness of individual threads or filaments in fabrics (For example, 450D Rip-stop nylon). The thicker a fabric is, the stronger it is but also heavier.
Good and strong common backpack fabrics are:
Nylon:
A common material used in modern backpacks, nylon is strong, durable and can resist abrasion, along with being water-resistant. However, this fabric doesn’t offer any UV resistance (Materials with UV resistance last longer without cracking or degrading due to constant UV exposure). Nylon tends to rip badly if it is punctured, which is why there is also…
Rip-stop nylon:
Think of it as ‘super’ nylon. Rip-stop refers to a special kind of weaving where a fabric is made with a grid pattern of durable threads sewn close together, creating a woven pattern of the threads to prevent the fabric from growing a tear. This helps make the fabric stronger and more wear resistant overall. This kind of weaving has the unique ability to stop small tears from spreading in the fabric which is great in a nylon daypack.
Materials that aren’t as durable or strong are:
Polyester:
While it isn’t as strong as the above materials, polyester can holds its own in durability. Polyester is UV resistant and can have a PU (Polyurethane) coating to add some waterproofing to the material but this coating doesn’t last forever. Luckily, polyester can dry rapidly. Polyester backpacks tend to be a lot more affordable.
Cotton:
Most modern cotton bags are blended with synthetic materials like polyester and are typically not waterproof so aren’t ideal for outdoor activities when the weather changes.
Double security zips
This obviously prevents someone else from stealing stuff from your daypack and even putting something in.
(It’s debatable if having a paddocked daypack makes you more or less a target for thieves – but it nevertheless acts as a deterrent.)
The zips should be robust (like YKK brand of zips) so they don’t break easily.
Special mention:
Supportive hip belt and shoulder strap
There are increasingly more hip belts that have handy zip pockets on them – these are perfect for stashing easily accessible snacks!
Before you go researching for a daypack, ask yourself:
- What would I use the daypack for?
- What do I think I’ll carry in my daypack?
The recommended essential things you look for in a good daypack are:
- Comfortable padding
- Stretch side pockets
- Multiple pockets and compartments
- Small enough to be carry-on luggage
- Lightweight
- Made from strong fabrics such as nylon
- Double security zips
Are there other features that a daypack has to have so it’s suitable and great for travelling with?
Comment below to let other travellers and myself know!
Did you find this blog post useful in helping you select your ideal daypack? Do you know someone who is travelling soon and is in need of a new daypack or backpack?
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