Anna is a co-founder of Adventure in You and has been traveling the world for the last 9 years. She has spent time living in Thailand, Mexico, Indonesia, and Spain and is our local expert in these areas. Her expertise on travel, gear, and building businesses have been featured on Foundr, Business Insider, Yahoo Travel, and more.
Despite travel being the one thing that’s constant in our lives, every time we are on the go, I want to kick myself for overpacking. Walking around with my backpack in tow, I always find myself muttering, “next time, I’m going to bring less stuff” or “why is my bag so heavy??” and no matter how hard I try, I always end up with a so much unnecessary stuff.
My conclusion? My backpacks are too big and bulky. In my three years of travel, I’ve gone from carrying a 65L, a 50L, but now, I have finally decided to take on the challenge of only using a carry on bag. (cue in gasp from every fashion friendly woman out there!) So my search for the perfect carry on bag began. As much as I wanted a carry on bag, I refused to go for one with wheels- somehow I just felt that it went against who I was as a backpacker. That’s when Standard’s Carry On Travel Backpack comes in.
As soon as I opened up this bag from the mail, I knew it was something that I would love using. It was a versatile bag which you could convert into a shoulder bag or backpack, all while remaining small enough to fit any airlines carry on guidelines. The bag has an expandable capacity of 35-45L and is just the perfect size. What I love the most about this bag has to be all the compartments, including a section where I can store my laptop. Could I really fit everything that I normally travel with inside one bag? To be honest, I have no idea but when I took out my Standard carry on bag for a spin, I could definitely see it working.
Bag dimensions: 21.5 x 13.5 x 7.5 in when zipped and 21.5 x 13.5 x 9.5 when expanded (Meets Ryan Air, Easy Jet, and all other Budget carriers Guidelines)
Volume/Capacity: 35L zipped and 45L when expanded
Weight: 3.7 pounds
Laptop Pocket: Holds most 15″ laptops and 15″ Macbook Pro
What I Love About Standard’s Carry On Backpack:
Now for me, a backpack is a backpack, it doesn’t necessarily have to look good (plus points if it does!) I would much rather have a bag that doesn’t look great but is designed to suite the needs of a traveler.
Compartments & Organization- The amount of pockets and compartments is something that stands out for me. I can easily pack everything into one bag but still know where everything is. The built in organization pockets will save me from digging through my pack frantically when I’m looking for something.
Electronics Compartment- YES!!! Finally, a good backpack with a trusty laptop compartment. Not only does it have sufficient padding, I also love all the zippers where you can put your wires are other electronic knick knacks.
Colors & Raincovers – The bag also comes with interchangeable color accents which you can switch around depending on your preference. Both the bright orange and teal blue definitely add a character pop to the bag so being able to change them around is a great feature. I also LOVE the fact that the bag comes with a raincover. I cannot stress how important it is. Trust me, I’ve gotten soaked multiple times in surprise rain showers where my bag and everything I own ends up soaking wet. Not a pleasant experience.
The Clamshell Design- While I’ve only used it for short weekends away, I do think that there is enough room for me to fit the bare essentials. Now if there is anything I learned from the last few years, it is that I would never go back to a backpack which is top loading. Thinking back, I think majority of my stress from my year long backpacking trip was unpacking and packing while trying to dig for my clothes at the bottom of my bag. With the clamshell design of this bag (you can open it up all the way like a suitcase), I could easily pack and unpack things in no time. If needed, they have extendable zippers which can give you 10L more space which is pretty handy when storing jackets or souvenirs.
Versatility- Now, if I were to be perfectly honest, there are times where we end up reviewing a posh hotel where we feel slightly sheepish as we walk in with our scruffy backpacks in tow. Naturally, as you can imagine, we turn a few heads. With the concealable backpack straps, I can easily turn the bag into a shoulder bag or vice versa.
While I don’t think the space is really a problem, I think that with the amount of electronics I carry, I will be able to ditch my bulky backpack and travel with this along with another smaller day pack. I think carrying and using a smaller bag will also remind me to keep my packing to the bare minimum. So far though, I am impressed at the quality of the bag, the durability of the material, and how the bags are made. Standard Luggage are so confident that their product is well made that they have a lifetime warranty against any defects in materials or worksmanship.I love the ingenious design and of being able to switch from shoulder bag to backpack and love the fact that it’s the perfect carry on luggage size. Although I do wish that it had a built in lock system- something that I loved about my Numinous backpacks and day bag. The lack of a water bottle holder in the expandable pockets is also apparent but since I am planning to combine carrying this and my regular daypack, it’s not a major issue. Overall, this backpack looks great- I can’t wait to test it for longer periods of time to see how I will fare.
Disclaimer: Although these packs were sponsored by Standard Luggage Co., our opinions ALWAYS remained unbiased and are completely ours.
