The Best Travel Backpacks for Carry-On Travel in 2026

My main travel backpack is a Peak Design Travel Backpack 45L, and I’ve been using Peak Design gear since 2015. Jess and I also have a long-standing habit of wandering into outdoor shops wherever we are to see what’s new, which means I’ve had most of the packs in this guide on my back at some point, even if only between the shelves of an REI.

So here’s how this guide works. For every pack I’ll tell you whether I own it, whether I’ve handled it in person, or whether I know it from its published specifications. Only one bag in this list gets the full “I travel with this” treatment, because only one has earned it. The rest get plain reporting instead of imaginary field tests.

The other thing this guide does that others don’t is measure every pack against the actual published cabin bag limits of real airlines, checked in August 2026. Most carry-on backpack roundups will sell you a “carry-on compliant” bag and then quietly tell you to check with your airline. We’ve done the checking, and some of the results surprised me.

If you’re after a smaller bag that rides under the seat in front of you rather than in the overhead bin, that’s a different category with different rules, and we have a separate guide to the best travel daypacks for exactly that.

The quick version first. The tomtoc Travel Backpack 40L is the cheapest bag in this lineup and also the one that fits the most airlines on paper, which is not how gear guides usually go. The Peak Design 45L is the bag I actually travel with, and the Osprey Farpoint 40 is the pick if carrying comfort matters more to you than squeezing past every budget airline sizer. The rest of this guide explains those calls, and gives you the tools to make your own.

 

Is There Actually a Carry-On Standard?

The short answer? No. Now for the longer answer.

The TSA, which many bag listings love to invoke, sets no carry-on size at all. Their own guidance says carry-on dimensions “vary by airline” and directs you to your carrier. There is no TSA certification a bag can hold. When a listing says “TSA approved” next to a size, it means nothing. (There is one real TSA-related feature, which is a laptop compartment that opens flat for screening. That exists, and it’s useful. It just has nothing to do with size.)

Even the manufacturers admit the standard doesn’t exist. Osprey’s own carry-on guidance makes it clear: exceptions abound, and you should check the site of every carrier you plan to fly. That’s a company that prints “carry-on” on its own products telling you the label can’t be relied on. I appreciate the candour.

What does exist is a convention. Most US airlines, including American, Delta and United, publish a maximum carry-on size of 22 x 14 x 9 inches (56 x 35 x 23 cm), including handles and wheels. Most travel backpacks are designed to that number, which is why so many of them are 9 inches deep. If you mostly fly US domestic and mainline international carriers, a bag built to the convention will generally board without drama.

The squeeze comes from budget airlines, and this catches a lot of travellers out. Several European low-cost carriers publish overhead bag limits that are tighter than the US convention on at least one axis, and the overhead bag on those airlines is a paid extra rather than something included with a basic fare. The free allowance is a small under-seat bag only.

We’ll get to exact numbers in the table below, with Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air as worked examples, because they’re the ones with the tightest published limits that our readers most often hit on European trips.

So don’t buy a bag because the label says it’s carry-on approved. Compare the bag’s published dimensions to your airline’s published limit before you fly. The table below does that for every pack in this guide, and the method works for any pack and any carrier.

 

Carry-On Backpack Sizes Compared by Airline

Every figure here is the manufacturer’s own published size and the airline’s own published limit, checked in August 2026. Every number here comes from the maker’s own spec panel rather than a retailer listing, because retailer figures for the same bag can disagree wildly. Airline limits change, so treat this as a well-checked snapshot, not gospel, and always confirm against your carrier before you fly.

A note on reading the verdicts. These packs are soft-sided, and a couple of them sit within a centimetre of a limit on paper. A softshell bag packed sensibly can compress into a sizer in a way a hard case can’t, but I’m not going to promise you a sizer pass the manufacturer’s own numbers don’t support. “On the line” means exactly that.

Backpack	Published size (cm)	Weight	AA / Delta / United (56 x 35 x 23)	easyJet (56 x 45 x 25)	Wizz Air (55 x 40 x 23)	Ryanair (55 x 40 x 20)
tomtoc Travel Backpack 40L	52 x 34 x 23	1.07 kg	Fits	Fits	Fits (at the depth limit)	Too deep
Osprey Farpoint 40 / Fairview 40	55 x 35 x 23 (21.7 x 13.8 x 9.1 in)	1.48 kg	On the line (0.1 in over on depth)	Fits	On the line	Too deep
Cotopaxi Allpa 35L	56 x 30 x 25	1.33 kg	Too deep	Fits (at the limit)	Too tall and deep	Too tall and deep
Cotopaxi Allpa 42L	56 x 36 x 27	1.41 kg	Too deep	Too deep	Too tall and deep	Too tall and deep
Peak Design Travel Backpack 45L	56 x 33 x 24 (35L setting)	2.05 kg	Too deep by 1 cm	Fits (at the height limit)	Too tall and deep	Too tall and deep
Osprey Sojourn Porter 46L	55 x 35 x 23 (21.5 x 14 x 9 in)	1.56 kg	Fits (at the width and depth limits)	Fits	Fits (at the depth limit)	Too deep
Patagonia Black Hole MLC 45L	56 x 37 x 19	1.64 kg	Slightly too wide	Fits	Too tall	Too tall

Two things jump out of that table. First, nothing in this lineup fits Ryanair’s paid overhead allowance on paper. Nothing. The Patagonia is the only bag under Ryanair’s 20 cm depth limit and it loses on height by a single centimetre instead. Second, the two best compliance records in the table belong to two of the cheapest bags in it. The tomtoc and the Osprey Sojourn Porter both clear everything here except Ryanair. Nobody designs gear guides to end up there, but that’s what the numbers say.

To check any other pack against any other carrier, the method is exactly what we did here: find the manufacturer’s published external dimensions (the spec tab on their own site, not a retailer listing), find your airline’s cabin bag page, and compare all three axes. Depth is the one that fails. Height and width are almost always fine on a travel backpack; it’s the 23 to 31 cm of depth where bags and sizers fall out.

Now, these bags do tend to be squishy, so half an inch (or a centimetre) on one axis is unlikely to be a deal breaker, even with a rules stalwart like Ryanair. But

 

tomtoc Travel Backpack 40L: Best for Budget Airlines and Budgets

I picked this bag up expecting to put it straight back down. tomtoc made their name in laptop sleeves, and a 40 litre travel pack at this price from a case maker didn’t sound promising. Having handled one, I get why it keeps ending up in serious one-bag travel discussions.

At 52 x 34 x 23 cm it’s the most airline-friendly bag in this guide, fitting the US majors and easyJet with room to spare and hitting Wizz Air’s limit exactly. It’s also the lightest here at just over a kilo, which matters on airlines that weigh cabin bags. The main compartment opens flat like a suitcase, the laptop bay opens most of the way flat for security screening, and the fabric is a dense polyester with YKK zips that feels quite a bit beyond the price.

Key specifications:

• Capacity – 40 litres
• Published size – 52 x 34 x 23 cm (20.5 x 13 x 9 in)
• Weight – 1.07 kg (2.36 lb)
• Laptop compartment – fits up to 16″ models
• Opening – full clamshell main compartment

The listing calls it “TSA Carry On Bag Flight Approved”, which, as covered above, is not a thing. Ignore the badge and read the numbers, because the numbers are the good part. What you give up against the pricier bags is harness sophistication. The straps and back panel are fine for airports and city transfers, but there’s no hip belt to speak of and you wouldn’t want to hike with it loaded.

You can check the current price of the tomtoc 40L on Amazon here (Check price on Amazon). It’s comfortably the cheapest bag in this guide.

 

Peak Design Travel Backpack 45L: The One I Travel With

This is my bag. It’s the one by the door, the one that’s been through more airports with me than any other piece of luggage I own, and the one I’d replace with the same model tomorrow if it fell off a ferry. I’ve been using Peak Design gear since 2015, starting with their camera straps, and the Travel Backpack is the product where their design habits pay off most.

The clever part is the expansion system. Compressed, it’s a 30 litre bag. The default configuration is 35 litres, and two expansion zips take it to 45 litres. In practice that means one bag covers a weekend city break and a three week trip, and you can fly it slimmed down for a strict airline and expanded for a generous one. Rear panel access means you load it flat like a suitcase; side and top access mean you can grab things in transit without unpacking.

As a photographer, I bought it for the camera cube system. Drop a cube in and the same bag that carries clothes becomes a dedicated camera bag. If you travel with camera gear, that combination is the strongest argument for this pack, and we cover the wider options in our guide to the best camera bags for travel.

Key specifications:

• Capacity – 30L compressed / 35L standard / 45L expanded
• Published external size – 56 x 33 x 24 cm (22 x 13 x 9.5 in) in the 35 litre setting; Peak Design publishes no external figure for the bag expanded to 45 litres
• Weight – 2.05 kg (4.5 lb)
• Laptop compartment – fits up to 16″ models
• Weatherproof shell, lifetime warranty

Now the downside, because this guide has a rule about that. The 56 x 33 x 24 cm figure in our table is the 35 litre setting, and so is Peak Design’s carry-on claim. They publish no external size for the bag expanded to 45 litres, and expanded it is a really big bag. I would not stroll up to a Ryanair gate with it expanded and expect to win the sizer argument. That’s not a flaw so much as a fact about physics, but no marketing page will say it, so I will. Fly it snapped down on strict carriers, expand it when the airline (or the rental car) allows.

It’s also the heaviest bag here before you’ve packed a sock, and it’s a premium product at a premium price: Check price on Amazon on Amazon, or direct from Peak Design. You’re paying for the build quality, the camera integration and the design details, and having paid for all three, I’d do it again.

 

Osprey Farpoint 40 and Fairview 40: Best for Carrying Comfort

We’ve owned and used a number of Osprey packs over the years and have always had a good experience with them, so it won’t surprise you that Osprey holds more than one slot in this guide. The Farpoint 40 and its women’s-fit twin the Fairview 40 are the packs I’d point most people toward if the question is “which of these will I be happiest carrying through a city for an hour”.

These are the same bag on two different harnesses. Same 40 litre capacity, same dimensions, with the Fairview cut for shorter torsos and narrower shoulders. Both are one-size with an adjustable torso, and both come with the thing the cheaper bags skip, a hiking-grade suspension with a real hip belt and load lifters that move the weight off your shoulders. If you’ve ever done the airport-to-hostel walk with a bag that hangs off your collarbones, this is the cure.

The current generation is made from bluesign approved recycled nylon with a PFAS-free water repellent finish, and it’s covered by Osprey’s All Mighty Guarantee, which is pretty much as good as warranties get in this business. They’ll repair any damage or defect, for any reason, free, for the life of the pack.

Key specifications (both packs):

• Capacity – 40 litres (2,441 cubic inches)
• Published size – 21.7 x 13.8 x 9.1 in (roughly 55 x 35 x 23 cm)
• Weight – Farpoint 3.27 lb (1.48 kg), Fairview 3.23 lb (1.47 kg)
• One size, adjustable torso; Extended Fit versions available separately
• Fabric – bluesign approved 100% recycled nylon, PFAS-free DWR

The compliance picture needs saying carefully. At 9.1 inches deep, these sit a tenth of an inch over the US 22 x 14 x 9 convention on paper, and the same whisker over Wizz Air’s limit. In the real world a softshell bag that close to the line, packed with clothes, not camera bodies, is pretty much going into that overhead bin, but you should know the published numbers before you argue with a gate agent. easyJet’s limit clears it comfortably. Ryanair’s does not, by three centimetres of depth, and no amount of optimistic squashing changes that.

Check current prices for the Farpoint 40 here (Check price on Amazon) and the Fairview 40 here (Check price on Amazon).

 

Cotopaxi Allpa 35L: Best for Organised Packing

The Allpa is the pack I see most often on other travellers, and having handled one, I understand the appeal. The whole bag opens like a book, and both halves are zipped mesh compartments, so the organisation that other packs expect you to buy packing cubes for is built into the structure of the bag. If you’re the sort of person whose packing style is “controlled chaos”, the Allpa imposes order on you, and does it in colourways that don’t look like every other black rectangle at the carousel.

Key specifications:

• Capacity – 35 litres
• Published size – 56 x 30 x 25 cm (22 x 12 x 10 in)
• Weight – 1.33 kg (2 lb 15 oz)
• Laptop sleeve – fits 15″ models
• Lifetime warranty plus repairs under Cotopaxi’s Guaranteed for Good programme

The shape is the catch. Cotopaxi built this bag tall and deep rather than wide. At 25 cm deep it’s over the US convention’s 23 cm, and at 56 cm tall it’s a centimetre over Ryanair and Wizz height limits. On easyJet it fits exactly, to the centimetre, on two axes at once, which is the kind of fit where an overstuffed front pocket loses you the argument. It’s a well-made, likeable bag that happens to be shaped wrong for the strictest sizers, so buy it for the organisation and the look, not for budget airline optimisation.

Check the current Allpa 35L price on Amazon here (Check price on Amazon).

 

Cotopaxi Allpa 42L: Most Space Without Checking a Bag (Almost)

Everything I said about the 35L applies here, scaled up. Same book-style opening, same built-in mesh organisation, same warranty, seven more litres. If you’re packing for two weeks plus, or you’re the family member who ends up carrying everyone else’s overflow (I know this role well), the 42L is the size that makes one-bag travel plausible.

Key specifications:

• Capacity – 42 litres
• Published size – 56 x 36 x 27 cm (22 x 14 x 11 in)
• Weight – 1.41 kg (3 lb 2 oz)
• Laptop sleeve – fits 15″ models
• Lifetime warranty plus repairs under Guaranteed for Good

But read the table before you buy this one, because it has the worst compliance record in this guide. At 27 cm deep it exceeds every published limit we checked, including the US convention and easyJet’s generous 25 cm. Plenty of people fly with this bag every day, softshell compression is real, and of course gate enforcement is inconsistent, but on the published numbers you’re relying on goodwill at every gate. If your travel is mostly road trips, trains and checked-bag-included fares, none of that matters and the extra space is lovely. If you fly budget carriers often, buy the 35L. Or the tomtoc.

Check the current Allpa 42L price on Amazon here (Check price on Amazon).

 

Osprey Sojourn Porter 46L: Best Value for Maximum Capacity

The Sojourn Porter is Osprey’s soft duffel-style travel pack, a big, simple, tough hauler with stowable straps, compression “StraightJacket” wings that cinch the whole bag down around whatever’s in it, and a padded laptop sleeve. It’s regularly the cheapest way into an Osprey travel pack and the same All Mighty Guarantee covers it, which at this price is quite a deal.

Key specifications:

• Capacity – 46 litres (2,807 cubic inches)
• Published size – 55 x 35 x 23 cm (21.5 x 14 x 9 in)
• Weight – 3.45 lb (1.56 kg)
• Stowable harness and hip belt, StraightJacket compression, padded laptop sleeve
• Covered by Osprey’s All Mighty Guarantee

The number worth pausing on is the size. Osprey publishes this 46 litre bag at 21.5 x 14 x 9 inches, which rounds to the same 55 x 35 x 23 cm as the 40 litre Farpoint. The extra six litres come from a duffel-shaped interior and a harness that stows away, not from a bigger box. Litres describe what goes into a bag; centimetres are what the sizer measures, and they aren’t the same question. That clears every limit in our table except Ryanair’s 20 cm depth, sitting exactly on the line for width and depth against the US convention. Osprey’s product page also carries a “meets maximum legal carry-on requirements” claim, and there is no legal carry-on size, so ignore the phrasing and read the row instead. What I can tell you from handling it is that a 46 litre bag fully packed is really not small, whatever its footprint says.

Check the current price on Amazon here (Check price on Amazon). Stock on this one runs thin, so if it’s showing limited availability, that’s real scarcity rather than marketing.

 

Patagonia Black Hole MLC 45L: Best for Working Out of Your Bag

This is the bag I’d recommend to anyone whose trips are half work. The layout is closer to a soft suitcase with backpack straps than a top-loading pack, with a dedicated tech area that Patagonia says fits most 19″ laptops, and the Black Hole fabric family has a well-earned reputation for shrugging off years of abuse.

We have very good experiences with Patagonia gear generally, though I should be clear this particular bag is one I know from its specifications rather than from handling. It earns its place because it fills a real gap in this lineup: it’s the shallowest bag here by some margin.

Key specifications:

• Capacity – 45 litres
• Published size – 56 x 37 x 19 cm
• Weight – 1.64 kg
• Fits most 19″ laptops
• 100% recycled body fabric with a TPU film laminate; convertible backpack straps

That 19 cm depth is the interesting number. It’s the only bag in this guide under Ryanair’s 20 cm depth limit. And then the height gets it instead, because at 56 cm it’s a centimetre over Ryanair’s and Wizz Air’s 55. Close, but no sizer. It fits easyJet’s limit and it’s only slightly over the US convention on width, where its flat, suitcase-like shape works in its favour in an actual overhead bin. Patagonia’s own claim is that it “meets most carry-on requirements”, which is a bit vaguer than I’d like but, unusually for this category, roughly true.

You can buy it directly from Patagonia here.

 

Three More Packs Worth Knowing About

There are three packs that show up in almost every serious one-bag travel conversation that aren’t full picks here, for a simple reason. None of them sells through Amazon, and I haven’t handled them. But leaving them out entirely would be pretending part of the market doesn’t exist, so here they are with the short sales pitch and plain links.

The Tortuga Pro Backpack 40L ($350) deserves special mention as the only pack we found that fits Ryanair’s paid cabin bag allowance on published dimensions. At 55 x 35 x 20 cm it sits right on Ryanair’s height and depth limits with 5 cm of width to spare, and comfortably inside everything else in our table. If your travel life revolves around European budget carriers, this is the pack designed for your exact problem, with a height-adjustable harness and hip belt to go with it.

The Aer Travel Pack 4 35L ($259) is the minimalist city option, with cleaner lines and a more structured, technical look than anything in the main list, popular with the laptop-and-two-outfits crowd. It was sold out direct when we checked in August 2026, so you may need to watch for a restock.

The TOM BIHN Techonaut 30 is the cult favourite. Made in Seattle, it converts between backpack, duffel and shoulder carry, is sized deliberately small enough for regional jets, and is sold with the kind of fabric-nerd detail most brands wouldn’t bother publishing.

 

How to Choose a Carry-On Travel Backpack

Having spent a lot of this guide on airline limits, I should put them in their place. Size compliance is the constraint, not the goal. Here’s the order I’d actually decide in.

Start with how much bag you can carry, not how much you can pack. A packed 40 litre bag runs 8 to 12 kg, and you’ll carry it through stations, up hostel stairs and along cobbled streets. In my early travelling years I stuffed an 80 litre pack to the brim and used maybe half of what I hauled around the world. Smaller is a feature. If in doubt, just go 35 litres and let the constraint do your packing discipline for you.

Then decide on opening style. Clamshell bags (the Allpas, the tomtoc, the Peak Design via its rear panel) load flat like a suitcase and are far easier to live out of. Top-loaders make you excavate. For travel, as opposed to hiking, clamshell wins. For hiking with camera gear, the priorities flip back towards a top loading pack with a real hip belt.

Then the harness, and this is where price lives. The tomtoc proves you can get the box right for very little money; what the Ospreys and Tortugas of the world charge for is the suspension that makes 10 kg feel like 6. If your trips involve long walks with the bag on, pay for the harness. If your bag mostly rides from taxi to hotel, don’t.

Laptop access matters more than laptop capacity. Almost everything here fits a 15″ or 16″ laptop; the difference is whether you can get it out at security without disembowelling the bag. A compartment that opens flat is the feature to look for.

Finally, think about what happens when things go wrong. A lifetime repair warranty (Osprey, Cotopaxi, Peak Design all offer serious ones) is worth more over a decade than any feature. And since even the best bag occasionally ends up somewhere you aren’t, a luggage tracker costs little and removes a lot of doubt. One habit worth stealing from the one-bag crowd: pack for a week regardless of trip length and plan to wash clothes as you go – Jess has a full guide to doing laundry while travelling that makes a 35 litre bag feel a lot bigger than it is.

 

Carrying Camera Gear in a Travel Backpack

This being a photography site, the question I get asked most about travel bags is whether one bag can do both clothes and camera. My answer, after years of trying both ways, is yes, if the bag is designed for it. The Peak Design 45L with a camera cube is the best implementation of that idea I’ve used, and it’s a large part of why it’s my pack. For the other direction, a dedicated camera bag that travels well, see our full guides to the best camera bags for travel and the best cameras for hiking and backpacking. And if you’re still assembling the kit that goes inside, our guide to the best travel cameras is the place to start.

 

The 2026 EU Hand Luggage Rule Doesn’t Change Any of This

You may have seen headlines this year suggesting the EU has guaranteed free hand luggage on European airlines. Before you book a basic fare expecting to bring a 40 litre backpack aboard free, know that the coverage has been widely misread, and that it matters to this exact purchase.

Two reasons it doesn’t help you. First, the rule is about the small under-seat personal item, not the overhead cabin bag. A travel backpack in the 35 to 46 litre range is an overhead bag, which remains a paid add-on on Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air basic fares. Second, the timing. The legislation was cleared by the Council in July 2026 but is not yet in force, and it carries a year-long implementation runway after that, so it realistically doesn’t bind carriers until late 2027 at the earliest.

So the position for anyone flying in the next year is unchanged. On European budget carriers, the free allowance is a small bag that fits under the seat (our travel daypack guide covers that category), and the backpacks in this guide need the paid cabin bag option. Budget for it when you compare fares. Ryanair publishes a band of €8 to €32 each way for its Priority & 2 Cabin Bags add-on; easyJet and Wizz Air price theirs dynamically and show the fee at booking. Either way it’s exactly the line item that makes a “cheap” fare not.

 

Buying in the UK or Europe

Most of the buying links in this guide go to Amazon US, since most of our readers are American, but everything here has a European retail presence. Osprey runs a full European operation (that’s the Osprey Europe guarantee page linked above), Cotopaxi and Patagonia both have UK/EU stores, and Amazon UK carries current-generation versions of most of these packs. Prices don’t convert neatly. Gear that lists at $200 in the US frequently lands at a similar figure in pounds, so if you have the option of buying on the US side, it’s often the better deal. What you should check when buying in Europe is the generation. European retail listings hang onto superseded versions longer, and an older Farpoint 40, for example, has different dimensions from the current one in our table.

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Travel Backpacks

 

What size backpack counts as carry-on?

There’s no universal standard, and no certification behind labels like “carry-on approved”. Most US airlines, including American, Delta and United, publish a limit of 22 x 14 x 9 inches (56 x 35 x 23 cm) including straps and handles, and most travel backpacks are designed to that convention.

European budget carriers publish their own, often tighter limits for their paid overhead bags. The only reliable method is to compare the manufacturer’s published dimensions against your specific airline’s published limit, which is what the table in this guide does for every pack in it.

 

Will a 40 litre backpack fit in the overhead bin?

Usually, on US and mainline international carriers, if it’s built to the 22 x 14 x 9 inch convention. Capacity in litres isn’t the thing to check, though: two 40 litre bags can have different external dimensions, and it’s the external size, particularly the depth, that decides whether a bag fits a sizer. Check the bag’s published dimensions, not its volume.

 

Which travel backpacks fit Ryanair’s cabin bag rules?

On published dimensions, none of the main picks in this guide fits Ryanair’s 55 x 40 x 20 cm paid cabin bag allowance; the 20 cm depth limit is tighter than almost any other major carrier’s and most travel backpacks are around 23 cm deep. The Tortuga Pro 40L is the only pack we found that fits within it on published dimensions.

Ryanair’s free allowance is a 40 x 30 x 20 cm under-seat bag. If you fly Ryanair regularly, a large under-seat daypack is a better tool than any bag in this guide.

 

What does “TSA approved” mean on a backpack listing?

For sizing, nothing. The TSA doesn’t set, certify or approve carry-on bag sizes; their own guidance says sizes vary by airline. The phrase does have one legitimate use: “TSA-friendly” laptop compartments that open flat, letting the laptop stay in the bag at security screening in some lanes. That’s a real design feature. Any use of “TSA approved” next to a bag’s dimensions is marketing.

 

Does the new EU hand luggage rule mean my backpack flies free?

No. The 2026 EU rule concerns the small under-seat personal item, not the overhead cabin bag a travel backpack needs, and it isn’t yet in force anyway, with implementation realistically in late 2027. On European budget airlines the overhead bag remains a paid extra on basic fares.

 

Is a 35L or 45L travel backpack better?

For most people, 35 litres. It’s within or close to every major airline’s limits, it’s carryable, and the size constraint does your packing discipline for you. Go bigger only if you routinely travel for two weeks plus without laundry, or you’re carrying for more than one person. The expandable Peak Design (35 to 45 litres) is the have-it-both-ways answer. Fly it small, live out of it big.

 

Do airlines weigh carry-on backpacks?

The European budget carriers publish weight limits and can enforce them: Ryanair and Wizz Air allow 10 kg for their paid cabin bags, easyJet 15 kg. US majors generally publish size limits without a weight figure for carry-ons. A light empty bag buys you real margin here, which is a solid argument for the 1 kg tomtoc over the 2 kg options if you pack heavy.

 

What’s the difference between a travel backpack and a hiking backpack?

A travel backpack opens flat like a suitcase, has a laptop compartment, and is shaped to airline limits. A hiking backpack is a top-loading tube with a taller frame, built to carry weight over distance, and almost always too tall for cabin limits. If your trip is mostly trails, get a hiking pack and check it. For everything else, the packs in this guide will carry better through airports and cities than any hiking pack will.

 

Further Reading

That’s our take on travel backpacks for carry-on travel. Before you go, some more resources we’ve written that you might find useful for planning what goes in the bag and beyond:

• Our guide to the best packing cubes for travel, which transform how much fits in a 35 litre bag
• Worked packing lists for specific trips: what to pack for London and the UK, what to pack for Iceland in summer, and what to pack for a ski trip
• Jess’s guide to packing for winter in Finland, a good worked example of cold-weather one-bag problems
• Our guide to getting online when travelling, plus Jess’s guide to picking a travel router
• For the photographers: our guides to the best gifts for photographers and Jess’s guides to the best compact travel cameras and best mirrorless cameras for travel
• And for gifts more generally, Jess’s ultimate gift guide for travellers

As always, if you’ve got questions about any of the packs in this guide, or a bag you think we should be looking at, pop them in the comments below and we’ll do our best to help!