My RTW Backpack, Round Two: Osprey Farpoint 55

Oh, hello there. Remember when I agonized between two travel backpacks, carefully weighing the pros and cons of each before finally choosing the Deuter ACT Lite 45+10 SL?

A funny thing happened. Last week, at 2 a.m., I bought a different pack online — sight unseen. It turned out to be friggin' awesome, and it's officially my new round-the-world backpack.

(I returned the Deuter pack to Second Ascent and bought a few different travel items with the store credit instead.)

Meet my best friend for the next year or so: the Osprey Farpoint 55.

After I first posted about choosing my backpack, a friend wrote on my Facebook wall recommending the Osprey Farpoint 55, which she used while traveling through Europe. I asked her for a link, checked it out and then promptly forgot about it for several weeks.

As I bought more and more travel gear, I realized how much I'd like to have a front-loading pack so I could easily organize and find all my stuff on the road. I also didn't feel great about the security of the top-loading Deuter pack, which featured a drawstring entry rather than lockable zippers.

I read several positive reviews of the Farpoint 55 (like this one) and decided to just place an order and see how I liked it. I'm so glad I took the plunge — it may very well be the perfect pack!

Here is a little photo tour of my favorite features.

The harness is very comfortable, with a padded back, hip belt and adjustable sternum strap. The hip belt does not have pockets, though, which was a feature I liked about the Deuter pack.

The Farpoint 55 more than makes up for that missing detail with this panel that can either be rolled and stowed under the pack or zipped up to conceal the harness and hip belt.

This is ideal if you want to check it at the airport, although I plan to go carry-on only throughout my trip. It's also convenient if you'd like to simply carry the bag (see the handle on the side?) and give your back a rest.

This little red zipper is one of the main reasons I bought this pack. It unzips...

...to release the detachable daypack! That makes one fewer item I have to worry about buying.

The daypack isn't some flimsy little thing, either. With its 15L capacity, it easily fits my 15" MacBook Pro and has great pockets for storage.

I'll be able to stow the main pack on planes and buses while keeping my new Kindle Keyboard 3G (yay!) and other important items nearby thanks to this daypack. And since it also has a padded harness, plus a sternum strap and hip belt, it'll comfortably accompany me on adventures that call for a lighter load.

Back on the main pack, lockable zippers meet to protect its single point of entry. (The daypack's zippers do not lock like this.)

And the whole pack opens wide to welcome a whole mess of travel gear. Mesh pockets on the inside front panel and compression straps on the back panel complete the simple interior.

The Osprey Farpoint 55 comes in two sizes: S/M and M/L. I went with the S/M, as I believe the size difference is in the height of the main pack. Both sizes come with the same 15L daypack.

Here are the stats (including the daypack) for both sizes:

S/M

• 52L
• 3 lb. 12 oz.

M/L

• 55L
• 3 lb. 15 oz.

And for the daypack alone:

• 15L
• 1 lb. 10 oz.

So my pack is actually 37L with a 15L daypack. 37L sounds small, but it looks like it'll hold everything just fine. Not that I've done a test pack yet, but that's coming up on my to-do list!

Forgive this explosion of information, but I was quite confused about the main pack capacity vs. daypack capacity as I researched this backpack, and good photos of the pack's features seem to be nonexistent on the Web. I hope this post will be helpful to others who are considering the Osprey Farpoint 55 for their travels.

I'm really excited to get this bag packed and see how it performs on the road. And I won't have long to wait — there are only 10 days to go until my departure!!

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