I’ve always been a regular traveler in that I have a suitcase and a carry on, and I almost always check the suitcase because I don’t wanna deal w/ lugging it around. Welp this whole travelling internationally thing has made me realize that those costs to check bags start to add up. So, I’ve been doing some research and found some great resources and decided to buy a backpack.

Now there are backpacks, and there are backpacks. I looked at backpacks made specifically for travel. This post was basically what I based my purchase off of, as well reading tons of reviews on Amazon for each backpack that he recommended. I also compared prices on Amazon vs REI and for the most part Amazon had the better prices. Also, the backpack I wanted was not in stock online with REI and it wasn’t available at any stores in AZ either. So that also was the reason I ended up purchasing on Amazon.

Note: The author of that post gets a small commission if you buy one of these through his links to Amazon (I don’t know him personally but that’s what he says on his post). When I was looking at everything, I was on my iPhone and for whatever reason the links were just taking me to blank pages. I tried it just now on my desktop and voila! I believe in karma lol, so help a brother out and click through his link to Amazon, if you decide to make a purchase 🙂

Alright so lets get on with it! The backpack I finally purchased was the Kelty Redwing Women’s 40L backpack. I won’t go into detail about the sizing scheme for backpacks, but you can read about it here. The main factors for me were price, comfort, and versatility. I picked a women’s backpack over a regular backpack because I figure in the long run it will be a lot more comfortable, even though the straps/suspension already make it a comfortable backpack (from the reviews I read). I’m not 100% sure if I’ll take the backpack with me on this upcoming trip, but I definitely plan to take it on my trip to Iceland in September, so at some point I’ll have a review for you.

Finally, if you’re looking for packing tips, I found this post really helpful, and she uses a smaller backpack than the one I got (hers is 30L).