Rolling Backpacks: For the Lightest, Most Comfortable One-Bag Travel

My first extended backpacking trips were around South America and I carried a traditional pack on my back. As I continued to move through the world I switched to large suitcases, which would quicklyget destroyed by bumpy streets in São Paulo and by aggressive baggage handlers in Chicago and Paris. I replaced a few.

Like most frequent travelers, I eventually whittled things down to start travelling as lightly as possible, and managed to reach that nirvana of travelling with only a carry-on.

And from there, finding the perfect carry-on backpack with both backpack straps and wheels was gravy. Now I could hop off a French train, roll my small bag through the station, and then jump onto a borrowed city bike with my belongings on my back.

I got more particular over the years, as bags like the one pictured above broke. I tried out a number of brands and models, especially (but not only) from Osprey. And aside from such real-world travel testing, we have continued to analyze brand reliability results from consumer testing organizations across Europe and North America, and we continuously read about others’ experiences on travel blogs in a variety of languages and talk to others on the road carrying (and rolling) wheeled backpacks.

If you’ve got more than a carry-on, you’re humping around more stuff than you need, and the quality of your actual experiences is going to suffer. That’s the whole point of our minimalist perspective on this site. Do you want to come home with memories, or have space for junky souvenirs you’ll never use? Do you want to spend extra time figuring out what to do with a big bag, or be able to change directions at the drop of a hat?

So my recommendation is to go with the carry-on version (36L) of the Osprey pack described here, but some of you may go bigger and move up to the 65L, which will need to be checked in planes.

Why wheels? Does that destroy my backpacker cred?

The wheel is not an invention to be ignored, dear backpackers! Wheeled luggage keeps your back from getting hot/tired; if you have them, you’ll use them 90 percent of the time. Save your travel energy for going out dancing, hiking, sightseeing, and the rest, not hefting around your belongings.

Why backpack straps?

For those moments when you need the flexibility of being able to pop your load up onto your back, quality backpack straps are a lifesaver. They’re particularly useful when you encounter lots of stairs in a city metro, when you’re off the pavement in the wilderness, when you want to hop on a bike for a moment, when it’s raining and the streets are full of puddles…. We don’t use them all that often, but we’re sure glad to have them when we do.

The Osprey Farpoint/Fairview Wheeled Travel Packs meet our most key criteria. We’ll go into more detail later, but in a nutshell:

• These are extremely durable packs designed by a company with decades of experience in meeting the needs of demanding travelers. They are backed by a lifetime warranty. Travel pieces with both wheels and backpack straps have more parts that could break, and so good design and materials are key. Over the years, many of my lesser luggage pieces have quickly broken, but my Osprey pieces have endured and never needed that very generous warranty.

• The designs fit with our minimalist aesthetic and style without a lot of silly extras that could add weight or too many pockets to lose things in. The pockets that it does have make sense.

• The wheels are large and inset, ready to roll easily over rough terrain.

• The backpack and hip straps allow the pack to be carried quite comfortably over long distances through nature, while biking, or on stairs. I tend to also use them on arrival at train stations in Europe, from where I will grab a city bike for a euro or two to get to my final destination. This would be impossible without the backpack straps.

• The materials, including the durable aluminum frame, are lightweight; the packs themselves add little to your load (or to your weight limits on airlines).

• It is possible to attach a daypack like the Daylite or (recommended) Farpoint Fairview Travel Daypack. I personally always travel with a daypack, and it’s much more convenient to be able to attach it to my main pack to have a single unit to roll and keep track of.

• Internal and external compression straps: If you go a bit too wild with your packing and need to cinch your luggage down, there are straps for this purpose both inside the main compartment and outside the bag.

• The Osprey Farpoint and Fairview Wheeled Travel Packs are not exactly cheap, even taking into account that we expect them to hold up for decades. For me, having had to replace a few of the cheaper bags I mentioned earlier, the price ends up being worth it—but if you don’t travel much the expense may not be worth it for you.
• The shoulder harness and hip belt for backpack carry are perhaps overly elaborate. Simpler backpack straps and no hip belt would have been fine in my opinion for most users. When you have wheels, you mostly use them and so the shoulder straps and hip belt may not get used all that often. At the very least, Osprey excels in making these ultra-comfortable for long periods of back carrying and they add very little weight to the unit.
• I would prefer interior (side) pockets for organization during long periods of travel. This can be remedied with packing cubes and organizers though, to help organize everything.

How it Carries: Comfortable Shoulder, Sternum, and Hip Straps

You unzip the back panel of the Farpoint / Fairview Wheeled Packs to quickly reveal shoulder and sternum straps. These can be adjusted to suit different sizes of backs and shoulders; once you get the right adjustment you are set, and can leave them ready for use or hidden away behind their zipped up panel so that they don’t catch on anything when not needed.

The sternum strap features a safety whistle that is integrated into the buckle. It’s clever and works fine, but would probably be much less effective than yelling loudly if you’re in trouble.

Easy-Access Pockets

Osprey Farpoint 65 Wheeled Travel Backpack

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Both the 65L and 36L versions of the Farpoint and Fairview Wheeled Travel Packs have two external mesh pockets that are ideal for water bottles, an umbrella, or a small wet towel or windbreaker that needs separating from your main luggage. They are quite deep—certainly more than large enough for any water bottle I’d carry while traveling.

These wheeled packs also have a top pocket for easy access to essentials—just be aware that what is easy for you to access is also easy for pickpockets in crowded places if you’re carrying the piece behind you. If traveling in backpack mode, it is better to carry valuables in a daypack, which can be worn in front of you or clipped to the front of the shoulder straps.

Fitting as a Carry-On — For Most Airlines

Osprey Farpoint 36 Wheeled Carry-On

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For most airlines around the world, the carry-on versions of the Fairview and Farpoint 36 Wheeled Packs pose no problem, but airlines love to mess with us, so check each one specifically before travel. The dimensions are in the table earlier in this article.

Also keep in mind that any backpack’s stated dimensions are going to be a bit squishy, just like the pack itself; even hard luggage is pretty complicated to measure, as Consumer Reports found in their laser tests. You can do your own checking, as airline size requirements for carry-ons vary within the USA as well as abroad.

Note also that some airlines, especially budget airlines, have been reducing the size limit for carry-ons. If you get the cheapest fare on Polish budget airline Wizzair, for example, you can only carry a bag much smaller than the standard carry-on; it must fit under the seat in front of you. Traditional carry-on sizes with wheels tend to require an extra fee.

The Osprey Farpoint and Fairview Wheeled Travel Packs are small enough to fit in the overhead bins on our much-preferred modes of transport: buses and trains. And the carry-on versions are fine for the budget trains like Ouigo and Avlo that charge extra for full-sized luggage.

Men’s and Women’s Versions of the Wheeled Travel Backpacks

In theory, the Farpoint is designed for men and the Fairview for women. This distinction is more important with Osprey’s trekking packs, as the hip straps are a bit more angled for women.

Men’s bags usually have a slightly longer and narrower torso, but the Osprey Farpoint and Fairview Wheeled Travel Packs have exactly the same dimensions, weights, and volumes.

At the moment there appears to be no sex distinction in Europe; Osprey sells the Farpoint and the Fairview Wheels 36 as the same “unisex” model: the Osprey Farpoint Wheels 36. This makes me wonder if there really is a difference at all, but I have not yet been able to compare the two models side-by-side to check if the angling is at all different. I suspect that both models are actually the same.

With other Osprey packs, the backpack straps are angled slightly differently for male or female hips, but as most users only wear rolling packs on their backs occasionally, the difference, if there is one for its wheeled packs, is likely to go unnoticed.

Durability: A Pack for Life

Our experience with Osprey pieces over the last decade has been excellent. They’re expensive, but you can expect them to last.

We’re not the only ones to like Osprey. The brand gets great raves from bloggers, consumer reviews, and online travel magazines. For travel writers who cover luggage, the Osprey brand has long been at or near the top of reviewers’ lists. They report that Osprey’s zippers, handles, and wheels in sealed housings withstand heavy use, and generally appreciate the same features we have commented on ourselves.

In our ongoing research for this article we monitor results from consumer testing organizations in Europe (Which?, Que Choisir,  60 Millions) and America (Consumer Reports). Although they do not cover this particular subcategory of luggage (wheeled backpacks), they do offer pointers in terms of quality, rolling design and durability, as well as some limited testing of specific brands.

On top of these experiences we can add Osprey’s “All Mighty” Guarantee (“any reason, any product, any era”), which puts it among the top few luggage manufacturers in standing by its work. If a handle, buckle, zipper, whatever breaks on the road, you can get it repaired and sent back to you free of charge, and if they can’t fix it they’ll replace the bag. You pay only to send it in. If you’re on the road, just contact the international customer service center closest to you. Importantly, travelers have reported in that Osprey actually follows up on this promise, quickly, without fuss, and for free. We’ve never had reason to contact Osprey’s warranty department ourselves.

A Key Add-On Feature: A Great Daypack

A good daypack is essential for travel; you’ll actually use it more than your main luggage piece as you carry lunch and water through green landscapes, wander around in a new city with a few essentials, take a laptop to work in a café or co-working space, or even pack a change of clothes for a short overnight trip. So you want your daypack to be a good one.

Osprey Farpoint Fairview Travel Daypack

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There are two outer stretchy pockets that work well for water bottles, a sandwich, banana or other snack, or a collapsible umbrella. For many critics of other luggage this is a very appreciated feature of daypacks but one that is also a key stress point; often the poor-quality mesh material of the water bottle pockets on backpacks is the first thing to fall apart. On Osprey daypacks, these pockets are made from very durable stretchy material. They show no signs of wear on our daypacks yet, and we’re certainly not expecting them to give out the way such mesh pockets often do.

Offering an attachable/detachable daypack seems obvious, but many of the other rolling backpacks that we cover later in this article simply lack this feature. An attachable daypack allows you to roll all of your stuff as one unit, as well as leave the main piece and unclip the daypack with your essentials when that’s all you need.

Aside from the convenient carry options, an attachable daypack has also proved wonderful at times for getting through different airline carry-on restrictions:

• If the airline allows only a personal item, you can use the daypack as your personal item and then pay for checked luggage or a large carry-on, whichever is cheaper (often the former).
• If the airline or train does not allow a personal item, you can attach the daypack to the main piece and voilà, you have only a single carry-on. Just be careful not to overstuff the pack and exceed the dimensions for that particular mode of transport.
• If an airline decides to gate-check your carry-on at the last minute at boarding, you can detach the daypack with your valuable essentials and laptop and keep it with you while allowing the airline to gate-check your main carry-on. (One airline worker in France was very surprised and impressed when he saw me doing this.)

Water Resistance

These Osprey packs are treated with DWR, or Durable Water Repellent, which is what keeps water out of your pack if you get stuck in the rain. My experience so far has been that Osprey’s repellants do a good job when I’ve been stuck in brief downpours; we’ll do a test with the new DWR and report back soon.

The Osprey DWR is PFC-free (that is, no perfluorinated chemicals, which are harmful for people and the environment).

Osprey Raincover

Here’s a promotional video from Osprey that helps to give a good idea of the Farpoint and Fairview wheeled packs in all their glory.

We find that Eagle Creek’s convertible rolling cabin bags come in at a very close second to Osprey’s. Eagle Creek has a solid reputation for durability and tops the list for luggage brand satisfaction in surveys by consumer organizations. Also, like Osprey, Eagle Creek offers a solid lifetime warranty and has repair centers around the world. If something goes wrong you pay to get the bag to a repair center, and they take care of the rest.

Eagle Creek bags are fabulous in terms of quality but slightly heavier and with different features.

Eagle Creek Caldera Convertible Int. Carry-On...

The downsides to the Caldera are that there are no water bottle pockets, and it tends to be a bit more expensive.

The Eagle Creek Expanse 2-Wheel Convertible International Carry-On is a bit cheaper but maintains high quality construction and materials. It lacks a detachable daypack and some other features; the backpack straps are quite simple and there is no hip belt. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; you’re not likely to carry the bag for long distances on your back since you have wheels.

For more on these, see our comparison review of the Caldera International, Gear Warrior, and Expanse International.

If you’re looking for much cheaper options from a well-rated brand, Samsonsite is an obvious place to look for wheeled backpacks, particularly since Samsonite luggage has been generally reasonably well-rated by consumer organizations for its durability (and the British organization liked some of its rugged hard luggage).

That said, the materials and construction of the bags we’ve seen here do not seem as durable as our top choices (earlier in this article.) The water bottle pockets are made of a flimsy mesh material that often tears quickly and catches on things, and the wheels are not as large and don’t have as much clearance for rough roads as the Osprey options. Generally Samsonite does not even list the specific materials aside to say “polyester” and sometimes “recycled fabric”, without giving the type and grade.

That said, these are much cheaper options and worthwhile if you only travel occasionally, or want to experiment with the rolling+backpack travel life before committing to a more expensive bag.

Samsonite Wheeled Backpack with Organizational...

Samsonite MVS Rolling Backpack, Black, 19-Inch

We don’t use spinner wheels ourselves as they take up space, break off more easily and don’t serve much of a purpose, particularly with smaller carry-ons like this one that you will never end up pushing in front of you. I also think that at 19 x 12 x 12 inches (48.3 x 30.5 x 30.5 centimeters), this is a bit oddly sized and shaped for a standard carry-on and yet too large to fit reliably under the seat in front of you as a personal item, particularly with the wheels.

A bit more travel-oriented is the Samsonite Detour Convertible Wheeled Hybrid Backpack directly from Samsonite, which measures 22 x 14 x 10 inches (55.6 x 35.6 x 25.4 centimeters). It has a range of both inner and outer organizational pockets including one for a 15.6″ laptop.

There are well-padded backpack straps with a shoulder harness and a fabric flap that can cover the wheels to keep you clean when you’re using the pack on your back. I like that there is a divider that creates multiple compartments but this may not be to your taste if you like to have everything in a single main compartment in small bags like this one.

The Samsonite Tectonic Nutech Wheeled Backpack is a more expensive and likely more durable wheeled backpack carry-on of similar dimensions; it uses 1680D ballistic polyester fabric, including for the side water-bottle pockets (as opposed to flimsy mesh material).

There is a sturdy, two-bar pull handle and more plastic reinforcing around the wheel housing.

As with the other Samsonite options, there are quite a lot of external and internal organizational pockets. It opens out flat so it’s easy to get at everything.

The shoulder straps are padded (but no sternum strap, making it uncomfortable to carry significant weight for long) and there is a fabric covering for the wheels when you’re using the pack on your back.

These Samsonite luggage options come with a 10-year limited warranty.

Direct Links for Samsonite Wheeled Backpacks

• Samsonite Australia
• Samsonite Belgium
• Samsonite Canada
• Samsonite India
• Samsonite Netherlands
• Samsonite Taiwan
• Samsonite USA

The following wheeled bags are the cheapest we have found that still have reasonably good ratings—but we think most people will be happier with our other picks above.

We think it’s best to ignore any of these brands’ dodgy claims of “waterproof” or “water resistance” on Amazon as they are not backed up by a specific IP rating for a specific, testable degree of water resistance.

Yorepek Rolling Backpack

Glodiar Rolling Backpack

There are lots of internal pockets and sleeves, including for a 17″ laptop. The shoulder straps are padded and can be hidden when not in use; there is no sternum strap.

Aocrin Rolling Backpack

See also some cheaper, smaller rolling backpacks for school or day-to-day use.