When we took our family to Thailand, everyone had to carry their own stuff, including our three boys, who were 12, 15 and 17 at the time. So naturally, I researched the hell out of travel backpacks for teens. We ended up testing several different packs from Osprey, Gregory, eBags and Eagle Creek over 10 days of planes, trains and traveling around Thailand.
Kristen Cummings
CATEGORY
Gear Reviews, Kids & Family
DESTINATION
General Travel Tips
POSTED ON
June 19, 2021
UPDATED ON
September 27, 2026
2026 Update
A lot has changed since we first tested these backpacks. Some of the exact models we traveled with have since been redesigned, renamed or discontinued. I’m keeping my original reviews because we actually used these bags, and the things we learned about fit, comfort, organization and traveling with teenagers are still useful. I’ve also updated this guide with current options where appropriate.
I used to work in outdoor retail, where I acquired a frankly unnecessary collection of backpacks: day packs, overnight packs, expedition packs, mountaineering packs, winter packs, hydration packs… apparently I had a backpack for every possible occasion.
So I knew quite a bit about backpack fit and features. But somehow, in all that time, I had never even considered a travel backpack until we started planning Thailand.
Loading the family up with suitcases is touristy. Traveling light with travel packs is touristish.
Why We Chose Backpacks Instead of Luggage
We wanted to travel light for my family’s trip to Thailand. With five people, checking five suitcases would have cost more, slowed us down and made getting around considerably more annoying.
A Grab (the “Uber” of Asia) that can carry five people with backpacks on their laps is one thing. Five people plus five full-size suitcases starts requiring something closer to a school bus.
The backpacks were especially great when we took the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Space was tight, and we basically shared our seats and beds with our luggage. A compact backpack made a much better roommate than a giant suitcase would have.
And everyone was responsible for carrying their own stuff, which is a remarkably effective cure for teenage overpacking.
Your original reasons and Bangkok-to-Chiang-Mai example are strong and worth keeping. Pasted text
What We Looked for in a Travel Backpack
I spent about three months researching these things. I read reviews, watched an embarrassing number of backpack videos, tried packs in stores, ordered others to inspect at home and sent back the ones that didn’t make the cut.
For Thailand, I wanted:
- Around 46 liters or less so we had a reasonable shot at carrying them on
- Comfortable suspension for actually walking with them
- Durable construction
- Straps that could be tucked away if we had to check the bag
- A protected laptop compartment
- Water bottle pockets
- Useful organization
- Easy access to the main compartment
- And, sure, something that didn’t make us look completely ridiculous
After all that research, I learned something very useful: there is no perfect travel backpack.
The features that mattered most to me weren’t necessarily the ones that mattered to Jason or the kids. So instead of buying five identical bags, we ended up with several different backpacks. Pasted text
The Travel Backpacks We Actually Used
Osprey Porter 46: Jason’s pick
Jason chose the Osprey Porter 46, and overall, it was a great travel pack. It had plenty of padding, comfortable suspension, a durable exterior, and straps and a hip belt that tucked away relatively easily when we needed the backpack to behave more like luggage.
Our favorite feature was that you could attach an Osprey Daylite to it.
Our least favorite feature was… attaching an Osprey Daylite to it.
It was weirdly difficult and surprisingly hard on the fingers. We actually contacted Osprey, and customer service sent us an instructional video showing us how to do it.
Once we succeeded, Jason looked absolutely ridiculous.
A completely full Daylite attached to a completely full Porter 46 made him approximately three people wide. Every time he turned around in a line, innocent bystanders had to duck for cover.
Without the Daylite attached? Stud.
There were a few other annoyances. The Porter didn’t have an exterior water bottle pocket, which we desperately missed in Thailand, and its stiff compression panels made the main compartment harder to load with our packing cubes. One exterior clip also broke when we checked the pack on its maiden voyage. Osprey quickly sent us a replacement, although unfortunately it was the wrong size.
Otherwise, Jason was really happy with the Porter and continues using it on our travels.
What I’d Buy Now
The original Porter 46 has since evolved into the Osprey Sojourn Porter 46L. It’s still a 46-liter travel pack with the big duffel-style opening, stowable harness and compression system that made the original Porter useful for this kind of trip.
See the current Osprey Sojourn Porter 46L →
The Surprise Winner: My Osprey Daylite
The funny part is that the Daylite ended up being the real winner of this entire backpack experiment.
I still use my original Osprey Daylite on nearly every trip. Years after Thailand, it’s one of those pieces of travel gear I reach for over and over again.
I also now have the slightly larger, more durable Osprey Daylite Plus. That’s the backpack I took on the Inca Trail and into the Lares region in Peru, so at this point the Daylite has graduated from “little backpack we attached to Jason’s giant backpack in Thailand” to one of my most-used pieces of travel gear.
So while I can laugh about the absurdity of strapping a fully loaded Daylite onto Jason’s already enormous Porter, I would absolutely buy the Daylite again.
In fact, I did.
See the current Osprey Daylite →
See the Osprey Daylite Plus I use for bigger adventures →
A quick heads-up: Some links on Touristish are affiliate links. If you buy something through one, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, which helps fund my travel habit and the truly unreasonable amount of time I spend researching this stuff.
Gregory Praxus 45: My pick
I took the Gregory Praxus 45.
Full disclosure: I’m a Gregory Fangirl. My years working in outdoor retail left me with more Gregory backpacks than any reasonable person needs, so the other brands probably never had a fair shot. I pretty much knew I was going to take the Gregory before this experiment even started.
But I’ll keep it real: I loved the Praxus, and it still wasn’t perfect.
My favorite feature was that substantial, padded Gregory hip belt. I want the weight of a loaded backpack sitting on my hips instead of hanging from my shoulders, and Gregory does that extremely well.
Unfortunately, my favorite feature became my least favorite feature whenever I wasn’t actually wearing the backpack.
Trying to stuff that beast of a hip belt into its storage compartment before boarding a plane made me look like a rookie alligator wrestler in the rain. It’s slippery. It’s not pretty. There’s a lot of arms flailing and anxiety. And I need a stiff drink once it’s properly stowed.
That was easily my biggest complaint about the pack.
The Praxus beat Jason’s Osprey Porter in a few areas. It had exterior water bottle pockets, which I appreciated very much in Thailand, and the laptop compartment was solid. The main compartment also stayed fully open, making it much easier to load with packing cubes.
Jason liked to point out that his Porter was one whole liter larger than my Praxus. Congratulations, Jason. But because mine stayed completely open, I could actually use every nook and cranny.
The one thing I wished it had was a way to attach a removable daypack. I was using my Osprey Daylite as my purse throughout the trip, so I needed it accessible.
The result was that while Jason looked ridiculous with his Daylite strapped onto the back of his enormous Porter, I somehow managed to look even sillier by wearing mine on my front like a baby kangaroo in a BabyBjörn.
Very dignified.
From a quality standpoint, the Praxus was every bit as durable and rugged as the Porter, and it had enough padding that I felt comfortable checking it when necessary.
Overall, I was thrilled with it. On that first trip, the compartment where the giant hip belt stowed did rip slightly, which wasn’t particularly surprising considering the aforementioned alligator wrestling. It didn’t affect the functionality of the backpack at all.
Mostly it just hurt my feelings.
What I’d Buy Now
The Gregory Praxus 45 has been discontinued, so I wouldn’t recommend hunting down an old one just because I loved mine.
The current Gregory pack I’d look at first is the Gregory Border Carry-On 40. It’s a little smaller at 40 liters, but it keeps several of the things I valued in the Praxus: a travel-friendly design, padded hip belt, tuck-away harness, laptop storage, water bottle pocket and plenty of organization.
I haven’t personally traveled with the Border Carry-On 40, so I’m not going to pretend this is a firsthand review. Consider it the current Gregory I’d try first if I were replacing my Praxus today.
eBags Mother Lode: Our pick for the older teens
We bought two Mother Lode Travel Backpacks for Thailand: one for Aaron, who was 17, and one for Ryan, who was 15. Granted, both boys were already over six feet tall, so these were adult-sized teenagers carrying adult-sized backpacks.
The Mother Lode was the surprise of our backpack experiment.
At the time, it was sold by eBags and cost about half as much as the Gregory and Osprey packs, which was a pretty compelling argument when we needed backpacks for multiple kids. But it also had some genuinely clever features: tons of organization, an internal shelf that kept everything from migrating to the bottom, a quick-access pocket for liquids at airport security, and a stowable water bottle pocket.
That water bottle pocket was on the small side, though. It wouldn’t hold one of our Nalgene bottles, just a smaller disposable-sized bottle.
There were definitely compromises.
The hip belt was basically a thin removable strap that we found so useless we didn’t even bring it to Thailand. The laptop compartment wasn’t especially padded, and the backpack itself had very little padding. That made it wonderfully easy to store flat, but considerably less reassuring when we had to check it with anything remotely breakable inside.
I spent more time than I’d like to admit wrapping fragile things in clothing and hoping for the best.
But you know what? Both Mother Lodes made it through Thailand just fine.
They weren’t as rugged or comfortable as our more expensive Gregory and Osprey packs, but they were incredibly functional. And for two teenagers who needed to carry their own stuff around Thailand for 10 days, they did exactly what we needed them to do.
The Mother Lode Is Still Alive!
This was probably my favorite discovery while updating this article.
eBags is gone, but the Mother Lode isn’t.
Samsonite acquired eBags, and apparently somebody had the good sense not to kill one of its best products. You can still buy a Mother Lode Travel Backpack today, now from Samsonite.
The current version is still 45 liters and retains a lot of the features we liked about ours, including the big U-shaped opening, internal organization, fold-down shelf, stowable backpack straps, compression straps and side water bottle pocket.
The bad news?
Remember how I said one of the best things about the Mother Lode was the price?
Yeah. About that.
Samsonite currently gives the Mother Lode a comparison value of $219.99. I’ve also seen it substantially discounted, so this is one I’d absolutely watch for a sale rather than automatically paying full price for.
At the price we originally paid, I thought the Mother Lode was an incredible choice for teenagers and families buying multiple backpacks. At today’s full price, it’s competing with some much more serious travel packs, so I’d compare your options.
But I’m genuinely delighted it’s still around. Aaron and Ryan actually traveled through Thailand with these things, and they worked. That’s a much stronger recommendation from me than anything I could tell you from reading a spec sheet.
Would I buy one today? On sale, absolutely. At $219.99, I’d shop around first.
Eagle Creek Mission Control 38L: Hayden’s Pick
We bought the Eagle Creek Mission Control 38L for my little guy, Hayden, who was only 12 at the time.
He didn’t need a 45- or 46-liter monster hanging off his back, so the smaller 38-liter Mission Control made a lot more sense.
Despite being smaller than our other packs, this thing felt substantial. It was durable, more water-resistant than the Mother Lode, and had stiff exterior organization pockets that were especially useful for protecting electronics.
It also felt very different from the Gregory and Osprey packs. Those felt like outdoor backpacks that had been redesigned for travel. The Eagle Creek felt more like somebody had taken a small suitcase and figured out how to comfortably wear it on your back.
For a 12-year-old traveler, that worked surprisingly well.
The biggest weakness was the inside. There wasn’t much internal organization, and the backpack only unzipped about three-quarters of the way. I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to pack this thing without packing cubes.
But the size was excellent for Hayden. He carried his own stuff through Thailand without needing an enormous backpack, and I liked the Mission Control enough that I would have happily borrowed it myself for a shorter trip.
For a full 10-day international trip as an adult, 38 liters might be a little ambitious unless you pack very light. For a tween, smaller teen or adult taking a shorter trip? I really liked this size.
What I’d Buy Now
The Eagle Creek Mission Control 38L has been discontinued, but Eagle Creek currently makes a pretty compelling successor: the Tour Lite Travel Pack 38L.
It’s the same 38-liter capacity that worked so well for Hayden, but the current design fixes one of my biggest complaints about the old Mission Control: it now opens fully clamshell-style.
It also has internal organization, a padded laptop sleeve, exterior water bottle pocket, padded hip belt and stowable shoulder straps.
Basically, on paper, it sounds a lot like the Mission Control I wish we’d had.
I haven’t personally traveled with the Tour Lite, so I’m not calling this a firsthand recommendation. But if I were shopping today for the same kind of smaller travel backpack we wanted for 12-year-old Hayden, this is the Eagle Creek I’d look at first.
So Which Travel Backpack Would I Choose Today?
So Which Travel Backpack Would I Choose Today?
After traveling with all of these, I still don’t think there is one perfect backpack for every teenager or every family.
For a teen, I’d pay attention to their size and what they’re actually willing to carry before obsessing over maximum capacity. Hayden did just fine with 38L at 12. Aaron and Ryan were adult-sized teenagers and could comfortably handle larger packs. Pasted text
For myself, I still want:
- Great suspension and a real hip belt
- Enough padding that I don’t panic if the bag gets checked
- Stowable straps
- A clamshell opening that actually stays open
- Exterior water bottle pockets
- A protected laptop compartment
- Useful organization without 47 tiny pockets I’ll forget exist
- Compatibility with packing cubes
- And some way to carry a small daypack without looking like I’m smuggling a second human through the airport
But the funniest outcome of this entire backpack experiment is that the piece of gear that stuck with me most wasn’t even one of the big travel backpacks.
It was that little Osprey Daylite.
I bought it as an accessory for Thailand. Years later, it’s still traveling with me all over the world.
And really, that’s about as good a long-term gear review as I can give.
A quick heads-up: Some links on Touristish are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you book or buy through them, at no extra cost to you. It helps support my travel habit (and this site). Affiliate relationships don’t determine what I recommend. I only share places and products I genuinely think are worth your time and money.
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Hi Kristen,
Thanks for the reviews.
The two compression straps on the front of Praxus seem like they can accommodate the Osprey daypack. Did you try it? Could it fit?
Hi Zubair – I did try it, but it is too tight when the Praxus is fully loaded. You could clip it to those straps with a carabiner or something, though.
Kristen