ALPAKA Traverse Backpack (38L) Review

The ALPAKA Traverse Backpack (38L) is a big travel backpack designed to carry a lot without feeling like you’re hauling around a piece of luggage on your back. It has a sleek urban look, plenty of organization, and a wide-open main compartment that makes it easy to pack for longer trips. After spending time carrying it around town, cycling with it, and loading it up, we’ve found that it strikes a nice balance between everyday usability and travel-ready capacity.

External Components

The Traverse Backpack (38L) is made from Axoflux 400D ripstop nylon, which we dig. The fabric feels durable without being overly heavy, and its texture adds character to the bag. Our Moonlight Blue version looks particularly good, with a color that feels a little more interesting than your typical black travel backpack. It still has the ruggedness to handle road trips and travel, though, so you don’t have to sacrifice durability for a little personality. The Traverse is also available in Black and Green if Moonlight Blue isn’t your thing.

The zippers are from YKK and feature polyurethane coating for additional weather protection. They work well and have been reliable throughout testing, though they move a little more slowly than uncoated zippers because of the coating. We’re okay with the tradeoff, especially since the coating helps keep water out. YKK is the best in the business for zippers, and there’s nothing to complain about here.

The zipper pulls are simple but effective. They’re made from a paracord-like material and tied into a knot, making them easy to grab and manipulate. There’s no need to overcomplicate things here, and we dig it.

ALPAKA uses its Maglockz hardware throughout the pack, something we’ve seen plenty from the brand. The buckles, magnets, and adjusters all work well, and we haven’t run into any issues with them during testing. There’s some metal hardware mixed in, too, which looks snazzy and feels nice in the hand. It’ll likely pick up some scuffs eventually, but everything still looks and feels good after our testing.

On top of the pack is a padded handle that’s comfortable to grab when you’re moving the bag around. There’s also a padded side handle with the same comfortable feel. Neither is particularly complicated, but both work exactly as they should.

The luggage pass-through runs horizontally across the back of the bag, so the Traverse stays vertically oriented when you put it on a rolling suitcase. It also leaves the bag accessible while it’s on your luggage, which is handy when you need to grab something without taking everything off the stack. It’s a simple design, but it works well.

There isn’t a ton going on externally, and we like that. Between the clean silhouette, subdued branding, and relatively simple exterior, the Traverse manages to look sleek without feeling fragile or overly polished. It has enough ruggedness to make sense for travel, but it wouldn’t look out of place walking through a city, either.

Fit Notes

The Traverse’s shoulder straps have a slight curve and a healthy amount of cushioning. The padding is fairly dense yet remains malleable, with a feel reminiscent of spongier memory foam. It conforms well without feeling overly stiff, and the fine-mesh covering on the straps adds some additional breathability. We dig it.

The sternum strap uses a ladder-style adjustment system rather than a sliding rail. That means you can’t make micro-adjustments, but it also means the strap won’t move around once you get it where you want it. Most of the time, with a travel backpack, we don’t need to fine-tune the sternum strap constantly—we just want to set it and forget it. That’s what you get here. You can also remove the sternum strap entirely if you prefer to go without it.

There’s a padded hip belt, too, and you can stow it away when you aren’t using it. You can’t remove it entirely, though. The padding isn’t as dense as on the shoulder straps or back panel, but it remains comfortable, and the fine mesh provides some breathability. For a 38L bag, we think it’s a necessary inclusion, especially when you’re carrying the Traverse fully loaded.

The back panel is well-padded and uses channels to help with airflow. Aerated mesh adds another layer of ventilation, and an internal plastic frame sheet provides structure. It doesn’t appear to be removable, but we don’t see much reason to take it out anyway. The result is a pack that feels supportive and comfortable even when you’re carrying it for a few hours.

We wore the Traverse for 2 miles and cycled with it for 15 miles, and it performed well in both situations. It does feel a little boxy, but that’s not particularly surprising for a 38L travel backpack. Most bags this size start to feel substantial when you’ve been wearing them for an extended period.

The aeration and mesh did their job, too. We still got sweaty while cycling, but not as much as we might with a completely flat back panel. Overall, comfort was really solid. The fit does feel somewhat tailored toward a more masculine body shape, though, so people with different body types may not find it quite as comfortable. In particular, the shoulder straps could pinch some users around the neck. The fit worked well for our primary tester, though, and he came away pretty happy with the carry.

Inside The Pack

The Traverse has a zippered water bottle pocket on one side, which is a nice way to keep a bottle tucked away when you don’t need it. The entire pocket zips closed, and there’s enough room for larger bottles. We fit a 40-ounce bottle inside without issue. However, the pocket shares space with the main compartment, so if the main compartment is packed full, fitting a large bottle here can become more challenging. It’s a tradeoff, but one we’re willing to make for the clean exterior.

On the front of the pack are two side-accessible pockets with vertical zippers. Because they run vertically, you can swing the bag to one side and access them while you’re wearing it, which is particularly handy in transit.

The larger of these two pockets is quite well organized. Inside are two large pockets, two pen pockets, and a key leash, giving you plenty of places to separate smaller accessories. It’s a good spot for things you want to keep organized without needing an entire tech pouch. Since the zipper runs vertically, you can also get into this pocket without completely taking the pack off.

The smaller front-side pocket has no internal organization. It’s simply an open cavity that works well for a phone, wallet, or other small items you want to keep separate from everything else. It can’t go particularly deep because of the pocket’s size, but that’s not really a problem for the things it’s designed to hold.

Above those pockets is another zippered compartment for quick-access items. There’s no organization inside, but the lining is soft, making it a good home for sunglasses and other items you don’t want to scratch up. There isn’t much padding here, so that we wouldn’t toss anything especially fragile inside without additional protection, but glasses and similar items do well.

The laptop compartment is a top-loading sleeve with plenty of space for a 16-inch laptop. It has soft material and plenty of padding to help protect your computer, though the sleeve isn’t raised off the bottom of the bag. That means your laptop can contact the ground if you set the pack down hard. There’s enough padding to make us comfortable with the setup, but it’s worth keeping in mind. There’s no additional organization here, either—it’s simply a dedicated space for your laptop, and that’s perfectly fine.

The main compartment opens completely clamshell-style, giving you plenty of access to the interior. It’s a wide-open space, which we really dig because you can get into the nitty-gritty of packing without having to fight through a bunch of narrow compartments.

Inside the lid are two zippered pockets made from stretchy mesh. The material provides a little bit of give, making it useful for accessories and other smaller items that need a dedicated home. They’re solid for organization, though you can’t see through the mesh, which makes it a little harder to tell exactly what’s inside. That’s not a huge deal, especially if you know where your gear lives.

The back wall has a large stretchy mesh pocket with an elastic topper. This is one of those features you can use in a few ways, depending on how you pack. You can throw larger items inside, or use the elastic to compress smaller things and keep them from moving around.

We used it to stow a tablet and put packing cubes inside to keep them from shifting around when the pack wasn’t full. You can cinch things down when you need to, or completely ignore the pocket when you don’t. It’s a nice inclusion without forcing you to use it.

Overall, we dig the Traverse Backpack (38L). The wide-open main compartment gives you plenty of packing freedom, while the smaller pockets keep your everyday accessories under control. You’ll probably want to use packing cubes or a tech pouch if you’re carrying a lot of loose gear, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Instead of filling the main compartment with built-in organization you may or may not use, ALPAKA gives you a big open space and lets you decide how to divide it.

Between the comfortable harness system, substantial capacity, durable Axoflux fabric, and straightforward organization, the Traverse feels like a capable option for longer trips without becoming overly complicated. It’s a big bag, and you’ll notice that when you’re carrying it for a while, but that’s the nature of a 38L travel backpack. For those who want plenty of room without sacrificing a clean, urban aesthetic, the Traverse gets a lot right.