Bellroy Transit Sling 5L Review

Keeping your hands free through the airport or while exploring a new city is always our goal, but our travel pants don’t always have enough pockets to hold what we need (don’t even get us started about skirts and dresses that don’t have any pockets!). That’s why slings are perhaps our favorite bags. The correct one can carry everything you need without weighing you down. The question is, what constitutes the right sling? Bellroy offers a wide range of travel slings in many designs, and the brand makes some of our favorite options.

So, how does the Transit Sling 5L stack up? We’re glad you asked!

External Components

The Transit Sling 5L is made with recycled Dura Weave, a polyester material made from plastic PET bottles. It isn’t super shiny, yet it’s easy to wipe clean of any dirt. There’s also nylon from industrial castoffs, leather, and other materials around the bag. The Bellroy logo is on a leather tab on the front, and two of the three YKK zippers have leather tabs to make them easier to grab.

The front and main compartment zippers are AquaGuard models to keep water away from the gear inside, while the rear zippered pocket is tucked under a fabric welt for weather protection. All of the zippers are easy to open and close, though the AquaGuard models are stiffer than the uncoated one. There’s also a loop at the end of the main compartment zipper where you can tuck the tab through for a bit of security, but it’s quite loose, so it’s easy for a thief to get through. It’s more to stop someone from yanking the compartment open without your knowing, as you will definitely feel it if someone tries to unzip that area and the zipper gets caught on the loop.

The bag has a good amount of structure, but there’s not really any back-panel padding, per se. However, since the rear pocket is best suited for flat gear, you don’t tend to feel much, if any, of what’s inside the sling when you’re wearing it. It’s also not the style of bag that presses into your body, so it’s not uncomfortable if you do have something slightly bulkier back there, like a battery bank.

The strap is made from satin webbing and is a closed loop, so you don’t have any extra dangling when you tighten it. The metal adjuster works well, and the strap is attached to two loops that angle up from the bag, helping it to sit nicely on your body when worn crossbody. However, it tips forward if you simply swing it over one shoulder and slides off easily, especially on slippery materials like shiny coats, so it’s definitely meant to be a crossbody bag, not one that you can carry multiple ways.

Fit Notes

Whether you get it in Black, Nightsky (blue), or Olive (green), the Bellroy Transit Sling 5L looks very polished. It’s a professional way to carry your gear daily and while traveling, but it doesn’t look so businesslike that it stands out for daily use. We took it to the office and shopped around town during our testing period, and found it a convenient way to carry gear just about everywhere.

It is most comfortable when worn crossbody, so keep that in mind if you have to pair it with a hooded winter coat, as wrangling it over a large hood isn’t as easy as it would be if you could unbuckle the strap and wrap it around your body. That’s also when we discovered that it slides off your shoulder if you try to wear it that way. However, it keeps your gear within easy reach on your chest as a crossbody, and we never had the strap dig in uncomfortably, despite its lack of padding. Five liters isn’t a huge amount of space, so the bag never gets too heavy for that to happen.

Inside The Sling

The Bellroy Transit Sling 5L has three separate compartments for your gear, helping keep things organized throughout the day.

In front is a smaller compartment divided into three sections. None of them is huge, but the dividers keep your small gear more organized than it would be in a dump pocket. The left pocket is the largest, occupying the left half of the compartment. We used it for hand lotion and sanitizer because bottles fit well there. The right-hand pocket is divided into two: front and back. The rear pocket is smaller than the front, so you could use it for AirPods, as we did, or for your keys, as there is a corded leash with a plastic clip here. It’s a bit long, but since it’s at the end of the zipper track, you can just open the compartment slightly and pull out the leash to open a door. In front of that, we stowed two tubes of lip balm, two bottles of lip gloss, a small mirror, and a small nail file, to give you an idea of the size. The divider keeps the bottles standing and easy to grab when we want them, unlike most other bag pockets, so we liked using the setup.

Flipping to the back panel, you’ll find a slender zippered pocket for flat gear. You could use it for your passport and a minimalist wallet, though there’s an RFID pocket in the main compartment where your cards will be safer. We also tucked bandages in this spot to be prepared for cuts and scrapes, but you could use it for a battery bank if you often charge on the go, too.

The main compartment opens the most widely of the three sections, which is good since this is where you stow most of your gear. It has a large, padded divider against the back panel, and we stick a phone behind it to protect it from everything else in the bag. It makes it easy to find it quickly, whether you need to pull it out to show your boarding pass or use the maps app to find your hotel.

A zippered pocket on this side offers RFID protection, so we tuck a wallet in here when we’re not using it to protect our data from skimmers. If you’re not worried about extra security, it’s also a good spot for small tech accessories like SIM cards, flash drives, or dongles, as they could get lost elsewhere in the sling.

Against the front wall is a Bellroy signature pocket: a stretchy mesh one that zips shut to keep your glasses out of the crush zone. We used it for sunglasses without an extra case and had no issues with them getting scratched or crushed; it truly is a safer spot than tossing them in with the rest of your gear.

Filling that pocket somewhat blocks your view of the rest of the main compartment, though, and there is additional space to fill below it and between it and the divider. We put gear on the bottom that we don’t reach for daily, including a pen and a packable tote bag for the grocery store. Then we still had space between the glasses and the divider for a small notebook and tissues, with a little extra capacity remaining.

The Bellroy Transit Sling 5L is definitely more structured than some other slings, but it’s also more organized. The 5L capacity gives you plenty of space for the essentials and more in a bag that won’t weigh you down and will help you speed through the airport or the checkout since you’ll know exactly where to find what you need. We occasionally wish you could wear it a second way other than crossbody, but that’s a small nit to pick on such a well-designed sling. Once the weather warms and we can ditch the hood, we won’t even miss the option.