Cotopaxi Allpa 18L Daypack Review

The Cotopaxi Allpa Travel Pack is one of our favorite travel backpacks in various sizes, but what happens when you take durable materials designed to travel the world with you and put them on a daypack? Cotopaxi has done that with the Allpa 18L Daypack, which they designed to serve as both a work bag and a personal item travel bag.

With materials that can take a little roughing up and a luggage pass-through, is it the type of bag you want to carry on a trip? And how does all that structure work for everyday use? Let’s find out.

External Components

If you’re familiar with Cotopaxi’s travel backpacks, the materials on the exterior of the Allpa 18L Daypack might sound familiar. The front panel is a recycled 450D polyester TPU, and the body is a recycled 840D ballistic ripstop nylon. The coating makes the front easy to wipe clean, though our sample isn’t showing any signs of wear even without our cleaning it up—and it’s the Mineral colorway, which is very light.

On a side note, if you’re wondering what “mineral” looks like, this somewhat light greenish, grayish, white is something different, but, for what it’s worth, our tester just got back from exploring caves in Belize with tons of mineral deposits and can attest to the accuracy of the hue.

You won’t be surprised to find the Cotopaxi llama logo front and center on the bag. It’s the same color as your chosen hue, and we like the simplicity of the tone-on-tone. The only option with a more prominent logo is the Del Dia option, which uses materials left over from the manufacturing process for a unique look. You don’t get to choose your colors with this option; instead, you get a fun surprise when you open the box.

Cotopaxi uses YKK zippers with webbing pulls, which make them easier to grab and use than simple metal, especially with gloves. All of the zippers work well, and we have no complaints.

The carry handle is quite wide, but it’s just folded-over webbing with no extra padding. It’s rather shallow, so it can be trickier to hang on a hook, though ours never fell off the one under our tester’s desk throughout the testing period. It’s comfortable enough to hold when pulling the bag out of the car or off the handle of rolling luggage, but it’s not something you’d want to use long-term if you don’t have to.

If you are using it as your personal item bag with a carry on suitcase, you’ll be happy to see a luggage pass-through on the back panel. It’s quite tall and padded to blend with the rest of the cushioning on the back panel. That means you won’t feel it on your back while wearing the bag, which we appreciate.

The harness system is as well-padded as that on the travel packs, though more streamlined. The shoulder straps are slightly curved, with breathable mesh undersides that match the back panel. It should keep things cooler during your summertime commutes, though this small, lightweight bag isn’t likely to weigh you down or make you very sweaty as it is. There’s a sternum strap on a sliding rail that fastens with a Nifco buckle, and that’s it for extra support. We’re fine with the minimal setup on an 18L bag. There aren’t any strap-keepers, though, and we miss those a bit more than extra load lifters.

Fit Notes

You can’t stuff too much inside this bag, so we find it comfortable without all the bells and whistles you’ll find on the bigger bag. The back panel padding does a great job of blunting the feel of whatever you’re carrying, and the shoulder straps wrap comfortably around your neck and shoulders. Our tester would have liked the option to remove the sternum strap, as she didn’t feel it necessary on such a small bag, but this one isn’t removable.

We like the bag’s sleek profile while carrying it around town and to and from work. It doesn’t protrude much from your back, so you don’t have to worry about hitting your fellow passengers as you make your way down the airplane aisle, and its tapered shape looks good on most body types. Speaking of body types, Cotopaxi says the harness system is female-focused, but it feels fine on users of all genders here at Pack Hacker.

Inside The Daypack

There’s quite a bit of organization packed into this small bag, but it can work against you.

We’ll start with the part that doesn’t, though: the side bottle pockets. They’re made of stretchy mesh with extra elastic at the top to hold your water bottle securely in place. We had no issues using them for standard or even wide-mouth Nalgene bottles; you’ll just have to put in more effort with wider bottles than with narrower ones.

However, we’ll move on to the top pocket, which we find useful but can press into the main compartment. It opens across the front of the bag instead of the top and has an admin-style organization that works for our gear setup. There’s a very large, softly lined zippered pocket against the back of this pocket for a Kindle or glasses. We use it for our glasses case, and it fits nicely, though this is the spot that presses into the bag’s main compartment.

In front of it are two stretchy mesh pockets. We use one for earbuds and the other for our keys, since a very short leash is attached to its interior. Then, there’s still space in front of the pockets for other small accessories. Our tester tucked her pill canister and tiny toiletry pouch there so her daily essentials are within easy reach, but you definitely have space for a battery bank, phone, and wallet if you prefer.

On the left side of the front panel is a vertical zipper. It opens to reveal another pocket that takes up nearly the entire front of the bag. It’s good for flatter gear, whether that’s a hat and gloves, a notebook, or even a cased tablet or mobile game system. We say flatter, though, because this area will also encroach upon the main compartment, so what you pack inside here condenses what you can pack in there. That’s not really an issue, as you get 18L worth of space either way, but it’s something to consider if you load up the front and then can’t figure out why you can’t slide your lunch cooler inside. It’s because the exterior materials on the Allpa are more structured than the interior lining, so that’s where the extra capacity comes from.

The main compartment still has places for you to pack, though, so let’s head inside.

It opens across the top of the bag like a horseshoe, with a double-headed zipper running between the tops of the bottle pockets. That means you can open it pretty widely, but you may have to use some effort to reach the bottom of the bag. It tends to condense inward, making it seem like there’s less space at the bottom than there actually is.

The back panel features a padded sleeve for a laptop up to 15 inches, with another padded sleeve in front for a tablet up to 13 inches. They’re both padded on both sides, so we don’t worry about the safety of our devices and screens, and they’re slightly raised from the bottom of the bag, as well, so you don’t hear the thunk of your laptop hitting the ground when you set the bag down.

In front of the tablet sleeve are three mesh pen slots and a wider mesh pocket for whatever accessory you want to toss inside. It’s large enough for your laptop cord and charger, so it’s a good place to put them if you aren’t using a separate tech pouch.

However, depending on how much gear you’ve tucked into the front pockets, you should have space for tech pouches, your lunch, and an extra layer in front of the sleeves—it just might be a little harder to access if gear in the top pocket is blocking your view of the bottom of the bag. Because the bag’s materials are so structured, we often had to reach down and expand the bottom of the bag to get enough room for items in the main compartment. They fit, but they just didn’t look like they would fit on first glance. That’s great when you’re carrying less, as you don’t have a huge bag protruding from your back; it just requires a little more finesse to fill the bag to its full potential.