Peak Design Travel 2-in-1 Backpack Review

One-bag travel is a goal, for sure, but for us here at Pack Hacker, it often turns into 1.5 or even 2-bag travel, since you don’t want to get stuck carrying just a big travel backpack at your destination. The Peak Design Travel Backpack 2-in-1 streamlines your solution by combining a 34L travel backpack and a 16L daypack into one clean package.

Does it work in reality, and will you even want to pull the bags apart? Our tester took it on a 7-night Caribbean cruise to find out.

External Components

So, right off the bat, we want to share a harsh truth that Peak Design also acknowledges: while 34 and 16 add up to 50, this is not a 50L bag when the two bags are connected. Peak Design puts that capacity around 42L, and we tend to agree with that assessment. We feel like most of the usable capacity is lost in the daypack, but the travel backpack gives up some roominess, as well.

We’ll get into that more below, but let’s start with the basics of the materials. Both the travel backpack and the daypack are made from weather-resistant, recycled 330D nylon canvas, but the travel backpack’s bottom is a thicker, water-resistant 900D material for durability. The materials are holding up nicely, with some scuffs on the front of the travel backpack from being tossed around the airport and airplane—our tester checked it in for her return trip—and some abrasion on the back panel. We’re not sure why that occurred in the spot that it did, but it did, so we’re letting you know.

There are carry handles at the top of both bags, though the daypack’s is hidden when the bags are zipped together. It’s much thinner, so if you’re using one to carry the bag, you’d want to use the thicker travel backpack handle anyway. That handle is also larger and easier to hang on a hook, whereas we did have an issue with sliding the daypack handle once over a wide restroom stall bar hook. The travel backpack also has side handles, so you can carry it up stairs if you wish or slide it over the handle of rolling luggage. Both bags have luggage pass-throughs: the one on the travel backpack is vertical, while the daypack’s is horizontal, which makes sense given that the daypack is 2 inches shorter than the travel backpack.

Like most Peak Design bags, this one keeps branding to a minimum, with just a Hypalon-like tab on the front of each bag and some other “PD” markings around the bag and on the zippers. The zippers themselves are Peak Design’s proprietary UltraZips, which are made in partnership with Zoom zippers. The ones on the travel backpack’s main compartment are No. 10 weather-resistant models with Hypalon-style loops for the pulls. These are the workhorses of the bags—as they’re more likely to strain over your overpacked bag than anywhere else—and they perform admirably. Our tester continued to overstuff the bag as she played around with different combinations of packing cubes, toiletry bags, and travel shoes for her cruise, and never felt that the zipper would fail. The Hypalon-style pulls are easy to grab and pull, even in stressful situations, and you can even loop them together for extra security or to keep them from coming apart accidentally if they rub against other bags.

The exterior zippers on the daypack are also weather-resistant, but they use cords wrapped in heat-shrink material for pulls rather than the Hypalon-style tab. They’re not quite as comfortable, but you also don’t put as much stress on them as you do the main compartment of the travel bag. You can also slide the main compartment zippers of the daypack through a loop at the end of the track on the right side for added security.

The travel backpack sports several attachment points where you can connect a carabiner or strap. Peak Design provides two straps with hooks on either end for you to use to hold a tripod on the side or lash something to the front of the bag. We never used them, but they’re nice to have. There’s also a dedicated loop on the left side for a luggage tag, but we hooked ours to the attachment points instead since they were a little larger and easier to slide our holder through.

As for the harness system, it’s quite substantial, but that’s what you want in a large travel backpack. We’ll start with the setup for the travel backpack, since it supports both the backpack and the 2-in-1 system when connected.

The shoulder straps are attached to the top of the bag with rivets, allowing them to rotate freely around your shoulders and neck and preventing the backpack from pulling or pressing on your traps. They’re well-padded, have a mesh lining for a little breathability, and feature magnets that stick to the back panel when you want to slide the backpack into the overhead compartment. Our tester found that helpful when shoving the entire system in the bin on a Delta flight. However, if you plan to check the bag or carry it for some time, you can also disconnect the straps and tuck them behind the back panel to prevent unnecessary wear or snagging on other luggage. That’s also helpful when using the luggage pass-through, although you can use that whether or not the straps are out.

You can get additional support by using the sternum strap, which clips onto the shoulder straps at different levels. The clip is secure on both sides, which is good and bad: good, because it won’t pop loose, bad because it’s quite difficult to undo, especially with a heavy bag pulling it against your chest. Our tester found the harness system comfortable enough to do without the sternum strap (or the hip belt, for that matter) even while walking around the airport for more than an hour.

The Peak Design Travel Backpack 2-in-1 also comes with the Peak Design Travel Hip Belt. This well-padded extra support includes a pocket on the left side padding and attachment points on the right, but it is quite large. Our tester found it uncomfortable around the waist. She also didn’t think it provided her with any extra support, and if you agree, the good news is that it’s both adjustable and removable. You can obviously lengthen and tighten the straps, but if you need it snugger, you can move it to a more central attachment point behind the back panel. Doing so is easier said than done, though, as it’s hard to see the hole you’re trying to fit the peg on the belt into behind the back panel. You’re really flying blind, but you presumably only have to do it once unless you often switch between users.

The daypack’s harness is much more minimal, but it’s a much smaller bag, so that’s OK. The straps themselves are more minimally padded, but they’re still flexible at the top, as they connect to the bag with a couple of inches of webbing strap that has nearly the same effect as the rivets: these don’t pinch your shoulders, neck, or traps, either.

There’s a tiny sternum strap made with super-thin webbing that hooks on one side with a slip knot and on the other with a plastic hook. You can move it from spot to spot on the shoulder straps just as you do on the travel backpack, but we find it easier to adjust than the metal clip on the travel backpack. Our tester didn’t find it necessary to use a sternum strap on this smaller bag either, so she mostly left it dangling when carrying just the daypack, even when it was fully packed.

Fit Notes

We’ve tested just a few travel backpacks in our time , and we were surprised by how comfortable the Peak Design Travel Backpack 2-in-1 was to carry to, from, and throughout the airport, even fully packed. While our tester did feel the weight of a week’s worth of gear after a while, it wasn’t uncomfortable—just heavy. That’s going to happen when you stuff any travel backpack to the max, so we don’t hold it against Peak Design; our tester could have cut back on what she was bringing to lighten the load.

She and her travel companion also checked a large suitcase for the trip and found it pretty easy to slide the Peak Design Travel Backpack 2-in-1 over its handle and roll it along once they reached their destination.

The daypack is super comfortable to carry on its own, as well, which is great news if you plan to use it at your destination. It’s hard to weigh down such a small bag, but it doesn’t pull, even when fully packed.

As far as aesthetics go, this is where the Peak Design Travel Backpack 2-in-1 shines when compared with other 2-in-1 bags. We’ve tested other travel systems that connect by straps, but these two bags zip together with a fastener that looks more like an expansion zipper. It’s detached at the starting point, so you can get a good grip to get the zipper started, and then, other than remembering to tuck the daypack straps away as you go, it slides beautifully around the bag. This makes the connected bag look much more like a single cohesive bag than two bags you attached.

Inside The Travel Backpack

Whether connected or separate, you have plenty of spots for gear in the backpacks.

We’ll start with the daypack, since it serves as your secondary compartment when the pair is connected. The top pocket is probably the most handy, as it has two slip pockets for your passport and wallet, a key leash and a clip to connect them, and a padded divider pocket to protect your phone screen from your keys, since they’re in the same pocket. Space here gets tighter when you pack the inside of the backpack, though, so keep that in mind before shoving too many things inside. It may be harder to get them out (and then replace them) after filling other areas.

That is not true of the bottle pockets, which are made of stretchy mesh and located on both sides of each bag, for a total of four when the bags are connected. These can accommodate large bottles, and the mesh stretches nicely around them, even when you try to slide them in while the main compartments are fully packed. While we never used all four holders at once, we appreciate having them on both bags so that they’re available no matter which configuration you use.

Inside the main compartment of the daypack is more organization, which is helpful both when the bags are connected and when you carry it solo. Against the front panel is a zippered pocket with another slip pocket and a pen slot. As with the other pocket, however, things get tight when the bag is packed out, so it’s easier to skip the segmentation and just toss small accessories inside without worrying about the pockets.

Against the back panel is a padded laptop sleeve. It fits a 16-inch MacBook Pro. It’s a little snug, but it fits. There’s also a stretchy zippered mesh pocket in front of it for tech accessories and a smart tracker. That’s where the “hidden” pocket is, in case you were wondering.

There’s more space at the bottom of the daypack, but it’s hard to access when the daypack is connected to the larger travel bag and the top organization is packed. We used it for a small packing cube of clothing to change into at our destination and found it easiest to stuff the cube down to the bottom of the bag, then fill the top, and then attach it to the travel backpack. It’s all possible to do without worrying about the order, but there’s less shoving involved this way.

The travel backpack also has a quick-access pocket, but it’s only accessible with the daypack disconnected. Inside are two slip pockets, and that’s it. We never carried the travel backpack on its own, so it went unused during our testing period, but it’s nice to have it on the off chance you’re using the bags separately.

The travel backpack also has a padded laptop sleeve in the main compartment that accommodates up to a 16-inch device, so you have options for where to stow it if you travel with tech. This one is held in place with a strap at the top that connects with a hook-and-loop fastener to hold your device in place. The sleeve is actually divided, too, so you can slide a tablet in with your computer, but the divider lacks padding, so your tech is protected from other gear but not from each other.

This sleeve also has a stretchy mesh zippered pocket on its front for accessories, and, as with the daypack, there’s a smart tracker pocket hidden inside so you can track this bag, as well.

Now, because this bag is made by Peak Design, we’re not surprised to find some accommodations for camera gear. Near the zipper inside the main compartment are loops where you can attach a Peak Design camera cube if you’re traveling with your camera. The large fits nicely, but you can also fill the space with other brands of packing cubes, toiletry bags, and travel gear if you’re not a shutterbug.

The bag’s structured sides make it super easy to fill with packing cubes and pouches, and we were able to fit a week’s worth of travel gear—including toiletries, shoes, and accessories—into it for our tester’s trip. You’ll want to play around with the arrangement, but we found it better to put larger, wider items at the bottom as the bag narrows slightly toward the top. We tried packing it while attached and when disconnected from the daypack, as we thought the daypack harness system might impact the main compartment’s capacity, but the same amount fit either way. The daypack seems to be the bag losing space when the bags are connected, not the travel backpack.

The Peak Design Travel Backpack 2-in-1 does tend to fall on its face when connected, which isn’t surprising when you consider the weight of the daypack, so just lean it against your legs or a chair when waiting at the gate. We had no issues fitting the combined bag in the overhead compartment of a Delta Airlines flight, and the daypack fits nicely under the seat in front of you if you separate them.

That means you have options when traveling. You can pack both bags and wear them, connected, onto the plane, then zip off the daypack to have your travel essentials within reach on the flight while the travel backpack is stowed overhead. Or, if you’re on a full flight and overhead space is at a premium, you can check the larger bag and, again, use the daypack as a personal item bag. It’s a nice option, especially if you’re boarding in a later zone and the bins are already full, or if you have free checked bags and just don’t feel like carrying it.

So, is this the bag for you? That depends. While pricey, it can be a great all-in-one system if you need a daypack at your destination anyway. Both bags are comfortable, and while the daypack is small, it has enough space for your daily essentials and a slim enough profile that you don’t feel funny wearing it in tighter places around town, like on crowded streets and subways, the way you might with a larger bag.

The way they connect is unique, easy, and makes for a cohesive bag rather than looking like a kangaroo with her joey, as we’ve seen on other systems. Overall, we really enjoy the package—except for the hard-to-disconnect sternum strap and bulky hip belt.