Osprey Farpoint 40 vs Cotopaxi Allpa 35

Osprey Farpoint 40 vs Cotopaxi Allpa 35 is a carry-on travel-pack fight: a LightWire frame and a harness you can walk a terminal in on one side, a clamshell panel pack with a bright shell on the other. If you will wear the bag from the lot to a cabin and you want a hipbelt that is not a costume, buy the Farpoint 40. If you pack like a suitcase and you want a colorful panel bag that still fits most overheads, buy the Allpa 35. Most walkers who leave the airport on foot should own the Farpoint. The Allpa is the hotel-and-train pack.

Short version. Atmos versus Baltoro is a 65-liter ridge. This page is a carry-on. The Daylite is the day bag you peel off at the cabin. A Tuesday refuge is the walk these packs are for once the plane is done. Check live prices. Measure the overhead you actually fly. A “40-liter” is not a promise from every regional jet.

This is a comparison of two travel backpacks you can still buy. It is not a checked duffel. It is not a hiking 65. Farpoint 40 is Osprey’s current carry-on travel pack with a stowaway harness on many configurations and a lockable zip. Allpa 35 is Cotopaxi’s 35-liter panel pack — confirm 35, not a 42 or a 28 leftover photo. Both are bags you carry. Neither replaces the park page for the dirt you will walk.

Airline carry-on limits change by carrier and by the regional jet you actually boarded. Confirm liters and the packed dimensions. A stuffed 40 that will not go in the bin is a gate-check you did not want.

Who should buy the Farpoint 40, and who should buy the Allpa 35?

Buy the Farpoint 40 if you will wear the bag as a backpack: a trailhead shuttle, a walk from a rural lot, a cabin porch, a harness you will actually buckle. Buy the Allpa 35 if you pack like a suitcase, you want zip-panel access to a week of clothes, and you like a bag that is already a color you can spot on a carousel if it gets gate-checked. Buy neither if the trip is a 12-mile ridge with a bear can. That is a 65 with a real hipbelt.

Shoulder-season parks is the door a lot of these bags walk through in September. Weekday state parks is the other door. A weekday leaf cabin is why the bag has to live in a hatch, not only in an overhead. The park page is still the gate.

What the Farpoint 40 is actually for

Farpoint 40 is Osprey’s travel backpack: a LightWire frame, a hipbelt and harness you can stow when the bag has to look like luggage, a lockable zip, a padded laptop sleeve on current cuts, compression straps that actually shrink a half-empty bag. Forty liters is a week if you pack like an adult and wash a shirt. It is a weekend if you pack like a dresser.

The Osprey Farpoint 40 is the live travel pack we named. Confirm Farpoint 40, not a Fairview if you wanted the women’s-specific harness, and not a Farpoint 55 with a daypack you will not detach. Check live prices. S/M and M/L are torso sizes. A harness that sits on your kidneys is a 40 you will hate by the second jetway.

Do: weigh the packed bag at home, buckle the hipbelt for the walk, stow the harness when a carrier wants a suitcase silhouette. Don’t: a hanging toiletry bag that leaks on the laptop sleeve. Travel that still walks is the point. A Farpoint that never leaves the hotel luggage rack is a suitcase you made complicated.

What the Allpa 35 is actually for

Allpa 35 is Cotopaxi’s clamshell travel pack: a panel that opens like a suitcase, interior organization that keeps a week from becoming a ball, a bright TPU-laminate shell people actually find on a floor, a harness that is honest enough for a walk through a station. Thirty-five liters is the volume that still slides into more overheads than a stuffed 40. It is not a 65. It is not a hiking bag you will take above treeline with a bear can.

The Cotopaxi Allpa 35L is the live 35 we named. Confirm Allpa 35, not a 42 and not a 28 leftover. Check live prices. Colorways change. The llama is a logo, not a feature. A “Del Día” one-off is a color story. The liters are the spec.

Gifts for travelers already knows this bag as a present people actually use. This heading is the bag you will fly. Sunday after Saturday checkout is the walk a 35 still does if you did not overpack the clamshell into a brick.

Carry-on is a bin, not a liter number on a hangtag

A Farpoint 40 packed to the compression straps can miss a regional-jet bin. An Allpa 35 packed like a dresser can miss it too. Weigh it. Measure the packed height. The carrier page is the rule, not a forum that flew a 737 last year. A gate-check in the rain is how a travel pack becomes a wet sweater. A pack cover helps. A packed size that already fits helps more.

Monday’s parkway and Saturday’s byway are car trips — the bag lives in a hatch. This heading is the flight. If the whole trip is a hatch, a 40 versus 35 is comfort on the walk from the lot, not an overhead. Pack for the walk you will actually do.

The day bag is a Daylite. Do not day-hike the 40.

A Farpoint or an Allpa on a boardwalk is a comedy and a theft target you left on a bench. Peel a daypack. Water, a layer, the guidebook, the lamp. The Osprey Daylite is the live 13-liter we named for the walk from the cabin: a pack that is not a tote, enough for a refuge dike or a state-park loop. The Daylite page is the longer day. Check live prices.

A Tuesday refuge already used this 13-liter. A Kyte 46 is a women’s-specific hike bag for a different Saturday. This heading is the day you leave the travel pack in the room. Lock the room. A travel pack on a trailhead picnic table is a story.

A watch that still works after a TSA bin is the clock. The phone is in a tray.

Equinox week and a shoulder-season park still want a turnaround. A phone in a bin, then in a pocket on airplane mode, is a clock you will not glance at on a dike. A small digital on the wrist still tells time after the tray. Set it at the kitchen table to the place you are walking, or keep home time if that is how you avoid a missed gate.

The Casio A168WA is the live stainless digital we named for the trip: a light, a 24-hour face, an alarm you can hear in a motel, enough water resistance for a wash, not a dive. Check live prices. The under-100 watch page is the abuse fork. This heading is the travel clock. Write the last overlook if the walk is a refuge. Write the gate if the park closes the loop at dusk.

East-coast parks still close gates. Park rules still apply if the other Saturday is already an RV. A travel pack does not open a closed road. The watch is how you honor the time you wrote.

How you pack either bag is the real liter

Heavy at the back, against the frame on the Farpoint, against the panel that sits on your back on the Allpa. Shoes in a bag. Liquids in the same pouch every time so TSA is a habit, not a rummage. A week of cotton is how a 35 becomes a 50. Wash a shirt. Merino earns the ounce. A hanging toiletry brick is how people invent a wet laptop.

Lock the zip if the bag leaves your hands in a hostel or a train overhead. Osprey’s lockable zip is a zipper, not a safe. Cotopaxi’s zip is a zip. A small padlock you can still open in a dim bunk is the extra minute. Do not lock it through a TSA checkpoint if the carrier wants it unlocked. The checkpoint page is the rule.

What this fight is not

It is not Atmos versus Baltoro. It is not a checked duffel. It is not a rooftop tent. It is two carry-on travel packs. If your miles are a ridge with a bear can, stop shopping this page. If your miles are a cabin, a refuge, and a regional jet, stay here. A family fall walk can be the same park with no 40 on anyone’s back. That is allowed. It is often the better Tuesday.

A harness that sits on your kidneys is a 40 you will hate by the second jetway

Osprey cuts Farpoint 40 in S/M and M/L. Measure torso, not ego. A hipbelt that lands on the iliac crest is the belt. A belt that lands on the waist of your jeans is a costume. Cotopaxi’s Allpa harness is honest enough for a station and a city walk. It is not a 65-liter ridge belt. If the trip is a mile of sidewalk and a train, either bag works. If the trip is a gravel walk from a rural lot to a cabin, the Farpoint’s frame is the one we would buckle.

Stow the Farpoint harness when a carrier wants a suitcase silhouette. Unstow it before the walk. A stowed harness you forgot to deploy is a 40 hanging on your shoulders like a duffel. Practice the stow at home. Travel that still walks is the point. A bag you cannot wear is a suitcase you made complicated.

So which travel pack should you buy?

Buy the Osprey Farpoint 40 if you will wear the bag as a backpack and you packed it slim enough for the bin. Buy the Cotopaxi Allpa 35 if you pack like a suitcase and you want the volume that still slides into more overheads. Our default for a walker who leaves the airport on foot is the Farpoint. Our default for a hotel-and-train week is the Allpa. Peel a Daylite for the park. Wear a watch that still works in a tray. Check live prices. Measure the packed bag. The park page is the gate. A 40 that will not go in the bin is a gate-check.

Tuesday’s refuge still wants the day bag. The leaf cabin still wants a bag that fits the hatch. The travel pack is the flight. Three different jobs.

Also in the magazine

Keep going with the Daylite, Atmos versus Baltoro, shoulder-season parks, and travel that still walks. Check live prices.