Eagle Creek Tour Travel Pack 40L (V2) Review

Two roads diverge in the woods, and travel backpacks typically follow one or the other: either full of organizational pockets or so open as to be nearly unorganized and ready for you to DIY your pack. The former is great for those who want to know where to stash everything and haven’t already invested in a ton of packing cubes or pouches. The Eagle Creek Tour Travel Pack 40L (V2) seems to take the latter path of more open space.

The world is full of different travelers with different styles, though, and we’re happy to see bag makers creating something for everyone. We found the original Eagle Creek Tour Travel Pack 40L a great playground for those who have already invested in packing cubes, tech pouches, toiletry bags, and other organizers. How does V2 stack up? That’s what we’re here to find out.

External Components

There are some noticeable differences in V2 of the Eagle Creek Tour Travel Pack, starting with the materials. Sustainable travelers will be happy to hear that the pack now has all recycled materials, including 420D ripstop nylon and 1000D twill polyester. Its front compartment is weatherproof, and the water repellant is free of harmful PFCs and PFAS chemicals. Perhaps because of this water resistance, Eagle Creek has ditched the stowaway rain fly from the original bag, and we don’t mind. The new version definitely holds up in the spring rain, and everything stayed dry when our tester was, unfortunately, caught in a downpour.

We’re testing the Storm Grey colorway, but at the time of this review, you can also get the bag in Jungle Green or Black. The Eagle Creek brand name is very prominent on our lighter colorway, parading vertically down the right side of the bag’s front, but it’s less noticeable on the color-on-color design of the darker bags.

Somewhere in the change of materials, the bag gained about a half pound, coming in at 3.25 pounds (1.5 kg) now instead of 2.8 pounds (1.3 kg), but we didn’t really notice a difference. We noticed the change to YKK zippers from unbranded models, which we’re happy to see. Most of the zippers around the bag have a PU coating that YKK calls AquaGuard for water resistance, but even the ones that don’t are still reverse-coil models that still keep water at bay. The zippers feature paracord pulls that end in plastic grab handles for easy opening, and you can slide a travel lock through the main compartment zippers.

There are now three carry handles to choose from when pulling the pack from the closet, trunk, or overhead bin: top, bottom, and right side. They’re all the same style of folded webbing with no additional padding, yet comfortable enough for short-term use. Since this is a 40L bag, we don’t recommend carrying it by hand for a long time when there’s a perfectly good harness system available, but they get the job done. There are also attachment loops of webbing flanking each side of all three handles where you can connect a large carabiner to carry extra gear. There’s also a tab with a grommet above the side handle where you can hook something else, though we never found a good use for it.

The front of the bag looks very different from the original Tour Travel Pack because it is a duffle-style opening that cinches down with an adjustable webbing strap that clicks into place with a metal tab. We don’t mind the look as much with the bag fully packed, but it can look floppy and bulky when you carry less in that section. However, if you pair this pack with rolling luggage, you can slide the bag over the handle, and this strap holds it in place.

The remaining hardware is made by Woojin and found primarily on the harness system. The sternum strap and hip belt feature X-shaped Woojin buckles that are easy to use and work well. There are also Woojin adjusters on the load lifters at the top of the shoulder straps.

What the inside of the bag lacks in organization, the harness system makes up for in spades. It is a beefy setup befitting a 40L pack. Since you can fit so much inside, we’re happy to see it.

The back panel features sections of molded padding covered in soft, breathable mesh to keep things from getting too sweaty. There are a few portions without padding to allow for greater airflow and the same breathable mesh also covers the underside of the shoulder strap padding. It’s see-through toward the bottom of the straps, so you can see what the foam looks like inside.

The sternum strap connects to the shoulder straps on a sliding rail, so you can situate it wherever you like. The hip belt features tapered triangles of mesh-covered padding and a wide webbing strap. It’s beefy, yet you can tuck it behind the back panel if you don’t want to use it. You can also adjust the shoulder straps up or down to move the pack higher or lower on your back, depending on the length of your torso. It connects via hook-and-loop fastener to the back panel and is easy to adjust. There’s also an adjustable strap running behind the back panel to conceivably hold it in place, but while it seems like you should be able to tighten the strap when you move the harness system up or down, multiple Pack Hacker testers could not. It doesn’t get in the way, though.

If that’s not enough, there are also load lifters to help support the bag on your back. All that means there are a lot of straps hanging around this bag, but most of them include built-in keepers to contain some excess. If you’re flying, you can zip the entire harness system away with a cover to prevent your straps from catching on someone else’s wheeled luggage. It tucks up into the back panel when you deplane.

We’ll talk about comfort more in depth below, but just to head off any questions of how lumpy things get when you tuck everything behind the back panel, the answer is, not very. We don’t notice the cover at all after stuffing it inside, and while we noticed the hip belts a little bit when we first tucked them away, we quickly got used to the negligible sensation.

Fit Notes

One of the first things we noticed when we got our hands on the Eagle Creek Tour Travel Pack 40L (V2) and checked out its page on Eagle Creek’s site is that the option for a smaller variant has disappeared. The original bag came in S/M or M/L, with the same 40L capacity that expanded to 45L with an expansion zipper for both. Now, the Eagle Creek Tour Travel Pack 40L (V2) comes in one variant for that capacity and a 55L option. Take a look above to see how you feel about how it looks on the tester that seems closest to your measurements, and then you can decide how you feel about that.

Our primary tester for this bag is on the smaller side yet finds the bag surprisingly comfortable, given how much of her frame it spans. The harness system is not overkill here; it does a great job of supporting a fully packed load and spreading the weight around so it doesn’t dig into your shoulders, back, or neck. That’s a definite plus when you’re waiting for hours in the Atlanta customs line or trekking miles to your hotel when there are no taxis to be found.

As to looks, we can’t say this is the most aesthetically pleasing travel backpack we’ve tested, although different team members here at Pack Hacker liked it more or less than others. It definitely begs to be packed full, as that’s how it looks its best. In our opinion, the darker colorways look nicer than the lighter ones, though all the options tend toward floppiness; it’s hard to avoid that with a ripstop nylon front, even if you can cinch it down with a buckle.

Inside The Pack

We’re happy it’s so comfortable because there really is a lot of space to fill. There are also several different places to stow your gear, so let’s look at all your options now. And if you have the Storm Grey colorway like us, this is where those lighter materials come in handy; the liner is bright yellow, so it’s much easier to see everything inside. The liner on the Jungle Green is a lighter green, and the Black has grey, so they are still not bad, but they’re still not as good as the bright yellow. Score one for color.

We will start at the back of the bag, where a vertical zipper runs underneath the side handle. This is an improvement from the OG bag, as it means that this organization faces up when you use the side carry handle instead of down. Why do you care? Well, because this zipper opens to reveal the laptop compartment. It can hold up to a 15-inch device in the padded sleeve against the back panel, and your computer is protected from accidental drops as there is plenty of space between the sleeve’s end and the bag’s top and bottom.

In front of the laptop sleeve are a couple of pockets for accessories. The one on the left is tall yet narrow and is a good spot for a large battery bank, a USB hub, or our tester’s hard glasses case. Two pen or stylus pockets next to it have stitching midway down to keep you from losing your implement. To the right of that is an even larger slip pocket with a bit of padding for an e-reader, small tablet, or your wall charger and cord, and there is a zippered mesh pocket on its face for more accessories. It also includes a key clip on a leash that’s easy to access since you can hold the side handle to unzip the compartment, reach inside, and grab them. You could put more gear in front of that organization, but it presses into the main compartment, so you might not want to. However, this is a good spot if you have folders or paperwork to stow.

The other side of the bag has a pocket for a water bottle. It expands slightly with elastic and a gusset, though it’s not wide enough for a very large bottle. Standard-width bottles fit well, though.

At the top of the bag is a small stash pocket, which Eagle Creek suggests you use for your passport. It’s not super noticeable, though it still has the paracord zipper pull dangling from it, so it’s not flying totally under the radar. You could slide in a minimalist wallet or a standard-size phone instead, but it’s not big enough for much else.

You needn’t worry, though, because there’s a larger stash pocket on the front, to the right of the Eagle Creek brand name. It’s a tall pocket that spans down (or over) to the front compartment zipper, so you’ll have plenty of space inside for your phone, wallet, small toiletries, and anything else you want to stick inside. Its underside is made of mesh that hangs into that front compartment.

Luckily, there is a lot of capacity in this compartment. It’s like Eagle Creek glued a duffle bag onto the front of a travel backpack. To get inside, slide the metal buckle through its connector and unzip the long, water-resistant zipper. This reveals a very large space to fill with shoes, packing cubes, hoodies—you get the idea. It’s a ton of space, but there’s no internal organization or straps to lock any of it in place. You’ll want to fill it while the bag is lying on its back, as otherwise, things shift to one end of the other, and you can’t fold it back up to make ends meet in the middle. We learned this the hard way and had to shake our gear around to close it up.

There is a zippered passageway to the main compartment running along the bottom of this section, too, for easy unpacking when you arrive at your destination. The bottom then folds up toward the left side of the bag so you can get inside instead of having to flop open a potentially heavy, packed front compartment. Whether you access the main compartment here or with its zippers on the outside, we recommend unpacking the front compartment before you open it, as maneuvering it can be quite unwieldy.

This lid (the front compartment floor) offers the only organization inside the main compartment. There are two large mesh pockets to fill with clothing or other gear. The one near the top of the bag is narrower and is a good place for gloves, a Buff, or even socks and underwear, while the other encompasses the bottom two-thirds of the space. Use it to lock down other gear you want to quickly access in this area or use it like a small packing cube, as long as you realize that the floppy materials will flex between the front and main compartments, depending on what you pack where.

Finally, the main compartment has more structured sides for easier packing and two compression straps that buckle in the center to hold your clothing or packing cubes in place. That’s it for features, but we don’t mind so much in this space. It works well to hold toiletry bags and packing cubes and worked well enough for clothing on its own, though your apparel can slide to the bottom of the bag on the slippery liner material if you don’t have things stuffed to the brim. That happens with any underpacked carry on luggage, though, so we don’t hold it against Eagle Creek.

We think it probably works best to use cubes and pouches in this space and put bulky gear like shoes in the front compartment, but you’re free to pack it however the mood strikes you. Just be sure to pack it, as the floppiness dissipates the more gear you put inside.

So, is it for you? If you like having a bag that can handle almost anything, from road trips and camping to backpacking through Europe, it might be. Then again, it might not be if you prefer a little more refined organization and structured materials. You decide.