I just used this pack to carry my travel essentials during a 3-week trip to Portugal. It performed fine, but I have decided I won't be using this pack in the future. Here's why: My main issue is that the interior design of the pack, and its overall shape, just isn't very useful, IMHO. It's so tall and deep, all my stuff tended to sink to the bottom and kind of mush together. So, I was always digging for my wallet, passports, camera, etc. and having moments of panic that they weren't there... only to eventually find them near the bottom after more digging. Compounding this problem is that fact that some of the interior pockets are very shallow, and stuff just straight up falls out and ends up at the bottom, adding to the mush. The most useful interior pocket, which is large enough to hold passports, is also near the bottom, and its contents are sometimes hard to distinguish from the stuff crammed at the bottom around it. Then there are the odd card-holder pockets... which just seem like a bad idea. Why would I take my cards and put them in individual pockets, that will probably just dump into the main compartment and get lost? I think a horizontally oriented bag would work much better for general travel purposes - something like a traditional fanny pack. True, some of these issues could be alleviated by carrying much less stuff, but it just seems like the interior should be more useful. (And if you have the room in your bag, people will hand you stuff to hold, they just will!) The one exterior slash pocket is nice and pretty useful. I also found the water bottle pocket to be EXTREMELY handy, and wish more smaller-sized packs had this feature. Kudos for this! Comfort/fit wise, this actually works pretty well. It sits nicely in backpack mode, and also works well when worn on the front, though it's maybe a tiny bit larger than I'd like it to be while on my front. Speaking of size, the size is nice - definitely doesn't feel big and bulky, but gives you more volume than a little fanny pack. Personally I'm going to go with something a little smaller next time, as I just end up carrying more than I want to anyway... but if you have something tall you'd like to carry (such as a compact umbrella) this might be ideal. The security features are also very nice, though I will mention, I personally found them to be big-time overkill, at least for a place like Portugal (even in Lisbon). Because, if your bag is on your chest in front of you and you can keep an eye on it, and your wallet is in a secure, not-easily-accessible pocket, it seems good enough to me. You can even keep your bag under a hand, at your side. I can't imagine someone actually trying to slash your bag off of you in a crowded area, when there are so many low-hanging fruit around (tourists with wallets/phones visible in their back pockets!) Maybe while traveling in more dangerous places these features are necessary, but for my next bag, I am not going to worry about locking zippers or wired straps or slash-proof fabric, I'm just going to always keep my stuff on my chest in front of me to foil the pickpockets. Especially because you're paying a premium for these features on this bag... I'll also mention, the styling on this bag is fine, but it certainly isn't going to win any awards. It's a little... dorky looking, to be honest. Which may fit with your style, but I wished it was a little more attractive. Materials seem nice, though I will mention that the edge of the carry loop webbing material started to fray after a few days. This didn't seem to affect functionality, but didn't look great either. So, overall, it's possible this is the ideal bag for you. It has some nice features, certainly, and provides a size and form factor that doesn't seem common among travel bags. But the main pocket is just worthless to me, as far as organization goes, so I'm going to move on - you'll have to decide for yourself! :)
