The Cotopaxi Allpa 35L is the one pack that unseats Osprey as the default answer to one-bag carry-on travel, and it does it on the thing most one-baggers care about most: organisation. Where the Osprey Farpoint is a big, simple bucket you organise yourself with packing cubes, the Allpa hands you the structure built in. It opens flat like a suitcase into two large mesh-covered compartments, so clothes, tech and small items each get a home the moment you unzip. That, plus a genuinely tough shell and separate laptop access, is why it has become the main editorial rival to the Farpoint at the top of the class.
It is a 35L full-clamshell travel pack built around a TPU-coated recycled nylon shell, lockable YKK zips, padded laptop and tablet sleeves and cabin-baggage dimensions. It is not the pack to carry a heavy load up a hill, its hip belt is a simple tuck-away affair rather than a load-hauling system, and at around £220 it is the pricier option against the Farpoint. But for airport-to-hotel one-bag travel with everything visible and sorted, it is one of the best travel backpacks going, and Cotopaxi's build quality and lifetime backing fit the quality-over-budget ethos this site runs on. Here is the full picture.
Who the Allpa 35L is for
The Allpa suits the one-bag traveller who wants their kit sorted and visible rather than stacked in a single top-loading tube. If you take city breaks, one-bag trips around Europe or any journey where you skip the hold and keep everything on your back, and you would rather the pack imposed order than leave you to build it with cubes, this is designed for you. It is a travel pack first and foremost: it front-loads like a suitcase, protects tech and fits an overhead locker, which is a different job from carrying a load over rough ground.
It also suits the traveller who values build quality and a company they can stand behind. The TPU-coated shell shrugs off rain and scuffs, the zips lock, and Cotopaxi's sustainability story and lifetime warranty are the kind of thing that justify paying more once rather than replacing a cheaper bag twice.
Who should look elsewhere? Anyone who wants a pack to carry a heavy load any real distance. The Allpa's hip belt is a tuck-away convenience, not a load-transfer system, so it is best from terminal to hotel rather than on long walks fully loaded. If you want a pack for a multi-day trail rather than a trip, that is a different tool entirely and it lives in the best hiking backpacks guide. And if you simply want the cheaper, lighter, proven default, the Osprey Farpoint 40 is the safe buy.
The clamshell and organisation
Organisation is the heart of this pack and the reason to buy it over an Osprey. The Allpa opens in a full clamshell, with the zip running around three sides so the whole face folds flat, exactly like a suitcase. There is no digging from the top for whatever sank to the bottom. You unzip, it lies open, and you can see and reach everything at once.
What sets it apart is what is behind that opening. Both halves are covered by zippered mesh, so nothing spills when the pack is upright and everything stays visible. One side is a single large compartment for bulkier items and folded clothes. The other is subdivided into a large, a medium and a small section, which gives smaller items, tech and toiletries defined homes before you add a single packing cube. Reviewers consistently single this out as the best built-in organisation in the carry-on class.
This is the split that decides the whole purchase. The Farpoint is one large space plus a mesh lid pocket, which is deliberately minimal and suits travellers who bring their own order with cubes. The Allpa is the opposite philosophy: structure imposed, everything sorted and visible the moment you unzip. If you dislike packing cubes, or you simply want to open your bag in a hostel and see your entire kit at a glance, the Allpa is built for exactly that and the Farpoint is not.
Laptop and tablet protection
If you travel with a laptop, and most one-baggers do, the Allpa handles it well and adds one detail the Osprey lacks. It carries a padded, fleece-lined laptop sleeve rated for a 15 inch machine, with owners reporting that 16 inch laptops fit too, plus a separate slot for a tablet in the same zippered area. The sleeve sits against the back panel, which keeps the weight close to your spine where it should be.
The detail that matters is access. The laptop and tablet sleeves are reached through their own dedicated zip on the back panel, so you can pull your laptop out at airport security without opening the main compartment and exposing your packed kit to the queue behind you. That separate-access sleeve is a small thing you appreciate at every scanner, and it is a genuine convenience the Farpoint does not offer, which routes its laptop sleeve inside the main clamshell.
The one thing to check is that the sleeve, like most in this class, does not sit fully suspended off the base of the bag. A padded sleeve against the back panel is well protected in normal handling, but as with any travel pack, take a little care setting a loaded bag down hard on a terminal floor.
Build: the TPU-coated shell
Build quality is where the Allpa earns its price and a large part of why it feels a class above a generic travel bag. The shell is a heavy 840 denier TPU-coated recycled nylon on the front and base, with a ballistic ripstop nylon on the back panel, and the coating is the point: it makes the fabric weather-resistant enough to shrug off rain and stiff enough to hold the pack's shape and resist abrasion. Reviewers describe the front face as notably rigid and rugged, the kind of shell that takes bumps and scuffs on a baggage belt without complaint.
That structure has a knock-on benefit. Because the TPU-coated front holds its form, the pack keeps its shape when packed and the clamshell lies flat and open rather than collapsing, which is part of why the organisation works as well as it does. The zips are security-focused, lockable YKK units on the main compartment, so you can padlock the bag shut in a hostel or a hold.
The trade-off for all that toughness is weight and a little rigidity. At around 1.3kg empty the Allpa is not heavy for what it is, and it is lighter than the roughly 1.6kg Farpoint 40, but the coated shell makes it a firmer, less squashy bag than a soft nylon pack. That firmness helps it hold shape and protect contents, and it costs you a little of the give that lets a soft pack squash into a tight sizer. It is a fair exchange for a pack this well made.
Carry comfort: harness and hip belt
This is the section that separates a travel pack from a hiking pack, and it is where the Allpa is honest about what it is. The current version has been improved for carry, with air-mesh shoulder straps and better weight distribution than earlier models, and for its intended use, terminal to hotel and around a city, testers find it comfortable. Loaded to a sensible carry-on weight and worn for the walk from the gate to the accommodation, it sits fine.
The hip belt is the limiting factor and worth understanding. It is a tuckable, adjustable belt that zips away behind the back panel when you do not want it, which is exactly right for a pack that spends most of its life being carried short distances or handled like a case. But it is a stabilising belt, not a load-transfer hip belt of the kind a hiking pack uses to shift weight off your shoulders onto your hips. Carry the Allpa fully loaded for a long walk and you will feel the weight on your shoulders in a way you would not with a proper trail pack.
That is not a flaw, it is the design being true to its job. If your travel involves long walks with the bag fully loaded, weigh that against a pack with a real hip belt. For the airport-to-hotel reality of most one-bag trips, the Allpa carries perfectly well.
Cabin baggage fit
The Allpa measures roughly 56 x 30 x 25 cm at 35L, and that size determines which airlines it clears as cabin baggage, so get this right before you buy. It fits the 56 x 45 x 25 cm overhead-locker allowance used by British Airways, Jet2 and easyJet neatly, which covers most UK travellers most of the time. As a 35L pack it is an overhead-locker bag rather than a free under-seat bag, so on a budget basic fare you will usually need to pay for the larger cabin allowance to bring it aboard.
The one to watch is Ryanair. Its larger Priority cabin bag allowance is 55 x 40 x 20 cm, and the Allpa is 25 cm deep, so it is over Ryanair's depth limit and not a reliable fit for their overhead allowance. The stiff TPU shell also means it will not squash down at the gate the way a soft pack sometimes can. If you fly Ryanair often and refuse to check a bag, a shallower purpose-built pack is a better match. There is a full airline-by-airline breakdown, with a size table, in the travel backpacks guide.
One more rule saves money and stress: watch the weight, not just the size. A full 35L pack can sit near or over the 10 kg cap most cabin allowances set, so pack with the scales in mind, not only the sizer.
Sustainability and warranty
This is where Cotopaxi's story fits the quality-over-budget ethos, and it is more than marketing. The Allpa is made from 100% recycled fabrics, recycled nylon for the shell and recycled polyester for the lining, sourced as part of Cotopaxi's wider "Gear for Good" model, and the company is a certified B Corp that directs a share of revenue to poverty-alleviation work. If you would rather spend more once on a pack made responsibly than buy cheaper and replace it, that is the case the Allpa makes.
The warranty backs it up. Cotopaxi covers the Allpa with a lifetime warranty and repair support, so manufacturing faults and failures from normal use are repaired or replaced rather than binned. That is the same reassurance Osprey offers with its All Mighty guarantee, and between the recycled build, the tough shell and the lifetime cover, this is a pack designed to be kept, not churned. For a site that steers away from disposable budget kit, that longevity is exactly the point.
Value and where to buy
At around £220 RRP, often found a little under £200, the Allpa is the more expensive option against the roughly £140 Farpoint 40, and you should be clear about what the extra buys you. It is not more capacity, the Allpa is smaller at 35L against the Farpoint's 40L. It is the organisation, the tougher weather-resistant shell, the separate laptop access and the recycled build. For the traveller who values those specifically, the premium is money well spent. For the traveller who is happy with cubes in a simpler pack, the Farpoint is the better value and the sensible default.
Where to buy matters more than usual with this one. In the UK, Amazon stock of the Allpa can be patchy, with sizes and colours coming and going, so it is often better bought direct from Cotopaxi's own UK site, where the full range and colours are reliably available and where you buy straight from the brand that backs the warranty. Check the Amazon listing first for price, and go direct if the version you want is out of stock.
Specs at a glance
- Capacity
- 35L
- Dimensions
- 56 x 30 x 25 cm
- Weight
- ~1.33 kg empty
- Access
- Full front-loading clamshell, two mesh compartments
- Organisation
- One large compartment, one subdivided into large/medium/small
- Laptop sleeve
- Fleece-lined, 15 inch (fits many 16 inch), separate back-panel access
- Tablet sleeve
- Yes, alongside the laptop sleeve
- Shell
- 100% recycled 840D TPU-coated nylon (front/base), ballistic ripstop nylon (back)
- Lining
- 100% recycled ripstop polyester
- Zips
- Lockable security YKK zips on main compartment
- Hip belt
- Tuckable, adjustable stabilising belt
- Extras
- Water bottle pocket, luggage pass-through strap, air-mesh straps
- Rain cover
- Not included (Seco rain cover sold separately)
- Warranty
- Cotopaxi lifetime warranty
- UK price
- ~£220 (often under £200)
Pros and cons
- Best-in-class built-in organisation: two mesh compartments, one subdivided
- Full clamshell opens flat like a suitcase for easy packing and access
- Separate-access laptop and tablet sleeves for security queues
- Tough, weather-resistant TPU-coated recycled shell that holds its shape
- Lockable YKK zips and a lifetime warranty
- 100% recycled fabrics from a certified B Corp
- Fits BA, Jet2 and easyJet overhead-locker dimensions
- Simple tuck-away hip belt carries less well over long distances than a hiking pack
- 25 cm depth is over Ryanair's 20 cm larger-bag limit
- Stiff coated shell will not squash into a tight sizer
- Pricier than the Osprey Farpoint 40 and 5L smaller
- UK Amazon stock can be patchy; often better bought direct from Cotopaxi
- No rain cover included
One-bag carry-on travellers who want organisation and build quality built in rather than added with cubes, fly BA, Jet2 or easyJet, and value a tough, weatherproof, responsibly made pack with separate laptop access at security.
Verdict: is the Allpa 35L worth it?
Yes, for the traveller it is built for. The Cotopaxi Allpa 35L does one thing better than any other pack in the carry-on class: it opens flat and hands you organisation built in, two mesh compartments with everything sorted and visible the moment you unzip. Add a tough TPU-coated recycled shell, separate laptop access at security, lockable YKK zips and a lifetime warranty from a certified B Corp, and you have a travel pack that earns its around £220 price for the one-bagger who wants structure and quality rather than a simple bucket.
The caveats are clear and they all point the same way. This is a travel pack, not a load-carrier: the tuck-away hip belt is fine airport-to-hotel but not built for long walks fully loaded, the stiff shell will not squash into a tight sizer, and the 25 cm depth rules it out of Ryanair's overhead allowance. It is also pricier and slightly smaller than the Farpoint. None of that is a fault. It is the pack being true to what it is: an organised, well-made, one-bag travel pack for city breaks and locker-friendly airlines.
If you want the cheaper, larger, proven default and you are happy to organise with cubes, buy the Osprey Farpoint 40. If you want a pack for the trail rather than the terminal, look at a proper hiking pack instead. But if you want the most organised, best-built one-bag travel pack going, and you fly the airlines it fits, the Allpa 35L is the one to buy.
Rating: 4.6 / 5
Buy the Cotopaxi Allpa 35L on AmazonFAQ
Is the Cotopaxi Allpa 35L cabin baggage size?
Cotopaxi Allpa 35L or Osprey Farpoint 40?
Does the Cotopaxi Allpa 35L fit a laptop?
Is the Cotopaxi Allpa 35L waterproof?
Where should I buy the Cotopaxi Allpa 35L in the UK?
Found this useful?
Coast & Fell is independent and reader-supported. If something here saved you time or a bad buy, you can buy me a coffee. Thank you, from Maple and me.
