The Osprey Farpoint 40 is the pack that defined the modern one-bag travel backpack, and years on it is still the first name most people should shortlist. It does one job and does it well: it holds roughly a week of kit, opens flat like a suitcase, protects a laptop, and slots into an overhead locker without a fight at the gate. That combination is why it has been the default carry-on recommendation for so long, and why it holds a 4.6 to 4.7 star aggregate across hundreds of UK ratings.
This is not a hiking pack, and it is important to be clear about that up front. A trail rucksack top-loads and rides on a load-bearing hipbelt because it has to move over rough ground for hours. The Farpoint front-loads, prioritises fitting cabin dimensions, protects tech, and only has to carry comfortably from the terminal to the hotel. Judged as what it is, a travel pack for city breaks and one-bag trips around Europe, it is one of the best you can buy. Here is the full picture, including the airline dimensions that decide whether it flies for you.
Who the Farpoint 40 is for
The Farpoint 40 suits the traveller who wants to skip the hold, dodge the baggage fee and keep everything on their back. If your trips are city breaks, one to two week jaunts around Europe, or any journey where carry-on only is the goal, this is built for you. The 40L body is the one-bag sweet spot: big enough for a week, or much longer if you do laundry, and small enough to stay inside overhead-locker dimensions on most airlines.
It also suits someone who packs with cubes and wants the pack to stay light and flexible rather than imposing structure. The interior is deliberately minimal, one big compartment you organise yourself, which is a strength if you already have a packing system and a weakness if you want everything sorted the moment you unzip.
Who should look elsewhere? Anyone who flies Ryanair often and refuses to check a bag, because the depth busts Ryanair's larger cabin allowance (more on that below). Anyone who wants organisation built in rather than added, for whom the Cotopaxi Allpa 35 is the better tool. And anyone whose trips regularly run beyond a week, who wants the Farpoint 55 with its detachable daypack instead.
The clamshell: front-loading access
Front-loading is the single feature that makes a travel pack a travel pack, and it is the Farpoint's headline. The 40L body unzips around three sides so the whole face folds down flat, exactly like a suitcase. You pack and unpack it laid open on a bed, you can see everything at once, and you pull a single shirt out of the middle without excavating from the top.
Anyone coming from a top-loading hiking rucksack notices the difference on day one. A top-loader is efficient on a trail and miserable in a hostel, because the thing you want is always at the bottom. The clamshell removes that entirely. The main compartment sits on one side of the opening, with a zippered mesh pocket in the lid for the flat, small items you want kept separate, and internal compression straps to cinch a packed load so it does not shift in transit.
It is the most-praised feature in owner and tester reviews for good reason. If you have only ever used a rucksack for travel, this access alone is the upgrade you will feel first.
Cabin baggage: will it fly?
This is the question every buyer actually wants answered, so here it is directly, because the answer comes down to depth as much as anything.
The Farpoint 40 measures roughly 54 x 35 x 23 cm. That clears the 56 x 45 x 25 cm overhead-locker allowance used by British Airways, Jet2 and easyJet with room to spare, so as the paid or included larger cabin bag on those carriers it goes in the locker without drama. Being soft-sided, it also compresses if a gate sizer is tight, which top-loading hard cases cannot do.
On Ryanair, watch the depth. Ryanair's larger Priority cabin bag is 55 x 40 x 20 cm, and the Farpoint is 23 cm deep. Packed full it is over that 20 cm limit, so it is not a reliable fit for Ryanair's overhead allowance and it is well over the smaller free under-seat bag. You can sometimes squash a lightly packed pack down, but I would not gamble on it at a Ryanair gate.
Two things save you money and stress beyond the size question. First, a 40L pack is an overhead-locker bag, not a free under-seat one, so on a budget basic fare you will usually need to pay for the larger cabin allowance to bring it aboard. Second, a full 40L soft pack sits at 15 to 18 kg loaded and most cabin allowances cap at 10 kg, so weight, not just size, can catch you out. Always confirm your specific airline and fare on the day you book. There is a full airline dimensions table in my best travel backpacks guide.
Laptop and tech protection
If you travel with a laptop, and most people do, the sleeve matters more than the marketing suggests. The Farpoint carries the laptop in a padded sleeve against the back panel, which does two useful things: it keeps the machine cushioned, and it holds the weight close to your spine so a loaded pack carries better.
The sleeve sits off the base of the bag rather than resting on the floor, so the laptop is suspended when you set the pack down. A drop onto a hard terminal floor is the most common way travel laptops die, and this design guards against it. The sleeve zip is lockable, as is the main compartment, which matters in a hostel or when the bag goes in a hold.
Where the Farpoint is beaten is separate access. You cannot reach the laptop without opening into the pack, whereas the Cotopaxi Allpa gives its laptop and tablet sleeves their own outside zip so you can pull a machine out at security without opening the main bag. If you fly weekly, that is a real convenience the Osprey lacks. For most travellers, a protected, lockable, back-panel sleeve is enough.
The stowaway harness
The stowaway harness is the feature that lets the Farpoint behave like two different bags. The shoulder straps and hipbelt zip away behind a back panel, turning the pack into a clean-sided soft case with a haul handle. Slide them back out and you have a proper backpack with a ventilated back panel, load-lifter straps and a supportive hipbelt for carrying any distance in comfort.
That flexibility earns its keep in two situations. If you ever do check the bag, the stowed straps cannot snag and tear on a baggage conveyor, which is exactly how unprotected rucksack straps get destroyed. And when you want to sling the pack in an overhead locker or an under-seat gap, the tucked-away harness stops it catching on everything.
Testers consistently rate the Farpoint as the more comfortable pack to actually carry over distance than most rivals in the category, thanks to that back panel and hipbelt. It is not a hiking suspension and it is not meant to be, but for airport-to-hotel and a day of walking a new city with the bag on your back, it is comfortable in a way a strapped-on holdall never is.
Organisation and packing
Organisation is where the Farpoint divides opinion, and it comes down to how much structure you want the bag to impose. Osprey keeps it deliberately simple: one large main compartment, internal compression straps to cinch the load, and a mesh zip pocket in the lid. That is close to the whole story inside.
For a traveller who uses packing cubes, that is a positive. The pack stays light and flexible, the cubes bring the organisation, and nothing is wasted on dividers you would not use. Pack cubes for clothes, a wash bag, a tech pouch, and the single bucket swallows them tidily under the compression.
For a traveller who dislikes cubes and wants everything sorted and visible the moment they unzip, it is a genuine limitation, and the most common complaint in reviews is that tech and small-item organisation is thin. This is the clearest reason to look at the Cotopaxi Allpa instead, which opens into two structured mesh compartments and hands you the organisation built in. Neither approach is wrong. Choose the Farpoint if you organise yourself and want a lighter, simpler pack.
Security, durability and the guarantee
The Farpoint is built from 210D and 420D high-tenacity nylon, a tough, travel-grade fabric that shrugs off the scuffs and drags of airports, hostels and coach holds. Owners routinely report years of hard use without a blown seam or a failed zip, and long-term reviews at two years and beyond are overwhelmingly positive on build quality. This is a pack people keep, not replace.
Security is handled by lockable zip pulls on both the main compartment and the laptop sleeve, so you can padlock the bag shut in a dorm or before it disappears down a conveyor. It is deterrent-grade rather than slash-proof, but it does the job it is there to do.
The clincher is Osprey's All Mighty guarantee, which repairs or replaces any Osprey pack for any reason, for the life of the product, regardless of when or where you bought it. On a bag you intend to travel with for a decade, that backing is worth real money and it is a large part of why the Farpoint holds its value and its reputation. Fewer travel packs carry a warranty this comprehensive.
Farpoint vs Fairview: the women's fit
This trips people up, so it is worth being clear. The Farpoint 40 and the Osprey Fairview 40 are the same pack in two harness fits. The Farpoint is cut for a typically male frame, the Fairview for a typically female one, with shoulder straps contoured to sit on a narrower, shorter torso without digging into the chest, a hipbelt shaped to match, and generally slightly smaller torso sizing.
Everything else is identical: the same 40L clamshell body, the same lockable laptop sleeve, the same stowaway straps, the same 54 x 35 x 23 cm dimensions that clear BA, Jet2 and easyJet lockers but sit over Ryanair's depth limit. Capacity, access and security do not change.
Buy the Fairview if you have a shorter torso or the Farpoint harness has ever slipped off your shoulders or sat wide, and the Farpoint otherwise. It is not a different pack, it is a better-fitting one for a lot of people, and fit is what decides whether a loaded pack is comfortable or not. There is more on Osprey's women's-specific fit in my women's hiking backpacks guide.
Specs at a glance
- Capacity
- 40L
- Dimensions
- 54 x 35 x 23 cm
- Weight
- ~1.6 kg
- Access
- Full front-loading clamshell
- Laptop sleeve
- Padded, against back panel, up to 15 inch
- Security
- Lockable main and laptop zips
- Harness
- Stowaway shoulder straps and hipbelt, ventilated back panel, load lifters
- Materials
- 210D and 420D high-tenacity nylon
- Women's fit
- Osprey Fairview 40
- Warranty
- Osprey All Mighty lifetime guarantee
- UK price
- ~£105 to £140
Pros and cons
- Full clamshell front-loading access; packs and unpacks flat like a suitcase
- Fits BA, Jet2 and easyJet locker dimensions with margin
- Padded, suspended, lockable laptop sleeve against the back panel
- Stowaway harness travels as a clean soft case and protects straps in the hold
- Tough 210D and 420D nylon backed by Osprey's All Mighty lifetime guarantee
- Women's-fit Fairview 40 available in the same pack
- Minimal built-in organisation; you will want packing cubes
- 23 cm depth is over Ryanair's 20 cm larger-bag limit
- No separate outside access to the laptop for security queues
- No detachable daypack at this size
- A full 40L load can exceed the 10 kg cabin weight cap
The default one-bag carry-on pack for city breaks and one to two week trips on BA, Jet2 and easyJet. Travellers who pack with cubes and want a proven, lockable, guaranteed travel pack that carries comfortably.
Verdict: is the Farpoint 40 worth it?
Yes, and for most one-bag travellers it is the first pack to try. The Osprey Farpoint 40 does the core travel-pack job better than almost anything: it opens flat like a suitcase, protects a laptop, stows its harness to travel as a soft case, and fits the overhead lockers on BA, Jet2 and easyJet with room to spare. Add lockable zips, tough nylon and a lifetime guarantee, and you have a pack that earns its around £105 to £140 price and then lasts for years.
The caveats are clear and they point in two directions. The interior is minimal, so if you want structure built in rather than brought with cubes, the Cotopaxi Allpa 35 organises better. And the 23 cm depth means it is not a reliable fit for Ryanair's shallow 20 cm larger cabin allowance, so committed Ryanair-only flyers need a purpose-built shallower pack. Neither is a flaw in the pack, they are simply the edges of what it is for.
For everyone else, this is the safe, sensible, proven choice, and the reason it has anchored the one-bag travel category for so long. Buy the Farpoint for a typically male frame, the Fairview 40 for a women's fit, and pick by your torso rather than the label.
Rating: 4.7 / 5
Buy the Osprey Farpoint 40 on Amazon Buy the Osprey Farpoint 40 at BlacksFAQ
Is the Osprey Farpoint 40 cabin baggage size?
How big is the Osprey Farpoint 40 and what does it weigh?
Does the Farpoint 40 have a laptop compartment?
What is the difference between the Osprey Farpoint and Fairview 40?
Is the Osprey Farpoint 40 good for one-bag Europe travel?
Brand guide: for the full Osprey story, the technology behind the kit and where the range fits, read our Osprey brand review.
Osprey packs at Blacks
Prices pulled live from Blacks, updated daily. Links are affiliate links.
Osprey Men's Atmos AG 50 Litre Rucksack (S/M)
£255
Osprey Sportlite 15 Hiking Backpack
£63
Osprey Farpoint 40L Travel Backpack
£155
Osprey Daylite 13 Litre Daysack
£62
Osprey Kestrel LT 45 Backpack
£155
Osprey Sojourn 80L Wheeled Convertible Pack
£296
Osprey Farpoint 70L Travel Backpack
£185
Osprey Hikelite 26L Daypack
£95
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.
