Osprey Porter 46 Carry-on Backpack

We’ve had multiple overseas trips with our Osprey Porter 46 litre backpacks and we love them. They’re durable and comfortable, they look good and have great storage. Importantly, they just meet the carry-on baggage dimensions for most (if not all) airlines.

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Giving carry-on a go

During our trip to Malaysia and Korea in January 2016, my suitcase was the last to hit the baggage carousel. Every. Single. Flight.

Being that unfortunate meant we were at the back of every queue for immigration and customs and made for a longer than necessary journey through the airport. So my husband decided that we’d only travel with carry-on baggage for our next trip. The compulsory over-packer in me was horrified at the thought of carry-on only, but the thrill of easy transit wooed me. Plus paring back an 80L suitcase to a 46L backpack was a challenge. I think he might have slipped the baggage carousel people a $20 or something at each destination to make the carry-on thing happen!

We researched backpacks and settled on the Osprey Porter 46. It’s the biggest size you can get for carry-on, but not big we’d overpack. We trust the Osprey brand and have loved our Osprey Poco Premium Baby Backpack Carrier.

With 7kg cabin allowance, we packed our Ospreys to the limit for our three-month trip to Vietnam – September to mid-December, but the bag was never uncomfortable.

It was the only luggage we brought with us and we made it from Melbourne > Gold Coast > Kuala Lumpur > Ho Chi Minh City before we got pulled up for being two measly kilos overweight collectively on our way to Hanoi. The check-in person was adamant we were paying for a bag to be checked in. From that point on, we checked one bag until we returned to Australia from Kuala Lumpur and we ditched our clothes and went carry-on only again. We breezed through the airport terminals and had no problem with late bags. Phew!

What I love about the Osprey Porter 46

The Osprey Porter 46 pack is really durable. It survived many flights as checked in baggage. You can unclip the harness and stow it so the harness won’t tear or catch during the loading and unloading process. We bought our Porters from Australian company Wild Earth.

There’s a secure laptop section that keeps the heavy laptop close to your spine for maximum comfort. It has a padded tablet compartment and another compartment that’s great for organising your smaller belongings.

The main body of the backpack opens wide like a suitcase, making it super easy to pack and find things. There’s also a bottom section that’s great for separating your shoes.

It fits easily into the overhead bins on planes.

Do yourself a favour and grab this pack for your next travel adventure.

Buying the Osprey Porter 46

If you’re in Australia, I recommend Wild Earth.

If you’re outside Australia, you can order your Porter via Amazon.

Last modified: August 10, 2018