Top Loading Backpacks are the Absolute Worst Type of Travel Pack

There is one piece of travel gear that is perhaps more annoying, aggravating, and inconvenient to the traveler than almost any other: the top loading backpack. What is amazing is that this is still the most common style backpack being used for world travel. Top loading backpacks are perhaps good if you merely wish to cart a bunch of gear from point A to point B with the sole intention of dumping it all out upon arrival without accessing anything on the inside en route — but who can say they want to just do this? For a backpack to be good for travel it has to allow for easy and quick access to what is stored inside of it and be simple to pack and organize. Travel gear is meant to be used, not just hauled.

What is wrong with top loading backpacks?

The main problem with a top loading backpack is that it is essentially a tube with an opening at one end, and you must insert and remove items through this single opening — regardless of where they are located in the bag or where you intend to place them.

Gear stack in a top loading backpack

Top loading backpacks demand that you pack your gear in layers, going from the bottom of the bag up to the top. This is the longest dimension of this piece of luggage, and creates the largest possible gear stack (the depth to which items can be buried). You also must stuff gear in through the top of a top loader without being able to see what you are doing, arranging items one on top of another until you have a tight stack of gear.

After you get one of these packs filled, in order to get anything out of it you must A) dump everything out, B) remove  layers of gear until you get down to the item you’re after, or C) shove an arm down into the depth of the bag and feel around for what you want, and when you find it tug it up to the surface through the rest of your gear. Doing this multiple times per day, when hiking, in transit, or in public becomes a real hassle — believe me.

While it is true that some top loading backpacks have a second opening near the bottom of the pack which allows you to access gear that is packed deep, this really just means that you are able to fumble blindly in your bag and screw up an otherwise neat packing job from two sides rather than one. Any item removed from the bottom of a top loading backpack is also going to leave an empty cavity, which can make for awkward weight distribution when your gear finally settles into it again.

It is truly annoying to be fighting your backpack to free the rain jacket you stuffed into its depths in the middle of a surprise thunder shower. It sucks having to dump out an entire backpack of gear to just get out your sleeping bag when trying to inconspicuously camp on the sly. It is a constant annoyance to have to repack all of your gear because you needed to remove it from your backpack for the umpteenth time to get at something you packed deep. It is truly a sad state of affairs when you simply don’t access a piece of gear that you would otherwise want just because you don’t want to go through the hassle of digging it out of your pack. Or perhaps the worst thing about a top loading backpack is the arm spelunking you need to do each time you want to access a piece of gear, trying all the while to remember the internal coordinates of where it is positioned in the bag.

“I know I have a clean sock somewhere around the lower left quadrant of this backpack . . . Arrrggg!”

I want to be able to access every piece of travel gear that I have from my backpack in a matter of moments — I don’t want to be blindly stuffing my arms around in the crags of my bag as through I were noodling for catfish.

The case against top loading backpacks video

Watch how my wife must dig deep into her top loading backpack and remove multiple items in an attempt to get to something that has been buried. After I was caught making the video my wife continued her search for at least another five minutes — emptying everything out just to put it all back in again.

Suggested backpack style

Full side access with a suitcase style backpack

I began traveling with a suitcase style backpack in 2006. It was a Kelty Redwing, and was the first backpack that I had used for travel that was not a top loader. It had a zipper opening that reached all the way around three sides like a suitcase. I was at first awed that I could open up the entire posterior panel and pack items neatly and tactically inside and access items that were placed anywhere in the bag — even the very bottom.  I now use a Lowe Alpine TT Tour Travel backpack which has a similar “suitcase” style opening. Neither pack has failed yet.

Top loader backpack conclusion

Suitcase style opening backpack

When I first began traveling there were not any packs that were made exclusively for travel readily available on the market, and I found myself stuck using hiking backpacks — which are oddly often more adept at hauling gear than offering easy access to it. Now there are many models of backpack that are readily available for travelers which are not top loaders. Given this, I’m often left bewildered as to why so many backpackers choose to use top loading backpacks — which are perhaps the most inconvenient to use type of this luggage ever designed.

I must laugh every time I see a traveler noodling their arms repeatedly down into the depths of a top loading backpack, looking for something to no avail. I must make a joke when I see a backpacker playing tug of war in vain trying to remove a piece of gear from the abyss of a fully packed top loader. Invariably, I think to myself, “I’ve been there.”

For many years I traveled with a top loading backpack, too.

Recommended backpacks for travel