I spent years being the person who bought the $25 backpack. That was long before I’d ever heard of the Nomatic Travel Pack. Zippers that jammed by the third trip. Straps that dug into my shoulders after an hour of walking. A “water resistant” bag that let in enough rain in Lisbon to soak through a paperback. I told myself it didn’t matter. I was traveling on a budget, and a nice bag felt like the opposite of that.
It took replacing the same cheap backpack three times in two years before I actually did the math. Three bags at $25 each is $75. I still ended every trip annoyed at broken zippers. I couldn’t find anything without unpacking the whole bag onto a hostel bed. That’s when I switched to the setup I still travel with today. It’s the one category where I’ve stopped trying to find the cheapest option.
The Nomatic Travel Pack: my everyday carry-on
The Nomatic Travel Pack is what I travel with now. It doubles as an everyday backpack and as carry-on luggage. That means I never have to think about whether it’ll fit in the overhead bin. I also don’t need a separate suitcase for longer trips. It opens flat like a suitcase, instead of top-down like a normal backpack. That sounds small, until you’re digging for a charger at 6am and don’t have to pull everything else out first. If you want to see the current price, check it out here.
A note on the link above: it’s an affiliate link, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy through it, at no extra cost to you.
What actually sold me was the amount of thought that went into the small stuff. There’s a hidden pocket for a passport and cards that isn’t obvious from the outside. That matters more when you’re traveling alone and don’t have someone watching your bag while you find a bathroom. The laptop compartment has padding and sits separate from everything else. That means I’m not unzipping my whole bag at airport security. And it’s held up. No blown zippers, no torn seams. It held up through cobblestone streets in Marrakech. Across three countries of bus rides, I crammed it under the seat every time, and it never complained.
What goes inside it
The Nomatic Travel Pack solved the “will this survive me” problem. Packing cubes solved the “can I actually find anything” problem. I used to just stuff clothes in and hope. Every outfit change meant fully unpacking onto whatever surface was available. Compression cubes fix that in two ways. Everything gets its own labeled space, and squeezing the air out buys back enough room. Ten days of clothes genuinely fits in a carry-on without anyone sitting on the zipper.
The other piece is a proper toiletry bag with a hanging hook. It sounds minor until you’ve balanced a toothbrush on the edge of a hostel sink. Three other people are usually trying to use that same sink too. Hanging everything at eye level, with a water resistant lining, is one of those upgrades. You don’t appreciate it until you’ve traveled without it.
Is it actually worth the price
I won’t pretend the Nomatic Travel Pack is cheap. It’s a real jump from a $25 backpack. I understand the instinct to put that money toward flights or an extra night somewhere instead. But this is the one place where I think of it as a single purchase instead of a recurring cost. I’m not replacing a broken zipper every year anymore. I’m not paying to check a bag because nothing fits in a flimsy carry-on. And I’m not losing twenty minutes of every trip repacking a bag I never organized in the first place.
If you’re weighing this against other travel spending, here’s my honest take. It pays for itself faster than it looks like it will. That’s especially true if you travel more than once or twice a year. If you’re only taking one trip this year and money is genuinely tight, here’s the order I’d choose. I’d put a good backpack first, ahead of packing cubes and a toiletry bag. The bag itself is what actually changes how a trip feels.
Want to see exactly how this setup plays out in a real ten-day trip? I’ve written the full breakdown by season. Here’s how I pack for fall, and how I pack for summer. Both use the same Nomatic Travel Pack setup.
