The Osprey Farpoint 70 Backpack, the sister backpack to the Fairview 70, is a large backpack featuring a detachable daypack, making it perfect for backpacking around South East Asia, Europe and South America.
The Farpoint 70 is one of the most popular Osprey travel backpacks chosen by backpackers, digital nomads and trekkers across the globe.
With a combined 70-litre capacity and weighing in at 2.5kg, the Farpoint 70 isn’t exactly the smallest of backpacks. However, if you’re looking for something of this size, a compact bag isn’t going to be a priority.
The rucksack is a tale of two halves (or rather two bags) as the Osprey Farpoint 70 backpack combines a large 55-litre hold-all style backpack with the smaller 15-litre Farpoint Day.
We’ll start things off with the main pack and immediately you’ll spot a smooth-looking, harness-less pack. That’s because they’re in hiding, behind a handy harness shield, perfect for avoiding strap snags in airport carousels or when opting to carry the bag as the neat duffle it can be.
The harness is good and sturdy but does lack a little on the cushioning front. It can, however, be paired with a typical sternum and waist strap for optimum support and this does help massively when taking the pack long distances. A pair of soft and meaty grab handles, one at the top and one at the side, let you throw this thing around exactly how you’d like to.
The Farpoint Day is exactly what you’d expect from a compact daypack with a single main compartment, top stash and two netted pockets designed for water bottles. The pack offers a pair of decent shoulder straps and an additional sternum strap, keeping everything nice and tight. A small grab handle is useful for throwing the pack into overhead lockers or hanging up your valuables in a capsule hotel.
The party piece of the Farpoint 70 is that Farpoint Day can be quickly and easily joined with a combination of a perimeter zip and a pair of compression straps, functioning in a ‘piggy-back’ fashion. Alternatively, the daypack can clip onto the harness of the main pack, keeping any valuables stashed in the Farpoint Day on the front in a ‘kangaroo’ style.
This makes it easy to carry large amounts of weight in both bags with a single pair of shoulder straps whether trekking up a mountain, hiking to the hostel or just heading through the airport.
It’s what’s inside that counts and when you’ve got a whole 70 litres to play with, that translates to a fair old chunk of stuff.
The 70L pack is a tale of two halves – a 55L main pack and a 15L daypack with the larger of the two designed with compression straps to maximise the space on offer. There’s plenty of space for sleeping bags, clothes and other travel essentials. The smaller section features a zip-secured mesh pocket, ideal for separating dirty laundry. Additionally, a small ID section can be found inside the harness store, although we always recommend additional tags if possible.
The daypack is designed with essentials in mind and with just 15 litres to play with, you’ll have to be selective with what you’re packing on day trips. A laptop sleeve designed to fit 15” sits inside the main compartment with an additional padded zip pocket perfect for documents or slim electronics. A top stash section is great for keeping electronics or sunglasses and a key hook prevents any locking mishaps.
The material used on the bag is the bluesign® approved 450D recycled twist dobby polyester, which basically means that it’s tough – really tough.
There are three different colours available to backpackers with Black, Tunnel Vision Grey and a handsome Muted Space Blue. Overall, we think that backpack is a good-looking addition to anyone’s spine, although things do look a little clumsy when the two are paired in either kangaroo or piggyback configurations.
The additional Osprey laptop backpack, or daypack, is a fantastic solution to the age-old duel bag problem, although we’re not convinced the final form has been reached.
When combining the two together, I often felt clumsy and as the bag occupies so much space on the back I found myself often off-balance, no matter how the rucksack was packed. Ultimately, I typically chose to use these backpacks separately, carrying the larger on the shoulders and the smaller by the grab handle when moving long distances.
Overall, over 5 months of continuous use, both the Farpoint 70 made for a fantastic travel companion. Both were treated with utter disrespect throughout South East Asia and both have stood the test of time with absolutely no rips, tears or marks that weren’t intentional.
The Osprey Farpoint 70 is a fantastic beginner travel backpack, packed with clever features and complete with enough space to bring the family dog, it’ll be a challenge not to. If you want a cost-effective and space-effective solution to backpacking, Osprey will look after you!
Looking for the answer to a question that you have about the Osprey Farpoint 70? If we’ve not covered it in our FAQ below, be sure to leave a comment below and we’ll get back to you ASAP!
Although it’s typically difficult to pitch two packs against one another, we can safely argue for the Farpoint 70 thanks to it’s smaller size and additional 15L detachable daypack.
This pack weighs a total of just 2.5kg thanks to some clever material development from the brand.
Absolutely. I couldn’t have chosen a better backpack for my first time travelling than the Farpoint 70, which we would highly recommend for beginner backpackers.
