Daily Carry Pro

The Tortuga Daily Carry Pro is perfect as a travel personal item! If you over pack it will fit like a brick, so just dont do it, and if you do, understand that it will be more like a carry on.

This is a great bag. Just the right amount of organization and the perfect personal item size with plenty of room.

The first backpack I reach for on any trip now...but there's room for improvement.

I searched far and wide for a backpack that could cover my needs for a weekend away, a personal item for flights, and great tech protection for a laptop and tablet. I ended up between the Daily Carry Pro and the Aer City Pack Pro 2. I chose Tortuga. The design is practical, effective, and it carries what I travel with well. It has a very spacious capacity and enough malleability to expand in depth when needed. The admin pocket going the full length of the backpack is a selling point for me, along with most of the organizational pockets being zippered. The main compartment is an ideal blank slate packing space to take whatever packing cubes, pouches, or protective cases I'm carrying on a particular trip. Now why this is only 4 stars for me...the handles. The Daily Carry Pro has top and side handles, but they're basic webbing handles with no padding. Picking up the bag from the top handle when it's fully packed out isn't comfortable. At this price point, these handles feel like a cost-cutting measure to hit a target MSRP. I love everything else about this bag; the organization, the comfort of the harness, and the balance of structure vs malleability. It's just the handles are a missed opportunity to me.