Cotopaxi Allpa 35L Travel Pack – Del Dia Review

If you like your gear bright, sustainable, cleverly designed, and of high quality, then damnnn, Cotopaxi’s Allpa 35L Travel Pack Del Dia may just be for you.

I don’t own a suitcase. I don’t own practical travel bags. Rather, I try to make the most of the many totes, beach bags, and stuffable backpacks I’ve accumulated over the years. But after a few too many flights last year, that saw me struggling to jam all my miscellaneous crap into a few small, oddly shaped carry-on bags, but having them spill out the top instead, it finally hit me that I needed a proper travel bag. 

Call it manifesting, call it divine intervention, but within a few weeks of this realisation, I’d been offered the chance to review Cotopaxi’s Allpa 35L Travel Pack Del Dia. 

To put it politely; hell, yeah. 

Luuuush

Had I heard of Cotopaxi before? Absolutely not. But when I saw the colours, I knew this was my kinda bag. And it only got better from there. I swear this review is not sponsored, I’m just swooning over my new favourite piece of kit!

Design & Usefulness

It’s hard to imagine ways this bag could be more useful.

The Allpa 35L Del Dia is designed first and foremost for travel, not specifically for carrying a bunch of gear on an outdoor adventure. But you can make it work, and the designers have added a bunch of features to help you do that.

Designed to Fit Carry-on Dimensions

As I mentioned, I was desperate for a spacious bag that I could still use for carry on during flights. Despite being 35 litres, this pack fits the 51 x 30 x 20cm dimensions needed for legal carry on baggage on a flight. 

I recently packed it with ALL of my clothes for a two month trip and I had to stop because of weight restrictions before I ran out of room. It’s like a studio apartment in there. 

Pockets & Space Galore

I recently took the Allpa 35L Del Dia on a day trip to Booderee National Park in Jervis Bay. A few friends and I took a 5km hike, and along the way found ourselves a secluded spot for a swim and snorkel. I managed to pack my flippers and snorkel, a beach towel, my camera bag, a 1L drink bottle, extra clothes, and a rain jacket, with room to spare.

Snorkel anyone?

The Allpa 35L Del Dia is wide and deep with six different pockets and compartments. The full-wrap zipper opens up the bag into a suitcase-style design, with one large compartment on the right, a subdivided compartment on the left, accompanied by two smaller zippered pockets up top. 

There’s also a padded laptop sleeve that sneaks in right against the back of the bag, so it sits securely between the bag and your back as you wear it. 

On the opposite side, another zipper gives external access to the main compartment, but you’d have to strategically place whatever you’re trying to find close by to reach it.

The main downside to using the Allpa 35L Del Dia as a day pack is that it really only has one external pocket at the top of the bag, which means it’s not possible to access most things without taking the bag off and unzipping the entire full-wrap zip or trying to reach through the side access pocket. Grabbing snacks or water on the go isn’t easy, which is why it’s more made for travel, rather than hiking. 

In saying that, there are four narrow straps sewn onto the outside of the bag which you could theoretically hang a carabiner and water bottle from, but it’s not an ideal set up and still difficult to reach without removing the bag.

Wear as a backpack or carry as a bag

The designers understood the assignment when they added four grab handles on the top, bottom, and both sides of this bag. You can grab this thing any which way you want (but we take no responsibility for the damage of goods that may occur by grabbing it upside down). 

When I wore the bag on our day hike, the padded shoulder straps and sternum strap ensured that the bag sat comfortably across my back. But by my ninth kilometre of the day (I took a cheeky solo route later on and had to make use of the provided rain cover), I was kicking myself that I hadn’t put the adjustable hip belt back on, after removing it for a flight a few weeks earlier. That extra weight on my hips certainly would’ve saved my shoulders a touch of stress. 

If you’re using it as a travel bag, the shoulder straps can also be tucked away into the padded back and the hip waist belt removed so you don’t have buckles and straps flying around when you’re carrying it by the handle or stowing it away in tight spots.

Each external pocket also features a strap stitched over the zip to help prevent potential thieves from stealthily unzipping your bag and stealing your trail mix. Sneaky buggers.

Handy anti-theft straps!

Size & Weight

I won’t lie to you. The Allpa 35L Del Dia is pretty bulky. With all the features attached, the bag weighs in at 2.1kg, which needs to come into your consideration when you’re flying as much as when you’re carrying the weight on your back. But by removing the hip strap, this weight can be reduced slightly.

For a simple and easy day hike, taking this bag would be overkill. But, if you’re setting out for a day of activities and there’s a bit of a walk involved, the Allpa 35L Del Dia is pretty on the money.

It’s the perfect-sized travel pack for a weekend away (especially if you have a tendency to pack for every possible scenario), but can also fit in over a week’s worth of clothes easily. I’ve managed to squeeze my sleeping bag and hiking mat into the larger compartment, and my clothes into the secondary compartment. 

Sustainability

In terms of bag design, the Allpa 35L Travel Pack Del Dia is identical to Cotopaxi’s Allpa 35L Travel Pack. The single difference between the two packs is in the ‘del dia’. 

You see, ‘del dia’ is Spanish for ‘of the day’, which is how the colours are selected for this bag. Made entirely of leftover and off-cut synthetic materials that were discarded by other companies after big production runs, every single one of the Del Dia versions of this pack is completely unique in its colours. Whatever you end up with were simply the colours ‘of the day’! 

This process helps keep plenty of perfectly good and useable material out of landfill. Plus, it gives the makers of the bags creative freedom to pick and choose the colours they see fit as they stitch your new piece of kit together.

Now despite the massive sustainability advantage of this (and the sweet surprise of finding out what colours your bag is) if you’re after a specific colourway or something a little more subtle, the Del Dia version of this travel pack may not give you exactly what you’re hoping for. There is the slight risk that the one-of-a-kind design that lands on your doorstep isn’t to your taste. 

Although I love the concept and am stoked with the shades my bag came in, with a heavenly rainbow of colour sprawled across it, I’ve been compared to a preschooler with an oversized school bag on while sporting it (a bright orange bucket hat doesn’t help). 

First day of school vibes

But I think the knowledge that you’ve saved precious resources from being squandered is more than worth it. 

Let’s just say you’re not going to mistake it for someone else’s bag at the airport or camouflage yourself in the bush, that’s for sure.

Price

Look, the Allpa 35L Del Dia isn’t going to be an ‘on a whim’ purchase. Clocking in at $399, this bag costs as much as some decent, much larger, and purpose-built hiking packs.

But if you’re looking for an all-in-one travel bag that ticks the boxes of sustainability, usefulness, and uniqueness, then the Allpa 35L Del Dia should definitely be a travel pack you consider.

Plus, it’s a great conversation starter