Osprey Wheeled Backpack Review: The Farpoint Wheels 65

Welcome to my Osprey wheeled backpack review! I was given the Osprey Farpoint 65 wheels to try out and review by Ellis Brigham in the UK, and after using it for more than three months as I travelled around Guatemala, I think it’s the best wheeled backpack around, and perfect for long-term and solo travellers. If you’re considering taking this pack on your adventures, read on to find out why I would recommend it.

All opinions are my own, honestly held, and I do not accept freebies or payment in exchange for positive reviews. All prices are correct at the time of writing.

I’ve been a traveller for more than 20 years and in that time I’ve had many different types of luggage. From hard-shelled suitcases to lightweight hiking backpacks to soft rolling bags, I’ve tried them all. And yet I’m never quite satisfied. I’ve never managed to find that perfect combination of capacity, durability, portability, style and price that I’m looking for.

My first backpack was an 80L Macpac. I was 19 years old, and I took it backpacking round South America for seven months. It’s so rugged and durable that I still have it more than 20 years later, though I haven’t used it for years so I should probably get rid of it!

The issue with the Macpac was that although it’s big and can fit in everything I might want to take with me, that makes it very heavy. And I soon found that while it’s very important to be able to carry your gear along cobbled streets and dusty paths, or sling it on and off buses and boats, there are many times when you don’t need to carry it. When wheels would be a great blessing indeed.

So I decided to buy a wheeled backpack instead.

Why a wheeled backpack is great for travellers

Wheeled, wheelie or rolling backpacks are suitcase/rucksack hybrids that supposedly give you the best of both worlds: wheels for when you can pull it along paved streets and through airports, and backpack straps for when the terrain is more challenging.

The pack I chose was this monster: the Caribee Skymaster 80L. The same capacity as my Macpac, so plenty of room for all my stuff – and I am not a light packer! – but now with wheels to make it easier for me to transport all that camera gear, clothing options and curly hair products. It also has a removable daypack, sturdy zips and plenty of pockets, so it sounded like a winner.

Thing is, the Caribee might be the SUV of wheeled backpacks, with plenty of capacity, but it weighs a tonne. Even empty, it’s a whopping 5.1 kg (11.2 lb). That’s before you even put anything in it! So by the time I’d filled it, it was too heavy to lift, and when I travelled with it I never once picked it up.

Which kind of defeats the point of having a backpack. So (as you can probably guess from the dust all over the one in the photo!) I reverted to using a regular wheeled suitcase, which at least had the advantage of being lighter and having greater capacity.

If you prefer a soft wheeled case rather than a backpack, checked out my Antler Bamburgh wheeled holdall review instead.

Travel with a wheeled suitcase

This approach served me well for many years: press trips to Thailand or Sri Lanka, group tours to Myanmar and package holidays to Greece, work trips to Mexico and Turkey, all the sort of travel where you taxi to the airport, check in your luggage, and get bussed around the country on nice private transport with helpful drivers and porters to help you move your overpacked case around.

If this is the kind of travel you intend to do, then there’s no need to buy any kind of backpack. If you don’t think you’ll ever need to lift your luggage more than up and down a few steps, then save yourself the effort and just get a regular rolling suitcase instead.

But this was definitely not going to be the case when I went to Guatemala. There’d be no private transport and no helpful porters. I’d be changing hotels frequently and I’d need to move all my gear around by myself, often on cobbled streets, jungle pathways, or muddy tracks slick with rainwater.

I’d be getting on and off boats and the famous Guatemalan chicken buses. A suitcase simply wouldn’t cut it. I needed a new backpack.

Read more: 10 Great Reasons To Do Group Holidays

I still wanted one with wheels for all those times when I could pull it along, but it needed to be lightweight, with sturdy straps and good hip support, and smaller than 80L so I could actually carry the damn thing.

Read more: Visiting San Andres Xecul, Guatemala: Home Of The Famous Yellow Church

A consultation at Ellis Brigham

I shopped around online and read loads of reviews for ‘best backpacks’ or ‘best wheeled backpacks’ and began to find the process overwhelming. If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know that making decisons is not my strong point, and with so many alternatives to choose from, I fell into a spiral of overthinking and comparisons.

After all, a backpack is a big commitment. They’re not cheap, and by the time you discover you’ve bought the wrong thing you’ll be halfway across the world, and it’ll be too late to do anything about it.

Fortunately, the helpful folk at Ellis Brigham were on hand to advise.

Ellis Brigham is an outdoor clothing and equipment store in the UK. They have shops in many major cities under the Ellis Brigham and North Face brands, as well as online. I’ve shopped with them for years because their prices are competitive, and you know that everything they stock is good quality gear that won’t let you down. Plus their staff are all outdoors and travel enthusiasts who know their stuff, so you can get excellent advice.

I headed to their flagship store in London’s Covent Garden for a consultation with Joe, a hiking fan and backpack expert. He listened to my needs and then suggested a shortlist of packs for me to consider. I was even able to try them on with weighted sandbags inside, so I could make sure I could carry the weight and that the pack was comfortable and fitted me properly.

And eventually I settled on the Osprey Farpoint Wheels 65, which as the name suggests is a 65-litre backpack with wheels. This is the unisex version – it also comes in a women’s specific version called the Osprey Fairview Wheels 65, which is essentially the same pack but designed for a smaller person. I tried this one too, but as I’m 5’8 with broad shoulders, I found the unisex version fitted me better.

It was an easy sell – I’ve already had several Osprey bags before and I think the combination of quality and price is brilliant.

And now it’s two months later and I’ve been carrying and wheeling this pack around Guatemala for a while, so here are my thoughts.

The Osprey Farpoint Wheels 65: in summary

• Price: £220
• Capacity: 65L
• Weight: 2.8kg / 6.17 lb
• Dimensions: 70cm (L) x 41cm (W) x 34cm (D)
• Material: 210D High Tenacity Nylon

Osprey wheeled backpack: key features

• Padded carrying harness and hip belt that zips away when not in use
• Adjustable sternum strap with whistle
• Sturdy wheels
• Extendable pull handle
• Easy access external pockets
• ‘Clamshell’ / peel back zip opening
• Internal zipped mesh pocket
• Internal and external compression straps
• Low-profile padded handles on top and side
• Lockable zips
• Compatible with Osprey Daylite daypacks

Osprey Farpoint 65 review: capacity

For someone like me who finds it hard to pack light, size was a big concern. I normally travel with way more than 65L of stuff, but I knew that if I was going to be able to carry it, I needed to be strict about what I took to Guatemala.

Sure, 80L would allow me to bring my hairdryer and more clothes, but it wouldn’t be much fun trying to heft a bag that big on and off buses.

Plenty of people travel with much less – as little as 40L for the ‘hand-luggage-only’ crowd – but I knew with my camera gear I’d never be able to manage that.

So for me, 65L was a good compromise. After much agonising over what to leave out, I was able to bring everything I needed; I didn’t feel like an idiot with a stupid huge suitcase, and it’s not too much for me to carry if I need to – though I must admit that with my camera gear as well I can’t walk uphill for too long without getting tired!

Osprey wheeled backpack: pockets

The Osprey Farpoint Wheeled travel pack has one good-sized main compartment which opens clamshell-style. I’ve always hated top-loading backpacks as the thing you want always seems to end up at the bottom! So for me a U-shaped, fully opening zip was a must.

This style of pack is also great if you use packing cubes or compression bags – and if you don’t, you should!

In addition, there are two mesh inner pockets for documents and smaller items inside the opening flap, one slim pocket on the front, and a small pocket at the top which is easily accessible when the pack is standing upright. This is a good place to store anything you might need to access quickly without having to open up the main compartment.

There are also two elastic mesh pockets on the front for shoving things like water bottles and jackets when you need to put them somewhere quickly.

Overall, I felt this was enough. I’ve been using the top pocket for all my chargers and cables and everything else goes in the main section. I’m using this pack to cart all my overnight stuff from hostel to hostel, so anything I need to quickly access while en route goes in my smaller camera bag which I carry on my front.

Osprey Farpoint wheeled review: carrying it

The Osprey Farpoint Wheeled 65 comes with built-in carrying harness and hip belt which you can zip away behind a panel when not in use. I found this easy to unzip and fold away quickly when having to change from wheels to backpack in a hurry.

It also has a tensioned mesh back panel which provides decent ventilation to prevent your back from getting too sweaty!

The back is not adjustable which may be a problem for some people, but I found that, while not perfect, the pack fitted me quite well. The women’s version, the Fairview Wheeled 65, was too small, and the padded hip belt did not sit on my hips as it should, but too high up on my waist, making it uncomfortable.

Since I’m only 5’8, much taller people may find they have the same issue with the Osprey Farpoint 65, so if you can it’s worth going into a shop and trying it out with a load inside before you commit.

Fully packed including heavy things like my tripod and lots of chargers and batteries, it weighed 16.5 kg which was perfectly portable for shortish distances.

Osprey rolling backpack: wheeling it

Of course the whole point of having a wheelie case is so that you can wheel it as often as possible. So you need it to have good, study wheels and be comfortable and easy to pull along. Which fortunately the Osprey Farpoint Wheeled 65 is.

The oversized 90mm wheels are well-built and travel smoothly over uneven surfaces. While it won’t do too well on gravel or very bumpy unpaved roads (that is, after all, why you have the backpack straps), it manages fine on uneven pavements, cobbled streets, or even up and down a few steps (though do this with caution if you want to prolong its life).

The pull handle is a single pole with a T-shaped handle at the end. It doesn’t feel as solid and sturdy as the one on my wheeled suitcase but it’s comfortable to pull, and this minimalist design obviously helps to make the bag lighter.

The bag also has two little wire feet at the front, so it stands up by itself when not in use.

Using your backpack with wheels: security

Security-wise, the main compartment has lockable zips, so it’s been easy enough to put my passport and extra money inside and padlock it every time I leave the hostel, to deter opportunistic thieves.

As for pickpockets, if you keep the pack close by you and avoid putting anything valuable in the outer top pocket, you should be fine. In theory the pack could be slashed, but I think most thieves know that if they did that, they’d likely just get a face full of dirty laundry. It’s your trouser pockets and smaller bags you need to be more careful with.

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Best wheeled backpack: strength and durability

I’ve been using this pack for three months now and – while I don’t want to tempt fate and have it break as soon as I hit ‘publish’ on this post – so far it’s held up well. The wheels seem to be strong and have coped well on the uneven streets of Guatemala, and the zips are still working smoothly even though I’ve filled it very full and sometimes struggle a little to close it.

The fabric is thinner than on other packs I’ve had – but I guess that’s what helps to keep the whole thing light. It’s billed as ‘High Tenacity Nylon’ which so far has withstood any potential rips or wear.

It’s also only water-resistant, not fully waterproof. So far I’ve avoided getting caught in the rain for any serious length of time but if this is a concern for you, you can easily buy a large waterproof backpack cover to go over it.

Osprey Farpoint Wheels 65 review: in summary

Pros

• A good size. The Goldilocks’ chair of travel backpacks – not too big, not too small, but just right for a few weeks or months of travelling.
• Lightweight. At just 2.1 kg, this Osprey roller backpack delivers a hefty amount of punch for its tiny weight. I searched and I was not able to find a wheeled backpack that’s lighter.
• Versatile. With both wheels and a harness, you can carry it comfortably when you have to, and pull it along smoothly when you don’t.

Cons

• Non-adjustable back means this 65 litre backpack with wheels may not be comfortable for everyone.
• Not a hiking backpack. While you’d be fine to carry this pack for a few minutes or even an hour or two, if you’re planning on walking for any longer I’d suggest getting a proper hiking backpack without wheels.
• Thin fabric – could be vulnerable to ripping or slashing
• Only comes in black. I’d have liked the choice of a couple of more interesting colours!

Ready to buy an Osprey wheeled backpack?

Click the button below to get your hands on a fabulous Osprey Farpoint Wheels 65, the best wheeled backpack for travellers (in my opinion anyway).

Or if click here to check out the many other Osprey bags on offer.

And if you’re in the market for a new backpack but don’t fancy Osprey, Ellis Brigham has a huge range of other, well-respected brands.

Where to next?

If you liked this post, why not try some of my other reviews and guides?

• A Review Of Villa Bokeh, A Luxury Hotel In Antigua Guatemala
• A Neilson Activity Holidays Review – Messini Beach Club in Greece
• Best Camera For Blogging – By Travel Bloggers
• A Weekend In Tunisia – The Perfect Itinerary
• An Epic Uganda Itinerary In 2 Weeks

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