Erin Trail

Initial Impressions

A well constructed and versatile bag, good for medium-to-longer trips. Comfortable to wear and durable.

Cotopaxi Allpa 70L Duffel Bag Details

This bag is loaded with many features that make traveling with this bag easy.  It’s got permanent duffel straps that easily stow away into exterior pockets when not in use.  If you prefer to use it as a backpack, it’s got removable straps that allow you to wear the bag.  There are sewn-in grab straps on both of the long ends, making it easy to grab and load the bag.  And the Allpa has several pockets: a large exterior bottom pocket, loop-and-hook side pockets and a smaller side zipper pocket, and an interior mesh pocket that goes along the entirety of the lid of the bag. 

Detailed Review

I used the Cotopaxi Allpa 70L Duffel Bag on a variety of trips: a 5 day triathlon racecation weekend in Michigan (requiring air travel), a 3 day weekend van trip to Snowmass for mountain biking, and a 9 day van trip to Sedona for mountain biking + general vacationing.

I was interested in trying the Allpa Duffel bag because it’s a duffel bag that also serves as a backpack – and it holds a LOT of stuff. This bag is made from 100% recycled materials while being durable.  A week+ in the van and a trip involving TSA left zero marks on this bag. 

This bag held a ton of stuff and I honestly didn’t load it up fully on any of my trips. It has several exterior pockets for smaller organization or stashing of smaller items, but I found that the interior became the equivalent of a black hole. Packing before the trip was super easy, but going in and out of the bag during my trips lacked organization, as everything just got shuffled around and intermingled.  I would definitely recommend utilizing packing cubes to help organize items packed inside the main area of the bag to help keep things organized.  I didn’t use cubes for this bag, and I found myself digging and rooting around looking for specific items. 

I really liked the backpack-to-duffel conversion feature.  Backpacks are just easier in airports and I find that I can carry more weight on my back in backpack form than I can in my hand in duffel form.  The backpack straps are detachable, but for some reason, it wasn’t super obvious that they were detachable (I blame race-brain) and the straps were left on the bag for TSA and baggage agents to abuse. Upon closer (and later) inspection, the straps are pretty easy to remove and then store into a side pocket, but I think buckles might be better, less fidgety, and a more obvious way to attach and detach the straps.

The bottom exterior pocket was GREAT for shoes or other items (like dirty clothes) that you don’t want mingling with your clean things stored inside the bag. It would also be a great place to stash a jacket, for those departing from or traveling to climates different from their original departure area. 

The remarkable thing about the Allpa Duffel Bag is it’s durability.  This bag survived TSA (with the backpack straps out) and 9 days in a dirty, dusty van and it still looks as good as new.  The zippers are beefy but move smoothly.  The straps are thick and attached well; I have no worries about baggage handlers damaging them.

As a backpack, this bag is big.  I’m 5’4” and this backpack was pretty big for me; it extended to the bottom of my booty and stuck out a fair amount.  I’m ok with that, as I’m used to lugging around heavy backpacks.  But if you are a smaller person and don’t like a giant bag, you might want to consider the smaller 50L bag option. If the bag isn’t fully packed, it does get a bit saggy, with the contents shifting to the bottom of the bag while in backpack mode, due to the lack of internal structure.  This isn’t something that’s important to me, but getting a smaller bag would eliminate the sagging when it’s not fully loaded up.

Overall Impression

The Cotopaxi Allpa 70L Duffel Bag is true to Cotopaxi’s brand, with bright vibrant colorways, solid construction, thoughtful design, and a commitment to environmental sustainability.  The bag has many nice features, mainly around converting the bag from a duffel bag to a backpack, and nice exterior pockets.  The Allpa is very durable and can handle a lot of abuse, and I’m confident that this bag can handle any adventure I can throw at it.  My main criticism is the lack of interior pockets or structure.  The bag becomes a bit of a black hole, and to keep the contents organized, I really needed to use packing cubes.  Without cubes, the contents shifted and moved around. Being in and out of the bag multiple times a day during our 9-day van trip exacerbated the shifting and disorganization of the contents and became somewhat of an annoyance. Overall, this is a minor and very fixable issue. 

Erin Trail