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Cost: $149
Capacity: 35 liters
Dimensions: 22” x 12” x 9” (56 x 31 x 23 cm)
Style: Duffel Bag
Weight: 3.8 lbs (1.72 kg)
Laptop: 13”
Materials: 900D polyester, DWR coating, YKK zippers, Duraflex hardware
Origin: Manufactured in China
If you’re already a fan of Tortuga backpacks, but you prefer a duffel bag style carry-on. I can almost guarantee that you’re going to love the Tortuga Setout Duffel Bag.
It’s made with all the same great materials and hardware as the Setout Travel Backpack. It has a huge top-loading interior compartment, laptop sleeve, and a ton of organizational pockets. But with a comfortable cross-body carry strap, instead of backpack straps.
Materials, Colors, and Size
Material
The fabric is the same thick 900D polyester found on the Setout Backpack. It’s treated with a DWR (Durable Water Resist) coating, making it water-resistant, but not water proof.
Right now, the duffel only comes in the heather gray color. Unlike the Backpack, which you can get in Black and Navy blue. But it’s my favorite color anyway, a pretty dark grey fabric, interwoven with black threads.
Zippers and Hardware
The zippers and hardware are all the highest quality. With large YKK #8 with custom pull-tabs on all the main exterior zippers, and slightly smaller YKK #5 on the interior pockets. The zippers on all three main compartments, as well as the exterior shoe compartment, are all lockable.
The hardware is all large thick, plastic Duraflex brand. But because there’s only one strap, there isn’t a lot of hardware. It’s just the removable clips for the shoulder strap, and the D-Rings they clip into
Security System
Using regular TSA locks on all the zippers isn’t going to be very practical with the Setout Duffel Bag because you’re going to have locks hanging all over your bag.
You have a couple of options. You can not put valuable in every pocket, so you don’t need to lock them all. Or you can use a carabiner or keychain clip, as a low-key way to make it harder to access a pocket.
Or, get a flexible double loop lock. It’s kind of tight on this bag, but it’s long enough to lock all three of the top zippers together with one lock.
In addition to the 4 locking zippers, Tortuga added an interesting security feature to the exterior of the Setout Duffel. Right below the laptop compartment is a hidden slash pocket they take a small zipper, with a tiny zipper pull, and sew it in backwards.
So the nylon coils are on the inside, and the fabric seam overlaps in front of the zipper pull on the outside of the bag. This basically hides the zipper behind the seam, giving you an exterior slash pocket that’s difficult to see from the outside of the bag.
Size, Dimensions
The dimensions of the Tortuga Setout Duffel Bag are designed to be carry on friendly for most airlines. With a 35 liter capacity and 22” x 12” x 9” (56 x 31 x 23 cm) external dimensions.
But, this bag can hold a ton of stuff, so you need to be careful not to overpack it. As an example, I just overstuffed it. The length on the bottom is still 22, but now the middle sticks out to almost 24”. The height is still 12”, but now the width is expanding out to almost 12”.
External Components
Now looking at the External Components on the Tortuga Setout Duffel Bag. There are a ton of great features on this bag: A detachable cross-body shoulder strap, top handle carry, shoe compartment, and a whole bunch of compartments and hidden pockets.
Each side of the bag has a large slash pocket, with no further interior pockets. As well as a huge Velcro opening pocket that takes up the entire side of the bag. This is where you stash the carry handles, but you can also use them for storage.
On the laptop side, the Velcro pocket can open from the bottom with a hidden zipper. This turns it into a luggage pass through sleeve, to fit over the handle on rolling luggage. This is also the side with the hidden slash pocket, which is about a good size for a large phone.
The shoe compartment on the end of the bag is massive. You can easily fit two pairs of running shoes in here. I tested it with my leather boots, and they fit fine. Of course, if you fill this thing up, it’s going to take up most ff the room in the main compartment.
Shoulder Straps
The shoulder strap is a thick webbing that attaches to the bag with burly Duraflex clips. The padding on the strap is huge. Made from a Thick firm foam on the back, and a softer foam covered with air mesh on the front.
The top carry handles are also thick webbing. They can be attached together with Velcro, and carried from the top with a comfortable padded handle.
Carry Comfort
Instead of attaching on the ends like most duffels, the shoulder strap instead attaches to offset clips on the side. I found this to be a very comfortable way to carry the bag. The bag sits nicely on your side without the tendency to shift around.
Or you can easily move it around slightly behind your body. The shoulder strap is huge, and well padded, making it comfortable to wear even when fully packed.
Interior Components and Design
As with all Tortuga travel bags, the Internal Components and Organization on the Tortuga Setout Duffel Bag is loaded with features. There are two large top opening organizational pockets, on each side of the bag.
One of them has a laptop and tablet sleeve, as well as two zippered mesh pockets. The laptop sleeve is kind of small, only holds a 13” laptop. It’s too small for my 15” Dell Inspiron, which just doesn’t fit.
The sleeve also doesn’t have a false bottom, to keep your laptop away from the bottom of the bag. There’s just the thin foam bottom pad down here to protect your laptop.
The other side is for small item organization. There are 7 divider pockets, pen sleeves, a small zippered pocket, and a nice metal key leash.
And then there is the main storage area in the middle, which is a single giant compartment with a top opening zipper. There are two more mesh pockets on the inside. One large one on one side, and two smaller ones on the other.
I like this style, because it’s easy to pack. You can use packing cubes or not, depending on your packing style. The bag has a nice square bottom, that easily stands up on it’s own, even when it’s empty.
Summary
The Tortuga Setout Duffel Bag is an all-around awesome travel bag. If you’ve used Tortuga Backpacks in the past, but you prefer a duffel style carry-on, then you are going to love this bag,
Pros
My favorite things about the Setout Duffel are the materials. Tortuga uses all the best fabrics and hardware to make their bags. They’re really well made, and Tortuga has an awesome warranty if anything goes wrong with your pack. The setout duffel also has a huge main compartment, great organization, and a super comfortable shoulder strap,
Cons
My main critique on this bag is I think it might have too many pockets. Which can be pro or a con depending on how you look at it. If you have a lot of small stuff, and love pockets and dividers to keep it organized, then this is a great bag.
However if you prefer a simpler minimalist travel duffel, then you might think they have gone a little too far with the organization on the Setout Duffel.
Which leads to my second con, the weight. All these extra pockets and compartments make the bag heavy. Weighing in at 3.8 lbs (or 1.7 kg), it’s toward the heavier side of travel duffel bags I’ve tested.
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