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Cost: $338
Capacity: 35 liters
Dimensions: 22″ x 14″ x 9.5“ (56 x 36 x 24 cm)
Style: Panel Opening
Weight: 3.0 lbs (1.5 kg)
Laptop: 18” Laptop and 12” Tablet Sleeve
Materials: 420D Ballistic nylon; 630D Carbonate Nylon; YKK Aquaguard Zips
Origin: Made in Vietnam
Western Rise Voyager 35
I recently took a short one-week trip to Las Vegas and used the Western Rise Voyager 35 as my travel bag. I was flying carry-on only on a flight with Alaska Airlines. This is a new pack by a company normally known for their travel clothing, especially pants.
My initial impressions: I love the design. It is large, easy to pack, and extremely comfortable. However, there are a few small features that I think could be improved.
Dimensions of the Western Rise Voyager 35
The Voyager comes in two sizes: a smaller 25 size called the PRO, and the larger 35-liter version that I tested. Interestingly, the dimensions 22 x 14 x 9.5 are commonly seen with bags closer to 40 to 45 liters, so I was curious to test the actual capacity with a peanut test.
I tested this bag in several airport sizers, and it fit fine in all the carry-on sizers. It also fits fine in the overhead, although I didn’t try it under the seat, because this size is a little too big to work as a personal item.
Capacity
Starting with the peanut test, I filled the bag with peanuts and transferred them into my marked container. The bag has an interesting design and shape, where the front portion of the main compartment is slightly offset from the rest of the pack, giving this pack a unique look.
Fully packed, the Voyager 35 looks solid, and actually has more capacity than it’s rated at. Also note that it has a separate shoe compartment on the bottom, but with a fabric separator that shifts volume between the main and shoe compartments.
Most of the volume and organization is on the inside, so there aren’t really any external pockets I needed to fill with peanuts.
Looking at the capacity, you can see it’s going a little over the 35 mark. So while it is listed at 35 liters, you can actually fit more like 40 liters in here when fully packed.
Western Rise Voyager 35: Materials
Now let’s switch to looking at the materials. Western Rise uses a suite of commonly used high-quality and high-durability fabrics for the Voyager. There’s nothing new and exciting, but you know you’re getting good, quality materials.
The main fabric is a mid-weight, 420D ballistic nylon with a smaller weave that is strong and durable, with a DWR water-resistant coating on the front, half the sides, and around the back.
To complement this, they use a thicker 630D nylon with what they call a carbonate coating, which is a polyurethane coating that improves water resistance and adds durability. It feels slightly rubberized, but not too thick that it makes the fabric feel stiff.
Hardware
To keep with the water-resistant theme of the Voyager’s materials, they use mid-sized #8 YKK Aquaguard zippers on all the main external pockets, including the laptop and side water bottle pockets.
The last hardware feature is magnetic buckles. This is a great feature on the sternum strap. However, they also use magnet buckles to attach the shoulder straps to the pack, an interesting design choice that I’ll discuss in more detail later on.
External Components
Looking at the external components on the Voyager 35, there are a few external access pockets, including two side pockets, a top slash pocket, and the bottom shoe compartment.
However, a majority of the small gear organization on this bag is inside the main and laptop compartments.
Top Organizational Pocket
The top slash pocket is wide but skinny. It sits between the laptop compartment and the back padding, so even though it’s a fairly large pocket, it doesn’t have that much volume.
Still, it’s more than big enough for keys, sunglasses, chargers, cords, and other smaller, easy-access gear.
Interior Top-Facing Pockets
The other exterior organization consists of two hybrid pockets inside the bag. I say that because there are two large mesh zippered pockets inside the main compartment and the laptop compartment that can both be easily accessed from the outside.
This makes these also good places to store small gear you want to get to without opening the entire pack. However, you do have to open two zippers to get to them.
Water Bottle Pockets
The other small external organization is a side water bottle pocket. It looks like there are two pockets, but one of these is just a side access into the main compartment and can’t store any gear.
The other side has a lay-flat design that expands inside the bag instead of outside. It looks small from the outside, but it’s actually quite large and can hold pretty much any size water bottle you want to put in here.
This style of water bottle pocket is a trade-off, because you get a sleeker-looking pack that doesn’t have a large side bulge that could prevent you from getting the pack into a carry-on sizer, and there is no way a bottle in this pocket could possibly fall out.
However, the volume in this pocket goes inside the pack, which competes for volume with the main compartment. Both of these styles have their upsides and downsides, but these are tradeoffs you’d have to consider when packing the bag.
Shoe Compartment
Shoe compartments are something I don’t see very often on travel bags. They are more common on duffel-style bags and are another feature that is a trade-off between weight and convenience.
On one hand, separate shoe compartments are nice if you’re carrying dirty shoes or anything else wet or dirty, because you get a waterproof barrier between this pocket and the rest of your gear.
The Voyager is designed well because the separator fabric is loose, meaning you can fit a large pair of shoes in here. And if you put nothing in here, the fabric separator folds down and won’t take up space in the main compartment.
The only downside to a shoe compartment like this is that there is a fair amount of extra fabric and an extra zipper that adds weight to the pack that you might not need.
Laptop Compartment
With all the smaller exterior pockets covered, let’s move on to the laptop compartment, which, if you use one while traveling, is a beast.
I packed this bag with two 15” Dell laptops on my trip. It does a great job holding anything you want to stick in this pocket and is great for larger laptops.
My Dell fits easily into the laptop sleeve, and it holds a medium-sized laptop snugly, with a nice false bottom to keep it off the floor.
It can also expand out with stretchy sides to hold up to an 18” laptop, which is a great feature if you have one of these, because most travel bags don’t hold this large of a laptop well.
In addition, there’s a 12” tablet sleeve, as well as the huge main pocket that can store an extra laptop or several notebooks. The only caveat is that this larger pocket doesn’t have a false bottom, so you need to be more careful setting the bag down on hard surfaces.
Interior Design and Organization
That’s all of the external organizational features, so now let’s move to the interior design on the Voyager 35. One of the most noticeable interior features is a large panel opening that zips into a big, easy-to-pack main compartment.
Interior Pockets
Inside, there are two medium-sized mesh zipper pockets on the lid for smaller gear. Both do have their own volume, popping out into the front lid of the pack.
They act like mini packing cubes. You can store smaller gear or clothes in here, or, as I mentioned earlier, use the top pocket to increase the external storage space if you have a lot of stuff you want access to from the outside of the pack.
Packing the Western Rise Voyager 35
As far as packing the Voyager goes, packing cubes are the way to go here. I unfortunately don’t have the Western Rise cube set; however, I have an Eagle Creek set that’s almost exactly the same size: a large cube 14” x 10”, a small cube 10” x 7”, and a larger clean dirty cube.
How you pack the main compartment will depend on what you pack in the two exterior pockets, if anything. Empty, the main compartment can easily hold two of the medium 14 x 10 compression cubes, which is easily enough clothes for a 1–2 week trip.
Because this pocket is deep, there’s also plenty of room on top for a light jacket, and because the bag is rounded, there is a small gap on top for a small pouch or toiletry bag.
The top lid pockets also have their own volume, so as long as you’re not overfilling the main compartment, you also have the volume in these pockets for other gear: toiletries, socks, underwear, or extra electronics if you want.
Packing the Shoe Compartment
But remember, the Voyager has two external pockets that take up volume in the main compartment: the side water bottle pocket and the bottom shoe compartment. So how you pack the inside will depend on what you put in here.
For example, if you have a full-sized 1-liter water bottle, you’ll have a little less room on the side and need to use a smaller packing cube.
The same goes for the shoe compartment. If you have shoes down here, you’ll have that much less room on the bottom of the main compartment for clothes and packing cubes.
If you’re looking for the best combination of cubes that will give you the most packing flexibility, I would recommend getting the Western Rise packing cube set: a large and small compression cube, a clean-dirty cube for dirty laundry, a shoe pouch, and a dry bag. These let you pack the Voyager in basically any combination you want, using any combination of the pockets and main compartment.
Carry System
As with any good bag, the carry system is what makes or breaks it, so let’s have a look at the carry system. There doesn’t seem to be anything special about the straps, but for some reason, this bag fits me very well.
The foam in the back padding and shoulder straps is a medium-density foam that hugs your back extremely well, and seems to be of quality make despite its normal design.
Shoulder Straps
The shoulder straps are removable and stowable behind the back padding, and there is a luggage pass-through sleeve behind it.
Back Padding
Overall, it’s a solid design with thick padding, good back air ventilation, and an adjustable sternum strap with a magnetic buckle, hidden behind a fabric flap so it looks clean and you can’t see the adjuster.
Stowability
There is an included hip belt, also with a magnetic clip with hidden buckles. It is thick, looks clean, and is removable, and you can’t see the buckles when not using the belt.
I think they did everything right here; my only qualm with this design is the attachment of the shoulder straps. They went with a smaller magnet clasp here, the same size buckle as the sternum strap.
It feels too small, and the magnet is easy to accidentally unclasp, which happened to me twice on my trip, both times when I was pulling my bag out of the overhead.
Western Rise likely could have gotten away with a magnet buckle here if they had used a larger one like on the hip belt, but I really think that for such an important attachment point, you need to use something much sturdier and less likely to accidentally unclasp, like a thicker buckle or sewn into the pack.
Carry Handles
The other thing I was a little wary about at first was the top carry handle. It’s very thin and doesn’t look like it can hold much weight.
However, I had this bag pretty loaded with gear, including two 15” laptops, and it worked fine. So even though it looks quite thin, it doesn’t have any problems holding a lot of weight.
Carry Comfort: Western Rise Voyager
As carry comfort goes, the Voyager was surprisingly comfortable. I had this bag pretty loaded up with gear: fully packed, coffee thermos, water bottle, clothes, electronics, and toiletries for a week, as well as two laptops and charge cords.
So while it was heavier than I usually pack bags, it carried very well. The back padding forms to your back, and the shoulder straps are very comfortable. There is a lot of adjustability, and there is an included hip belt if you need it as well. Another place I tested this bag was Toketee Waterfall in Oregon, see this page for more details of this amazing local hiking place.
Western Rise Voyager 35: Wrapping Up
So what’s the verdict when it comes to the bag? The Western Rise Voyager 35 is a good pack that does almost everything right, and could be an even better pack with just a few small improvements.
The two-toned fabric looks nice and adds extra durability on the bottom where you need it. It’s large, easy to pack, holds a ton of gear, and the lid pockets have their own volume, so it’s hard to overpack the main compartment.
The only cons of this pack are the attachment and adjustment of the shoulder straps. They need to make this more secure on the next update, with either a larger magnet clasp or a buckle.
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