Best laptop backpacks for travel in 2023

The best laptop backpacks for travel offer plenty of well-organized space inside for all your belongings and convenient features, like a water-resistant design, hidden pockets for your valuables, or a USB charging port. Travel backpacks should also be comfortable to wear for long periods of time, especially if you’re waiting through a security line at the airport or planning to walk around a theme park all day. 

In addition to being durable and practical, the best travel backpacks should make a visual statement. You can go bold with a vibrant color or a whimsical design, or stick with a classic, timeless color scheme rooted in black or grey — either way, you shouldn’t have to sacrifice style for utility when choosing a backpack for travel. 

All of the backpacks listed here are equipped with a dedicated laptop sleeve or compartment, and they’ve all been personally tested by Laptop Mag. Whether you need a simple backpack to fit one or two changes of clothes and a few other essential items, or you want a bag that you can take on a plane in lieu of a suitcase, we’ve got you covered.    

If you don’t own a laptop yet, be sure to check out our best laptops page before you travel next. 

The Quick List

Best Laptop Backpack for Travel Overall

This laptop backpack from Volher is the best option for most travellers, combining practical storage with an eye-catching, vibrant design. Inside the bag’s main compartment, there’s a padded sleeve for any 15.6-inch laptop and open storage for clothes, snacks, or other travel essentials. You can store drinks in the padded mesh side pockets, and hide your valuables in the anti-theft back pocket. 

Volher’s backpack sports a water-resistant polyester fabric, so if you’re caught in the rain, water droplets just roll right off and all your belongings stay dry. Its durable fabric makes this backpack an excellent choice for hiking trips or other outdoor excursions, especially if you choose one of the bright, high-visibility color options. With padded mesh on the back and the shoulder straps, it’s comfortable to wear for long hours. 

This travel bag also has a special feature: a built-in USB charging port. The port itself is on the bag’s left side, and there’s a cable inside you can connect to a power bank. Then, while you’re hiking or walking around Disney World, you can easily charge your phone without needing to take the backpack off or hold onto a power bank. 

See our full Volher Laptop Backpack review. 

Best Budget Laptop Backpack for Travel

For the low price of this travel backpack, it comes with a lot of awesome features for travelling. The Mancro Travel Backpack is equipped with a padded sleeve for 15.6-inch laptops and quite a bit of open space inside to fit multiple changes of clothes, a handheld gaming console, and plenty of other odds and ends. The bag is incredibly lightweight, making it a smart choice for travellers who need to walk long distances. 

Its durable polyester fabric is water-resistant, so if you get caught in the rain or spill a drink in cramped airplane quarters, water droplets will roll right off. The bag’s design is simplistic and modern, and if the galaxy color scheme we reviewed isn’t your style, there are a ton of other bright or neutral colors to choose from. 

See our full Mancro Travel Backpack review. 

Best Compact Laptop Backpack for Travel

The SwissGear Getaway bag is the perfect compact option for anyone who likes to travel light or frequently goes on day trips. You can fit one to two changes of clothes, some snacks, and a fun book to read inside the main storage compartment, along with any laptop under 13 inches wide in the padded sleeve.  With only a few extra zipper pockets and no side pockets, don’t expect to fit much more than this. 

The bag’s fabric is thin, yet sturdy, and without anything packed inside, the Getaway Backpack weighs only one pound. Its minimalist design is eye-catching, whether you go for one of the patterned color schemes or stick with the all grey color that we reviewed. 

See our full SwissGear Getaway Laptop Backpack review.

Best Premium Laptop Backpack for Travel

If you have no budget when buying a travel backpack, consider splurging on the eBags Luxon bag. There’s a dedicated zipper compartment for your laptop and abundant space inside to store clothes and more for a two- or three-night vacation. There’s also a detachable sling bag inside that can double as a fanny pack. 

This combination of roomy open storage and a small sling bag for your essentials makes the Luxon backpack an excellent choice for trips to theme parks or hiking excursions. The sling bag can hold small essentials, like chapstick, your wallet, smartphone, and car keys, and the main backpack can hold everything else. 

If you don’t want to wear the smaller bag, leave it attached inside the backpack and store your valuables in the hidden RFID pocket to prevent being pickpocketed. The thick padded mesh back panel and shoulder straps make the eBags Luxon bag super comfy to wear, even when the bag is packed full of heavy items. 

This travel backpack looks sleek and expensive, but that’s due in part to its smooth water-resistant coating making the backpack stand out among the rest. Its boxy, futuristic design is both practical and stylish, but it’s only available in grey and black at the time of writing. 

See our full eBags Luxon Laptop Backpack review.

Best Aesthetic Laptop Backpack for Travel

Herschel is known for making stylish backpacks that show off your individual personality, and the company’s Pop Quiz bag is no exception. This backpack features a striking paint pour color scheme that looks like white paint has been delicately swirled into black paint. The fun design continues on the inside, where you’ll find red and white pinstripe lining and a black velvet 15-inch laptop sleeve. 

In the Pop Quiz Backpack’s main compartment, you can fit two to three days worth of clothing, along with countless snacks for your road trip or a few books to read on the plane. There’s a zipper pouch on the bag’s front for extra storage, and the zipper can be difficult to open, but because of this, it ends up being a great anti-theft pocket because it’d be almost impossible for someone to silently or quickly pickpocket you. 

See our full Herschel Pop Quiz Laptop Backpack review.

Best Utility Laptop Backpack for Travel

If you’re the type of traveller who loves to bring all your electronics — headphones, Nintendo Switch, power bank, backup earbuds, laptop, and more — the Targus Legend IQ bag might be your perfect match. This bag features multiple zipper compartments that make it easy to keep cords and small odds and ends separate from one another. 

Anyone who uses wired headphones will be delighted to know the Legend IQ Backpack has a built-in media pocket with an aux cable running through the shoulder strap to the headphone jack. If you don’t use wired headphones or you don’t have a phone or media player with a headphone jack, you can use this pocket as an anti-theft pocket because of its inconspicuous location. 

The Targus Legend IQ Backpack has a timeless, all-black design with small leather elements scattered throughout. Its basic design may be boring to some, but for those who like the black color scheme or prefer utility over fashion, this is a great travel backpack.  

See our full Targus Legend IQ Laptop Backpack review.

How To Choose a Laptop Backpack for Travel

In many ways, the search for the perfect travel laptop backpack is just like searching for a work- or school-dedicated backpack. Most importantly, consider what you’ll need in terms of total space and organizational compartments. Make sure the backpack you choose can accommodate your laptop, travel snacks and drinks, handheld gaming console or books to read for fun, however many changes of clothes you need for your trip, or anything else you’d typically bring along while traveling. 

Many backpacks will list whether they can accommodate 15.6-inch or 17-inch laptops, and some brands will list the specific dimensions of the laptop sleeve or compartment within the backpack. In addition to comparing the measurements of your laptop to those advertised by a potential backpack, consider whether you want a dedicated zipper compartment for your laptop or if a padded sleeve inside the main compartment will do. 

With laptop backpacks for travel specifically, there are two useful features to look out for: hidden pockets and a USB charging port. Some backpacks come equipped with a zipper compartment positioned on the side or the back of the bag, making it incredibly difficult or impossible for someone to pickpocket what’s inside. These pockets are perfect for your valuables, like your wallet, smartphone, or keys. 

Then, some bags include a USB charging port accessible on one side of the backpack and a cable inside that you can attach to a power bank you own. This allows you to comfortably charge your phone without needing to carry the power bank while you walk around a theme park or sit in the backseat during a road trip. With some travel backpacks, you can slip your phone into a side pocket so you don’t need to carry it, but it’s easily accessible when you need it. 

If you plan on traveling via plane, you should see if the backpack complies with TSA guidelines. Then, check with your airline to get minimum dimensions for overhead and under-seat luggage to ensure you won’t need to check your backpack at the last minute and pay a premium. 

For backpacks going under the seat in front of you on a plane, it’s a smart choice to go with a water-resistant polyester fabric that’s easy to clean and can withstand accidental spills. Durable, water-resistant fabric is also a smart choice if the place you’re traveling to gets a lot of rain or if you’re exploring outdoors at the beach or on a mountain. 

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