Travelon Anti-Theft Heritage Tour Bag, Indigo

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I had been dragging this around on a 2-week trip to Europe, where I was likely to frequent many pickpocket-rich areas. I did not get pick-pocketed, but I was also very wary, mostly carried the bag slung across my body with the bag to the front, and did not engage anyone starting a conversation with,"do you speak English?" or "are you from America?" After the latch on a frontal pocket broke, I reorganized my bag to keep trash and other undesirables in that pouch in case anyone tried picking my purse. Overall, it was a good travel bag, but can use some improvement. Pros: Lots of compartments, the side pockets on the side were great for carrying a small umbrella (it rained almost every day), mostly sturdy construction. It carries the weight well, save a slight problem described below. It is large enough to carry an iPad, my sketchbook (about the size of the iPad), and several other smaller items. (I am notoriously guilty of carrying everything but the kitchen sink) The somewhat hidden pocket on the back of the bag is perfect for carrying a passport and other high value items that do not need to be accessed regularly. Cons: The front pockets cannot be filled too much without interfering with the main compartment. Within 3 days of using it, the metal latch intended to secure one of the front compartments broke, I will reach out to Travelon to see if it can be repaired. Lastly, the strap can be extended/shortened, but the metal piece and bands of cloth can be very uncomfortable to the shoulder/back depending on where it falls. EDIT: Travelon is unable to repair the bag, but will honor the warranty and send a new bag if I send photos showing that I destroyed the bag with a knife/scissors and rendered it unusable. This strikes me as exceedingly wasteful, so I will just fix this myself.

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This bag was awesome... for a week. I used it for travel around london. It was awesome because of all of the compartments. I could carry a water bottle and an umbrella in the side compartments. Unfortunately it couldnt handle the weight. The main strap buckle broke. Bummer.

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I have been using this bag for well over a month now. I was a little nervous due to some of the reviews where folks has issues with the locking mechanisms breaking etc. So, I wanted to be sure that I used it frequently before we took our trip this summer to Europe. I absolutely LOVE it! It has plenty of room to carry what I need (for myself, daughter, and probably husband), is not bulky, goes across my body for easy wear, is a neutral color, and has the security that I was looking for so that I dont have to worry about things disappearing from my purse when out and about. I will update this review after our trip, but I am very excited and happy to have made this purchase.

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I love it. Its a little bit heavier than other purses, but I have already done Disney with it to test it for my upcoming trip to Europe and the weight was tolerable. The wideness of the strap helps a lot. I love the multiple pockets and especially for side pockets, which expand for water bottles, sanitizer, etc. I used them a lot on vacation, but keep them mostly zipped up at home. The back slot is great for boarding passes or something you want to access without having to unzip everything. I feel alot better going to Europe knowing it has RFID protection. Its pretty roomy, but I wouldnt recommend overfilling it due to the weight. Ill bet the nylon ones Travelon makes are lighter, but I liked this look. The suede accents and solid stitching make it feel very high end, but the price was reasonable on amazon. Ive already recommended it to others.

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I recently used this bag on a nearly month-long trip around Great Britain, including larger cities such as Edinburgh and London, where pick-pocketing is a concern. I went back and forth between this bag and a similar PacSafe - mostly, I do prefer how PacSafe uses cables in the cross-body strap - but ultimately chose this one because I preferred the tweedy-looking fabrics, as well as the pair of side pockets. Because I am currently healing up from a leg injury and was traveling with a folding cane - in some places where the cane was too awkward to use because of cramped spaces or too many people, the folded-up cane easily fit in one of the pockets over a short time. Also, the pockets were a good place to put our digital camera - its a small camera so it fit snugly and deeply in the pocket - for quick access without being forced to open and close the bag. Additionally, the zipper locks here are a little more straightforward than PacSafes - still difficult for a pickpocket to maneuver, but not so difficult that I was going to have a hard time using them! I was very pleased with this bag. It holds a surprisingly large amount of small items. As we traveled between cities, I would have my passport in a case, a Kindle, my smartphone, my travel wallet, two folded reusable Envirosax bags, and a dual strap Cho-Pat for my knee in the main compartment and slip-in pocket. (For day-to-day usage, the Kindle and passport case stayed behind in the hotel safe.) The zip-up pocket held tissues and room keys, and the front pockets held all sorts of small things I needed handy like an Oyster card, cough-drops, and some travel wipes. The back pocket was the perfect location for my glasses and sunglasses (held in microfiber bags, not hard cases). I also had printed-out tickets - folded in thirds - in the slip-in pocket, and they were very easy to slide in and out when necessary. While I note some people had problems with hardware breaking, I did not have that problem. Nothing I carried was overly heavy or bulky, though - I never tried to carry our iPad into this - because I cant really carry a heavy bag anyway with a shoulder injury. I feel if you want to carry more items, you should probably up-size to a full messenger bag or backpack that has more interior volume. This bag is designed to carry your small/slender day-to-day essentials, so if you are looking to cram a lot of items into a small bag, I dont think Id recommend this bag. I fully concede it doesnt have a lot of expansion room as far as the width goes. But I dont think thats what this bag was designed for, so I dont necessarily see it as a negative for the design - you just need to grasp that the design is for smaller items, not heavier-duty use. (We each traveled with an overhead-bin sized roller-bag and a Small Catalina Deluxe bag from Lo & Sons - the latter bags took care of toting electronics and cords and other miscellaneous "stuff" when we were either flying or on a train.) Wearing this bag across the body was quite comfortable, and the loop handle was also very comfortable in the hand when I switched to using that on occasion. My worries about the cable not being in the cross-body strap were pretty unnecessary - while this lacks a cable, it is a very sturdy and thick strap - there is no way it wouldnt take many, many swipes with a small knife for the strap to be cut. And the strap hardware was just complicated enough that it would be difficult for someone to undo discreetly without my noticing it. It was also pretty easy to unhook and wrap this around a table leg or through some bench slats if I was worried about someone grabbing it if I wasnt paying 100% attention to the bag at all times. I also appreciated the small flashlight inside. I ended up using it in some small dark spaces, so it was surprisingly useful to have. And one or two of our boutique hotels gave us actual room keys, so it was nice to have a strap to attach those keys to. It hangs deeply into the bag, so I never felt like keys were at all vulnerable to accidentally falling out. I am very pleased with my purchase and am not regretting buying this over a similar PacSafe. My main goal in a travel bag was something that would allow me to carry several small items with a little bit of room for other small items. It was more than up for the task.

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