TravelonAnti-Theft Heritage Tour Bag

Why did you pick this product vs others?:We are traveling to Italy and I wanted a purse that would carry my ipad, phone, water bottle, and an umbrella. I love cross body bags too as they allow me to "carry" my purse in different ways...with a handle, across my body, or over my shoulder. This bag is large enough for all my travel needs (guide book, hairbrush, sunglasses, etc.) and yet it isn't so big as to be a bother.Security features:The great locking compartments. RFID blocking pocket for passport, credit cards, etc.Travelability:Easy to carry. Easy to find specific items (passport, drivers license, hotel key, etc.). Great compartments for organization.Pockets:It holds my ipad! A water bottle and an umbrella in the side pockets.Size:Love the secure features, RFID pocket, slash proof sides and bottom, and super long adjustable slash resistant strap.Durability:Well made, sturdy, but still attractive.

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 - it's 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 PacSafe's - 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 can't 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 don't think I'd recommend this bag. I fully concede it doesn't have a lot of expansion room as far as the width goes. But I don't think that's what this bag was designed for, so I don't 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 wouldn't 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 wasn't 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.

I just got this, so I can't speak to the durability of the item, but I am very pleased with what it looks like out of the box: lots of zipper pockets, several zipper locks to prevent theft, good size for being out and about in Europe (I hope!), mesh side pockets for a water bottle and umbrella, rugged fabric, good value for the price, etc. I have owned a smaller Travelon bag for several years (bought for a trip to Europe for a teenager and then took it for myself) and it has been excellent for US travel and outings around town when I want something lighter than a full-sized leather purse. I'm extremely positive about the Travelon brand.Possible minuses: this bag is a bit heavy (but commensurate with fabric type, size and number of compartments) and you CAN'T MACHINE WASH OR DRY DUE TO RISK OF DEACTIVATING RFID PROTECTION. I normally like to machine wash fabric bags, but in this case, I'm willing to just spot clean, given that I really do need this bag for a trip.