Cotopaxi Allpa 42L Review

Who it’s for

The traveler who likes everything about the Allpa except the size. The 42L keeps what makes the family distinctive — a suitcase-style opening that unzips all the way round, zip pockets inside so the small things stay put, a tough recycled shell and Cotopaxi’s warranty — and adds seven liters. That is the difference between a bag that suits a week and one that suits two, or a warm-weather trip and a cold one.

It is not the Allpa for someone chasing sizer margin. That was always the Allpa 35L’s argument, and the 42L gives it up in exchange for the room. If you fly budget European carriers regularly, stop here and buy the smaller bag.

35L or 42L, line by line

This is the decision almost every Allpa buyer is actually making, so here are the two packs side by side on the published figures. The striking row is weight: the extra seven liters cost three ounces.

Read the width and depth rows together, because that is where the two bags actually part company. The 35L is two inches narrower than the sizer and one inch deeper; the 42L is exactly as wide as the sizer and two inches deeper. The 35L wins the dimension that side walls catch first. The 42L has no margin on it at all.

The buy rule: if your trips are a week or less, or your itinerary includes a carrier that measures bags, buy the 35L. If your trips run two weeks and more, you pack for cold weather, or you mostly fly the US majors, buy the 42L. Our what size travel backpack guide works the same decision through by trip length if you are still unsure.

The fit math, carrier by carrier

In metric Cotopaxi’s figure is 56 x 36 x 27 cm. Here is how that lands against the published limits of the carriers most one-bag travelers actually fly.

Two honest caveats cut in opposite directions. A published depth is the bag’s depth packed full, and a soft pack carrying less than its capacity measures less — so a 42L that isn’t stuffed is a realistic carry-on on an airline that doesn’t measure bags. But on a carrier that puts bags in a sizer, “it squashes” is the whole of your case, and it is a weak one at two inches. We class this bag as carry-on, check strict carriers, and on Ryanair we would not attempt it at all. Our carry-on size guide has the full table.

The weight is the good news

Cotopaxi publishes 3 lb 2 oz (1.41 kg), and Pack Hacker’s independent spec box lands within a few hundredths of a pound of that. For a 42-liter pack with a clamshell zip and a heavy-denier shell, that is genuinely light. It is level with the Osprey Farpoint 40 at 3.1 lb, lighter than the Nomatic Travel Bag 40L at 3.42 lb, and well over a pound lighter than the Peak Design Travel Backpack 45L.

On a 7 kg international economy allowance that is about 20 percent of your total spent on the bag, and roughly 18 percent of Lufthansa’s 8 kg. Against the 35L it is three ounces — which is the single best argument for the bigger bag. If the dimensions work for your airlines, you are paying almost nothing in weight for seven more liters. Our carry-on weight limits guide sets that against every carrier that publishes a cap.

What the redesign changed

Cotopaxi relaunched the Allpa line on August 1, 2024, and it matters which version you are buying. The company’s own announcement lists four changes: air mesh shoulder straps, better weight distribution, an exterior stretch water bottle pocket and a luggage pass-through strap, all in 100% recycled fabrics.

The Amazon listing we link to carries the current version’s feature list — the stretch bottle pocket rated to 1 liter, the roller-bag pass-through on the back, lockable zippers on the main opening and four exterior webbing loops — and its listed dimensions match Cotopaxi’s. We checked because a second 42L colorway on Amazon describes the older pack, and a review is only useful if the bag in the box is the bag on the page.

The organization

The opening is the Allpa’s defining feature: suitcase-style, with a full-wrap zipper, so the pack lies flat and opens like a hard-shell case rather than making you dig from the top. Inside, Cotopaxi publishes three zip pockets — one large, one medium, one small — which keep chargers, toiletries and documents from sinking into the clothes.

Outside there is a front zip accessory pocket with its own internal organization and a key clip, and three grab handles on the side, top and bottom, which is what makes a 42-liter pack easy to haul out of an overhead bin by whichever end is facing you. The internal pockets sort the small things; for the clothes, the bag rewards a few packing cubes more than most, because the full-wrap opening lets you lift them out as blocks.

The harness

Cotopaxi’s listing says the current Allpa is designed to transfer weight to the hip belt, and the redesign added air mesh to the shoulder straps. Both the straps and the hip belt tuck away behind a panel, which is what lets the bag slide into an overhead bin or a checked-bag belt without straps catching.

That tuckability is a trade-off worth understanding. A harness that stows is built to be carried in airport-and-train-station stretches, and at 42 liters the load you can put in this bag is heavier than anything the 35L can carry. If you routinely walk a mile or more with a full pack, the Osprey Farpoint 40’s framed hip belt is the more purpose-built tool, and torso length will decide whether either belt sits where it should on you.

Materials, and the warranty behind them

The shell pairs 100% recycled 840D TPU-coated nylon with 100% recycled 840D ballistic ripstop nylonover a recycled ripstop polyester lining. That is a heavy face fabric for a travel pack — more than twice the denier of the 400D shell on the Peak Design Travel Backpack 45L — and it is why the Allpa is the family we point people to when their bags get dragged, stacked and thrown.

Behind it sits Cotopaxi’s Guaranteed for Goodwarranty, which covers manufacturing defects for the lifetime of the product. Read the small print: Cotopaxi defines a product’s lifetime as an estimate of how long it can realistically keep working, not an indefinite period. It is a narrower promise than Osprey’s, and a broader one than almost anything in the budget tier, where the warranty line usually reads “not published”.

Where it falls short

The depth. Two inches over the standard box on the dimension sizers catch most reliably. That is the objection that matters, and it is published rather than hidden.

No width margin.At 14 inches the 42L is level with the sizer’s width — it has none of the room that makes the 35L easy to slide into a narrow frame.

A 15-inch laptop sleeve. The same as the 35L, and small for a 42-liter pack aimed at longer trips, which is exactly when people carry a work machine.

The price. It sits at the premium end of this category and costs a little more than the 35L. The warranty and the shell justify that over years of use; over one trip, a cheaper 40L does the same job.

What to buy instead

If you fly strict carriers: the Cotopaxi Allpa 35L. Same opening, same shell, same warranty, three ounces lighter, and two inches of width margin the 42L doesn’t have.

If you carry it far: the Osprey Farpoint 40, whose framed hip belt is built for distance, at essentially the same published weight. It gives up the suitcase-style organization. We put the two families head to head in Farpoint 40 vs Allpa 35L.

If you want a bag that fits the box on every dimension: the tomtoc Navigator-T66 40L, published at 20.5 x 13 x 9 in and 2.65 lb with a 17.3-inch laptop sleeve, for a fraction of the price. It gives up the heavy-denier shell and the long warranty.

The verdict

The Allpa 42L is the right bag for a specific traveler: someone who wants the Allpa’s organization and build, takes trips long enough or cold enough to need the extra room, and flies airlines that do not put bags in a sizer. For that person the weight math is remarkably kind — seven liters for three ounces — and the warranty makes it a bag you keep.

For everyone else the depth decides it. Two inches over the box is a real cost, and the smaller Allpa exists precisely so you do not have to pay it. If you are genuinely torn between the two, buy the 35L: nobody has ever missed a flight because their bag was too small.