Best Budget Travel Backpacks Under $100 in 2026?
For my next trip I'm thinking about switching from a wheeled carry-on to a travel backpack. Mostly just trying to see whether I actually enjoy traveling that way before spending serious money on a premium bag.
I did a short trip recently with a regular backpack and liked the experience, but it was definitely too small for more than a night or two.
This next trip will mostly be airport, train, taxi, hotel type travel, so I won't be carrying the bag for hours at a time or doing any serious hiking. Comfort still matters, but I probably don't need a full-on trekking pack either.
Right now I'm looking at a lot of the 30L-40L backpacks on Amazon in the $45-100 range, but it's hard to tell which ones are genuinely decent and which ones just have a ton of reviews because they're cheap.
For people who've actually traveled with budget travel backpacks, which ones ended up being surprisingly good and which ones would you avoid?