Finding the perfect weekender backpack for city breaks can be a big challenge. But I’ll try to help you. In this article I’ll show you two backpack that me and my boyfriend travel with since the bginning of 2018. We take a look on the funcionality, features, and cons of CabinZero Vintage and Doughnut American Vintage Cordura.
Maybe those backpacks are not especially big but it’s still worth to consider of buying them. For us, they were perfect even for… taking a 2-month trip to the Caribbean.
When we were looking for our travel backpacks, we had some different expectations. Me, I wanted to purchase a flexible bag that I could adjust to the current needs. Mariusz dreamt about a backpack which was practical yet stylish at the same time.
Disclaimer: This post contains some affiliate links. That means that if you click on them or make any purchase via them, I receive a small commission. But don’t worry, this will not cost you anything and in a few cases, you can even receive a special discount! And I will still be able to chase my dreams. So thank you!
So we ended up with buying CabinZero Vintage for me and Doughnut American Vintage Cordura for him. Here’s a quick review of Doughnut and CabinZero backpacks:
| Backpack | Picture | Main features | Price level | Where to buy? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CabinZero Vintage |  | - Ultra light(0,76kg) - Extremely capacious (44l capacity) - Designed as plane cabin hand luggage - Equipped with the OKOBAN tracking tag | $$ | Check the price on CabinZero.com Free shipping! |
| Doughnut American Vintage Cordura |  | - Great both as hand luggage and everyday bag - Old-school look - Clever inner pocket system | $$ | Check the price on Amazon |
If you want to know all the pros and cons of these backpacks, our experiences with traveling with them, and a few more options of great travel backpacks, read this article to the end. CabinZero and Doughnut backpacks: review after 2 years of traveling.
Table of contents:
- CabinZero Vintage Review
- – CabinZero Vintage Specs
- – Features of CabinZero Vintage
- – Ultra lightweight
- – Capacious but flexible in shape
- – Equipped with the OKOBAN tracking tag
- – Other great features
- – What I love about CabinZero Vintage
- – What I don’t like about CabinZero Vintage
- – Other CabinZero backpacks
- Doughnut American Vintage Cordura Review
- – Doughnut American Vintage Cordura Specs
- – Features of Doughnut American Vintage Cordura
- – Classy design
- – Clever pocket system
- – Great as hand luggage and everyday bag
- – What I love about Doughnut American Vintage Cordura
- – What I don’t like about Doughnut American Vintage Cordura
- – Other Doughnut backpacks
- CabinZero Vintage vs. Doughnut American Vintage Cordura: final comparison
CabinZero Vintage Review
CabinZero Vintage Specs
I decided to try out CabinZero Vintage because it was flexible what made it perfect as an airplane hand luggage when it comes to bag sizes restrictions (aka pushing it into size check basket on the airport).
But it also has some other great features.
Best features:
- Ultra lightweight
- Capacious but flexible in shape
- Equipped with the OKOBAN tracking tag
Main specs:
- Weight: 0.76 kg
- Dimensions: 51 x 36 x 19 cm
- Pack volume: 44 litres
Features of CabinZero Vintage
I bought CabinZero backpack with light traveling in mind. And for this aspect, it fulfills its duties perfectly.
I wanted to purchase a bag which would allow me to travel with the proper amount of stuff and would support my process of learning to be a travel minimalist.
CabinZero was designed with travel like this in mind. Its main purpose is to become capacious hand luggage to help travelers fit their belongings into airlines baggage restrictions.
Ultra lightweight
One of my most important conditions for buying the best travel backpack for Europe and other parts of the world was its weight. I didn’t want the travel bag to take the majority of the weight allowed in an airplane only for its construction.
I was looking for the best carry-on backpack which will be of lightweight category. CabinZero definitely meets this condition.
This spacious travel backpack weights only 760 g which makes it perfect for light traveling.
Capacious but flexible in shape
The capacity of my CabinZero Vintage is 44l. I think it’s perfect for most of hand luggage requirements of many airlines.
Since I like to travel with hand luggage only, this capacity is ideal for my needs. The general size of this lightweight backpack is 51 x 36 x 19 cm but its main feature is that it’s flexible.
It doesn’t have any stiffeners, so it easily fits the content. Thanks to this, it’s easy to push it into airport size-check baskets.
If you don’t need to pack it to to the limit, you can easily “slim it” with the outside regulating straps. Additionally, those straps perfectly keep your jacket tight if you don’t wanna carry it in your hand.
Inside, the backpack contents one main compartment with two smaller pockets on the front, and one bigger on the bag. The bigger one perfectly fits my 14 inches laptop in its case. but I’m pretty sure a wider screen will fit there too.
There is also one outside pocket on the front side of the backpack. It’s ideal for handy items during travel like a book, a snack or a selfie stick.
Additionally, it has two handles, one on the top and the second one on the side. It makes the bag more comfortable to carry on in one hand.
Equipped with the OKOBAN tracking tag
The most surprising feature of CabinZero backpacks is that they are all equipped with OKOBAN tracking tags.
Okoban is a worldwide lost&found solution. The idea is to get the individual account and numbers for any precious items like travel backpack, laptop, or camera. If your lost items will be found by another person, he or she can easily let OKOBAN know about the finding and the system will automatically inform you about it.
So when you’ll already purchase your CabinZero backpack, you will receive it with the OKOBAN tag which you need to register for free to benefit its features.
Fortunately, I did not have the opportunity to check out this system yet on any of my adventures.
Other great features
What is also great about CabinZero backpacks is that they come with 10 years warranty.
In fact, their design is solid work. After almost two years of using my CabinZero Vintage for many adventures, it still looks great.
You can also extend your warranty to 25 years by simply liking their fan page on Facebook. How cool is that?
Moreover, Vintage is not the only great model of CabinZero products. They come in different sizes and colors which you should definitely check on their website!
What I love about CabinZero Vintage
My favorite feature of CabinZero bag is its flexibility. The wide zipper allows to open it totally which makes it comfortable to pack.
I love the available space inside that lets me pack all the things that I need during my travel. It does not have too many compartments inside but thanks to this I can fill up space to the limit.
It is also flexible enough to fill it with different shapes: not only clothes, but also books, electronic stuff, food for a picnic, and other things.
Click the link below to check out more reviews for CabinZero Vintage.
What I don’t like about CabinZero Vintage
Nevertheless, there are a few things that I would add to my Cabin Zero backpack if I could.
First of all, one of the smaller internal pockets has no closing. I would add there a zipper, or a velcro stripe at least since the lack of closing makes it totally useless for me. The pocket is very wide so without closing, everything falls out from there.
The same, I would add a closing for a back laptop pocket. At least a thin stripe. When I don’t use my thick laptop case, the computer slips out a bit from the pocket.
And one last thing that I would love this backpack to have are lap belts. When I fill my CabinZero to the limits it becomes quite heavy to wear. Even thin lap belts would give a huge relief to the shoulders!
I have recently found out, that CabinZero ADV has all of those features! So I guess I know how my next backpack will look like.
Other CabinZero backpacks:
Doughnut American Vintage Cordura Review
Doughnut American Vintage Cordura Specs
Mariusz chose Doughnut American Vintage Cordura and he states it’s almost the best travel backpack for men.
And I agree, it has some great features.
Best features:
- Classy design
- Clever pocket system
- Great as hand luggage and everyday bag
Main specs:
- Weight: 0.9 kg
- Dimensions: 51 x 31 x 16 cm
- Pack volume: 26 litres
Features of Doughnut American Vintage Cordura
Mariusz has a sentiment for classy and stylish items. When he first found Doughnut backpacks on the Internet he knew he would have one of them.
And in fact, those backpacks look really great. They have some old school class which makes them perfect both for hiking trips and urban adventures.
Moreover, Doughnut American Vintage Cordura model has some useful and practical features which we loved.
Classy design
As I said before, Doughnut American Vintage Cordura is perfect for people who love to stay stylish on the road.
Traditional clips instead of the zipper on the front side make the backpack look not so sporting. The overall design is simple and toned down. Thanks to this Mariusz loves to wear that backpack also on an everyday basis when we are in our home town.
Clever pocket system
Doughnut American Vintage Cordura is not only good-looking but also practical. It’s filled with useful pockets. Apparently, someone did a great job while designing them.
We absolutely adore the side zippers. One side gives us access to the back compartment dedicated to a laptop.
On the other side, we get access to the biggest inside compartment, in addition to the main top opening. It’s super useful when one person wants to take something out – the person who is carrying the backpack does not need to take it off. On the same time, it is protected with additional closing plus this zipper is waterproof.
Moreover, inside we will find a few other handy small pockets. They allow finding a place for all the necessary small items.
Great as hand luggage and everyday bag
Usually, Doughnut American Vintage Cordura is enough for Mariusz if it come to packing capacity. Even though the volume is only 26l.
But what makes this bag great is that it serves well as a great carry on backpack, but also as a handy everyday bag. When we travel and left all our stuff in the hotel, we usually take Doughnut American Vintage Cordura for daily trips.
It’s slim and comfortable to wear and has lots of handful of pockets. Thanks to this it is perfect for daily expeditions.
What we love about Doughnut American Vintage Cordura
Mariusz loves the style of Doughnut backpacks, and I love the clever pockets of this particular model.
It’s also very comfortable to wear. Plus, it’s multipurpose since we use it both as a travel bag and everyday backpack.
What we don’t like about Doughnut American Vintage Cordura
In fact, it’s a very practical backpack. But even so, we found a few cons which don’t make living with Doughnut American Vintage Cordura very easy.
Even though the producer states that the backpack suits to 15 inches laptops, we had some problems with putting ours inside. The laptop pocket is accessible from the side, which forces the exact and precise placement of the laptop inside.
Those traditional clips which we like that much, are not of the best quality. Stripes supposed to be made of leather, but after almost two years of using, they started to crumble in a less effective way. And the metal clips started to rust which is also not convenient for the adventure backpack.
Other Doughnut bags:
- Doughnut Colorado
- Doughnut Dynamic
CabinZero Vintage vs. Doughnut American Vintage Cordura: final comparison
In fact, it’s hard to compare CabinZero vs. Doughnut backpacks, if only because of different volumes and sizes.
But in our situation, when we travel together, it’s a great duo.
Since CabinZero Vintage is more spacious, it holds most of the clothes and toiletries during the travel. It’s also the bag that we use mostly for moving between airports or stations and hotels.
On the other hand, Doughnut American Vintage Cordura is still able to fit most of Mariusz clothes during lightweight travels. And we use it as a daily bag while hanging around in our travel destination, while the other backpack stays at a hotel room.
Click below to check prices and more reviews of your chosen backpack:
| Backpack | Picture | Main features | Price level | Where to buy? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CabinZero Vintage | | - Ultra light(0,76kg) - Extremely capacious (44l capacity) - Designed as plane cabin hand luggage - Equipped with the OKOBAN tracking tag | $$ | Check the price on CabinZero.com Free shipping! |
| Doughnut American Vintage Cordura | | - Great both as hand luggage and everyday bag - Old-school look - Clever inner pocket system | $$ | Check the price on Amazon |
Do you have your perfect backpack already? This also might interest you:
- The ultimate list of zero waste travel toiletries
- How to save money for travel in a painless way?
- How to travel with hand luggage only?
- 5 easy steps to a perfect city break – mini-course
- 30+ travel planning mistakes that sabotage your perfect vacation and how to avoid them
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Dominika is a founder of Sunday In Wonderland and she recently switched her life to be local independent. She aims to travel the world and admire all of its wonders. She is much focused on sustainable life, self-development and making this world a better place.
