The BagSmart Paz 43L Duffle Backpack is built to carry three ways - duffle, backpack, or shoulder sling - and it is best by a wide margin as a duffle. It is the second BagSmart bag I have run through a summer of weekend road trips, and storage is why I reach for it, starting with a dirty-clothes-and-shoes compartment that runs the whole end of the bag and almost never shows up outside a gym bag. Wearing it on your back is the compromise.
The BagSmart Paz 43L Duffle Backpack is available direct from BagSmart at an MSRP of $79.99, currently discounted to $63.99, in Pesto, Black, and Navy Peony. BagSmart has listed this bag under two names over its life, so you will also find it as the Paz (Vega) 43L duffle backpack.
Every ounce of frame and every inch of wheel housing is space you are not packing into. Here is what you get back when you drop them.
- The dirty-clothes and shoes compartment runs the full end of the bag, big enough that boots go in without touching anything you plan to wear again.
- No frame, no wheels, and no telescoping handle, so you skip most of the 6.61 pounds the BagSmart roller starts at before you pack a thing.
- The main compartment opens flat like a suitcase instead of making you dig down through a duffle throat.
- A clear PVC pocket in the lid keeps a full toiletry kit visible instead of buried at the bottom of the bag.
- Soft sides take odd-shaped gear that a hard-frame carry-on argues with, including a BiPAP machine and its hose.
BagSmart sent me the Paz a few weeks after their Blast 43L roller backpack took over as my go-to weekender, and my honest read is that it does not replace it. It covers a different job. The Blast is the bag I want when there is a hundred yards of pavement between me and the front desk. The Paz is the one I want riding in back on a road trip, where nothing is getting carried more than fifty feet.
A Dirty Clothes Pouch Big Enough I Don't Need To Pack A Plastic Grocery Bag
One end of the Paz opens into its own compartment for shoes and dirty clothes, sealed off from the main cavity. After a few trips with it I do not understand why more weekend bags skip this. Usually I pack a plastic grocery bag to wrap my dirty socks and stuff but no more!
The value shows up on the back half of a trip. By Sunday morning most of what is in my bag is stuff I already wore, mixed in with the two shirts I packed and never touched. Dropping the worn pile into its own space means I am not repacking a bag of laundry around clean clothes, and the sorting is already done when I walk in the door at home.
43 Liters of Soft-Sided Space
My BiPAP went in without a fight, and that is one of the big reasons I favor larger travel duffles, since traveling with sleep apnea is always a challenge. A BiPAP is an awkward thing to pack - a rigid box, a mask, and several feet of hose that will not fold flat - and a structured carry-on makes you build the rest of the bag around it. The Paz just takes it. Machine, hose, mask, shoes, and a long weekend of clothes, with the compression straps pulling the whole thing back into a shape that fits.
BagSmart builds the Paz to carry-on dimensions and says it stows in an overhead bin, and that holds when you pack with a little discipline. A soft-sided 43 liters takes the shape of whatever goes in it, though, and a bag stuffed to the seams measures differently than the same bag packed flat. That is what the exterior compression straps are for, so cinch them down before you go anywhere a sizer is involved.
Eight Outside Pockets and a Clear Lid for Toiletries
BagSmart counts eight external and four internal pockets, which means everything you carry gets its own address. The lid holds a zippered mesh panel next to a clear PVC pocket big enough for a full toiletry kit, and that is the pocket I use most. If a bottle lets go on a hot drive, the PVC keeps the mess off my clothes instead of spreading it through the bag.
Outside, a stretch side pocket takes a 40-ounce bottle, two small zip pockets handle a passport and keys, and a padded sleeve fits a 15.6-inch laptop. There is a leather ID holder on the exterior, which sounds trivial until a weekend with the guys ends with four near-identical bags stacked by the door.
The Backpack Straps Feel Like You Are Wearing It Backward
Backpack mode is the part I would change. Loaded up and on my back, the harness never sat right. The geometry is off in a way that had me stopping to check whether I had picked the bag up the wrong way around.
The padded double handles are fine for what this bag is good at, which is moving from tailgate to room. Past a couple hundred feet with a bag full of weekend gear though, I'd want wheels or a bigger shoulder strap. This is a great bag for road trips but for trains and planes, the Blast is a better pick since it has wheels.
A Great Duffle Is A Clear Win for Weekend Road Trips
The Paz is not the bag that replaced my duffle, because the Blast roller already did that. This one covers the short haul instead: grab it by the handles, move it fast, no wheels or telescoping handle in the way. Give up those and you get sides that take a BiPAP and a pair of boots without rearranging everything else, a compartment that keeps Sunday's laundry off Friday's clean shirts, and a bag that folds into a closet instead of standing in the corner like luggage.
If 43 liters is more bag than your weekends need, look at the Paz 34L Duffle before you commit. It lands close to the same money, $67.49 against this one's $63.99, and it improves on two things that matter in this category: the dirty clothes section is a fully separate bag instead of a built-in compartment, and the backpack straps are engineered a good deal better than the harness on the 43L. I have not carried one yet, and it is high on my list for exactly that reason. If you do not need the extra nine liters, the 34L is the Paz worth considering.