Rick Steves Civita Day Pack

I absolutely love this day pack. It rolls up very compact and stores in a bigger piece of luggage but is always available when I need it. I've used it on bus tours where bigger back packs wouldn't fit overhead or under the seats. I'm able to put two fleece pullovers (thin LL Bean ones), a compact point n shoot camera, maps and tour book, reading glasses, tissues, sunglasses, batteries, pen/paper, sunscreen, a compact umbrella, a bottle of water, a couple of snacks, and a bottle of Purell and Aleve in it with room to spare. I love the microfiber feel, too. I'm 5'3" and found no problem with the straps being too short.

I bought the Rick Steves Convertible Carry-On about 2 1/2 years ago, loved it, and then began buying some accessories for the bag. Since I was pretty enamored with the Carry-On, I happily drank Rick Steves' Kool-Aid about what a great accessory the Civita would be. After all, as the promos said, this is Rick's personal daypack. 'Nuff said. So I bought it. And I was pretty disappointed. Its fabric was a very thin microfiber and felt flimsy. The pack itself seemed very small to me (I'm 6-1, 210 lbs), and because it was small it did not feel comfortable carrying it by one of the straps. The dual side bottle holders were nice, except that they were shallow, so bottles larger than a half liter tended to fall out. So I threw it in my closet and pretty much forgot about it for a while.

Then I began using it for trips to the community swimming pool. I could put in a couple of towels, sunscreen, an iPod, a book, and my wallet, and I found that worked well. Then I began using it for day trips. I found that it is very comfortable to carry when I used both straps, as long as it is not overloaded. I began to appreciate the organization of the bag -one big main pocket and two smaller pockets -and began using them effectively. I quit grumbling about large bottles falling out of the mesh pockets and used small bottles instead, which work fine. And finally I noticed that the fabric may be thin, but boy, is it tough and durable. This is one well-built little pack.

Now I use it a lot on the weekends, and it is my daypack on vacations and other out of town trips. With all the size and, increasingly, weight limitations on carry-on luggage on commercial aircraft these days, the minimalist nature of this bag is an asset. I am fully aware of its limitations -I would never use it on a 20 mile hike in the wilderness. But within those limitations, it is a really good, functional and useful daypack. And for $20-25, it is a great value.

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The Rick Steves Civita would be an excellent Day Pack if it had adequate shoulder straps; however,the ones which came with mine would only fit a child. I don't know what Rick Steves does with his, but I simply couldn't get into mine, even with the straps at their maximum length. And I am not all that large. I am 6 feet even and weigh 225 pounds. But this thing isn't even close.

--Lee Probst

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I had read the reviews and figured this pack would be small, but I didn't realize it would be quite so diminutive until I pulled it out of the box. If you're comparing in your head, this bag is nowhere near the size of a typical "school backpack". Think more of a backpack the size of one of those adidas draw-string bags that were popular a couple of years ago. The straps are short, but proportionately sized to the bag. It kind of rides high on your back, closer to your shoulder-blades than down in the small of your back.

You might feel a little silly carrying your bag up that high, but after a number of minutes spent posing in front of the mirror, I can confirm that I think I look pretty cool carrying it this way. If you desire a more jaunty, devil-may-care look, you can also throw it nicely over one shoulder. Mirror time again confirms that this is a nice look, if only it were leather I could be Indiana Jones. But I digress...

The size issues being said, I find this bag to be an excellent size for travelling. It is small enough to pack into my larger backpack (I'm a one bag, carry-on kind of international travler), and really compacts quite nicely. When you take it out for your day excursion, it also stuffs and expands nicely. The dual water bottle holders are money, and the multiple front pockets are great for tickets/passes, snacks or other various knick-knacks. The main compartment can fit a couple of jackets and gloves, or maybe a nice picnic lunch.

I should note that this bag best fits items that you can stuff or fold down into the main compartment. If you've got larger or more rigid items, you may have trouble fitting them comfortably in. My 15" laptop does not fit in the backpack at all, and I've tried fitting a decent sized text book in there and it fit, but was quite tight, and caused the bag to sit uncomfortably on my shoulders.

But as I said before, jackets, blankets, cameras, an iPad, travel pillow, things like that will fit great and make efficient use of the bags size. I would definitely recommend this to a friend, with the above caveats.

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This is my second Rick Steve Day Pack; the 1st one lasted years, just needed to be changed because of some discoloration of the fabric. Now I have used this bag for 2 weeks and already the loop strings of the outside pockets are fraying and the upper handle is coming unstitched... Not the quality I expected.