There was exhaustive investigation of carry-on pack options – with the help of Snarky Nomad.
Top choices for us both were Tom Binh and the Minaal were our final choices:
My final choice was the Osprey Farpoint 40 mainly based on its match with my grand height of 4 foot 11 inches!
Chris has gone with a Tortuga and loves it – particularly the zip pocket on the hip strap for passport and essentials (I am a little envious of that one but it is not ideal for short people!)
With a lot of help from OneBag I have not quite got to one carry on bag – but close.
Now it has come to a chaotic second round packing test. Still too much STUFF. Sticking to my list would help yet it is too tempting to add items that seem necessary. I have ditched the fold-up bowls but I love my shawl! More on contents when I get myself a little more disciplined.
POSTSCRIPT POST TRIP:
A last minute discovery on the eve of departure indicated that we had toooooo much stuff for our carry-on packs.
This unhappily at the time – lead to the Osprey being left behind and our two larger Osprey packs coming with us. A tetchy time was had when this discovery was made.
Hindsight suggests it was a good idea for the length of time we were away! And we have learned much about packing along the way!