I bought this bag for a three week trip across Europe. I didn't know at the time there were travel backpack that had detachable daypacks and stowed their straps for checking at the airport. But I decided to stick with this bag anyway because I love the purple color. It worked great packing for a week and doing laundry along the trip. I did end up buying a pack cover to protect in the rain/snow and to check the bag at the airport. Great bag for travel or hiking. One thing to note. There is no way to lock the zippers on the bag because of how they are made. I had to buy plastic zip ties and carry fingernail clippers in my pocket to cut them off every night. I needed to do this to keep pick-pockets out.

I bought this jacket as a shell. I have several zip-in peices (the Sky Trail TKA 100 fleece, the Nupste down vest, the Denali fleece). This is the perfect shell to make the base layers into a full weatherproof jacket. It has a snow skirt which is wonderful should you participate in winter snow sports. (I'm a downhill skier.) The inside of the black jacket has a pretty floral design which makes it more feminine. The jacket comes with a removable hood. It is also surprisingly comfortable as a jacket alone with nothing zipped in. It provides more warmth than I expected. The durable outer fabric seems to be very high quality while still light weight. I would recommend this jacket to anyone who has multiple base layers they want to change in and out. Its great for skiing because on warm days I zip in my light weight fleece, on cold days I zip in my down vest, and on really warm days I dont zip anything in. Its very versatile.