I am seven months into a year-long around the world trip with the Eagle Creek Explorer Travel Pack and here are my thoughts: (1) the pack is a good size, but a tad bit small for carrying everything that I want to carry. If you put the pack into the duffel, you have just the right amount of extra room to carry a few more things (however, you then lose the ability to carry it as a backpack). Sometimes I strap the backpack on, then carry the duffel separately with a few extra things packed in there. (2) Durability has been great. No holes and zippers still work perfectly. (3) The daypack connects to the main pack using plastic snaps. This means you can carry both the daypack and the main pack and still have two hands free! Great feature. (4) The daypack is a little bit small, but keeps me honest (and not carrying around the kitchen sink on a day to day basis).