Is the Bagsmart Blast 3-in-1 the only carry-on travel set you need?

In all honesty, I don’t get excited about bags. A bag is a bag, right? It holds your stuff, ideally without falling apart at the seams mid-trip, and that’s usually where my expectations end. So when the Bagsmart Blast 3-in-1 travel set arrived at my door, I wasn’t expecting much beyond the basics. A few weeks and one carry-on only trip later, I’m more than impressed… and that doesn’t happen often.

This post covers my honest experience with the set after putting it through its paces in real travel, everyday commuting, and the kind of active lifestyle that tends to destroy lesser gear faster. If you’re after a capable, sleek travel kit that doesn’t cost a fortune or weigh you down, read on.

Planning your trip?
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Hotels, I use Agoda
Insurance: Cover-More
Rentals: Discover Cars
RVs: Motorhome Republic
Transfers: Welcome Pickups
Travel eSIM: Simify

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What’s in the Blast 3-in-1 travel set?

The set includes three pieces: the Blast travel backpack, a set of six packing cubes, and a 4.5L hanging toiletry bag. I went with the black backpack and peyote colourway for the cubes and toiletry bag, and the combination looks genuinely sharp. The peyote is a warm, earthy sand tone. It’s understated but not boring. It’s the kind of colour that photographs well and doesn’t show every mark.

You can check out the full set here and use the code LGB10 at checkout for 10% off sitewide.

The backpack: built for the way guys actually travel

I’m an office worker who’s also super active. I get to the gym before (or after) work, road trip on the weekends, and travel interstate or overseas whenever I can. That means any bag I actually use day-to-day needs to pull double duty without looking ridiculous in either setting. The Blast backpack nails this.

It’s a 28L–38L carry-on travel backpack with an expandable design, which means you can tighten it right down for a lighter day out or open it up fully when you’re packing for a week away. In practice, this is one of the most useful features on the bag. I use it compressed most days (laptop, lunch, gym kit) and fully expanded on a travel day with clothes, racing shoes and all the usual carry-on contents, and it handled both scenarios without complaint.

The laptop compartment is very well-padded and easy to access without unpacking the whole bag, which matters enormously in airports and cafes. The quick-access front pocket is useful for things you need on the go (boarding pass, headphones, sunscreen) and the side water bottle pocket actually fits a decent-sized bottle. There’s also a generous number of pockets both inside and out, which suits the way I like to pack. I assign each pocket a job — ID in one, keys in another, headphones in a third — so I’m never hunting around when I need something fast. There’s also a luggage strap on the back that lets you slide it over a suitcase handle if you’re travelling with checked luggage.

The separate bottom compartment is one of my favourite features. It’s designed to keep your shoes isolated from everything else in the bag, but it works just as well for a wet towel after a swim, sweaty gym clothes after a workout, or anything dirty you’re saving for the washing machine when you get home.

The build quality is solid. The zippers are extra smooth and feel like they’ll last, the fabric is tough, and the straps are padded enough to make a fully-loaded pack comfortable to carry. It doesn’t look like budget gear, and it doesn’t feel like it either. It’s also genuinely comfortable on the shoulders when fully packed, which isn’t something you can say about every bag in this category.

The packing cubes: genuinely game-changing for light packers

I’ve resisted packing cubes for decades. It felt like a solution to a problem I didn’t have. Now I get it. The Blast set comes with six cubes in varying sizes, which is way more than enough to organise a full week of travel or a long weekend trip. I used just a couple of them on a recent trip and packed far more efficiently than usual. Everything had a place, nothing got crumpled beyond repair, and finding what I needed didn’t require unpacking the whole bag.

The compression feature is the real selling point here. You pack the cube, zip it closed, then zip the compression layer to push the air out and flatten everything down. It works well, especially for bulkier items like hoodies or jeans. There’s a genuine size difference before and after, and across six cubes, it would add up to noticeably more space in the bag.

They’re also well-constructed with double zips and a mesh top that lets you see the contents at a glance. The peyote colourway on mine looks great and makes them easy to spot when you’re rummaging around in a dark hotel wardrobe.

The toiletry bag: small but seriously clever

The 4.5L hanging toiletry bag is the piece of this set I expected to care about least, and it’s the one that’s impressed me most. It hangs from a hook, which is genuinely useful in small hotel bathrooms or anywhere counter space is limited. It has enough compartments to keep everything organised without turning into a game of Tetris every morning.

The hook is sturdy, the bag holds its shape well when open, and there’s multiple clear zippered pockets that makes finding things fast. I’ve got a fairly minimal kit (skincare, shaving gear, beard oil) and everything fits without the bag looking stuffed. There’s also room to grow if you pack more than I do. The interior is plastic-lined, which is a detail I didn’t know I needed until something leaked. It wipes clean in seconds, and the zippered sections mean you can isolate things like your toothbrush from everything else — a small thing that makes a real difference.

It’s the kind of toiletry bag you pull out in a bathroom and feel slightly smug about. Which, honestly, is part of what good gear is for.

How does the set work together?

Really well, actually. The packing cubes and toiletry bag slot neatly into the main compartment of the backpack, and everything has a cohesive look that feels considered rather than cobbled together. The whole system encourages you to pack smarter, which is exactly what I want. My travel philosophy has shifted significantly towards carry-on only in recent years, and this set supports that approach perfectly. If you’re trying to break the habit of overpacking, a set like this — where everything has a designated space and there’s a firm limit to what fits — is actually a useful forcing function.

Worth it?

Yes, genuinely. The Blast 3-in-1 set hits a sweet spot between quality and price that’s hard to fault. For the price, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The backpack in particular is the kind of everyday carry that you’ll reach for whether you’re heading to the office or the airport, and that kind of versatility is rare to find at this price point. If you’ve been meaning to upgrade your travel kit, this is a smart place to start.

You can check out the full set here and use the code LGB10 at checkout for 10% off sitewide.

Disclosure: Bagsmart provided this set for review. All opinions are, as always, authentically my own. If you’ve got questions about any of this, hit me up on Instagram — I genuinely enjoy helping people out.

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