Patagonia Terravia Mini Hip Pack Review

The Patagonia Terravia Mini Hip Pack is a packable mini sling for travel and rugged adventures. We like the larger Patagonia Terravia Hip Pack; however, the smaller version lacks features we enjoyed about the larger sling. Will we miss those extras, or will we appreciate the simplicity? Let’s dive in and find out!

External Components

The pack is crafted from recycled nylon and recycled polyester, which have little structure. However, we can’t complain too much since this is a packable sling. The sling doesn’t have much opportunity to sag, as it’s pretty small, though it can look a little droopy if you load one smaller, heavy item inside.

The zippers are from YKK, which, in our experience, is the best brand in the business. They make getting your gear in and out a breeze and packing the sling away easy, but we’ll get to that later.

The sling’s Duraflex hardware is easy to use and hasn’t given us any durability concerns. It feels like the proper size for the job it’s tasked with, which we dig.

There are side loops on either side of the sling where the strap attaches to the body. These aren’t in your way if you don’t use them, but they are a handy way to attach a speaker or other small item, like a carabiner or Heroclip.

The classic Patagonia logo on the front face is colorful and fun. It’s fairly large compared to the sling’s small size, but it blends in nicely, no matter what colorway you choose.

There isn’t a ton going on here, but it’s a small sling, so we didn’t expect there to be. It looks cute and is incredibly effective while traveling, but we’ll move on to that later.

Fit Notes

The back panel has some padding, but it’s not very thick. Still, it offers more comfort than many other packable slings we’ve tested. There’s also breathable mesh that promotes airflow, keeping things cool when using the bag.

There’s no padding or aeration on the strap. For a 1L bag, we didn’t expect much, and we’ve found the sling to be comfortable, even when fully packed. If you’re wearing the sling without a shirt on or against your bare skin, it can dig in slightly when loaded with heavy gear, but no more than other bags we’ve tested.

The pack has strap keepers, which are handy for keeping things organized on the exterior, especially for more petite travelers who typically have a lot of excess strap material.

In testing, we took this pack on a week-long trip to New Orleans and walked at least 5 miles per day, with more than 13 miles in one day, and the sling was comfortable. At home in Detroit, we used it as a grocery store sling, which is handy for stowing your phone, wallet, and keys while shopping, and it performed well there, too. On a short trip to Flint, it was perfectly comfortable and an easy place to stow daily essentials while walking around the Vehicle City.

Inside The Sling

The front pocket may appear basic, but there’s more than meets the eye. Apart from a key leash, which is handy to ensure you don’t lose your keys, there’s no organization here. The key leash also doubles as a clip for the sling when you’ve packed it, which is convenient.

When used as a sling, this is a good pocket for your keys, a small wallet, snacks, or a few rolls of 35mm or 120 film. To pack the bag into this area, you open the zipper all the way and start shoving the entire sling into this pocket, inside out. The compression isn’t mind-blowing, but it’s small enough when packed away to fit into your pocket. If you need to save more space, it stows nicely inside a compression packing cube or in a tight pocket inside your daypack, travel backpack, or another sling. Because the key leash is exposed, you can attach the sling to things like a belt loop, the outside of your pack, or your keys.

The main compartment doesn’t have organization, either, but it is a fairly good size for items you’d typically keep in your pockets. Your phone, wallet, sunglasses, and other similar-sized items will work well here. If you’ve stowed 35mm film inside the front pocket, you can stow a point-and-shoot film camera or a modern digital pocket camera here.

This pack isn’t as large and doesn’t contain as many features as its older sibling, the Patagonia Terravia Hip Pack; however, we feel that this version performs better for a small packable travel sling. It’s smaller when packed away and holds most of the items we typically walk around with while traveling.

We enjoyed using the larger version in New Orleans on the same trip but felt that the smaller version was better at functioning as a packable sling.