No Reception Club’s Getaway Bag Review: Modern Travel Diaper Backpack?

I want to be clear about a few things: I am obsessed with backpacks and what they can do for my travel, and I am also always curious if a diaper bag can outdo my current one.

I got introduced to the No Reception Club Getaway Bag via my best friend Daniela, an avid traveler who has a toddler. She asked if I had heard of the Getaway Bag, the newest travel diaper bag for parents that’s all the rage right now in the travel community.

I had to try it out. After all, I’m always interested in the newest and greatest travel products that can keep all my child’s stuff in check while we’re on the road.

In this review, see how the Getaway Bag is working out for me as a diaper bag and piece of road trip luggage. Plus, you’ll also see bonus opinions from Daniela, who flew with it before I did.

Key takeaways in this review

• It is outfitted with all the “best of” features I’ve ever seen in travel backpacks I’ve owned (see how they work out in real life).
• See how it works for a road trip, and for flying, with its fit of personal item size requirements.
• Check out the opinion of a second parent, my friend Daniela, who took it on flights with her toddler (she has different preferences from mine).
• I also tried the Dopp Kit and Sidekick, two products available in the Getaway Bag Travel Bundle.

First impressions

I opened my box of the Getaway Bag Bundle, including the No Reception Club Dopp Kit and Sidekick fanny/belt bag, and I really liked the packaging. I felt like I could see the company’s founders, Gemma and Daniel, with their motto shining through.

I slid my hands over the materials of the Getaway Bag, the Dopp Kit and the Sidekick waist bag, and everything seemed strong and high-quality.

I had already watched the video on the No Reception Club website about how the bags were developed, and I knew that the Getaway Bag was designed by a seasoned backpack specialist who has designed backpacks for leading travel brands.

I took the products out of their packaging and called Dan over, saying, “This stuff is the real deal! We’ll try it all out soon on our next road trip.”

My first use of everything

Summer had just begun when I got my No Reception Club shipment, so I thought that it was a great time to consider making the Getaway Bag into my toddler daughter’s pool bag. It was also the perfect way for me to get familiar with the backpack and all its features before I deployed it into a trusty travel diaper bag for our upcoming travels on the road.

I took the cartoon-style info card out of the top pocket of the Getaway Bag and learned about a few features I wouldn’t have known about: that the parent pocket is “my pocket,” for my “parent stuff,” and was designed that way, and that the bottom zip-around compartment is for “wet and dirty stuff.”

Off to the pool we went — my daughter and I — and I loaded up all her essentials, just the way the Getaway Bag was supposed to be packed. Here’s what I liked, and what I didn’t.

What I liked best

Having seen lots of photos of the Getaway Bag online and in other reviews already, I knew what to expect and I knew what set this travel diaper bag apart from others. It truly is next-level, and by that I mean that it takes all the aspects of the best unique travel bags out there and builds them into one.

“Shelving” in the main cavity

Just like Dan’s Peak Design Backpack, which was the first backpack I’d ever seen to have shelf-style dividers inside, the Getaway Bag has two “shelves” that can be moved flexibly, kind of like how I’m able to move shelves in my fridge.

Access points

And just like Dan’s Peak Design Camera Backpack, which I consider one of the best-quality and best-designed backpacks of all time, the Getaway Bag has a top-style open with a tighten-able drawstring. It also has a side access pocket, where you can get to the items stored horizontally in the dividers.

Parent pocket & Valuables Pocket

I wouldn’t have known that this was the dedicated parent pocket if not for the guide included (thanks, Gemma and Daniel). When we were getting into the car, I put my phone in one of the flat mesh pockets, and while we were at the pool, I kept my keys safely in there.

I like that the parent pocket is for me, and I won’t jumble my adult things with my daughter’s.

The valuables pocket is located within the laptop compartment. Here, I can store stuff that I want hidden, or accessed only when I need it. The rest of the time, it’s safe and secure in this zippered mesh pocket.

Dirty pocket

Wait, it’s not that dirty! The zip-around bottom compartment is one that I’ve seen on Tom Bihn backpacks we own, and we keep shoes in there to separate them from everything else. The dirty and wet pocket of the Getaway Bag is for, of course, stuff that your child makes dirty or wet from spills, diaper accidents or wet beach clothes.

I put my daughter’s wet bathing suit in there (this has reminded me that I need to take it out), as well as a wet swim diaper.

Insulated lunch bag

It comes with this, and I now consider it a “must” for diaper bags, as you may have seen in my Nike Diaper Bag review, as our Nike Diaper Bag also came with a branded and insulated cooler for bottles or toddler food. I packed it up right away with snacks, and I enjoyed that the cooler fits snugly into one of the “shelves,” such that I could open it right up via the side access.

What I don’t like

This is pretty plain and simple: I’m not as much of a fan of the fact that both side zipper flaps have the water bottle holders on them. If you’ve read any of my other backpack reviews, you’ll know that a backpack must have an external water bottle pocket for me to like it.

In the Getaway Bag, the issue is that if you have a water bottle in one of the bottle pockets and then open the zipper for the access point, the bottle falls out.

I’d like to call it a flaw, but I am assuming that a lot of thought went into how this got designed, and the designers had to pick one of two not-great options for where the bottle pockets went, while keeping the size of the backpack manageable in totalidade.

Second: after some use, I think my gripe is that I wish the wet compartment had a way of folding back a bit more so that I could leave it open to dry overnight if I really got the whole compartment wet with soiled clothes.

How did it work out for travel?

It worked out really well. I’m a sucker for organization, and the Getaway Bag as a travel diaper bag helps with that. I knew exactly where to find the cooler with our child’s snacks, and there was a way for me or Dan to access it from the side opening.

I knew exactly where to reach for an applesauce pouch (top exterior compartment) and I was even surprised with how deep the last “shelf” was, because I thought I lost the Dopp Kit, but it was hiding deep under our daughter’s towel.

Overall, I think I had concerns about overall volume and if the Getaway Bag could meet the totalidade volume that my Nike Diaper Bag was holding previously, and most of my travel products for a baby. The positive was that there were somethings I could leave behind, like my changing pad, because it’s included in the Sidekick, which I had packed away in the Getaway Bag already.

Flying with the Getaway Bag (and a second parent opinion)

To be transparent, I haven’t had any flights to take since receiving the Getaway Bag. Lucky for me and this review, though, my friend Daniela flew cross-country with her toddler, and took the Getaway Bag as her personal item on the flight.

I think you’ll also like seeing a second opinion from a parent with habits and preferences other than mine.

Here is what she thought.

The pros

Daniela thinks there are some really cool features for parents in the Getaway Bag:

• The wet bag area, the stroller clips and the luggage sleeve and a nice laptop pocket are great.
• I think I’m overall liking the sideways structure except that my toddler’s water bottle spills when it’s sideways.
• It’s clearly a very thought-out concept, but I might just be a person who likes a less-structure bag, used with packing cubes.

The cons

Despite the positives, Daniela’s experience using the Getaway bag as a travel diaper bag was different from my experience as a road trip backpack for family travel. Here’s why:

• I don’t know that I really like the internal structure. In some ways it’s too structured. I removed the third shelf before our flight, so now we only have two shelves.
• It doesn’t quite fit under the airplane seat, and it sticks out pretty far. (See the photos)
• I’m not necessarily the happiest with it but I’m hoping it’ll grow on me.
• We used it as our diaper bag while we’re on vacation, and it’s pretty big and cumbersome for that type of use.
• I’m not sure that it’s worth the price tag.

I have a lot to say about the Sidekick from No Reception Club. Since getting my diaper bag fanny pack, which you can read about in my Kibou fanny review, I’ve been impressed by “minimalist diaper bags” that are on the market.

The Sidekick is the second one I’ve tried, and what I like is that if you’re using the Getaway Bag as a diaper bag, the Sidekick matches, with its color and design. In short, here are my pros and cons.

Pros

• It comes with a big folding changing pad that has a G-clip for a lock so that it stays tidy. It’s double the size of the Kibou changing pad.
• It has a DOUBLE zipper, which I very much appreciate. If I have something bulky in there like two diapers, my hand sanitizer and diaper cream, I can zip toward the bulging areas.
• The magnetic flap for keeping wipes is brilliant.
• It weighs 0.5 lbs, which I like better than the Kibou, which feels heavy with its vegan leather and shape.

Cons

• It doesn’t have a fold-out changing pad like the Kibou does, and I find this to be the best aspect of the Kibou, and one that I have made a ton of use of.
• The Sidekick product page says it fits 4-6 diapers, which I did not find to be the case at all. I fit 2 diapers, plus a travel-sized bottle of sanitizer and a travel-sized container of diaper cream.
• The wipes compartment (with the magnetic flap) is designed for a slim package of wipes, not the large one you’d get from Costco or Pampers. You need to specifically have a slimmed-down travel-sized package of wipes (but you wouldn’t travel with a package of 100 anyway).
• I found that it didn’t fit in the “quick access pocket” on the Getaway Bag unless I really crammed it in there, so instead, I used it on the top “shelf” and took it out of the side access zipper pocket.

I was excited to first use the Dopp Kit as a packing cube! I’m looking forward to using it as my daughter’s toiletries case for her toddler toothbrush and all her essentials. I’ll also tell you why.

On our most recent trip to Colombia, I used mesh packing cubes for her toiletries, and of course, the one bottle of baby shampoo that I thought could never leak happened to leak all over everything.

So for next time, I’m going with a foolproof dopp kit, and the one from No Reception Club has a handy hanger hook to hang in a hotel bathroom.

This one DID fit perfectly in one of the shelves of the Getaway Bag. Insubmisso!

Are No Reception Club products worth it?

Here’s what I think, honestly: travel as a parent is stressful enough. Why use bags and backpacks that don’t have convenient features?

The Getaway Bag, Sidekick and Dopp Kit were designed by parents who have been through plenty of adventures and thought of the functions first, and then designed the products. I feel like when I use them, I can see why the features are the way they are, and they’re useful.

Second, baby and child products are the time to invest in quality. I’ve had bad quality baby products and I’ve been appalled over the emails I’ve had to send to brands to complain that something broke or doesn’t work the way it should.

The No Reception Club products are award-winning because they are awesome and they work well, with quality materials that don’t snag or break.

Anyway, to make these products worth their price tag, you have to consider if you’ll put them to the use you have in mind. They aren’t cheap, but they are timeless, cool and handy. I’ll be using all my No Reception Club travel items on upcoming trips and I’ll be happy to tell you how that goes.