Review: No Reception Club Getaway Bag

My least favorite thing about diaper bags is how they look. They tend to skew into two main categories: giant unsightly sacks or designer-bag wannabes. Either I drop everything in a bag and lose everything, or I'm stuck with something that neither myself nor my husband has any interest in wearing in public.

The No Reception Club bag is a breath of fresh air in the land of diaper bags. The Getaway Bag looks like an adventure-ready backpack and has adjustable compartments inside so that you aren’t losing everything anymore. It’s become my favorite bag to pack for a day trip, filled to the brim with backup outfits, snacks, extra hats, and diaper-change necessities.

The weirdest thing about this backpack is the main center pocket has no front-zippered entrance. You can access it only from the side or the top. It takes a little getting used to. The other unusual bit is the adjustable shelves inside that main pocket. The Velcro sides of the main pocket let you customize how tall or short the compartments are inside, to better make room for whatever you’d like to fit. Maybe your breast pump and bottles need more room on the bottom compartment, or you need only a small section for backup clothes.

No Reception Club Getaway Bag.

Photograph: No Reception Club

Those adjustable shelves make this bag organized. You can create two or three pockets, or even remove both shelves for one giant center pocket. I usually used all three and separated them into sections for quick-grab accessories, backup clothes, and snacks for the day. I loved keeping a variety of hats and socks in the top compartment, since it’s the most accessible–you can open the top of the backpack as well as use the main side zipper–for when my son needed a fresh pair of socks or his hat.

There’s also a variety of exterior pockets. Flat pockets on the front and back with mesh hold small items like power cords, keys, sunglasses, and a smartphone. A waterproof compartment on the bottom of the backpack is designed to hold wet or soiled items separate from everything else. I usually just used it for my kid’s dirty shoes.

No Reception Club Getaway Bag

Photograph: No Reception Club

On the opposite side from where you enter that main pocket, another side pocket is designed to hold diaper-changing materials, or the Sidekick, a separate diaper-bag waist pack. It’s not a particularly deep pocket, though, so it didn’t hold as many diapers as I would have liked; I often had more diapers in the larger interior pockets with a tube of diaper cream. I also tested the Sidekick and found it really didn’t fit into the pocket as easily as I’d hoped.

It also has stroller clips and a luggage pass-through, and can even fit a 15-inch laptop in one of the pockets, so it’s made for a variety of travel. It comes with a little insulated lunch bag, which is a fine size to fit two bottles or a couple of baby yogurts and an ice pack.

This bag is designed for parents. While I call it a diaper bag, since it has a pocket intended for diaper materials, it’s missing a key component: a changing pad.

Instead, No Reception includes a changing pad in the Sidekick. The Getaway Bag costs $235 on its own, and to bundle it with the Sidekick costs $275. (You’ll save some money, but it's still not cheap by any means.) The Sidekick is a beautifully made waist pack, but it truly fits just a couple of diapers, a pack of wipes, and the included changing pad. I sometimes stuff my phone and wallet among the diapers, but it just feels weird that there’s nowhere else for my phone to go. (Then again, I also throw my phone into the changing pad pocket of my favorite diaper bag.)

Technically, I don’t need a changing pad, and I could easily purchase my own for much cheaper than $85 if I wanted to use the Getaway Bag without the Sidekick. But it’s frustrating that it’s left out when this backpack is already so pricey.

No Reception Club Getaway Bag

Photograph: No Reception Club

I can’t ignore that it’s well-made and much nicer to wear to an amusement park or take to grandma’s house for the day. My husband and I are both happy to wear and use the Getaway Bag, and I’ll stuff my phone between a few diapers in the Sidekick to bring the changing pad along for the day.