Harber London is a leather bag and accessory specialist best known for its best wallets, laptop sleeves and technology accessories, all finished in beautiful tan leather. But it also makes the best backpacks and briefcases, and one of its newest product is the Overnight Bag.
Available in four different colours, the Overnight Bag promises to carry everything you need for a night, or indeed a weekend away. There’s a cavernous interior, plus pockets inside and out, a detachable leather shoulder strap, adjustable straps to change the overall capacity, and even an included luggage tag that doubles as a discreet AirTag holder.
As with all Harber London products, it’s the full-grain leather that promises to steal the show, thanks to the way it looks, smells and how it should age with a beautiful patina.
Is this the perfect bag for a weekend away? Read on to find out.
Harber London Overnight Bag review: price and availability
The Harber London Overnight Bag is priced at £349 and is available to buy on the Harber London website.
For this bag the fabric is available in mocha (as reviewed here), black, olive and navy blue. Apart from the all-black version, they all come with the same brown leather strap, handles and detailing, and the same pale interior. I’d avoid the navy blue – for me, dark blue and brown don’t work well together – and instead opt for green or mocha. Harber London also sells an all-leather version, available in caoba (dark brown) or black, for £429.
Harber London Overnight Bag review: Design and features
This bag is made from a durable, water-resistant and hard-wearing material sourced from recycled plastic bottles. It’s the same fabric as Harber London uses with its Commuter Backpack, which I reviewed back in 2023, and feels built to last. It’s durable and tough without feeling too stiff or roughly textured.
I think it works perfectly for this type of bag; the sort that will spend a life being thrown into car boots, left on the floor of a hotel room and perhaps crammed into the odd overhead compartments of airlines with more relaxed baggage allowances.
Like other Harber London products, the Overnight Bag arrives in a drawstring dust bag to protect it in storage, and neatly wrapped in tissue paper. It’s a small detail, but one that really elevates the purchase experience to that of more familiar (not to mention, expensive) luxury luggage brands.
Also included is Harber’s new leather Apple AirTag holder, which is smartly disguised as a branded luggage tag. This alone is priced at £120 on Harber’s website, so discovering that it’s included with the bag made its £349 price even more appealing.
The bag has a 42-litre capacity, but this can be shrunk a little via a set of leather straps that neatly pull the upper corners down to the sides. There’s also a strap on the back for attaching the bag to the extended handle of a suitcase or cabin bag, and the exterior is completed by an open-topped pocket on the front that closes with a magnet. Thankfully, this magnet is far stronger than that of Harber’s aforementioned Commuter Backpack. In this case it can actually be trusted to stay closed and not flap open at every opportunity.
An optional shoulder strap attaches in the usual Harber way, with a pair of metal clips that slot into mounting points below the handles. The adjustable, all-leather strap is an improvement on that of Harber’s Everyday Leather Briefcase, and for this bag I’d likely leave it permanently attached.
Open the full-length zip and inside you’ll find a cavernous interior that’s brightly lined for good visibility (unlike the black lining of the Harber briefcase). There’s a lovely brown leather pocket on the rear side with an integrated zipped compartment that’s perfect for your passport, wallet and keys. On the opposite side you’ll find a full-length zipped pocket that’s about half the height of the entire interior. This could be useful for separating worn clothes from clean, or as a place for toiletries and other non-clothing items like tech devices, chargers and cables.
Lastly, the interior has what I assumed was a bottle holder on either side of the large zipped pocket. However, they are slightly too narrow to accommodate an original 500ml Chilly’s bottle, so naturally the wider, shorter series two bottle won’t fit either. A small plastic bottle would likely fit, but using those seems at odds with the recycled nature of the fabric. Instead these pockets are best used to hold travel accessories like cables, pens, battery packs, sunglasses and a handy bottle of your favourite fragrance.
Harber London Overnight Bag review: Performance
I had a feeling the Overnight Bag and I would get along well, and after a weekend away I can heartily recommend it. I think it looks great, feels very well made and even smells good thanks to all that lovely leather. It is comfortable to carry, either by hand or over the shoulder, even when full to the brim. Handy when you never know what the UK’s summer weather is about to do next.
I think it has just the right amount of pockets, since bags with too many can quickly look more for hiking than holidaying. They are well thought-out both in terms of size and location, but also how they are sealed. The leather AirTag holder is a lovely touch, especially since it discreetly hides the little tracker in plain sight, making it invisible to thieves yet easily heard when you’re trying to locate it.
There’s no dedicated laptop or iPad storage, but the floor of the bag is comfortably large enough for a full-size laptop – and since you’re only likely to put clothes and other lightweight items on top, that’s fine by me.
To properly test the bag I took it on an overnight stay. It comfortably swallowed a couple of outfits for two people, along with shoes, toiletries, an iPad, a mirrorless camera with lens, and all of our cables and chargers. There was plenty of space left over – so much so, in fact, Harber London could probably have called it the Weekend Bag instead.
Anything to complain about? I wish the pair of internal pockets were wide enough for a water bottle (another 2 cm and I reckon they’d manage), and I’d like to see a lockable zip for the main compartment. A set of brighter, bolder colours would also be welcome. But that’s really it.
Harber London Overnight Bag review: Verdict
This is a great bag. You’re unlikely to use it every day, but for an overnight stay or even a weekend away, it’s perfect. The materials look and feel premium, while the pockets are smartly designed to cater for a range of items. It’s easy to keep valuables in their own pocket, or to put items like your phone and passport in the outer pocket for easy access while wearing the bag over your shoulder.
I especially like how a pair of leather straps are used to adjust the capacity, while the shoulder strap is comfortable, the hand straps are a good size, and the included AirTag holder really is the icing on the cake. I would consider stretching to the all-leather version, since it’s only £70, but either way I can say with confidence that you won’t be disappointed.
