Traveling in Style and Comfort: How to Choose the Best Luggage

Learning how to choose the right luggage can improve business and vacation travel. Roos Koole/Getty Images

Whoever said “You can’t take it with you” never saw the average traveler with a mountain of luggage.

When traveling for business or vacation, where you go and how you get there are important, but it’s easy to overlook some critical details. One example is how we bring our clothes and other items. For some, a suitcase used since childhood works just fine, while others utilize a veritable fleet of high-end luggage emblazoned with designer labels. The happy medium is to use the least amount of luggage required to bring what you need. A steamer trunk would easily accomplish that goal, but there are more practical and efficient options to consider.

Taking too much clothing is worse than not taking enough; laundering and wearing clothes again if needed is preferable to hauling around items you didn’t really need to bring. Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock

Before choosing your luggage, consider what will go in it. It’s common to bring along more than is actually needed, so by factoring in the purpose of the trip—business or pleasure—and how much clothing and other items will be required, it’s possible to cut back to only what you actually need, which, in turn, affects the size and quantity of luggage required. The late Queen Elizabeth II was fond of luggage from the British firm Globe-Trotter to bring along the crown jewels and multiple outfits, but she had a staff of hundreds to drag it all around.

As just one example of how to travel light, clothes can be laundered and worn multiple times when you arrive at your destination, rather than packing an outfit for every day and activity. After you know what you'll be bringing, the next step is to determine the best way to carry it.

For brief, or overnight trips, consider a duffel bag that you can stow in an airliner’s overhead compartment, thus avoiding the need to check luggage. Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

For brief or overnight trips, try to avoid checking luggage if possible. Of course, you can’t get around this if you must bring multiple bags or oversized items, but otherwise learn to pack what you need in one carry-on bag, such as Ghurka’s Cavalier I No. 96 compact leather duffel. You can also tuck a few other items into a laptop case that can be stowed beneath the seat in front of you (making it important not to end up in bulkhead seating).

Backpacks are popular choices for travel luggage because they accommodate a large amount of clothing, and are easy to carry, slung over a shoulder. My Good Images/Shutterstock

Those who’ve ever gone backpacking take pride in using every inch of luggage and know tricks such as tucking socks and small toiletry items into shoes. By not checking luggage, you not only have control of your belongings at all times, but you also can board flights much more quickly and avoid delays at baggage claim areas.

When it comes to luggage types, it can be classified as wheeled or not wheeled. Wheeled luggage is incredibly easier to transport than the non-wheeled type. As a bit of travel trivia, wheeled luggage was patented in 1972 by Bernard D. Sadow and was then improved upon by Robert Plath, a retired Northwest Airlines 747 pilot, in 1987 with his “Rollaboard” Travelpro luggage design. This design is now in wide use by airline crews, who are pros at traveling light, and by savvy passengers.

When choosing any type of new luggage, bigger is not always better, as it will be heavier and may not fit in an airliner’s overhead bin. Upadim/Getty Images

However, there are a few caveats that prevent wheeled luggage from always being the best choice, starting with size. Just because the luggage is labeled as sized to fit in an overhead compartment doesn’t mean it will be easy to do so. The maximum size for overhead compartment luggage is 9 inches by 14 inches by 22 inches, but choosing even a slightly smaller bag that will hold pretty much the same volume of contents will be much easier to stow in the overhead bin, and will be greatly appreciated by the passengers waiting to get past you to their seats. If you’re unable to fit the luggage in the overhead bin, you’ll have to check it, which can delay the flight.

Overly-small or vintage pieces of luggage may be chic, but often tend to be inefficient choices due to their minimal capacity. Svetoslav Radkov/Shutterstock

Luggage with wheels at all four corners are called “spinners” because they are easy to roll while upright, or can be tilted and pulled behind, whereas luggage with wheels only on one edge can only be pulled behind. Metal-clad wheeled bags provide more protection for their contents, but are often heavy, while a soft-sided model may afford that extra bit of flex needed to fit in just one more item, and will be a bit easier to lift when needed.

A classic duffle in leather or fabric, such as those from T. Anthony, can swallow an enormous amount of luggage. But as you add more items, you also add weight, which can make transporting the shoulder bag from home to the car, the plane, a cab or shuttle, and finally the hotel a daunting, uncomfortable task. Some duffle bags are hybrids that solve this dilemma by being equipped with wheels.

The bottom line is to streamline the travel process by bringing only what you absolutely need in easy-to-transport luggage so that you can focus on enjoying the experience.