Big Rolling Luggage - bad idea?
 

Hi,

We normally travel with rolling suitcase, however someone told us this would be a bad idea for Italy as it might not even fit in the train...

Any thoughts?

It would have to be a huge suitcase to not fit in the train. It might not fit in the overhead storage, but the trains I've been on have luggage bins where you enter the car.

NEVER TAKE MORE THAN YOU CAN LIFT OVER YOUR HEAD.

Oh, you have no idea what you have opened yourself up for! ;-)

rolling suitcase - good idea

BIG rolling suitcase - bad idea

Just what do you mean by "big"?

I have travelled with largeish cases in Italy on the train and had no problems. The platforms are low so you have to lug them up 2 or 3 steep steps so it is a good idea not to pack them with very heavy items. My first suitcase with wheels I put all the books into it and learned the hard way that pulling a heavy case is nearly as bad as carrying it. (It was some years ago)

Thanks for all the quick responses. We will pack as light as possible :)

Depends on what you mean by big - and what you mean by traveling in Italy. Carry-on size, no problem. You can drag it behind you, pull it or lift it to go up and down stairs, etc. But if it's much larger than that and you have trouble lifting and carrying it yourself for short distances, you'll be exhausted and quickly decide 'this isn't much fun.'

Or you'll have to modify the way you travel and pay others to help - taxis, porters, etc. This makes travel much more expensive - you have to stay in hotels with porters and lifts, for one thing - but that's the way many people like it.

Traveling lightly in Italy can be a lot of fun and it gives you the opportunity to be footloose and fancy-free, impulsive, quick on the getaway. I often go for several weeks in 'shoulder season' with one light carry-on and no hotel or train reservations - because I enjoy following my impulses (and the weather) and adjusting my plans accordingly.

I can get up in the morning, walk to the train station, go off to somewhere new. Within a few blocks of any train station I'm almost assured of finding an acceptable **hotel - often a Hotel Posta or a family-run pensione with grandma minding the front desk and the grandchildren playing in the sitting room - and there I am, ready for another adventure. And with a built-in 'family' to fuss over me for a few days and recommend the best places to get good food cheap, or sometimes even to prepare a simple home-style meal for me.

I like to travel, a lot, at least three or four times each year, and I don't have the money to travel both often and also upscale, the way people with big suitcases and lots of money travel. So my choice is to travel 'light on the ground' - and besides, I can always make a quick getaway if I don't like where I am!

There are 2 types of rolling suitcases. Those with 2 wheels and a handle, and 4 wheels that you push along the ground.

I find the former to be quite useful and they work ok even on uneven surfaces (i.e. cobble roads/sidewalks) you'll commonly find in Italy. The latter are nice in an airport with a flat floor but horrible to use on uneven surface.

The concern with the larger suitcases is the width of the aisles on the trains. For our last trip, my suitcase would just barely clear the seats going down the train aisle (not fun).

As mentioned above, make sure that you can lift the case to shoulder height or you will have to leave it where you can not always watch it.

I side with J62, above. My wife and I traveled to Madrid, Barcelona, Nimes, Beaune and London in June-July. I used a new Eagle Creek 25" Switchback rolling bag with its backpack option and detachable daybag (I'd upgraded from my 22" Eagle Creek Switchback bag I'd carried in Europe on 4 previous trips). I put the new bag in checked baggage for the plane and detached the daybag to provide a carry-on for my digital camera stuff, a couple of paperbacks, a water bottle and one basic set of underwear, socks and toiletries. It was a bit of a haul up a few stairs in train stations but doable and I'd use the same bag again for sure.

On the other hand, my wife borrowed a 4-wheel duffel-type bag with a fairly short hand strap from a friend who'd only used the bag in airports and cabs to hotels from the airports. The duffel bag had great and flexible carrying capacity but in just a couple of days my wife was worn more than a little from having to drag the bag while not being able to walk entirely straight up and suffered several bruises on her lower legs from the bag during the dragging process. We had to trade off bags from time to time to give her some relief. (My bag was also easier to manipulate on the London Underground).

If your suitcase is large than 24" it likely won;t fit on the overhead rack. So, you wil either need to leave it at the end of the car - ad go watch it at every stop - or get a first class seat (where there is more room and possibly empty seats to store luggage).

Either way you wil have to carry it up several very steep, narrow steps onto the train and get it down a narrow corridor. Just make sure one of you is strong enough to heave it around easily.

Some rolling suitcases have the wheels on the narrowest side so no problem along train corridors except for people who spread into the aisle. Some are are on the wider part so would be a problem, but they can be turned and shuffled.

I don't think most people want to steal your luggage so I am not bothered about leaving it in the store at the end of the carriage. How much underwear and mixture of clean and dirty clothes would a thief want?

..never more than a 24 inch suitcasse..too difficult to put on luggage racks, haul upstairs when an escalator is out of service, and no one needs more clothes than this unless moving to Europe or attending a wedding and then going on a ski vacation IMO.

<i>I don't think most people want to steal your luggage so I am not bothered about leaving it in the store at the end of the carriage.</i>
That's true. 99.99% of the people do not want to steal your suitcase. It's that 0.01% of professional luggage thieves standing on the platform who covet it and contents.

alpinemccain,
Size matters. Keep it under 22". That controls the weight in addition to making it convenient to handle on trains.

3 years ago, I traveled to England and Scotland for 2 weeks. Boy was I stupid. I had a 29' roller, along with a smaller accessory case...and a backpack! All I can say is "Thank God it was a bank holiday when I arrived, otherwise those Londoners would have pushed me onto the tube tracks." LOL I packed way too much stuff, half of which I never. When my cousin picked me up at the train station in Birgmingham, he asked me if I was moving in!

For my trip next month, I've downgraded to a Delsey 26 inch roller (all of 13 lbs), kept my hair short (no blow dryers, curling irons, etc) & will buy a pacsafe bag to carry on.

Bigger is not always better.

I always travel with carryon size with rollers and even sometimes it gets in the way on the trains and feels like a
ton getting up some of the stairs at the rail stations. I would
definitely not take a bigger bag.

I have hauled my mother's 24" on board a lot of trains. This is the largest I would go!

I have never even tried to put my luggage overhead. I put it in the end and just keep an eye on it. I know it's not perfect, but if they steal my dirty undies... it's an excuse to shop!

Fodorites, you are disappointing me! ;-)

I was so expecting this thread to go along the lines of:

"I take the same amount of clothing for 30 days as I take for 3 days!",
"I never take more than 2 pairs of pants and 3 shirts and only the shoes that I wear on the plane!",
"I always do a bit of laundry in the hotel sink every night"

Come on... what happened to your responses to summerbride08:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...r-2-people.cfm

Hi Julia1,
I was struck by your response above and clicked on your profile. Now I want to know more about your favorite travel moment of <i>"preparing lunch for Nigel Nicolson in his Sissinghurst Castle kitchen?"</i> Please and thank you!