Luggage recommendations
 

My husband and I are planning a trip to Italy next summer and I am looking for some luggage recommendations. We have a set, but it doesn't seem to fit our purposes anymore.

I am thinking 1 carry-on-sized roller board and 1 daypack for each of us would be the way to go.

Any recommendations?

My husband and I travel with rolling duffles, but we have wheeled luggage with zipoff backpacks for the children. If this would still give you enough space, I highly recommend it. You are able to take the backpack on as a carryon and zip it on and roll away. I have used that luggage for a weekend in London and it worked great. I'll bet there are many sizes available.

Travelatte

I recommend the absolutely lightest weight empty you can find.

I prefer a 22-24" square rolling suitcase (because I find duffle bag style too floppy and a bit harder to manage).

On every trip, I use my 22" Travel Pro rollaway and an Eddie Bauer EBTEK backpack. They have taken considerable abuse through the years and have never once let me down.

J Cortrea - I think you'll be fine with one carry-on (22 inches or less) and one daypack per person, especially considering that you'll be travelling in the summer. But if in the future you end up traveling to a place where the temperatures are either variable or consistently cold and you anticipate bringing back souveneirs, you might find a carry-on isn't big enough. Now there are seasoned travellers on this board who would never need more than what you are thinking, but my wife and I aren't quite there yet.

For our 10 day trip to Italy in March of this year, we bought lightweight 24 inch rolling suitcases (Pathfinder brand, model Presidential 3LT) from a May Dept store. We were very pleased with them. Fully loaded they weren't too heavy. As you shop for luggage, you'll notice that not all 22 or 24 inch suitcases are the same size. The 24 inchers we ended up with were a good deal smaller than other 24 inchers we looked at. Also, we prefer not to do laundry on vacation. For those who do, they can get by with less, a lot less.

Good luck!

Dave

I think that is PERFECT. Especially if you are travelling on trains. The less the better.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I will definitely check them out.

Finding out how much a piece of luggage actually weighs, especially if you are buying it on-line, through a discounter, isn't always easy. In fact, buying it in the (brick and morter) STORE and determining its actual weight isn't easy either.

There is at least one on-line site that will allow you both to compare various products side-by-side and to determine the weight of the piece empty: EBags.com

There may be others.