pippy

Husband and I will be in Europe for our honeymoon for 3 weeks. We will be visiting 4 different countries via discount airlines during this time. What size luggage should we use?? We were thinking two carry-on sized ones but are afraid that it may not be enough...any suggestions based on experience? Thanks!

traveler_99

Take only a carry on each (and of course you get one other smaller bag). This way your luggage will never be lost, you'll be SO glad at the airport that you're not held up or inconvenienced by you bags, and you really don't need more than 2 pairs of shoes, maybe a couple of pairs of jeans, a "nice" outfit, etc. Use the hotels' laundry service to re-wear items. No one will know if you wear the same thing several times. You won't be sorry with carry-on, I'm telling you!

Dukey

IMO your best source of information will be the various websites of the airlines you plan to use.

European airlines tend to be VERY strict about luggage sizes and, especially, weights of checked luggage.

In general, each passneger is allowed 44# of checked luggage.

The size of carry-ons may be very strictly defined or not depending on the airline; same with the weight. Whether or not you can bring more than one carry-on per person may vary.

Christina

I'd suggest each of you take a 22" expandable as your main suitcase, which you'll check, and then you'll each have a small carryon bag for valuables, camera, guidebooks, money, etc. When you pack, try to make it without expanding the 22".

If you can get by with two carryon size bags, more power to you. I can't (a fully packed 22" suitcase will not be a carryon for many airlines, and then you'd only get one extra small thing with that -- purse, for example). Well, maybe I could but I don't want to and I would not want to travel with only two pair of shoes.

I don't know about discount airlines, but I think you should be allowed to check one 22" bag each (which shouldn't weigh more than maybe 30 pounds), and have a small carryon. Just watch the weight.

J_Correa

When I am doing carryon - I generally bring a daypack or similar sized bag (statchel, flight bag, etc) as my personal item carryon. I leave enough room in that to stick my purse so that it doesn't get counted as part of my carryon limit.

nibblette

If you are using the discount airlines like easyjet and ryan air, you must be VERY careful about your luggage. Check the website of each airline you are using for their restrictions. They are VERY strict. No leeway even if you are just 1 kg over! Pack to meet these stricter requirements.

Also some of the budget lines charge for EACH piece of checked luggage in addition to charging for anything overweight.

As an example, from Sept 1, Ryanair will charge £3.50 per piece of luggage if prepaid online (US citizens can't do this) and £7/piece at the airport! Checked luggage free limit is 15 kgs. Anything over this will be charged (and quite expensive too). Their cabin luggage is set at 10Kgs.
Ryanair is the most restrictive of the budget lines.
Easyjet, meanwhile does not weigh caryy-on. But the dimensions MUST be within their allowances. Checked luggage limit is 20 kgs.

I have traveled 3 weeks with a 22" carry-on size case. Of course I did do laundry along the way. The secret is to do mix and match, multi-functional clothing.

suze

For each person I would use one 22-24" rolling suitcase plus one medium size tote of some sort.

tuscanlifeedit

This is just for me, but we much prefer the 19 to 21 inch rolling, expandable carry-on luggage to larger sizes. I am on a lifelong quest to find the perfect piece of luggage, and 22 to 24 inch is just too big for me.

This does require my DH to put socks and underwear in his camera bag ;-) and we both have to wear our jackets on the plane. But if I allowed myself to load up the bigger bags, they would be too heavy for me (Im not that strong) and would be risky as carry-on. I've had an FA take even my little rolling carry on and put it in the luggage hold. He said it was "stuffed too full."

E_M

What do you mean, how do you know if it will be enough? Enough for what? You should take whatever size luggage fits all of the things you want to bring!

pavfec

I kind of agree with E_M. It really depends on how you'll be travelling. Will you be renting a car ever or taking public transportation between the airports and the city?

Last year I took a 29 inch suitcase on my honeymoon to Spain and Portugal (a heavy bugger when empty too!). It was more than enough for what I took and transporting it wasn't that difficult. We never had to walk very far with it (in any case, it has wheels) or carry it up many flights of stairs.

If you think you're going to be having to carry your luggage often, then I'd suggest going for a smaller size suitcase.

edgecorp

Just a word of warning if you plan to pack light and do some laundry in the hotel - be COMPLETELY sure that there are laundry facilities for you to use. We just stayed at a hotel in London, planning to do a load of laundry mid-way through our trip. Turns out that the "laundry" facilities meant that we could pay the hotel staff to take care of our laundry for us - definitely not built into my budget. I ended up washing all four of my family members' sweaty shorts, socks, tees, and underwear in the tub with a couple of packets of Woolite I'd thrown in, and hanging them across a makeshift clothesline in the bathroom, all over the shower, on every hanger in the closet....

Weadles

I agree with the poster who suggested checking 22 inch bags and carrying one other bag each onboard.

We've found that there are very reasonable laundromats in most cities ( especially in Greece, for some reason!), where you can drop off your clothes and pick them up later.

NEVER do laundry at a hotel. It will cost almost as much as a transatlantic flight.

alanRow

Whilst checking the weight allowances also check the SIZE allowances especially for carryon's. Ryanair for example has siz limits that are 2 inches smaller than the "standard".

Also some airlines (Ryanair again) don't allow you to pool your luggage allowances so if you are carrying one bag between you weighing 25kg that's (currently) 5kg of excess baggage charges not "5kg for more souvenirs" and excess baggage charges is where LCA's make their money

Also note that at airports in the UK they will now check the size of your carryon by shoving it in the frames

In both cases you could end up having to check another bag - which could also cost you excess baggage fees.

On the subject of flights, remember that LCA's are point to point airlines (ie they DON'T do connections) so it's your responsibility to ensure that you make any flight and watch out for the time the checkin closes - typically 40 minutes but check the airline - if you aren't checked by the time checkin closes you don't fly even if it was the fault of the airline or it's agents

Finally book early especially if travelling between Friday & Monday as the longer you wait the higher the prices will be so a €30 fare one week could be €150 the next week

Dukey

BTW..have you ever WEIGHED any of those 19-22" suitcases empty? Some of them can weigh as much as 15 pounds and when you are only allowed to check 44 pounds......

GSteed

Aside! Do it yourself laundries abound in Europe. Ask! Few homes/apartments have machines, hence the local laundromat.

alanRow

< Few homes/apartments have machines >

What a sweeping generalisation - which is also wrong

JackOneill

Let me break ranks here. I find that if my wife and I both take a 22" bag to check with a carryon each, then we're too limited for more than a few days.
I find a 24" (expandable) to be a better choice for the checked piece. It may not sound like much, but if you factor in the the "expansion" than it adds up. If 're careful and buy a piece of lightweight luggage, then the extra space won't add that much in weight (sure, if you use the extra space for books or other heavy items, than it'll add up.)
Luggage companies are in a frenzy developing lighter and lighter pieces of luggage. If you buy pieces at, say TJ MAXX, make sure you lift them to see if they're heavy.

suze

Mine is exactly as above. The 24" is expandable and seems way roomier than the straight-forward 22" one.

Each cost around $50 from Marshall's or JC Pennys and weight 7-8 lbs. empty.