Suitcases: Hard or soft?
 

Which are the best suitcases for going to Europe? We will be staying in the same hotel in Paris for ten nights and will not have to contend with them except for arrival and departure. Your thoughts?

I'd recommend a Tumi roll along. They are fantastic. Great for getting around airports. It's a high quality bag, worth the price.

Inveterate travellers seem to say hard. I prefer soft. For a 10 day trip I'd bring a small enough bag to carry on. It's SO much easier if you don't have to wait for the baggage to come off and you get a jump on everyone.

Consumer Reports has found that soft are more durable and protect just as well.

We take 1 of each! While the soft are durable they can be sliced into , I use the hard to carry back things I've bought particularly pictures as even while durable when 20 other suitcases are piled on top of a soft side in the airplane hold it gives. Funnily enough , the soft and hard side cases I have are the same size but the hard sided case weighs less and has better rollers than my soft which cost twice as much!

Another thought, I never mind waiting for the bags, it usually isn't that long after you've gone thru immigration, and if your flight arrives early your hotel isn't going to be ready anyway so I use that time to decompress from the plane ride!

I used to be an air Stewardess for 13 years and have found that HARD are definetely more durable. A Delsey or Samsonite are what you find most airline crew will use. Must have wheels. Another excellent suitcase is the Globetrotter range.

I was a soft case devotee for years, bought my first hard case a couple of years ago, and haven't taken a trip without it since. It's a rolling carry-on by Samsonite, and I ADORE it. It also has the added benefits of (1) limiting the amount of stuff I can cram into it, making me really think through what I want to take, and (2) being able to be checked at the gate without fear -- even if there are fragiles in it. This enables me to take a folded-up canvas bag in which I can pack the breakables. I've never had anything break in my luggage -- and considering what I've packed, my family thinks it's a miracle :-) (-:

I prefer soft - I don't want to have any more weight to deal with than I'm already carrying on my hips! Seriously, I don't pack anything breakable, and I only ever take a rolling backpack, no matter how long the trip. The extra weight wouldn't be worth the protection to me. I've carried the same Eagle Creek backpack to Europe 8 times in the last 3 years and it doesn't even show wear.

You should think where you are going to use them next time. If you are planning to go on safari one day remember that on some small planes only soft bags are accepted. Similar situation in Maldives if you are flying to small islands or Mauritius. Personally we switched a few years ago to soft sided ORVIS bags and are very happy with them. When one bag got damaged in Montreal airport Orvis repaired it for free and no questions were asked. So we are devoted to our softsided Orvis bags.

I like it hard - especially the best kinds, no matter how much banging it goes through I am more confident that it will keep intact it's contents, more so than a soft one. Samsonite - now, that's a good one.