For me, weight (low weight) is absolutely the most important feature in luggage. I don’t want to struggle with the stairs used to board some planes. I don’t want to struggle to board a train. I don’t want to struggle with stairs if a train or bus station has them and has no working elevator or escalator. I often use a metro or bus to get to my hotel – no taxi driver to help, and sometimes a walk of ½ mile or so to (and from) the hotel. I don’t stay at hotels with doormen. Sometimes, the hotels or B&Bs in which I stay don’t have sufficient staff to spare someone to help me (or anyone else) with luggage.

I’ve encountered many very kind people who help at various points, but I don’t like imposing. If I can’t carry it, it doesn’t go. So for me, weight matters.

At which points on your trips are you all finding that you have to carry heavy luggage?


Well for starters I live in a 3rd floor walk up. So getting out of my own apartment building is the first challenge. Where I have stayed most often the past few years is also a 3rd floor walk up (Mexico). Both ends without elevators and no doormen or bellhops. Then of course there's being able to grab and hoist ir off the conveyor belt as it goes by at airports, rolling it down cracked sidewalks and cobblestone streets to catch a taxi. And so on

many years ago I bought 5 pieces of luggage for £25, of these three have finally worn out or been used to make more interesting things. Mrs Bilbo bought a single bag for £25 at about the same time and apart from having to refit straps and remaking the trolley mechanism has finally given up the ghost for long distance travel so this year, as a treat, I have bought her a new tow-along bag. Another £25 gift but how can you put a price on love?

All fold down to stuff in small spaces, at worst weigh less than 2kg (4 1/2 lbs), and are in exciting colours so you can spot them across the airport, ferry terminal. No locks, look as cheap as chips so not attracting to criminals.

I certainly understand why you do not want heavy luggage!

Not complaining but since you asked!

I try to keep my packed suitcase that I check-thru around 27-32 lbs. So I don't want 10-14 lbs of that to be the suitcase itself -lol.

What is your concern here exactly? getting a new bag?

The original post is 3.5 years old, so the OP's specific concern is probably no longer relevant.

Ditto 10000%.

Now, if one flies private, never encounters stairs, doesn't use public transport etc etc -- sure, go as heavy as you'd like. But then I manage everything from formal (occasionally very formal) to hiking in a carry-on. The empty weight of a roll-aboard is the very first spec I look at when considering a new bag.

Lot of smaller hotels in Europe don't have elevators.

So I sometimes prefer larger, like 4-star hotels which will usually have elevators.

Some listings, which are more for vacation apartments, will say they are on the ground floor.

I didn't mind lifting my large suitcases, which would be around 50 pounds, up the stairs but many of these older buildings have narrow or steep stairs or both. For instance last trip, stayed in Corfu town, which had challenges both for parking and it seemed like at least 95% of the listings were older buildings with stairs. Often the reviews would call out how difficult some of the stairs were.

I didn't mind lifting my large suitcases, which would be around 50 pounds, up the stairs

It's not about "I didn't mind" I am a strong person for my gender and age, I work out. But I physically can't lift 50 pounds up stairs especially narrow steep or slippery marble ones without causing possible personal injury, or at least embarrasment!

A lot of places will help older women with the luggage. Or you request a lower floor.

Or you can filter for elevators when you search or browse reviews and I search for "stairs."

You used to be able to send questions in Booking.com to the hotels freely but they've restricted that so sometimes I contact them via their website. But a lot of the listings will have common questions like parking and elevators.

What is "a lot of places" and who are these "older women" you speak of?

I don't want to have to depend on anyone else when I travel. I rent apartments that don't necessarily have staff on-site. That's why I purchase a light-weight suitcase and pack so I can handle it. I don't want to stay on a lower floor. I don't want to stay in the kind of hotels that have elevators. I don't use middleman websites like booking dot com. Like I said I wasn't complaining, just explaining WHY the weight of a suitcase empty is important to me... since someone asked.

Suze, I get it, and I admire you for your travel style. Years ago when I used to live in Mexico and later, when I traveled there so often, I would have to do all that lifting and dragging.
But fast forward to now and it's not that I can't carry my bag, it's that I don't want to hurt my back!!! And now that I'm older, I do stay in more upscale hotels--much more upscale than I used to, so there is always someone around to help me, especially when it comes to checking out with my luggage stuffed with my purchases from the trip.

I remember a trip a few years ago when I took a couple of buses in Mexico (Michoacan). I did not have much luggage but even so, fellow passengers were insistent that they carry my bag.

Maybe I just look old and frail because it seems to me that most of the time on trips people are always offering to help with this.

And I do take taxis from airport, bus station, etc, so the drivers help with that. I was on a domestic flight a few days ago and nervous about lifting my carry-on to the overhead. It was so high up! I told that to the flight attendant and she sent over a large male flight attendant who put the bag up into the compartment.

I don't mind asking for help when I need it, but I was not always so.

Yeah occasionally my back seizes up. Been fortunate that it didn't happen during a trip but one it was about a week before a trip and it was tougher to take my luggage for the first couple of days, including the flight.

Lately I've been getting steroid injections in my back the week before I leave home!! Whatever works! I also take Tylenol and Advil before I leave the hotel if I know I will be walking a lot in the next few hours.

Maybe I just look old and frail because it seems to me that most of the time on trips people are always offering to help with this

That has only started happening for me, I did have an injury last trip I was trying to ignore but people must have seen it because twice I was offered wheelchair assistance (which I proudly declined -lol).

My point is only I'd rather buy lighter luggage and continue to pack less, rather than staying at places with amenities like bellhops and elevators and a bunch of tourists instead of a little hide-away kind of apartment.

OK funny story now sort of on the subject... I had 5 lbs of Halloween candy in my suitcase for my Oct/Nov trip to PV because I was arriving that day and wanted to be part of trick-o-treating. Well... turns it was a near monsoon that evening flooding the streets. So that time with the best of intensions I packed the extra weight and then had to figure out what to do with the candy!

Suze: You had to "figure out what to do with the candy??" You are a much better woman than I am! That candy would definitely not have been safe with me!

Now that you wrote that last post, I think it's a question of destination, too. When I used to travel often to Mexico (before that last visit that I just mentioned) I had to take very little. Not only cause I knew I had to carry my own bags at times, but also because all I need were light clothes and bathing suits. I also think this all has to do with age....and the aches and pains that make carrying heavy things too stressful...or impossible!

it depends on how often you travel for check in luggage the answer is usually no because baggage handlers will destroy a thousand dollar rimowa just as fast as a cheap target bag so stick with your under hundred dollar option for carry ons it is worth spending more for better wheels and a sturdy telescoping handle that wont snap plus high end brands offer lifetime warranties that cover repairs if you want a front laptop slot look at brands like away or beis because they offer organization and durability without the luxury markup but generally you are paying for the brand name and aesthetics rather than significantly better performance

Expensive or cheap are relative terms. A cheap bag may not last more than than a few trips and could prove expensive in the end if it has to be replaced. I mostly travel with carry-on only with but am constantly slinging bags in the back of buses and taxis. My previous bag lasted me some 10-12 years of pretty much continual travel until I replaced it, not because I had to but because I wanted to. It was a good brand and high quality costing maybe £75 or so . Its eplacement cost around £100, again good quality and is as good as new after 5 years of admittedly less rigorous use. In terms of value for money, which after ergonomics and practicality, is the most important consideration for me.

All this is a long winded way of saying that "cheap" as in lowest price, may not turn out to be the best value. My £75 bag cost less than 2p per day over the 10 years, pretty good "value" by most standards I think.

By contrast, I did by my wife a designer leather /hide weekend holdall when we first got together. It was very expensive, but has hardly been used as it is too heavy. Possibly the worst value present I have ever bought for her !

ek - The candy was for Halloween, so it was only things like lollypops and skittles and gummy bears. I didn't have any good chocolate

I agree destination matters. But also how the trip is structured. My trips to Europe where I was going solo thru major cities, taking trains, etc. I packed differently than when I go to Hawaii or Mexico, take taxis on either end, and stay put in one place for a week or three.