Best Luggage Picks For Different Trips

We all have a lot of baggage (tongue firmly in cheek). TUMI, Rimowa, Bugaboo (yes the baby stroller brand has come out with its luggage range). Different sizes depend on the duration, and whether its business or a family holiday. I go over carry-on pieces, the briefcase to use, and new types of luggage. For whats inside a mans luggage, see my piece on a ToiletKit.

One Day Trip

My favourite brand is Riwowa. Their silver range is really cool and I have 4 sizes for personal and business trips. For short trips I use the 32L one. It’s slim, light and fits enough for up to few days. The size fits all economy cabins I find. I bought this one in Montreal (see the story below). To create more space, I remove the blue flexi divider on the right side. I keep the one of the left as that’s the side I lift up to open, so you need it to keep things in place. I do that for all my pieces.

Longer Trips

My first and favourite Rimowa is the 45L model. Found it in Selfridges in London. Its the largest carry-on case I have come across. Capacious, its perfect for long business trips, especially a city-a-day roadshow where you have very little time in airports and prefer to carry your luggage on. Fits into any business cabin, but only in wide body economy overhead bins. Full, it will be heavy. So don’t hesitate to ask for help putting it up and getting it down.

Once I made the mistake of lifting it from the extendible stroller handle and due to its weight it broke! I was in transit and it was a pain. Looking for exactly the same one, I could only find the 32L one in silver in Montreal, so I got it. It cost a packet to courier the broken one back to Singapore, though thankfully Riwowa replaced the handle (it takes a few weeks).

Family Trips

My wife and I have 2 young kids, 9 and 5. Because of this, family trips involve a lot of luggage, especially as they are usually for 10-15 days. I use the 64L model for myself. Its very big, but a quarter full in my case with books. Its the only of the 4 pieces I got in Singapore. When I landed, I found the wheels had broken. Again, Rimowa changed them. My wife uses a smaller Tumi.

For the kids we use the large 82L Riwoma. It fits everything and more. I got this in Washington DC. I had gone there with my kids and when we landed, found their Samsonite had broken, so got this one from Tysons Corner.

 

In family trips, there is inevitable carry-on luggage. For girls, it starts with Hello Kitty, moving on to Frozen, and cool hip ones as they grow older. Super-heroes do it for boys. For the dad (me), with loads of passports, confirmations to carry, we need something too. I use this. Its small and handy, though some have said it looks like a man bag, an accusation I deny vehemently.

The Briefcase

My other favourite piece is the Hackett briefcase. My wife teases me, saying its my safety blanket as I carry it everywhere. It has many compartments inside, on top and a flap at the back to slip things in. I don’t use the sling, preferring to carry it with its handles, usually slung over my shoulder. Once, on a short one night trip, I managed to fit laptop, toilet bag, spare shirt and undies into this.

Interesting Luggage and Trends

Unless you have kids, you may not have heard of Bugaboo. They make those prams that sit on frames with huge wheels. Boxer is the name of their new Luggage System. Its different, but expensive and appears a bit weird with too many components. Here is a review by a user.

 

 

Electronic Luggage Tag

Rimowa is piloting luggage with electronic tags that enable you to generate the baggage tag using the Lufthansa app. Their 3 minute video has nice imagery, but took a while to explain how it works. Of course that means buying a whole new set of expensive stuff, but quite a step.

Useful luggage can make ones journey much easier. Call me shallow, but I like nice looking luggage. Comment below if you have an interesting piece. Happy packing and traveling!