Backpacks

My carry-on bag is a 44 liter Kelty backpack. It’s held together fairly well all considered. It is a hiking backpack with an arched spine which keeps the bulk of the material off your back allowing airflow - which is much appreciated when carrying a load for hours. This pack also opens up fully from the top which makes it convenient to live out of without ‘unpacking it’.

The 44 liter is the largest backpack you can use for a carry-on. Not all 44 liter packs are alike. So check airline restrictions with the actual dimensions of your bag. Do your own measurements (with a cloth tape measure) as manufacturers and sellers are notorious liars. This site is quite useful for airline baggage rules.

If you have one bag and are moving around frequently, I recommend being able to carry it on your back. Budget airlines in Europe and Asia typically have you take stairs from the terminal to the airport tarmac and air stairs in and out of the plane. Cloth bags like backpacks are lighter than hard-shelled cases allowing more permitted weight for items, have more internal room to stuff things and get smaller if you don’t need much space.

Make sure you can put some sort of lock around the bag zippers. My bag only has pull strings around the zipper pulls, but I tie them and put a cable combination lock on them. It’s not completely secure, but it keeps people from getting nosy if they think they have a minute to rifle through my things. It also would be obvious if they cut something. If I’m leaving my bags at the acommodation before my next travel I always lock my bag in this manner. In shared AirBnB’s or hotels with cleaners that enter your room, I will lock my valuables inside before heading out for the day.

Checked bags

The advantages of not having to check a bag are both monetary and convenience. Being that I carry all my belongings with me this just wasn’t feasible for me. Airlines want all your electronics in your carry-on for theft reasons, and require anything lithium powered to be in the cabin for fire safety. Being Mr. Travel Tech, my carry on is mostly full of electronics, necessary medications, and precious documents.

Carrier charges for checked bags differ. Within Asia it is cheaper, $10 extra is typical, but the check bag line can be long. Also typical is for people to bring local items in make-shift luggage back home to friends and family. The airline personnel have to ensure it is held together properly, has all the appropriate tapes, stickers and forms to go with it.

In Europe, even for short flights with budget airline Ryanair, it can be $30 to bump up to their Priority class which entitles you a checked bag. The advantage of Priority with Ryanair is you board before the other class people which gives you first pick of cabin storage for your carry-on. If you fly without Priority class on Ryanair with a larger bag and are later in line you may be forced to put it in stow. You’ll then have to wait for it to come out the carousel after landing.

One costly mistake was thinking I was getting a deal with Scoot Air to reposition myself to Europe for Summer. I carefully arranged my travel to end up in Bangkok to be able to take advantage of a $400 flight offered to Athens. Long story short - I had to pay $100 to check a bag! Doing the math on this made me cringe as I could almost repurchase everything in that bag for the price.

Looking back over a year of traveling, I’ve paid well over $300 in fees for this bag. I’ve arrived early at airports, waited in line to check it to find they would not take it unless it was 1 hour before check-in. Then comes the waiting at the carousel at the end of each flight to retrieve it. Once actually out of the airport comes hauling it through the streets, cobblestone roads, buses, trains, and up stairs to my acommodations without elevators.

My checked bag itself is very nice and well made aside from the spinner wheels. It’s a hard-sided, polycarbonate Samsonite Fiero that is a size that would be accepted as a carry-on on even Ryanair. Polycarbonate cases are great because they will not rip, fray or discolor like cloth. The other key is big, thick, quality zippers. The problem I’ve run into with it is having pulled it across so many cobblestone roads is that the wheel ‘bearings’ are shot which makes pulling it a lot more difficult.

Duffel bags

Duffel bags are great both big and small. If you are taking a quick trip from your home base to somewhere in the region a small carry-on size can be bought for cheap for flying or just to hang off your back on a scooter to go up the mountain with a picnic. When you leave the region and its not something you can pack with you someone will gladly accept it as a gift! The larger duffels are great if you are typically only doing carry on air travel but want to move a lot of clothes or other items to your next stop. A duffel should cost you under $20 and is cheaper than a typical airline checked baggage fee.