If the travel groups I follow on social media are any indication, most people are either minimalist or maximalist packers. There’s the group extoling the virtues of carry-ons, sharing packing hacks and mocking those unlucky travelers whose checked bags got lost in transit. Then there’s the group that wants their entire closet at their fingertips, no matter how big a bag it takes.
I fall somewhere in between. Because I typically fly nonstop, and because I have a Delta American Express card, I can usually check a bag for free. And because I hate, hate, hate jockeying for space in the overhead bins, I often do check a bag… but the bag I check is carry-on size. That’s because when I reach my destination, I’m usually traveling on some mix of trains, ferries, and small rental cars, and I want to keep things as light and streamlined as possible. Checking my carry-on-sized bag lets me relax on the way to my destination and not be weighed down by too much stuff once I arrive.
My strategy: pack light, and pack an empty, lightweight bag or two to serve as a personal item on the way back. (Insulated cooler bags are great for this because they can double as grocery/picnic bags on the trip, allowing you to travel with beautiful French butter or cheese.) My go-to bags for several years now have come from the eBags Mother Lode line: between my husband, my daughter, and me, we own two Mother Lode Travel Backpacks, a slightly smaller Mother Lode Jr. Travel Backpack for our daughter, and a Mother Lode Carry-On Wheeled Duffel (I have a bad knee, so I don’t always want to hoist a bag on my back, but this best-of-both-worlds bag also comes with backpack straps so I don’t have to roll it over cobblestones). For longer trips, we also have a Mother Lode 26″ Checked Spinner, which is roomy enough that I once packed a small espresso machine in it.
Samsonite recently shut down the eBags website and is marketing the Mother Lode collection as Samsonite (“Now with the trusted Samsonite name behind them, you can continue to enjoy the same great products, just rebranded for a new chapter.”) Hopefully this won’t bring any changes to the products, as these are really great bags: sturdy, lightweight, thoughtfully designed, and with a ton of room.
To make the most of my luggage space, I use compression packing cubes (my spouse swears by gallon-sized freezer bags… more on his system later) and pack a capsule wardrobe of clothes that work together. This may not work for those die-hard maximalist packers, but I’ve always found that I have everything — and sometimes more — that I need.
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