BootsnAll Travel Community

Okay, here's my situation. First, off I plan on taking a suitcase on my travels, rather than a backpack, partially because I've had some shoulder problems recently and partially cause I'm not doing a typical backpacking trip. Instead, I'm going to a country, renting an apartment for 2-3 months and then heading to another country and doing the same. I plan on repeating this 3-5 times during my travels.

So...I currently own two suitcases. One of them is a relatively small, 22 incher. The other is a humongous 28 incher . I just checked and I can fit everything that I was planning on taking in the smaller suitcase. But...it's really, really tight which means I won't be able to pick anything up during my travels (souveniers or anything I forgot to initially pack). The larger one has room for everything I might need and more. But it is quite large.

So if you were me which suitcase would you take and why?

I would definitely take the smaller one, no contest.

- Lugging something big, even for a short distance, can turn out to be quite a chore.
- You probably won't even use everything you take with you.
- You can ship things home as you buy them - I did that for three years and lived out of a small (10kg) backpack.
- Your shoulder won't get any better lugging a large suitcase around.

Hope this helps!

I agree, and for a few additional reasons. For me, anyhow, having the larger one would probably inspire me to lug more stuff around. If you're going to be spending a few months in each place, sending things back will probably be a necessity anyway.

I might think "whoa, what if the small suitcase inspires me not to buy beautiful but bulky souvenirs and I regret that later?" But - even the larger suitcase will fill up, I imagine, and you would then need to either ship things home or stop buying anyway.

Just my 2c

What Kate is describing is the universal rule of packing:
Junk expands to fit the space available.

Take the small one.

Hi there,
I would probably bring the small one, but I would also bring a daypack (or a carry-on). Afterall, you won't be moving around that much and it is nice to have a little room in there for stuff you pick up along the way.
Anyways, to be honest, I don't view this as a big dilhemma.
I just love shopping for souvenirs and so on almost all of my trips, I leave with one bag but come back with two.
You can always buy a bigger one along the way if the need arises... They're pretty cheap in many countries...
Your trip sounds like fun! Good luck!

Yep, go with the small one, you need much less than you think. We packed very light and still have not used some of the things we brought with us after 15 months.

The daypack that folds up to nothing is a good idea. We have done month long trips with just small daypacks.

Less is more.

I'm going to disagree with everyone and say bring the larger one...my reasons are below:

1) You will have more room (obviously).
2) If you don't fill it up it won't be that heavy.
3) If you are living in an apartment you don't have to worry about leaving it and things getting stolen.
4) You can pick up Souvenir's and pressies to take home for everyone.
5) You will only have to bring a very small daypack, rather like a purse.

I personally like big suitcase's, especially if you're not moving around much...

Wow, thanks for all the responses! Definitely lots to think about. Shipping things home isn't something I had thought about. Seems kind of expensive though. Fedex and UPS were quoting rates of $100+ to ship a 5 pound package back from Mexico. Am I missing something?

Anyway, I was leaning towards the smaller one but now I'm not so sure. Getting everything in is really tough and I've tried lots of different ways. So...now I'm thinking of one of the following options:

1) Breaking down and buying a medium-sized suitcase.

2) Going with the smaller suitcase and supplementing it with something else (another small suitcase or a small duffel bag).

I think choice two is good. Get a stuffable daypack type thing and use the smaller suitcase :-)

quote:

Fedex and UPS were quoting rates of $100+ to ship a 5 pound package back from Mexico. Am I missing something?

Yes. We call it "the mail." It's not as fast as UPS or Fedex, and in some countries there's complicated rules about how you package things - having to sew them up a specific way, things like that - but it's significantly cheaper.

Stopped by Salvation Army today and picked up a Jansport backback/daypack for $2. Cool. If later on I need something bigger, I can ditch the Jansport with no problem, given how little I spent on it.

I'm going to try and be creative, not to mention practical.

The problem with a suitcase is that lugging it a fair distance can take out a shoulder over time. So.....

Break down and buy one of those rolling suitcases of reasonable quality, and you can ROLL them on city streets and pull them up the stairs.

I myself have a backpack. That doesn't mean I don't get envy attacks when I see people confident enough about their destinations to have a medium sized roller. Sometimes techology is good.

I'd totally go with the smaller suitcase & daypack option, mailing home stuff if needed. You'll be glad you did.