The Quality of your trip depends on your Carry-on bag

2016-09-06 Ken

Carry ons, backpacks, wallets and other bags

What do you want to do after you quit your job?

I wanted to travel.

I could never relax when traveling when I was at my former company.
Work was always on my mind and I was constantly checking email, though I was telling everyone I wouldn’t be looking at my email during my time off.

Now that I am unemployed, I am really looking forward to traveling, without worrying about anything other than having fun!

When you travel, a carry-on is your companion.
Because the carry-on is your companion, the quality of your trip is going to depend on the quality of your carry-on.

Love for carryon I have always been on the hunt for a better carry-on and I usually buy at least one per year.
I’ve already gone throughout perhaps ten, give or take a few.

I will go far was to say that I do not use a carry-on for the sake of travel, rather, I travel for the sake of using a carry-on.

Yes, the means have become ends and I am totally ok with it.

I have gone through:

TUMI
Rimowa
ACE GENE
Travelpro
Briggs and Riley
Louis Vuitton

and probably more.

Some of them I sold off after one trip because they weren’t practical.
I ended up repurchasing some of the ones I sold off because I had second thoughts about them.

The try and error approach to carry-ons is somewhat inevitable because there aren’t that many reviews out there.

I am going to be sharing with you some of the carry-ons that I’ve purchased in the past and my current line up in the posts to come.

How to find the perfect Carry-on?

Aren’t all carry-ons the same?

Nothing can be further from the truth.

I can’t think of any other product that can vary so much in quality but share the same fundamental design.

A low quality carry-on can break down on you during your trip and can ruin your precious vacation or business trip.

Points that I consider when purchasing a Carry-on

Size (I don’t want to check my bag, I want to be able to carry-on)
Weight (It’s gotta be light)
Sound (The wheels gotta be silent when they roll. Rimowas are loud. Can’t tell at the store because the floors are smooth)
Length of handle (Longer the better. You’ll kick the back of the bag if it’s short and that’s not fun)
Easy to access (The straps on Globetrotters and the like can be annoying)
Outside pocket (Better to have one than not. Rimowas and the like that don’t have outside pockets are inconvenient at airports when taking out laptops, magazines, etc.)
2 wheels or 4 (I personally prefer a 2 wheeler. It’s more of a visual preference but you’ve got to hold on to the 4 wheelers at all times because they’ll roll away from you on buses and slanted surfaces and I don’t want to do that. Also 2 wheelers are easier to roll out in the open)
Design (Carry-ons that cover the above points tend to look dull. Looking good while being practical is the art no one seems to have mastered)

Nail the points above and you’ve found yourself a nice carry-on.

Look forward for some reviews that I’ll be posting from time to time!

I’ll tag them with “Carry-on”.

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