My first piece of luggage was my big brother old backpack. I loved it, it had already travelled quite a bit, was worn out just enough, had slept under the stars, had been up in the mountains and had rested on sandy beaches. It had a history and every scratch was a souvenir. It was now ready to share my adventures!
Truth be told it was also very uncomfortable, too small and still too heavy when full, my clothes were a mess, and the whole thing got soaked on several occasions.
Despite this love / hate relationship, when Mister and I went on our first road trip in the US and Canada, we both bought some new and fancy backpacks. It seems I just couldn’t get other backpacks, there is something about them that looks bold and courageous, and that says “I am traveling the world and I’m cool!”.
But again, if truth must be told, it wasn’t such a good idea. The 2 bags barely fitted in the trunk, we had to squeeze and fight every day. Those also had numerous pockets which were really just there to make sure our stuff would play hide and seek all the time! Pretty much everyday, we had to repack everything, it was just frustrating…
Yes, the love affair I had, came to an end and I finally bought a suitcase for our follow-on trips and… it does make life easier 99% of the time!
When doing a road trip, your luggage actually stay in the trunk pretty much all day and the only time you carry it, is from the parking lot to the hotel and back. At least most of time that’s all! Suitcases are definitively best as they fit better in the trunk of the car as long as not too big.
I always carry an extra folding bag which is empty when we leave but which we use on the road so the extra stuff we don’t need can stay in the trunk. Things like the walking shoes, the big sweaters we won’t be using which take too much space anyway and are squeezing everything else in our suitcases.
When parking our car for a visit or a hike, I am forbidden to leave anything in the car interior. Everything has to go in the trunk! So with 2 suitcases and my extra folding bag, we usually have enough space to put the other small things we won’t be carrying. All that would unlikely happen with backpacks.
And maybe as we’ve grown older and the backpacks are not suitable anymore with our travel style? But that’s something I don’t want to think about!!
What about you? Are you backpack or suitcase?
I truly enjoy reading on this website, it holds good content. “Never fight an inanimate object.” by P. J. O’Rourke.
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