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Everything you need to know about traveling with hand luggage! Moms blog, the practical family blog!


Everything you need to know about traveling with hand luggage!

My best tips on traveling with hand luggage!

We have the Summer holidays 2019 used to in 6.5 weeks 1 x travel around the world. -> You can find the report about the journey here. As the kids and I on this trip exclusively carry-on baggage and me -> here on Instagram In the last few weeks, I have reached a lot of questions on this topic Traveling with hand luggage now updated again.

So, you’re learning today:

What are the advantages of traveling with hand luggage??

1 . You save money when buying tickets! When you book cheap flights, your checked baggage is often not included in the ticket price. The average saving is 30 – 50 € per flight.

2. You save time at the airport, because you do not have to wait at the baggage handling and must be on site about 90 minutes before boarding. Even after landing, everything goes much faster, if you do not have to wait at the baggage conveyor.

3. Transfer to the hotel is possible by public transport. With a large suitcase, a ride on the bus or subway can be quite stressful. With our little trolleys, the ride from our hotel near the Empire State Building to JFK Airport is no problem with public transportation.

4. Even if you travel on with the rental car, traveling with carry-on luggage has advantages. For example, we were able to book a smaller, cheaper rental car category from San Francisco with 4 people and still stow our luggage in the trunk without any problems.

5. You really only take the essentials with you and save a lot of time both when packing the suitcase and when unpacking it! In addition, children of a certain age can take responsibility for their own luggage, so that it is simply more flexible and at the airport, for example. also without luggage cart. I found that particularly helpful when I was traveling alone with the kids from Los Angeles.

Practical: Our luggage fit without problems in the trunk of small Ubers or rental car!

What is not allowed in the hand luggage?

The dangerous items that could serve as a weapon, not allowed in the hand luggage, is probably clear to everyone. Otherwise, you must first of all pay attention to yours Liquids are stored in a transparent, lockable 1 liter bag (zipper bag). There are only packs inside the bag maximum 100 ml allowed (!). safety razor By the way, no problem, loose razor blades or knitting needles but nice. In addition, you are only allowed per person 2 power banks take!

7 kg: Fits! &# 128578;

The planning: How heavy are the trolleys??

To know how much baggage you can plan for each person, you should first the Dimensions or weight restrictions for hand luggage look at the individual airlines on your journey. These are quite different and were enough on our journey from 7 kg p.P inclusive (!) Of personal luggage (Jetstar Asia -> here we had to improvise, that was not possible) up to 11.5 kg p.P. at Hawaiian Airlines. Delta Airlines even existed (08/2019) no weight limit at all for hand luggage.

Also the Dimensions for permitted carry-on luggage can vary: Actually you are with one Hand luggage trolley with the dimensions 55 x 40 x 20 cm on the safe side. at Ryan Air but is e.g. in the standard rate since last year, only a small, personal luggage (handbags, laptop bags or small backpack) with a size of max. 40cm x 20cm x 25cm included in the price. So it makes sense to pay attention to the fine print when booking a flight!

Tip: In my experience, a weight of 7 kg per trolley + 2-3 kg for the personal luggage is also realistic for longer trips. Everything under it is hard to do.

You see: The entire luggage of 3 persons for 6 weeks! &# 128578;

My packing list for our 6.5-week trip around the world:

Basically, the hangs case contents Of course always with the holiday destination and the Weather together on site. Our 45-day trip took us from new York about California, Hawaii, Sydney and Singapore back to Dusseldorf. We stayed partly in hotels, but also in Airbnb apartments. Besides, we were 7 days with one Camper traveling in the national parks of the USA. So it was not a pure one Hotel vacation at the sea , but a mix of one city ​​trip, one Road trip and one Beach vacation – which presented me with a certain challenge regarding the baggage.

The content of my trolley:

  • 5 T-shirts
  • 2 spaghetti straps shirts
  • 1 dress + cardigan
  • 7 x socks (it was so warm that we could often walk barefoot)
  • 14 x underwear
  • shorts
  • beach rock
  • Denim skirt (-> my standard garment for the summer) &# 128578;
  • bikini
  • small microfiber towel (-> For example, cheap at Decathlon)
  • thin rain jacket
  • 1 sweatshirt (+ thick embroidered jacket / fleece jacket I wear on the flight)
  • 1 thin long pants (+ jeans, which I carry on the flight)
  • Flip flops + possibly sandals
  • Cappy
  • Cotton bag for dirty laundry
  • Plastic bag for wet laundry
  • short sleep pants
  • Swimming goggles (- at the K >Luggage scale (* Amazon Affiliate Link)!!

Together it looked like this:

And because again and again targeted questions about toiletry / cosmetics came up:


My fluid bag:

  • cream
  • mascara
  • Lipglos
  • toothpaste
  • suncream
  • flush
  • Insect repellent spray (due to travel time)
  • Drops for nausea ( -> just in case …)

The contents of my 1 liter bag of liquid

Of course, each family member was their own 1 liter bag At our disposal we took advantage of what we did as well as possible: We filled the other bags Sunscreen-Pröbchen. shampoo & shower gel There are both in the hotels and in the Airbnbs – for the road trip in the camper we bought some at Walmart. To save space in the liquid bag, you can also just use a small tin solid shampoo take with you-> For example, at Lush or dm).

If you now wonder how we could get along with so little baggage for so long:

During our journey we have Washed every 10 days on site. That was not a problem at all, because there were Laundry Stations in both Sequoia National Park and Hawaii. If necessary, we could have used the laundry service of the hotel, but I was tended to be too expensive.

Suitcase recommendations for traveling with hand luggage

In order to make the most of the space, it makes sense to use a suitcase or a suitcase. Trolley to buy the maximum dimensions of the main airlines equivalent. An example of this is e.g.. -> this suitcase Amazon Affiliate Link with the dimensions: 55 x 40 x 20cm, Weight: 2.88 kg, a volume of 33 L and a price of about 39 € I for little aviator would recommend. If you fly frequently, it may make sense select higher quality, lighter model with high quality rollers.

A few more tips at the end:

  • You should join in Schedule boarding as early as possible, so you sure as well Space in the luggage compartments finds over your seat. These are often overcrowded, which may result in your luggage being left underneath yours front seat must stow or even before entering the aircraft still have to give (-> you will get it back on the baggage bag after arrival).
  • It can happen that you are yours Suddenly have to hand over “large” hand luggage before entering the aircraft, if the place in the lockers is not enough, so you should definitely pack valuables and sensitive items in your personal luggage!
  • Clothes that take away a lot of space in the suitcase (for example, street shoes, jackets.), we put on the flights or hung over the trolley / under the arm.

After 45 days: Ready for the return flight from Singapore to Germany!

My conclusion:

Even if it is rather a small one in the beginning Challenge was, as a serious project, we have traveling with carry-on baggage We have come to appreciate it so much that we do not have to carry large suitcases even if they are already included in the fare. Why should we make life unnecessarily difficult and take things that we do not actually need? Just because it is inclusive ?? That would be somehow … Crazy! Or?

Also, I’ve come to realize that while traveling, you do not necessarily have to be prepared for any strangest situation and that the rest of the world does not care (or can be) how often I change my outfit.

So, that was my review about traveling with hand luggage. If you have any questions: write to me. Otherwise, of course, I would also be interested in how you see this topic and if you could imagine a family vacation only with carry-on luggage.

More articles about our trip, e.g. on the subject saving tips or Hawaii with children Incidentally, in the next few days follow -> here on my family travel blog!

Here are some answers to questions that have reached me about this post via Instagram or private messages:

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Christina Cherry
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