Rick Steves bag

I have both the new convertible/carry on in the older model rollaboard. I feel that you get a good value for the price, you could easily pay substantially more but not get better quality for the extra money. Your exact question is also being discussed right now on the To The Boot section. And you can use the search box in the upper right corner to find the many comments that have been made on a helpline about these bags.

I have a 6 year old convertible bag, I love it. the three best features; it is really well constructed, it unzips all the way so you can lay it open and get at your stuff easily and it has the shoulder strap or back pack strap feature. I bought the packing cubes and use giant zip lock bags to keep stuff organized.

Hi Heather,
My husband and I are also going to Italy but on the 18th of Sept. It will be our first time traveling abroad together. I'm going to use a carry on bag with wheels,that we owned,and we just purchased for him Rick Steves' new convertible carry-on. We received the bag the other day and it looked great and well made. I'll let you know when we return how we made out with it. With everything I've researched/and read, it does seem like "the way to go". We'll see!
Joanne

I have the new Rollerboard and am very pleased. I consider myself something of a luggage snob. I travel every week with a 22" Vitronox that cost about twice what Rick charges. So I wasn't sure about the bag. I think it's great.... It has GREAT pockets on the outside (a lot nicer then the bag currently beside me in the DTW airport LOL!) The quality seems very good. My only complaint is that the "hanger" attachement to strap on other pieces does not come off. That means there is a risk it could be damaged when the bag is checked.

Heather, we have both rolling and convertible bags from RS - we've used them 4+ years and they've been our only bags for multiple extended european trips. They even made extra trips when we loaned them to our son. Bottom line, we've never had a single problem. I used to use my Tumi bags but now exclusively use the RS bags. Unlike our Tumi bags (which look great but cost a ton more money) the wheels and extending handles have never had a problem. Although we try to travel with only one bag each (we believe in the RS approach to travel), we've occasionally needed two bags each. When we hook the non-wheeled convertible bag to the roller bag's strap, they balance extremely well for rolling through airports and on sidewalks - you can't tell you're hauling two bags. Have a fun trip.

Thanks everyone. And Will, thanks for the tip as I've been thinking about getting one of each but was concerned that one of us would get stuck hauling the convertible around the airport lines. My husband was particularly concerned - I'm not sure why ;-)