Carrying luggage on trains question

First, you will probably regret having that much luggage on a train or anywhere for that matter. But there is plenty of room. The large bags will go in the luggage storage bin area near the entrance to the car and the carry-on can fit on the overhead luggage racks over your seats. In some car arrangements you have some seats back to back forming an "A" shaped space between the two seat backs that will handle a larger bag. You will have to able to handle all of your luggage in a quick manner getting on and off the train including carrying your luggage up/down three or four narrow, steep steps while others are getting on and off.

Second, you really should rethink your luggage. But that is another discussion for another day.

There is room but traveling on trains and having a lot of luggage don't go well together.
First of all you have to load and unload your own luggage.
Secondly the Regional trains you will be on (Florence to Riomaggiore and out of Riomaggiore) are sometimes crowded (especially at the Cinque Terre), and you have to get on and off quickly with lots of people in between. You may not have been on a train but I'm sure you have seen videos of overcrowded subways in NYC or any big city around the world. Well the crowdness situation on trains at the Cinque Terre is similar.
Check the image below of a train filled with tourists at the Cinque Terre, then picture yourself trying to board that train with 2 large suitcases and two small ones.
http://www.cittadellaspezia.com/foto/2015/08/14/akcvpmwo.jpg

I hope that you don't really mean 2 large suitcases and two carry-on sized suitcases. That would be a lot.

In our terms, a carry-on sized suitcase is our large bag (9" × 21" × 14", maybe expandable for the way home). Our day bag or "personal item" (in airline-speak) is a much smaller purse, tote, or backpack. While you could still pack the kitchen sink and make them too heavy, those sizes are relatively easy for each person to manage in a variety of situations. And they'll fit onto most train luggage racks as well as airplanes. Slightly larger could be fine if that's what you already own. Note also that some Italian hotels have no elevator, or it starts a half-floor up from the street entrance, etc.

Rome-Florence is a direct route, just depends on how fast a train you choose to ride on. The fast trains will resemble the insides of an airplane and they'll be room near the doors to squirrel your luggage out of the way. The regionals will be nice but, not as appointed as the faster trains. Overhead shelving above the seating areas should be large enough to put carry-on luggage.

The other two routes you're riding on will be regional trains, and require a few train changes so get ready to lift & hoist a bunch of times not to mention there will be no luggage storage areas other than the overhead shelf; start working out your arm & shoulder muscles. Best advice would be to ride as early in the morning as you can with the hope you'll avoid the crush of tourists descending upon Cinque Terre. If you're bringing basic carry-on luggage, you should have no issues just having it between your legs as you sit or, in the overhead. If it's crowded...your best bet may be to just stand in the door areas opposite of the boarding door, straddling your luggage.

Large suitcases in the Cinque Terre is a recipe for disaster. Not only are the alleyways and stairways narrow, but the staircases to your rental/bedroom will be even narrower and involve near vertical stair climbing. As the saying goes, No one has ever returned from a vacation saying, I wished I brought more

Besides considering the large suitcase/train issue, I see you're going to Venice. Venice is an amazing location, but it will test your patience & endurance if you're each dealing with a large suitcase and a carry-on. At the end of every short street is a bridge, and the streets aren't typically a straight path from Point A to Point B. Up/down, up/down, up/down all of those bridges to reach your hotel. Seriously consider how you could just take a carry-on suitcase. Many of us on the Forum wouldn't travel any other way because of these benefits.

You will learn very quickly how much of a hassle having more than one bag to drag around is. Hubby and I are avid carry on/small personal size only travelers. Only reinforced when my mom came to Italy with us and had a large, 30" or so bag, as well as a carry on size (21"). So hubby ended up dragging the large bag and a personal, I had two carry ons to drag around, and my mom had the other carry on and the other personal size. A real P-I-T-A. If you are going to have a large bag, try to keep the other one to a manageable size that you can carry on your shoulder or strap to the other bag.

Venice is where I lost the rubber coating off one of my bag wheels after bouncing it up and down the stairs on the bridges and rolling it over the cobbles and bumpy surfaces.

And for the love of all that is holy, make sure to have your stuff and be at the door to get off a few minutes before you get to your train stn. For some reason, my mom and husband didn't do this when we were arriving in Rome (I was ready to get off, they sat and waited until the train stopped). So they had to struggle thru all the people trying to get on with their own bags...I was starting to worry they wouldn't get off, so make sure you are ready to move.

Getting on and off the trains with all that luggage is the problem I am seeing. The step up onto the train is big and the stops are short. Like a pp mentioned you should have bags in hand ready to move when that train stops at your destination. If you need to switch trains, your next train can be on another track which is down stairs, through a tunnel and up stairs and leaves in 7 minutes, making having that much luggage to handle even more stressful. We were glad we traveled light in these instances. We each had a carry on suitcases and a personal item and everything fit overhead on all our trains, regional and fast. We are more comfortable keeping our luggage with us at all times. Unlike an airplane we found the bins above our seats always empty and had no problem finding space.

You REALLY need to rethink the luggage! As others have said, you will need to haul this stuff on and off trains with limited time to do so, as well as up and down stairs and along cobblestones. Not a pretty picture. I am sure you can goole or u-tube videos of people struggling with luggage in Europe. Please look at them!
Yes, you can travel for 2-3 wks or more with a 21" carry-on. Check this site for packing suggestions and use the search function for packing suggestions.

The OP cwclark15 hasn't returned to comment on the amount of luggage, but he/she didn't note how many people are traveling in that group. It could be a family, for which 2 regular suitcases and 2 carry-ons would be reasonable.

Whatever you do with your luggage, be sure to watch it carefully so that it doesn't "disappear" (I've seen that happen). There will be racks over your seat where you can store the smaller carry-on size items. Larger items will go either on the luggage rack at the end of the car (as others have mentioned) or in the "A" between the seat backs.

I agree that it would be nice to know how many people in the travel party. I hope OP tells us. Lots of great advice. We did carry on and two trains. I can't imagine 2 of us dealing with that amount of luggage and I love my stuff. I check bags staying in the states, but no way overseas moving around.

Thanks everyone for the replies- you guys gave us some great information. It is just me and my wife going on the trip. I think we will probably just do 2 carry on size bags and one backpack or duffle bag. Seems like a nightmare to get big bags off the trains!

There you go, OP! You'll thank us later! :)

My wife and I just got back from Rome and Sorrento, only one change of lodging and one train ride with bags. Each of us had a 21" carry-on spinner (which we checked through on the flight overseas) and each had a duffel, which when walking sits atop the spinner through the handle. Worked well on the train, which we preferred to hoist onto the overhead rack rather than in between the cars--personal preference. Used them two years ago for multiple train rides from Paris down to southern Italy, and were happy we didn't take more stuff.

And what a great reason to pick up a few wearable souvenirs!

Yes, always travel light, especially taking trains, often the stairway to the car is long, steep, and narrow, each step wide enough for half a foot. Storage racks fill up fast, and it's Not easy hoisting large luggage overhead.

Smart to take a carryon each, that's how I do it, and you say duffel bag, I use the RS Euro Flight bag, and that's all !

The next thing to do is to take a "local" trip with your packed luggage. By local, I mean if you have stairs in your house, go up and down them with your packed cases. Can you and your wife do this comfortably? Lift your bag up over your head? Can you do it comfortably? If not, re-pack until either you can do it with both carry-ons or you can each handle your own. I'm 61 and would not think of traveling unless I can do each of these things. Believe me, you will be glad you packed light.

I love my clothes and shoes, so when that 20" RS carry on suitcase arrived, I laughed and stared at it for a week thinking there is no way! I also bought the veloce bag...which is absolutely awesome BTW, and the "don't tell Rick" bag, which I used. Coming home I enlarged my bag and Checked it, and used my "don't tell Rick bag" as my carryon. Before my trip, I typically travel in the states with a 30" 50 lb. suitcase.

So...I decided to take everyone's advice and it worked! You won't believe the clothing I fit in that bag! How? I rolled my clothes. Another first and now I do it all the time. It's amazing how much less they wrinkle that way, it's amazing. I don't use cubes in that bag though I get more in without it. I took one pair of nice black high wedges for evenings and 2 walking sandals. I didn't do the color coordinated thing, but it was okay if I wore the same thing once in each city. My veloce bag is your personal item and I had it full of stuff..including my makeup and curlers...plus travel purse, travel documents, etc. I also used it as a foot rest on the plane. I got 18 items of clothing, not counting my bathing suit, hat, underwear, curling iron, shoes, etc. in my suitcase!

My husband bought a little bigger carryone. A 22" Eagle Creek 2 wheel. He bought one of the shirt travel packs...got 12 shirts in it and it zips in the bag. He brought quite a bit, too. Also, he had a backpack for his personal item.

https://www.rei.com/product/866231/eagle-creek-original-pack-it-garment-folder-medium?CAWELAID=120217890000858880&CAGPSPN=pla&CAAGID=16061542960&CATCI=pla-294354772785&cm_mmc=PLA_Google%7C404_55277%7C8662310001%7Cnone%7C4406caf9-ad32-42c7-a863-f3b1ea172ef5%7Cpla-294354772785&lsft=cm_mmc:PLA_Google_LIA%7C404_55277%7C8662310001%7Cnone%7C4406caf9-ad32-42c7-a863-f3b1ea172ef5%7Cpla-294354772785&gclid=CKHM3KXRhdMCFQWQaQodZZYFYQ

If you buy the Don't tell Rick bag, my advice is to not undo it. It's so nice and compact. You'll never get it that flat again. Take my word on it, just pack it as is.

You can do this!

All the advice on bag size and ease of lifting is excellent. We travel with 20" and 22" rolling bags with removable backpacks and find them great - One tip if you are attempting to downsize is to look at compression bags for your stuff.

I use Ziploc Space Bag Travel Bags - in a variety of sizes. You would not believe how small a package of clothing can get when you remove the air from the bag. If you travel with light weight non creasing clothing even better, But that said the few dress shirts my husband takes always just shake out with few wrinkles. The bags are quite small when not in use so you can take a few extras for your return packing, in case you are planning to shop.

I think if there is one crucial thing I would tell people in order to pack efficiently, it would be, as Lulu says above, to roll your clothes. Here's a quick tutorial for T-shirts, but you can adapt it to everything:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7LaBlHgqqg

You will be doing it multiple times--repacking, with dirty or clean laundry, so practice before you leave. A hard surface works best--doing it on a bed just doesn't cut it. Simply amazing how much stuff you can get into a small suitcase or carry-on doing it this way. Of course, wash-and-wear clothes are necessary for this tactic.

I don't think any one packing method is superior to another. After all, the laws of physics always applies to your packing. There is a limit to how much an item can be compressed. Over 20+ years of travel we have tried them all. The worse is the bundle method. We used one small folding envelope for all shirts and pants, 2-gal, zip lock bags for underwear, socks, and one small packing cube for misc., hard to pack items. Compression bags and similar items are over kill in our opinion. The basic idea is to pack what you need and not how much can I pack in one bag. There is a difference.

I never quite got the usage of compression packs - I mean - I'm only allowed 22 lbs in my carry on, so I figure if I went compression to fit more in my bag, it'd be overweight anyway. As it is, everything I want to take fits in my bag, but I usually have to take a few things out to keep it at the allowed weight.

Compression bags may make it possible to use a smaller suitcase. A smaller suitcase usually weighs less. Therefore, use of compression bags may reduce your overall weight--though only if you trade down in terms of suitcase size.

I used one small compression bag on my last trip and liked having underwear/sleepwear in a small, compact package rather than in an amorphous plastic bag. There was actually a bit of extra room in my suitcase, which made packing easier when I changed hotels. This year I'm going to try rolling my tops and putting them in a bag, too. Not sure whether I'll dare to compress them.

For both of you, can you reduce your luggage to just one approximately carry on sized duffle bag per person? Can you each bring an empty lightweight backpack, empty, stuffed into the carry on sized bags? What is the minimum amount of stuff you need to carry, to just barely survive on your trip?

The main thing that I agree with RS on ( I have been traveling and have lived in Europe on and off since 1991) is TAKE ONE BAG and one back pack and do laundry or pay someone to do it! It is that simple. Carry everything on if you are going in high season...luggage gets lost and most Euro sizes do not fit Americans. One 22" rolling carry on and one day bag/bag pack or tote. I alway pack a medium sized duffle ( think gym bag) at the bottom of my suitcase for items that I buy, I stuff my clothing in it on the way home and check one hardsided piece of luggage with breakables on the way home. RS's packing tips are perfect. Keep your luggage IN SIGHT at all times, so wherever you put it, make sure someone in your party is watching it...I always tie my bag to my traveling companions with a piece of ribbon so pulling one suitcase off will make the other fall and surprise the person who is taking it, most of the time by accident...but what if they got off the train with my bag and left theirs??? :) Enjoy!

Also, when we put our bags overhead on the train, we put them opposite of where we sat, instead of over our own heads. That way when the train stopped and people got on and off we could sit there and watch our bags.

Also, when we put our bags overhead on the train, we put them opposite of where we sat, instead of over our own heads. That way when the train stopped and people got on and off we could sit there and watch our bags.