This was for a trip to London and Paris in March/April of 2025. Trip length was two weeks.
Checked Bag: I brought my TravelPro Maxlite 5 carry-on spinner. It has always stood me in good stead and is a real trooper. Everything fit well abd when I weighed it after packing, it only weighed 15.6 lbs. Woot!
Carry-on Bag: I brought along my new 28L Blast Quick Access Backpack that I bought in early January. I tested it on my Florida trip and liked it. It’s a clamshell style and holds a lot, and also has a laptop compartment, plus a pocket for shoes and a top pocket you can access quickly. So it held all my small bags with toiletries, meds, chargers, plugs, cords, adaptors, and other miscellaneous stuff. This one had a water bottle holder on one side, which I used. There is an expandable version, but I got the 28L non-expandable and it worked well for me. I really liked that I could get to just about everything without having to dig.
Personal/Day Bag: I should have brought my Roka Canfield backpack, but I was worried about having to carry 2 backpacks, so instead I brought my Tom Bihn Sidekick bag, which I used as a crossbody. It worked okay and was easy to throw into the backpack before I boarded (didn’t want to get dinged by the gate agents), but it just didn’t hold enough while I was out and walking around. So I ended up taking an Eddie Bauer packable backpack with me every day, which I also brought (see next paragraph). Next time I’ll stick with the Roka bag.
Extra Bags: I brought two packable backpacks with us—an older Eddie Bauer backpack, and the larger G4Free 40L Packable Backpack for the kids to use for bringing back souvenirs. So on the flight home, we checked our suitcases (packed with clothes), then packed our gifts and souvenirs in the 2 packable backpacks, and our personal bags. We all chose fairly small items so it worked pretty well.
Grandkids: Each grandkid had a 20” hard-side spinner carry-on and a backpack. My grandson’s was the Lolë Quilted Laptop Backpack from Costco in green (more of a grey/green), and my granddaughter’s was a small Roka Canfield bag I bought for her as a birthday gift. They each wore a waist belt under their clothing that I bought at the last minute at Sierra. My grandson’s belt had his cell phone in it and his Oyster card. My granddaughter’s belt had her Oyster card, but also an Apple AirTag. So I could track both of them, just in case. I carried their passports—they received them going through security, but gave them immediately back to me.