Hard sided or soft sided suitcase? I have chosen to go with hard sided luggage and I’ll show you how I decided.
I have a set of American Tourister soft sided luggage. I have used it and generally liked it. We travel more and more every year and I ended up switching to a hard sided Samsonite carry on then added a checked bag soon after.
Soft sided pros: Lots of pockets on the outside making small items easy to access. Flap opening rather than clamshell.
Soft sided cons: Lids flop, fabric tears, often they don’t have spinner wheels. No place to put stickers.
Hard sided pros: Built in locks, clamshell design with rigid lid so it doesn’t fold or flop. Hard shell slides on the baggage claim and in and out of rental cars. Gives you a place to put stickers or customize for easy recognition.
Hard side cons: Clamshell can be a con if you can’t lay it out on a rack or floor. Depending on material it can crack.
At the end of the day I prefer a hard side luggage and personal item sized backpack. For work I use a checked bag and when traveling for fun I prefer the smaller carryon hard side. As you can see I also like to decorate my bags in a tribute to the old steamer trunks with all the stickers of places I’ve been.
What do you prefer? Leave me a comment and tell me what did I miss about hard and soft luggage.
Seek adventure and get busy living.
-Ben