What Luggage Should I Buy for My Kids?
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Both Rimowa and Away debuted adorable yet expensivesuitcasesfor kids earlier this year, which lead me to wondering about the current state of children’s luggage. As a category, it has gotten kind offancyrecently. Ride-along and pull-along suitcases have become increasingly popular, and you can even buy kid-specific packing cubes now. But do 4-year-olds actually care what luggage they use? Is there any point in investing in a small suitcase when they’ll be ready for a regular-size one in a couple of years? Aren’t those scootcases kind of annoying to wrangle? To answer these questions and more, I assembled a team ofStrategist parentsto share their traveling-with-kids wisdom. Below, a condensed and edited transcript of our chat.
The best age to buy them a suitcase
Liza Corsillo, senior writer:I’m still packing one suitcase for me and my 2½-year-old son, Arlo, and then my husband packs a backpack, because he doesn’t bring very much with him.
Jen Trolio, senior editor:Now that my kids are 7 and 10, they definitely have their own carry-on suitcases and are responsible for them. Each family to their own, but probably between age 4 and 7 is where the switch happens.
Julia Edelstein, senior editor:My kids are 8 and 11. And we don’t fly that much. But I always check their luggage if we’re going for more than two days. I just find it less stressful when I’m navigating the airport to have less stuff with me. So they share a full-size suitcase, which gets checked, and then they each have a small backpack that they’re responsible for.
Lauren Ro, senior writer:Both Augie (6) and Solomon (3) have their own suitcases, because they just have so much stuff. But they’re not responsible for carrying them. Augie has the bigger State kids suitcase and Solomon has the smaller kids Away suitcase, which is much smaller than a standard carry-on. When you have kids and a bunch of luggage, you want to be as efficient as possible, and the smaller size helps with that. They can more easily drag it.
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Winnie Yang, senior editor:Andie (9) packs for herself now; her backpack usually has her toothbrush, hairbrush, stuffies, Kindle, headphones. And she usually gets her own roller bag (a Travelpro) in addition to the backpack. I got her a fancy Pottery Barn Teen hard-sided spinner when she was 5 or 6. It broke on the first trip, and I vowed never again. Customer service was not good.
J.T.:Pottery Barn does have great colors and patterns on its kids’ luggage; I bought one of my kids a roller bag from there specifically for that reason. But I don’t think it has much of warranty, if any — unlike the more dedicated luggage brands. I would go with State Bags for more colorful kids’ options.
J.E.:I never bought kid-size suitcases because we don’t have a lot of space. In New York, suitcases are one of the biggest storage challenges.
J.T.:I just checked, and the Away kids carry-on doesn’t nest inside the regular Away Carry-On. But itdoesfit inside the Away Bigger Carry-On, just barely.
J.T.:There’s a very strong argument for just buying a 7-year-old a standard adult-size carry-on that they can keep using for many years. Although, when my older daughter was 3, her greatest love was a kid-size DisneyCars-themed suitcase. And it was really easy to sell on Facebook Marketplace, because it’s a licensed character. Somebody will take it off your hands if the telescoping handle still works and all that.
Scootcases and bed boxes
L.R.:We have the Stokke Bedbox, which extends out to turn a plane seat into a bed. But I think we’ve only used that function once. We mainly use it as a suitcase to store anything they might need on the flight, and we’ll put it overhead or under the seat. And in the airport our kids like to sit on it. Somebody can pull them along, or they can use their feet to scoot themselves. People are always like, “What is that? What is that?” Everyone is fascinated by it. It’s a hit.
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L.C.:Arlo has the Micro Kickboard scooter suitcase, and everybody in the airport is very charmed by it. What makes it better than other ride-along suitcases that I’ve seen is that it has the same wheels as a real Micro Kickboardscooter. So the handling is incredible. It’s very good at turning, and doesn’t just tip over when you’re pulling them. It has a good amount of space to fit his clothes, some toiletries, a pair of flip-flops.
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L.R.:One thing I’ll say is that when they’re small, they can also just ride on a big checked suitcase or carry-on.
J.T.:I’ve put my own kids and smallest nieces on top of the Away Bigger Carry-On. It’s fine when they’re little and not too heavy.
Ailbhe Malone, senior editor:We have a hand-me-downTrunkiand it is more of a novelty than anything else. My 3-year-old likes to pack some books in it and any other essentials (a branch, wizard hat, etc.), but I wouldn’t bother taking it on a flight.
Stroller and car-seat strategies
J.T.:Why not just use yourstrollerversus pulling the kid on something like the Stokke?
L.R.:If we were to go to Europe or something, we would probably bring a stroller.
J.T.:So it kind of depends on the destination.
L.C.:When we went to Miami in February, we checked a stroller and my husband carried the car seat on his back like a backpack. But now people tell me never to check the stroller because they’ll always gate check it for you. So I feel like that was maybe a miscalculation.
J.E.:I always gate checked my stroller.
L.R.:You can gate check the car seat, too, if you aren’t using it on the plane.
L.C.:I’m about to take Arlo on Amtrak to Connecticut for two days, and I figured out a way to attach myCostco car seatto the back of ourBugaboo Butterfly 2stroller using two stroller hooks. I’ll be pushing him from Brooklyn to Penn Station that way with a backpack on my back as our luggage.
Packing methods
J.T.:It’s great to get kids involved in packing, although you still have to top edit what they bring, or there will be some wild inclusions and omissions.
We don’t havepacking cubesfor our kids, but I kind of want to get them.
L.R.:I wouldn’t have bought packing cubes for my kids, but Posh Peanut sent me some to test, and I adore them. They’re really good. I like that they have a mesh top cover so you can see what’s inside.
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W.Y.:TheEagle Creek packing cubesare my favorite. During the baby and toddler phases, I always make sure we have two separate small packing cubes in our backpacks, one with diapers and an extra set of clothes for the kid, the other with toys. We also have a separate packing cube with the audio-only baby monitor and white-noise machine, so that that can get pulled out easily at a destination if we’re arriving at nap or bedtime.
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L.R.:We do the same thing.
W.Y.:It’s also helpful to pack according to activity. A cube of just swimming stuff (suits, goggles, swim shoes), sleep stuff (sleep sacks, pajamas, sheets).
J.T.:Yes. If you are going to arrive early and possibly want to swim before your hotel room is ready, pack one cube with the whole family’s swimsuits and goggles. It doesn’t have to be in a carry-on, it just needs to be accessible before you give your luggage to bell services for a few hours. Same goes for having the sunscreen handy.
L.C.:There’s this TikTok hack where people will pack everything in a back-of-the-door shoe hanger, roll it up, and then hang it in the hotel. But I feel like those are kind of dumb?
L.R.:Yeah, you don’t need so many compartments.
L.C.:I tested the Hideaway Duffel, which is designed for family travel and has built-in packing compartments. But all the dividers just take up extra space, in my opinion.
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J.T.:At the end of the day, a big open space with packing cubes of your choice is still going to be more versatile.
Do you monogram?
J.E.:When my older son when was born, somebody gave him a personalized Pottery Barn dinosaur-print duffel bag. And it’s a great bag, but the inscription is actually annoying because I had a second kid, who now has to use a bag with his older brother’s initials. So I’m kind of against monograms unless it’s a memento like a baby blanket.
J.T.:I’m similar to you, the only monograms I would ever do would be on a luggage tag or something removable. I would never put a first name on anything. Just our last name so anybody can use it.
L.C.:Although I’ve got to say that as a kid, my me and my two brothers each had our own L.L.Bean duffel bag, and they were monogrammed with our initials. And we each had a different color. I used that thing through high school, and I was very attached to it.
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When all else fails, there’s Fresh Direct
J.E.:When we drove to Maine for a week, we had this big duffel for tennis rackets and other extra stuff. One or two pairs of shoes wound up in there.
J.T.:The beauty of the road trip is that you can toss extra things into a big Baggu or a Hulken as a kind of miscellaneous bag.
A.M.:I don’t think I will ever travel without the Overflow Tote. We like theAnya Hindmarchones.
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L.C.:I have relatives who have four kids, and when they go between their apartment in the city and their country house, they just pack all of the stuff in Fresh Direct bags.
J.E.:Fresh Direct bags are so good.
L.R.:Liza, you told me that your your niece moved to Yale with Fresh Direct bags instead of luggage.
J.T.:People do that with the big blue Ikea bags sometimes, too.
J.E.:Yeah, the Fresh Direct bags are like a version of that, except they come free with your groceries and you basically have an endless supply.
L.R.:And they’re a better size.
L.C.:Less overwhelmingly large, and they’re easier to store because they fold down really flat.
J.T.:So basically, Hulken made a product out of a Fresh Direct bag but made it look a lot nicer and added wheels.
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