I’ve taken a suitcase my past few trips and survived just fine. It was a bit rough on my three week trip when I was constantly on the move, but nothing too major. IIt’s not too bad if you stay in places for a while, but does suck in the tube stations and hostels though. Most of these places do not have elevators or escalators. My concern was not being able to fit everything in a backpack, but I ordered one and am going to give it a go on my next trip (three weeks) so I’ll let you know which I prefer when I get back!

Thanks for your advice. Know that i would be more comfortable with a suitcase and realise that i will have problems with the tube and stairs. But cant really see my self packing a backpack. Look forward to hearing how you went. Keep me posted.

Assuming you don’t have any disabilities, you can start improving your strength now, and you will be happy when you go, whether you use a suitcase or a backpack. I just used a suitcase for Italy, and had lots and lots of stairs and lack of elevators, and managed fine, including long walks over cobblestones. I’m sure I would have been fine with a backpack too. Either way, though, you really will thank yourself if you pack light. If you’re staying in hostels, backpacks may be a little easier (but again it usually doesn’t matter that much). No more than a 22" suitcase, though.

quote:I know that i should halve what i pack but i am such a girl and want to to travel with the essentials.

Do that and I gaurantee you WILL regret it.

quote: i am such a girl and want to to travel with the essentials

I’m a girl, too, and I realized that "essentials" really only came down to money. When confronted with the reality of hauling around all that stuff, I simplified.

Halve your pack – you’ll be happier. You can always buy things that you think are really essential.

I agree with the above poster. I’m a girl too but I took a backpack and found it so convinient. Lots of cities in europe have cobblestones, steps, etc. Wheeled luggage can break easily.

Plus, as a girl, you will do what most girls do – shopping! You need space for bringing things back. You don’t need to pack much – just the basics. You can always do laundry in Europe. Don’t take electronics – the voltage is different anyway.

Hey, I just realized something, our troops don’t take suitcases overseas. Maybe there’s a good message in that.

I’m still struggling over wheeled backpacks vs. non-toploading regular travel backpacks, like the Victorinox Trek Pack vs. the Eagle Creek Transcontinental. I’d be nice to have the best of both worlds, but are we really getting the best of both worlds? MAYBE in the higher quality Victorinox, I don’t know.
Sometimes I would want the option of being able to ‘take a load off’ and wheel my stuff.
But on the same note, it does stink to be taking up extra real estate behind you when you are wheeling something and not feeling the security of the items right with you on your back.

I still don’t know yet.
I’m basically heading out with the assumption that I leave this place behind, hop around place to place – the freedom to go as I please, and settle to live in the place I eventually find suitable, whether that be after 3 mos. of traveling or 2 years! (money depending of course!)

So I need to pack very wisely!!

Anyway, enough of me; let us know what you decide and why.
Good luck!

I went backpacking through Western Europe last summer and took a whelly suitcase and LOVED it. Honestly, it was never an issue. This might sound crazy but I kept telling my husband that I could have brought one that was a tad bit bigger (I took a really small one). Don’t take anything huge but a moderate size one would work out fine. Just don’t pack it to the brim because you will buy some stuff along the trip. Have fun ;o)

I’m back!! Realize this post is old now, but said I would keep you posted on how I liked backpacking over taking a suitecase. Take a backpack!! I actually had no problem fitting everything in (5400) and it was so much more convenient than when I had a suitcase. That’s all I kept thinking when I was in London taking the stairs in the underground!! I wouldn’t go back to a suitcase in a million years now. Well, at least for trips to Europe. Hope that helps!!

From my experience, the young girls who went with suitcases were always in the way and causing a hastle for everyone around them. That was primarily on the train, and I wanted to kick them all veyr hard. I’m an 19 year old girl, and I managed with a backpack just fine, and was just angry at the girls with massive suitcases who were always in my way. Having to wait an extra 20 minutes to get off a train, because this little girl isn’t strong enough to get her suitcase off the overhead rack by herself and then it is too huge to fit down the narrow aisle between the chairs on the train.
I would then watch as they waited around for some guys to come into the hostel so that they could get their suitcases up the 5 flights of stairs to their rooms.
Suitcases made all the young girls I saw completely helpless. They needed people to carry them for them, and to help them put them up on racks on the train, and they just took up alot more space in general.

I strongly advise against it, but if you are going to take one, at least make sure you can lift it above your head by yourself and carry it up many flights of stairs. But in order for you to be able to do that, I promise all of your "essentials" aren’t going to fit in there, so you might as well just bring a pack.