As we are still waiting on our house to sell, we are proceeding with our plans for full time travel, so we decided to go ahead and to start looking at carry on suitcases.
We made a couple of trips to the store to look at carry on suitcases and after a while they all started looking the same. Some of them had more features than others, some were definitely better quality than others, you definitely get what you pay for. After much shopping, research and reading a ton of reviews we have decided to go with the AWAY Bigger Carry-on Bag.
The reasons we chose this particular bag were many, it gave us a little bit more interior space, and even though it’s only an inch all the way around that could really make a difference. The other reason is the quality. The reviews on the AWAY bag are top notch. AWAY usually ranked in the number one position for carry-on bags across the board, only in a couple of the reviews it was beat out by MONOS due to the handle on the MONOS being wider and more stable, however for us that wider handle wouldn’t work as we are going to be sliding a bag over the handle and most of the bags/backpacks we looked at that have the back strap that slides over the handle on the carry-on, wouldn’t fit over the MONOS bag handle.
We also had to consider the durability of the wheels as we are going to be in many countries with cobblestone or very uneven street surfaces. With the AWAY carry-on the wheels got great reviews and have an excellent return/repair warranty.
Another thing we really liked is the interior compression board with several zip pockets for additional storage plus one small hanging pocket, this bag comes with a laundry bag, has TSA approved combination lock and has an underside grab handle making it easier to retrieve from the overhead bin. It also comes with a leather name tag which can be monogrammed for an additional fee you can monogram your luggage. The top and side handle make it easy for lifting and maneuvering.
We chose the Limited-Edition colors of Espresso Brown for him and Cream white for her. We decided against the expandable carry-on as we did not want to over weigh our bag or risk the temptation of overpacking the bag and it possibly not fitting into the overhead bin.
There are several accessories you can purchase from AWAY such as the packing cubes, toiletry bag, shoe cube, cosmetic bag or even a tech case. There are many options I did not list but you can follow the link to their website and see which options are available.
We are not being paid to promote AWAY and are not affiliated with AWAY, it just happens to be the carry-on suitcases we chose for our travels.
If you’d like any further information on carry-on suitcases that we looked at you can follow the link to our YouTube channel as we posted a video of our shopping excursions. We hope this helps you if you are in the market for a new carry-on.
We are hoping to be leaving soon for our travels, we have sold the Mini Cooper, and our storage shed and only have a few more of the bigger items to sell. Much of the small items we are selling we won’t put up for sale until the house sells, and then we will do one weekend only garage sale and anything that doesn’t sell we will donate to charity. So, we are praying this house sells soon so we can be on our way to our new life overseas.
We have had many people inquiring about why we don’t just start our travels and leave the house here. This is not a vacation that we are going on for a few weeks and then returning to our home, we’ve been doing that for years, we are moving overseas and will go back to Washington State to visit our children three times per year but will not be returning to Florida unless we are traveling through. We do not want to leave our house sitting empty with that worry and we certainly do not want to rent it out. The goal is to get the house sold and then start our new life overseas. So, our only focus now is to get rid of all of our stuff which has been a huge endeavor in itself and to get this house sold. We have booked a couple of cruises for 2026 and 2027. (More details on those later) and we are looking at our first-year goals once we get going. Where we start will be decided on what time of year we start and that won’t be decided once again until after the house gets sold. So hopefully, the next update will be that we are in the final stretch here and the moving truck is on the road.
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