Don’ t waste your weight limits by owning heavy suitcases!  On a recent trip, I weighed our cases before I even began packing.  They weighed over 13 pounds and this was before I had even added one pair of socks!

With average weight restrictions on most flights being only 50 pounds, I was frustrated with giving up over 20% of the maximum allowance to the suitcase.  But where to begin looking for a new case?

There are so many options when it comes to luggage.  Since we would be making a substantial financial investment in them, I wanted to give some thought to what we needed.

My body is aging and lifting cases has become more difficult over the years.   I want to be able to move the cases easily.  I was looking for a case which could be pushed or pulled.  My last wish was for adjustable handles, since there is a significant height difference between my husband and I.

We knew we would be taking these cases around the world.  I needed them to be sturdy but as light as possible since we might be away for long trips, which might require a lot of clothing.

There were many things which distracted me while I was shopping, such as built in power banks, but sticking to my original wishes, I realized these would just  weigh the bag down.

A little research and a shopping trip later, we ended up with these great bags from Travel Pro.   With over 8,000 reviews, customers consistently expressed how happy they were with the cases.  Many had completed hundreds of trips and still saw the bags outperforming others.  I was sold.

The Travelpro Maxlight 5 is regularly featured on many travel blogs (which is how I had found it).There are 4 different size options ranging from carry on to 29″.  There is also an underseat tote.

We chose the 26″ for our needs.  This large suitcase weighs just 7.5 pounds!  This gave me an additional 5+ pounds of wiggle room, compared to our older luggage.

With 10 choices of colors, the most difficult decision was which one to choose. In the end, we defaulted to our trustworthy black.  Although we loved many of the color choices, we worried that some of the lighter ones might show the dirt (even though they are stain restistant), we just wanted low maintenance.  We also knew that we would eventually tire of the colored cases,  or they would become obsolete in time.  Since we expect to keep these for a while, we stuck with the tried and true.

There were additional features which attracted us to this luggage such as:

• spinner wheels- so we don’t have to pull the case.
• multiple locking positions on the handle-adjusts for tall/short people.
• a water and stain resistant exterior- which is handy if the case sits outside in inclement weather (as ours did on our 2021 trip to England).
• side handles AND top handles-for easy grabbing in every direction off of those overfull baggage carousels.
• an expanding zipper- which adds an additional 2 inches of depth to the case.  Great when you buy too many souvenirs.
• many zippered sections-to tuck in those odd items.
• a separate lid pocket-great for separating and organizing.
• patterned interior-this was especially helpful with the small tote.  No more caverns of dark fabric when reaching into a deep bag.
• interior straps-to keep the contents snug.