Weekend Wanderlust
Part 1 — Choosing/handling your hand luggage

When I went on my first trip, I brought a large duffle bag for a two night stay in Düsseldorf, Germany. Although it gave me plenty of space, I soon learned that lugging a heavy bag on one shoulder while you’re late, lost, and searching for wifi is far from ideal. Being physically uncomfortable and scatterbrained is not a good combination, so I made a mental note to get a small piece of rolling luggage before my next trip.
55x40x20 cm — get to know this very standard measurement of hand luggage. It’s your first step in finding a piece of luggage that will be allowed on most airlines. Here’s an official guide to baggage size and weight allowances on most European airlines, but I never had a problem with my 55x40x20 suitcase.


To be fair, not everyone needs a rolling suitcase for traveling. Tons of young people backpack their way across Europe. If that works for you, that’s great! But personally, I’m too much of a princess for that.
All jokes aside though, I found a sense of security in my suitcase because there was only one zipper that gave access to my belongings, which I could lock. This is pretty important if you stay in a hostel that doesn’t provide private lockers or the lockers are too small for large items. For example, one of my hostels in Dublin had really old lockers that were impossible to lock, and in Amsterdam, my hostel didn’t provide lockers at all. So, it was essential that I was able to secure my things in a room shared with strangers. With backpacks, you might be able to lock the main compartment. Just keep this in mind when deciding what works best for you.
I highly recommend visiting your local Primark (I linked an article from their website) and finding luggage there. I purchased a hardshell bag for about 35€ and it survived 9 destinations! If I had treated it with more care, it would have survived my last 3 destinations. But I when I arrived to Berlin, the zipper expansion completely unraveled and I had to carry my bag from our bus stop to the hostel and immediately find a Primark (yes, I was a sight to see).

Most hostels will have a setup similar to the picture above. Whenever I would leave my luggage unattended in a hostel, I would lock the main zipper with a small lock and simply place the bag in a provided locker. Small locks are often sold in packs of two, so I would use the second lock to lock the locker itself if it didn’t come with a key like the photo above (two locks = double protection, which eases anxiety for an anxious traveler such as myself). If there weren’t any lockers, I’d just lock my luggage and leave it in the room.
Although nothing was ever stolen from me in a hostel, I have plenty of friends who have mysteriously had phone chargers, clothes, and toiletries disappear from their unattended luggage. A general rule of thumb while traveling is to not trust anyone, and this is especially true with a bag that contains your passport, medications, glasses, and other irreplaceable items.
Please continue on to Part 2 for a packing list specifically for short trips!