The short version
One bag, 40 to 65 litres, soft-sided. Hard vs soft, wheels vs straps, what size actually works, and where the money is worth spending.
Buy for the trip you actually take, not the trip you imagine. For most people that means one bag of 40–65 litres, soft-sided, that you can carry for ten minutes without hating it. Wheels are for airports and pavements. Everywhere else, they are dead weight with a handle.
I spent eight seasons as a porter before I did anything else, which means I have carried other people’s luggage up a lot of stairs. You learn quickly which bags were bought by someone who thought about the whole journey and which were bought in a hurry.
- One bag, 40–65 litres, soft-sided covers the overwhelming majority of trips.
- Hard shells protect; soft shells absorb. Choose by what you carry, not by what looks smart.
- Carry-on only is the single biggest upgrade to a trip — no waiting, no losing, no fees.
- Weigh the empty bag before you buy. A heavy shell eats your allowance before you pack a sock.
- Wheels are a liability anywhere with steps, gravel, dirt or a porter.
Hard shell or soft shell
Soft-sided wins for most travellers, and hard shells win for fragile contents. That is the whole decision, and everything else is preference.
A hard shell is a box. It protects a camera body or a bottle of something, it wipes clean, and it will not let you cram in the extra jacket at the end. A soft shell squashes into an overhead locker, absorbs an awkward extra pair of shoes, and survives being thrown into the back of a jeep because it has nothing rigid to crack.
Crush-resistant · water-resistant · wipes clean · heavier empty · zero give · cracks rather than dents
Squashes into tight spaces · external pockets · lighter · absorbs overpacking · tears can be repaired
The failure modes differ in a way nobody mentions in the shop. A cracked hard shell is finished. A torn soft shell gets stitched by anyone with a machine, which matters if you are a long way from a replacement.
What size you actually need
Between 40 and 65 litres covers almost every trip, including long ones. Below 40 you are doing laundry constantly; above 65 you are carrying things you will not use, and airlines start charging for it.
| Size | Suits | Reality check |
|---|---|---|
| Under 30 L | Weekends, day use | Fine as a second bag, not as your only one |
| 40 L | Carry-on for any length of trip | The sweet spot — fits most cabin rules, forces discipline |
| 60–65 L | Checked bag, treks, cold-weather kit | Enough for a fortnight with a down jacket in it |
| 75 L+ | Expeditions, families sharing | You will fill it because it is there. That is the problem |
Forty litres is the number worth remembering. It is roughly the largest bag most airlines will accept in the cabin, and a trip where you never check a bag is a materially better trip: nothing is lost, nothing is delayed, and you walk straight out of the terminal.
Wheels, straps, or both
Take wheels only if your whole trip is airports, pavements and hotel lobbies. The moment there are stairs, cobbles, dirt roads or a bus roof, wheels stop being a convenience and become two kilograms of plastic you are dragging.
Four-wheel spinners glide beside you on smooth floors and are useless on anything else; two fixed wheels tolerate rough ground far better because you tow them at an angle rather than balancing them upright. A duffel with backpack straps does everything a wheeled bag does except roll, and it weighs less than half as much empty.
That middle number is the one people miss. A wheeled hard case can weigh 4–5 kg before you put anything in it. On a 20 kg allowance you have spent a quarter of it on the container.
Durability, price, and where the money actually goes
Spend on zips and stitching, not on brand or features. Bags almost never fail in the fabric — they fail at the zip, the seam where the handle meets the body, and the wheel housing.
Under about $60 you are buying a bag with a zip that will split. Between roughly $60 and $250 you are buying genuine durability, and above that you are mostly buying design. Look for chunky YKK-style zips, bar-tacked stress points, and a handle stitched through a reinforced panel rather than riveted to the shell.
A luggage scale costs less than one overweight-bag fee and removes the entire category of airport anxiety. Weigh at home, weigh again before the return leg when you are carrying souvenirs you did not plan for.
Packing it, once you have it
Cubes do not save space — they save time and stop you unpacking the whole bag to find one shirt. Anyone claiming compression cubes create room is selling you something; what they genuinely do is turn a bag into a chest of drawers.
Roll soft items, fold structured ones, put the heavy things at the wheel end or against your back, and keep one dry bag for anything that leaks. The full method is in our guide to packing a suitcase properly, and if you are going carry-on only, that has its own discipline.
Where this changes completely — and it is worth knowing
Every rule above assumes your bag stays with you. On a trek it does not. This is the part general luggage advice never covers, because most people writing it have never handed a bag to someone else to carry.
On a Nepali lodge trek your main bag is carried by a porter, usually two bags at a time, on trails made of stone steps. A wheeled suitcase is genuinely the wrong object there — it cannot be strapped to a load, the wheels catch, and the rigid shell will not sit against a back. Duffels exist for exactly this reason.
There is a weight limit too, and it is not arbitrary. Trekking companies here cap what a porter carries because the alternative is injuring the person carrying it. Bring a duffel your kit fits inside with room to spare, and a daypack you carry yourself with water, layers and documents.
We have outfitted trekkers since 1998, and the honest answer is usually that you need less than you think and can rent the rest in Kathmandu or Pokhara for a couple of dollars a day. Our 14-day Everest Base Camp trek from $1,850pp includes your licensed guide, porters, permits and lodges — and we will tell you before you buy anything whether you actually need it.
See dates & price →What we would actually buy
One 40-litre carry-on bag with backpack straps, and nothing else, if your travel is cities and flights. Add a 65-litre duffel if you trek, camp, or travel somewhere with bad roads. That is two bags covering everything, and the second one costs less than most people spend on a single wheeled case.
Do not buy a matching set. Sets exist because they sell better, not because anyone needs three sizes of the same object. And do not buy new luggage for one trip when what you own still closes — that is the same mistake as buying new boots the week before you fly.
Is hard shell or soft shell luggage better?
Soft shell for most travellers. It squashes into tight spaces, weighs less empty, and tears can be repaired anywhere. Choose hard shell only when you are protecting something fragile like camera equipment.
What size suitcase is best for a two-week trip?
A 40-litre carry-on if you are willing to do laundry once, or 60–65 litres checked if you need cold-weather layers. Bigger bags mostly get filled with things that stay unused.
Is a 40L backpack allowed as carry-on?
Usually yes, but it depends on shape rather than volume — most airlines allow around 55×40×20 cm. A soft 40 L bag that compresses will pass where a rigid one of the same litreage will not. Check the specific airline, because the allowances differ more than the sizers do.
Are spinner wheels or two wheels better?
Two fixed wheels for anything but smooth floors. Spinners are easier in a terminal and noticeably worse on cobbles, gravel and kerbs, and they have more parts to break.
How much should I spend on luggage?
Roughly $60–250 buys genuine durability. Below that the zips fail; above it you are largely paying for design. The zip and the handle stitching are where bags actually die.
Do packing cubes actually save space?
No. They organise, they do not compress in any meaningful way. What they save is the time you would spend unpacking a whole bag to find one item, which on a moving trip is worth more than the space.
Can I take a wheeled suitcase trekking in Nepal?
You can bring one to Kathmandu and leave it at the hotel, which is what most people do. It is the wrong bag for the trail itself — porters carry duffels strapped into a load, and wheels and rigid shells do not work on stone steps.
What is the weight limit for a porter in Nepal?
Trekking companies cap porter loads to protect the person carrying them, and a porter typically carries for two trekkers. Pack a duffel you could lift comfortably yourself and you will be well inside it.
Keep reading
The short version of this page, built as a quick decision guide.
What goes in the duffel, item by item, and what to leave home.
Down jackets and sleeping bags cost a couple of dollars a day here.
The complete EBC checklist, weight limits included.
Ready to plan the trip the bag is for? Contact us and we will tell you what to bring, what to rent, and what to leave at home.
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Written by
Prakash TamangPokhara-based, NMA-certified trekking guides. We’ve led 5,000+ treks across the Annapurna and Everest regions since 1998 — every word here comes from the trail. More from this author →
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