Hand Luggage Tips

When travelling away on a city break or a short trip, travelling with hand luggage will not only save you time, it can also save you pounds on checking in your luggage, making your break even better value for money. However, you have to be careful not to fall foul of hand luggage size and weight restrictions. Here are the benefits of employing the hand baggage only technique and our top tips for how to make your journey as easy as possible.

Our top tips for to make your journey as easy as possible.

What are the benefits of travelling light with hand baggage only?

1. Quicker – no need to join a check in or bag drop queue on departure and no need to wait for bags at the luggage carousel on arrival. Plus you get to the taxi queue or car hire rental desks before the rest of the passengers you have travelled with.

2. Safer – you keep your bag with you at all times, therefore it cannot get sent to a destination different to the one you are flying to. It is not going to get damaged being loaded or unloaded and it is not available for someone unscrupulous to break into and steal your personal items.

3. Cheaper – you avoid checked in bag charges which can be up to £40.

4. Less Stress – you are in control of your things, not reliant on the baggage system and you can avoid lots of queues.

Our top tips:

1. Know your limits – Ensure you know the hand luggage restrictions for the airline(s) you are travelling with, especially if you are connecting from one to another or if you are returning on a different carrier. These can vary and it will affect bag size, number of bags allowed and whether there is any weight limit. Easyjet for example will accept any weight as long as you can lift it whereas Ryanair is strict on the one piece, maximum weight of 10kg rule. Some also allow one piece of hand baggage plus one duty free bag – so you can buy to your heart’s content items you may need such as toiletries, water, guide books, magazines etc. and place them in one carrier bag from the airside shops. Some airports such as Gatwick and Heathrow also allow you to buy duty free and then collect on the way back – meaning that you never have to take the items on board, avoiding hand bag weight limits altogether. If you do have travel hand baggage that is over the limit, be prepared to have the bag taken from you and an excess baggage fee charged.

2. Buy the right bag – Once you know your hand luggage size limit, ensure your bag fits within this.  Always choose a soft bag for carry on luggage (easier to cram into overhead bins) and it is lighter – giving you more weight limit for your items. We have teamed up with Flylite to bring you a special discount on luggage ideal for travelling with hand baggage only. Not only do you save on hold baggage charges of up to £20 each way on Ryanair, you can also save up to 20% on the price of these excellent luggage solutions.
Choose from a range of two foldaway bags or a rucksack for the cabin as well as hold baggage options all made of lightweight materials to maximise the items you want to pack.
Prices start from as little as £12 for small cabin bag including our exclusive 20% discount offer.
For full details click here here and quote code TSM to obtain your discount on line or over the phone.

3. Only pack what you need – The tip here is to be ruthless. The aim is to carry as little as possible and to buy items you can find locally wherever you can. Clothing is where you can make a major hit – see note below.

4. Packing techniques – there are three main schools of thought on packing techniques for small bags, rolling everything around a central item, folding everything into squares or bundling items around each other.

5. Which clothes? – Always wear any heavy items you need such as coats, jeans, hoodies, boots, shoes and belts. Otherwise stick to the concept of the capsule wardrobe as demonstrated for ladies by Gok Wan. Essentially a small number of pieces that co-ordinate to produce multiple outfits by all working together. The longer the trip the more creative you need to be here, however be sure you are going to need something – if not then do not pack it in the first place.  In most places you can always buy something if you really need to get an item fast that you left behind. All clothes should be lightweight – many companies specialise in selling items that are light, wrinkle free and easy care. This allows for less stress when unpacking a crumpled shirt or blouse and also means they can be hand washed at your hotel and worn again. If you plan to wash items at your hotel you could use a laundry service or wash them yourself – in which case take a plug with you as most hotel bathroom plugs are poor.

6. Toiletries – you need to obey the 100ml rule at present and decant items into small bottles that fit within one plastic bag for security. You can always buy items airside or on arrival. Most hotels will give you soap, shampoo etc. Ladies (and increasingly men) should try and minimise the toiletries and make up they take.  Do you really need all of that? If so then use travel size bottles or packets only or buy locally.  Toiletries can weigh far more than you think.

7. Pockets – use the pockets of your clothes to take heavier items on board which you which you can transfer to your bag once you are on board e.g. phone charger, camera, books, and toiletries. Use pockets as well for travel documents such as passport, tickets, travel insurance, driving licence and money.

8. Phones/Ipods/LapTops/NoteBooks – these often start to add weight especially if you have multiple items and multiple chargers. Be smart, can you download guide books/info/entertainment/games/music etc. onto one item and just take the one with you? Note books are smaller than laptops and if you are travelling for only a few days then you may not even need the heavier and larger items.

9. Don’t Pool Your Hand Luggage – Most airlines will not allow you to pool your hand luggage allowance across a party of people, so ensure that each bag is not over the limits where a weight limit applies.

Last updated: 8th April 2010