Best Luggage

Q & A:

What is the best piece of luggage for a single guy to carry while traveling to Europe?

I'm looking to visit multiple countries, staying in hostels, trying to minimize fees at the airport and looking to walk around with ease with it.

I suppose if I fly EasyJet or RyanAir, I should have only a carry-on?

In short, I'm clueless about this. I wouldn't say that I'm backpacking, but maybe I really am. My itinerary so far is Detroit to Edinburgh to London to Paris to Switzerland, by bus, train and plane. What are my options.

A large duffel bag with convertible straps is probably your best bet; it can hold and the convertible straps mean you can wear it on your back like a backpack. Even if you're not planning on backpacking per se, carrying a duffel or really any bag by your hand or shoulder gets a little old after a while. A traditional backpack that has enough space to hold enough clothes for even 4 or 5 days will often have a metal frame; these can be very challenging to stow under a seat or in a nearly full overhead bin, so that's why I am thinking duffel.

Both RyanAir and EasyJet are sticklers for the carry-on bag sizes so make sure that your chosen bag is not even an inch more than the sizes currently on their website. Also, choose a bag with a lockable zipper (there should be two zipper pulls so you can lock them together, and the eyelets should be large enough to accomodate a small padlock) as your fellow hostel guests may be tempted to steal from your bag if you go out and leave it behind. I have a friend who stayed in 3 different hostels and had something stolen at each one, including her shampoo.