Rollerbag Goddess Global Communications

Part 1

If you’re able-bodied and on a budget, there’s nothing much good about checking your luggage–which is why I try to avoid it.

But the truth is, you don’t have to check your luggage ever again, that is, unless the airline provides insufficient on-board space for passengers who pay to fly with them. Because I fly on a budget, I have run into instances where the airline forces me to check my bag due to insufficient overhead bin space–in which case, I just worry, and wait, and then wait again at the carousel. And admittedly sometimes those itty-bitty commuter planes can’t accommodate a 40L backpack, much to my dismay.

Needless to say, over time I have found that checking luggage is a big drag. Financially. Physically. And on travel time.

7 reasons why I travel with a carry-on only

1. Airlines have lost my bags in the past.

It’s massively inconvenient. More, delivery services have treated my bags and me poorly throughout the experience.

2. Airlines have damaged my checked luggage.

Brand new bags have been returned to me scuffed, torn, discolored and dented.

3. Checking baggage adds significant time to the front end of a trip and delays arrival because you have to wait for your luggage.

Stand in line for a half hour to check your bag. Then stand around a carousel with the slack-jawed masses for 25 minutes at the end of your trip. Or, don’t. The choice is yours.

4. By traveling with a carry-on only, you bypass a glut of passengers at customs and immigration as well as taxi stands. You speed right past them.

While they’re waiting around the carousel for their bags, you speed to the front of the line.

5. If you have both checked and carry-on bags, it’s a sure sign you’ve overpacked.

I can travel for two months with a single 40L backpack. You can too!

6. Traveling light forces you to pack right and minimize needless purchases.

I limit myself to tiny mementos and gifts, such as handmade jewelry.

7. Carrying less luggage is safer for solo female travelers.

You have additional agility over those who overpack, you can more easily keep an eye on your belongings and thwart pickpockets, and you can move swiftly through transit centers.

Those are just a few of the reasons why I opt to travel with a carry-on size bag only.

Sometimes it’s a rollerbag.

Sometimes it’s a 40L backpack.

If I can do it, you can too!

Stay tuned! Find out HOW to travel with a carry-on only in Part 2 of this post!

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Charish Badzinski is an explorer and award-winning features, food and travel writer. When she isn’t working to build her blog, she applies her worldview to her business, Rollerbag Goddess Global Communications, providing powerful storytelling to her clients.

Posts on the Rollerbag Goddess travel blog are never sponsored and have no affiliate links, so you know you will get an honest review, every time.

Find Charish on Twitter: @rollrbaggoddess, on Facebook at @rollrbaggoddess, and on Instagram at @rollerbaggoddess. You can also read more about Charish Badzinski’s professional experience in marketing, public relations and writing.

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Rollerbag Goddess Rolls the World by Charish Badzinski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.