The Best Luggage of 2022

The Travelpro Platinum Elite 29 Inch Expandable Spinner had a decidedly more premium feel than several of the more expensive options we tested for this guide. A top performer in our tests, this 143.5-liter suitcase boasts several well-thought-out features. It’s easily maneuverable, despite its size, and comes with desirable extras such as TSA-approved lock-compatible zippers and a garment bag.

One of the Platinum Elite’s best features is that access to its main compartment is gained by unzipping the front face of the suitcase rather than down the middle of the bag, which is more common. This means that the whole volume of the suitcase’s generous main storage space is available to use as one compartment, rather than being split down the middle into two. Most of the other suitcases in this guide split in half, once unzipped. This limits the number of large or bulky items that can fit into the main compartment, or lead to the suitcase’s contents spilling out, as you open it up. That said, the depth of Platinum Elite's cavernous main compartment could have you digging around to find items located at the bottom of the suitcase. However, by using packing cubes this becomes a non-issue.

The Platinum Elite’s main compartment comes packing multiple built-in organization aids, including a removable toiletry bag, to help you keep track of your belongings. At the end of your trip, should you find that you picked up more mementos of your journey than the suitcase can handle, Travelpro has your back: with the simple pull of a zipper, the Platinum Elite’s width can be expanded by two additional inches.

We were pleased with how maneuverable the Platinum Elite proved to be during testing. High-quality spinner wheels, paired with a sturdy handle, made navigating our obstacle course a breeze. Several of the other suitcases in this guide had poorly designed, wobbly handles that made navigation more difficult than necessary. With a wobbly handle, half of the energy used to push or pull a suitcase is spent shifting the handle into place before the luggage starts to move. Not so with the Platinum Elite, a sports car of a suitcase among lumbering station wagons. Ok, maybe not a sports car. How about a BMW station wagon in a parking lot full of Buicks?

If you need a big suitcase, start here.

See more of the best checked luggage we tested and reviewed.

The Osprey Transporter Wheeled Carry-On might be the ideal carry-on bag. It’s a durable, lightweight carry-on that you can pack a lot into.

Made using 6061 aluminum alloy tubing and 400 denier nylon double-coated PTU fabric, the Transporter Wheeled Carry-On is lightweight, tough, and offers some resistance to wet weather conditions. With its rugged 3.5” wheels and a very respectable amount of ground clearance, this carry-on can be pulled along over almost any terrain.

It’s worth noting that unlike most wheeled carry-on bags, which trundle along on four wheels, the Transporter Wheeled Carry-On only comes equipped with two. While this leaves it less maneuverable than a four-wheeled spinner, fewer wheels built into the bag means more space for your belongings. During testing, the Osprey rolled well over every surface we subjected it to. What’s more, at 5.07 pounds empty, it’s light enough, even fully loaded, to pick up briefly to surmount stairs or lift into an overhead compartment.

Rather than the double-barrelled extendable handle seen with most other wheeled suitcases, the Transporter Wheeled Carry-On uses a single, sturdy aluminum retractable handle. That means when retracted, it takes up somewhat less space and adds less weight. The retractable handle offers two different height settings, making it comfortable for most people to use. When using the retractable handle isn’t practical, grab handles on the top and sides of the bag provide several carrying options, and the aluminum frame forms a metal handle at the bottom to make lifting it with two hands easy.

Aside from its aluminum frame and retractable handle, the Transporter Wheeled Carry-On is completely soft-sided. So, there’s lots of room to expand it to its full 38 liters (2,319 cubic inches) if needed and, when empty, the carry-on compresses quite flat to take up minimal storage space. The bag has a large, slightly padded external pocket on the front that fits a laptop plus other miscellaneous stuff; it’s got a zippable RFID pocket too. On the top of the bag is an externally accessed water-resistant pouch ideal for shoes or liquids. On the back, there’s another pocket for a book or a magazine that includes an ID sleeve.

Inside, the main compartment is large, though the retractable handle rib does take up some space. You can zip a mesh divider closed to keep everything secure, plus there are two compression panels. The bag’s top flap has two interior mesh compartments.

One drawback of this bag is that the laptop compartment isn’t as theft-proof as it could be. While you can thread a TSA lock through the pocket’s tough plastic pulls, they’re attached to the zipper by thick fabric rather than metal, which a thief could cut through when you’re not watching. The main compartment is much more secure — its double zipper and pulls are 100% metal and you can close it securely with a lock.

See more of the best carry-on luggage we tested and reviewed.

Constructed from your choice of either 1050 Ballistic Nylon or lightweight 400 Halcyon fabric and available in an assortment of colors, the Tom Bihn Western Flyer will fit under an airline seat with room to spare—a fact you’ll appreciate when you stretch out on your next cross-country flight. Its exterior front panel contains a stowaway water bottle holder and two large, zippered pockets: the first provides ample space for your car keys, passport, and other small essentials. The second pocket is large enough to store an eReader, 8-inch tablet, smartphone or paperback novel to read on your flight.

With 1600 cubic inches of interior space, the Western Flyer is large enough to use as a small suitcase for a weekend getaway with room to spare for a laptop, snacks, and magazines. The bag’s interior space is broken down into two large compartments: The first contains a fabric partition to help you stay organized, when needed, or zipped out of the way to allow for one large chunk of space that’s ideal for a laptop. The second pocket proved large enough during testing to contain a complete change of clothing, or if you prefer, multiple pairs of underwear, socks, and a couple of dress shirts.

In addition to all of this, the Western Flyer is incredibly versatile. It can be carried by its built-in handle like a briefcase, be paired with a shoulder strap (sold separately), or worn like a rucksack, thanks to a pair of backpack straps that stow away when not in use. What’s more, thanks to Tom Bihn’s selection of packing cubes, padded electronics cases, and their organization Freudian Slip insert, this bag can be customized to please most any traveler.

See more of the best under seat luggage we tested and reviewed.

Out of all of the travel backpacks we tested, the Osprey Ozone Duplex 65 and Osprey Ozone Duplex 60 offered the best combination of durability, comfort, and intelligent design. The only significant differences between the two packs are their capacity—65 liter for men and 60 liters for women]—and the design of their shoulder straps (the straps on the Duplex 60 are curved to better accommodate the shape of a woman’s upper torso). Either size should fit around a week’s worth of garments, however, if you’re a minimalist packer like we are, you can pack enough clothing for a few days and have extra room to bring home a very respectable haul of souvenirs.

While the two Duplex packs are not the lightest packs we tested, at four pounds each, they won’t weigh you down, even once fully loaded. Thanks to well-padded hip belts, most of the heft of what you’re carrying is taken on by your hips. The load lifter straps, built into the Duplex’s ample shoulder straps help aid in cinching the pack closer to your back, keeping what you're carrying stable. During testing, we found that the Duplex did the best job of sparing our backs and shoulders from pain while walking long distances. The pack’s height and adjustable shoulder and sternum straps make it ideal for a wide variety of body types.

One of the things that make the Duplex such an amazing travel buddy is, as its name suggests, that it can be split into two: a 25 or 20-liter daypack and a 40-liter cargo bag. The day pack uses the Duplex’s excellent hip belt and shoulder straps comes with two water bottle pockets, a hidden pocket for small valuables, and an ample main compartment with organizational aids for a laptop or a tablet. It also offers a smaller pocket for pens, smartphones, and everything else in-between. It’s a lightweight companion that you’ll love tooting around town with while leaving your cargo bag at your hotel or hostel. That said, it's a little larger than the backpack most folks use on their day-to-day commute. So, don't be surprised if you find it's not well suited to that purpose.

When detached from the day pack, the Duplex’s cargo bag is designed to meet maximum carry-on sizes for most major airlines. Unzip the cargo bag’s main compartment and you’ll find that it opens up like a suitcase. The main compartment is equipped with compression panels to keep your clothing or packing cubes cinched down and a large, zippered mesh pocket on the inside of the lid, for storing additional clothing or sundries.

The cargo bag’s secondary exterior pocket is well-sized for stashing a lightweight rain jacket or a rain cover for the pack. The cargo bag can also be carried using a detachable shoulder strap. Both the cargo bag and the daypack come with lockable zippers that work with most TSA-approved locks.

During our 18-day trek across Morocco, we subjected the Duplex 65 and Duplex 60 to hours of flight time, overnight train rides, long bus excursions, daily urban hikes, and a dusty, sand-filled adventure into the Sahara desert, we found the packs to be comfortable, no matter which configuration we carried them. Additionally, they proved both durable and easy to clean: a wipe with a damp cloth was enough to remove gritty desert dust as well as the wet grime from being set down for a moment on a dark side street in the Fes Medina.

As much as we appreciated the Ozone Duplex packs, we did find a few things that bothered us about them during the course of our trip.

While we were happy to find that the daypack’s water bottle pockets were able to hold our 40-ounce Hydro Flask water bottles, having the bottles in the pockets ate up the amount of available interior space of the pack. We were also disappointed that, once the cargo pack is filled to capacity, it can be very difficult to attach its bottom clips to the daypack. That said, ensuring that bulkier items are packed into the lid of the bag goes a long way toward sorting this issue out.

We would have liked it if the pack’s shoulder straps and hip belt could be stowed away when on an airplane to make for more space under our seats. But honestly, this is a minor issue, at best.

Finally, we found that the cargo bag’s detachable strap was pretty uncomfortable if used for more than a few minutes at a time. A bit of padding would be deeply appreciated. Despite these small shortcomings, the Osprey Ozone Duplex is an outstanding choice for anyone looking to travel off the beaten path.

See more of the best travel backpacks we tested and reviewed.