BACKPACK OR SUITCASE FOR MIDLIFE TRAVELLERS?
PODCAST: Listen on my podcast!
So you’re planning a trip with a backpack or a suitcase for midlife travels!
Where are you going? On holiday? A well-earned vacation?
Where are you staying? Hotel? Cruise ship? Villa? Apartment? Hostel?
Will you be staying in just one place or is this going to be a multi-destination trip?
How long will you be away? A weekend or a week or two… or perhaps longer?
And… will you be taking a backpack or suitcase for midlife travels?

BACKPACK OR SUITCASE FOR MIDLIFE TRAVELS?
To help you decide between the dilemma of packing a backpack or suitcase for midlife travels I want to share with you my own considerable and sometimes painful experiences of battling with baggage as a midlife traveller.
Having travelled around the world twice, first with a large hard shell suitcase and then with a heavy backpack while in my late 50’s / early 60’s – and finally discovering minimalism and a rolling backpack with wheels – I feel qualified to offer you my honest and long suffering tried and tested recommendations.
Read on… and I promise you’ll never have to suffer the burden, the expense, and the consequences of travelling with the wrong type of luggage ever again!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- HOW WE USED TO TRAVEL
- FAST FORWARD TEN YEARS OF TRAVEL
- TIME TO GET TOUGH LUGGAGE
- TRAVELLING WITH SUITCASES
- FEELING BURDENED WITH BAGGAGE
- RETHINKING OUR LUGGAGE
- TRAVELLING WITH BACKPACKS
- EDINBURGH TO BANGKOK
- EXPENSIVE MISTAKES!
- TRAVELLING WITH WHEELED ROLLING BACKPACKS
- CONCLUSION:
- WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A ROLLING BACKPACK
- WHERE TO FIND THE BEST ROLLING BACKPACKS
HOW WE USED TO TRAVEL
Looking back to when we travelled as a family, taking our two-week annual holiday, we’ve always favoured soft-sided suitcases without wheels. I recall my husband and I had one big suitcase each and we had one extra large-sized one for the kid’s stuff and we usually bought our luggage cheaply from a discount store so it never lasted from one year to the next.
I also remember that it always took some effort to manhandle our luggage into our people carrier and from the car park across to the airport, where we’d have to commandeer a wayward luggage cart – usually one with wonky wheels – to get to the check-in where we could happily rid ourselves of our luggage burden.
FAST FORWARD TEN YEARS OF TRAVEL
The kids are off doing their own thing. We are empty nesters. Empty-nesters who decided to sell everything we owned – house, cars, furniture… everything – so that we can boldly travel the world as adventurous nomads on a long-term basis.
At this point – I decided to rethink how we would carry our luggage.
I decided we needed two quality extra-tough large suitcases to last many years of world travel.
TIME TO GET TOUGH LUGGAGE
I did my research online and found a travel website putting ten different branded suitcases through their paces. I was delighted to see this test meant dragging them industrially about an airport – bashing them around on luggage conveyor belts – and even throwing them from a great height off a plane and onto a concrete runway to see if they’d burst open!
Impressed, I invested in two of those declared as the outright winner.
I bought two large-size and hard-sided stylish suitcase with wheels by a manufacturer called Delsey.
TRAVELLING WITH SUITCASES

Fully equipped and packed to the exact weight restrictions for the economy flights we’d booked, we travelled west over the Atlantic to explore The USA, the Caribbean and parts of Central America. Then, we headed across the Pacific to visit our son who lives in Asia, with our wardrobe sized suitcases plastered in souvenir destination stickers.
But to be honest, even on their super sturdy wheels, it still felt like really hard work to manoeuvre our large size suitcases when we were travelling so frequently from one destination to another.
BURDENED WITH BAGGAGE
And, the effort required in getting them onto busses or hauling them in and out of taxis – or tuk-tuks – was getting all too much and we were starting to feel heavily burdened with our baggage.
After visiting Asia, our plan was to complete our trip around the world by returning home to The UK to see family and friends for a couple of weeks, while we finalised plans for our next trip. This meant travel planning and getting some more travel vaccines as well as acquiring the necessary travel visas for several months of travel in Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
This return also gave us the opportunity to rethink our suitcase situation.
RETHINKING OUR LUGGAGE
We’d come to realise that to travel more easily through Asia – taking many flights, buses, and then various types of boats to our planned destinations where we’d be expected to carry or drag our own luggage across beaches or along dirt tracks or through jungle terrain – we were going to have to travel lighter and with much more flexibility.
I suggested abandoning our suitcases and acquiring backpacks.
But we weren’t entirely sure if they would be up to the job of carrying all our stuff.
Or convinced that WE would be up to carrying all our stuff on our backs.
The Backpacking Husband travels with lots of scuba diving gear.
We were now into our late 50’s after all and that stuff’s heavy!
(At this point we still hadn’t discovered minimalism!)
TRAVELLING WITH BACKPACKS
With all the enthusiasm of my previous research into the best suitcases, I investigated the best backpacks for long-term travel and soon settled on some very attractive looking Highlander Outdoor backpacks.
I chose them primarily because I liked the choice of colours and because they had an accessible all-round zip opening – suitcase-style – rather than the single top loading style of a typical trekking backpack. They also came in different sizes.
A larger (black) one for my Backpacking husband and a slightly smaller (pink) one for me.
The Highlander backpacks had padded straps for shoulder comfort and a useful attachable/detachable matching day bag too that would replace our current cabin bag suitcases. The backpacks looked to be made of good quality tough-looking canvass type of fabric (with optional pull on waterproof covers) and with a zip-out expandable panel section for extra room. They looked to be good quality and they looked to be durable. Photos below!

EDINBURGH TO BANGKOK
With our new backpacks bought, packed, and fully expanded, we carried them proudly on our backs and we carried our day bags attached to our fronts. Looking like real backpackers, we set off from Edinburgh to Bangkok, from where we’d planned to travel across Thailand and then island hop down the Andaman Sea until we reached Malaysia.

It was a dream trip. It turned out to be one of the best and most memorable in all our travels!
But our wonderful backpacks proved to be far too heavy for us and our poor middle-aged spines soon began to suffer.
It was certainly no fault of the backpacks. They just didn’t suit us, all our heavy gear, or our poor old backs.
My backpacking husband’s backpack took all his scuba diving gear so he tended to carry his clothes in his day bag!
I’m sure while wearing our backpacks we looked like travelling giant tortoises with our homes on our backs.

EXPENSIVE MISTAKES!
I’d made two expensive mistakes.
The first was in buying the large super-sturdy but unyielding suitcases.
Two, thinking that we could actually carry everything we owned in backpacks on our backs.
It was clear, we were going to have to find a more comfortable and lighter way to travel as midlife travellers.
TRAVELLING WITH WHEELED ROLLING BACKPACKS
With wheeled ‘rolling’ backpack we’d found the best of both worlds!
For us, the solution was to get travel bags with wheels and also straps that tucked away but were fully accessible for all those occasions when you want your rolling travel bag to also be a backpack. Because sometimes you need to keep your hands free for climbing out of longtail boats into knee-deep water and while having to walk the entire length of a sandy beach to find your accommodation.
The backpacks/travel bags we chose were soft and waterproof and also had a strong retractable handle to pull out when we needed wheels for easily hurrying along the smooth floors in hotels and airports or city pavements and sidewalks.

CONCLUSION:
BACKPACK OR SUITCASE FOR MIDLIFE TRAVELS?
Dear travellers, after travelling for the past TEN YEARS and having explored OVER 60 COUNTRIES while circumnavigating the whole world twice with ALL OUR BELONGINGS in our luggage – this middle-aged backpacking housewife and her scuba diver of a backpacking husband – heartily and absolutely recommend to you A ROLLING BACKPACK WITH WHEELS!

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A ROLLING BACKPACK
Materials: We found that sturdy and high quality not only added to the price but also meant heavy when it came to luggage. In a wheeled backpack, you should perhaps look for a compromise in weight and quality for the fabric, the zippers, the pull handle, the frame, and the wheels. Is it waterproof or water-resistant? Is it robust and tearproof?
Comfort: Do the wheels glide? Is the handle the correct height for you? You should check if the stowaway harness and shoulder straps are padded and a comfortable fit. What about the back panel? Often, roller backpacks don’t offer as much padding for spine protection or back ventilation as regular backpacks.
Size: Consider what you need to carry with you when you travel so that you can choose the correctly sized dimensions for your purposes and for your travel arrangements. As I said, my husband needed a bigger size backpack than me because he has lots of professional dive gear. Backpacks sizes are offered Litres. Smaller backpacks are around 35L. So 45-55L would be medium-sized and suited for most purposes. 60-70L is a large-sized. Extra-large is anything over that and some packs are available in 110L and 130L sizes. The larger the backpack the heavier it is of course.
Storage: How easy is it to pack and organise? Is everything accessible or are you going to have to unpack everything again just to find a scarf or your sunscreen? Are there handy internal and external compartments? Are the external ones secure?
WHERE TO FIND THE BEST ROLLING BACKPACKS

Are you a suitcase or a rolling luggage fan?
Have I convinced you to be a backpacker yet?
Do let me know your backpacking luggage stories!
Listen to this story post on my podcast!
7 comments
Hi Janice. Thank you for helping to make a decision!! I just ordered my ROLLING BACKPACK WITH WHEELS!! Espero que sigas disfrutando lo mejor del mundo y ojala un dia vengas a Colombia. Un abrazo, Lili
Hi Lili! Thanks for telling of your decision and I wish you happy travels with your new rolling backpack. Columbia is on my travel wish list!
Hello,
Very helpful information, thank you.
May I ask the brand of your grey daybag (with the grey and orange straps)?
Leslie
Hi Leslie – the daybag in this photo is made by ‘Quechua’ and was bought from Decathalon Store.
They also have it on Amazon (UK) here: https://amzn.to/473wU9G
If you are the the US – Amazon .com – then this is the US link: https://amzn.to/3q42HXq
Happy backpacking!
Janice xx
Hello,
Very helpful information, thank you.
May I ask the brand of your grey daybag (with the grey and orange straps)?
Leslie
Hi Janice,
I’m just starting to use a backpack when travelling. Your information is so helpful to me! Thank you so much, Leslie
I very much appreciate your informative writings! Only today did I decide that I am going to spend a month in Europe next year backpacking… I’ll be 64 in a week and it just feels like the right thing to do 🙂 they’ll be no regrets when my time is up! Thank you very much for sharing your journey :-)!
Hi Lisa! I’m really excited on your behalf about your travels and backpacking in Europe. Have fun! Love, Janice x