My family of 5 traveled to Sicily for over 2 weeks with carry-on only. I’m never going back to checked luggage.

“Your bag didn’t make it to this airport,” the woman behind the counter told me in 2023. We had just arrived in Madrid, jetlagged, delayed, and exhausted.

Before having kids, my husband and I were experts at traveling with carry-on only, but since we had three kids in two years, our packing situation has become a little more, well, complicated.

That is, until this year, when I decided that we were going to try to travel without any checked baggage to Italy for over two weeks. It was a success, and I’m never going back to check luggage.

We got our kids cute roller suitcases

With my kids, everything new we do depends on the delivery. Knowing that they would moan if I simply said, “Everyone needs to roll their own carry-on,” I decided to invest in cute, fun bags for them.

I got three Away kids’ carry-ons in different colors. I figured they’d be into them because they are fun and smaller than a regular carry-on. I was correct.

They all practiced rolling their bags around the house and watched me pack their things into the separate compartments. We then talked about how they were responsible for their own bag at the airport and that we couldn’t leave them behind.

I packed very light

We were in Italy for 16 days, and I decided to pack extremely light. Not just so the carry-ons wouldn’t be super heavy, but also to have room for treasures I knew we would find in some of our magical destinations, and for new outfits.

I checked the listings for our Airbnbs and planned where and when we would be doing laundry. I ended up packing five outfits for each of us and bringing two pairs of shoes each.

In the end, because we spent so much time at the beach, I felt like I could’ve packed even lighter on clothes for the kids since they mostly wore bathing suits and flip-flops.

Having small bags made moving around Italy easier

Most of the places we stayed had stairs, which we didn’t know in advance. The first house in Taormina had about three flights of stairs right as you walked in, on a flimsy staircase not for the faint of heart.

Bringing small bags made it easier to check in and out of places like these. We also took a trip to a remote island by ferry, and navigating the cobblestone streets and port was much easier with our carry-ons.

We each had a backpack to access things like passports, snacks, and stuffed animals. That way, once the carry-ons were zipped, I didn’t need to get into them until the next location.

I’m not going back to checked bags

Now that my kids are older and we don’t need to bring things like diapers, formula, car seats, and all the stuff that comes with babies, I’m ready to never check a suitcase again.

While it requires more planning pre-trip, I felt like it paid off significantly during our travels. My husband and I did, at certain points, take over our kids’ carry-ons, especially when rushing to catch a connection or getting on and off escalators. Since our bags had four wheels, it wasn’t super hard to do so.

And the idea of never losing a bag and having to track it with an AirTag from a different country sounds quite appealing to me.

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