Hopefully emigrating in Aug and starting to look for suitcases, anyones thoughts on type? We probably would use them again for other travel.

We have 4 young kids if that makes any difference

Also, may look on ebay.

thanks for any help,
Cooler

Whatever you have really. And if you need more I would suggest you use the lightest ones that you can lay your hands on. We're planning to use a couple of those huge (but cheap) refugee bags for less valuable stuff like blankets, warm clothing and other non breakables. They weigh just about nothing. I'm not sure if or where you can get them in the UK. My dad brought some over for me from Cape Town. They'll also make great storage bags afterwards.

You'll probably find some in a pound shop or your local China Town.

We bought some trolly bags from ebay that only weigh abour 2 kilos each. Much less than suitcases that are around 5-6 kilos.

don't go for the hard suitcases, they weigh alot more, we got couple good ones & couple cheap ones from argos.

Hard ones can crack/break when dropped etc on a hard surface, soft ones can be cut with a knife/easily get into by baddies............but soft weighs more

I prefer hard cases but they do tend to be heavier than soft cases. Whatever you choose make sure it has 4 wheels...much easier to wheel than the 2 wheel ones.

We travelled to Oz last week with hard cases and won't be using them again!

One has cracked, one has a stand broken off and now has 2 screws poking out of it, (not sure how to get rid of them as they are in the lining of the case and poking out through by about an inch) 2 are dented and another has a split in it.

Will be buying some holdall ones with wheels for the next time we travel.

I have used the same hard cases for the past 15 years, with out any issues. One of my cases was used each week on 2 - 3 flights for 5 years without any issue. The key to a hard case is the money you pay. When I bought my cases they were about 300 pounds each at the time. A lot of money but they have lasted.

My father - in law uses cheap cases (20 pound ones) and throws them away whenever they are broken.

Just depends what you want.

Thanks all, think it will be cheap soft ones with four wheels.

Great advice, cheers,
Cooler

If there are a few of you, deffo go for the ones with four wheels, they are soo much easier to drag around - even the kids can pull/push them, which isnt always the case with the two wheel ones which tend to fall over and arent always that easy to manoeuver (did I spell that right, it looks weird!)

Arrived 4 months ago via America so had large luggage allowance. We had 2 hard cases and 2 trolley cases and planned to just use them. When it came to it though, we had loads more to pack than we planned (due to spending christmas with parents and them buying the kids shitloads of stuff!) so we had to use Mum's wheely holdalls too.

So, 8 bags in total from Manchester to Heathrow to LA (3 nights stop) to Aukland to Brisbane.

The best of the lot were the large wheeled holdall bags. Light as a feather, packed absolutely loads into them. Easy to carry or wheel. Clothes packed in them arrived relatively crease free and the gifts packed (in the middle of the clothes) were all fine.

OH and I both agreed we would never bother with cases in the future, just use the holdall bags. Also, when not being used they go fairly flat so are easy to store and they are much cheaper than buying cases. Another point is that they can be used for small trips, the kids staying at friends or school camps etc, when you would not really want to use a proper suit case.

Hope this helps,
Ren xx

All depends on your baggae allowance but as you will probabaly use it all, I;d recommend one hard case for the breakable stuff and vlauable stuff, and soft for everything else.

Hard always weigh more (natural as they are thick plastic) but poretect far better.

We ended up with about 12 bags on three trolleys for a family of 5, with three kids under 5 so they were not pushing any trollies.

But as it's just at one end and the other you need to get them, you can survive.

Typical hard case weighs between 5-7 kg. Typical soft bag weighs between 1-2kg. Big difference....

Thanks for the extra posts, will have a look at holdalls.

If anyone perusing this thread, did you take your golf clubs and bags as well? OH and I both have bags and clubs. I've not found hard cases in AG or elswhere yet.

Cheers,
Cooler

Old thread started by me but I thought I'd update from the experience.

Thanks to all the responses on this thread as it made us go for soft sports bags which were perfect. They weighed a kilo and the suitcases we had (handle and wheels) were 5kgs. As we we were bringing two sets of golf clubs, buggy and travel cot as well, it made it easier. We had to do an internal flight with Virgin Blue so had to keep the excess down so the light bags worked. Should have realised that golf bags were counted as excess at Mel though Let us off so that saved $500.

Thanks,
Cooler

I bought 3 jazzibags holdalls with pullout handle and 2 wheels - each weighed 2kgs and each easily fit 20kg of stuff. Very easy to maneuver (single parent on long haul flight) and they only cost gbp20 each!