Our family has tried LOTS of luggage over the years—some expensive designer pieces, some more affordable like Away bags—and what we’ve learned is that no matter what bag you carry, it’s (literally) all in the hands of luggage handlers. If your luggage gets carelessly tossed off a truck or thrown out of a cargo hold and falls 30 feet onto the tarmac (I have witnessed both of these things on more than one occasion), it’s going to get damaged (or potentially ruined), even if you have the priciest, most high-quality luggage. In those unfortunate instances, it’s really not the bag’s fault. Because of this, I’ve come to prefer brands like Bric’s (my personal favorite), which is a happy medium in terms of price point, quality and design. Specifically, we all own a set of their Bellagio luggage—Rich has a set in black, I opt for navy, and we recently bought a cream set for the girls. Their olive pieces are also gorgeous, but somewhat harder to find. Recently, I added the trunk size to our collection which is actually a full-sized (think checked luggage) suitcase that’s narrower and deeper than standard full-sized suitcases. I’m really excited about this size because I find the extra depth to be ideal—especially when packing a stack of jeans, sweaters or wanting to stand my toiletry bag upright instead of having to tip it over to lie flat. With a shallower suitcase, I find I have to split my jeans across both halves of the suitcase. With this much deeper “trunk” style suitcase, I can put things that don’t take up much space (like underwear) on the shallow side and things that are bulkier (like jackets) stacked together on the other side.
Bric’s Bellagio Luggage
Our family has tried LOTS of luggage over the years—some expensive designer pieces, some more affordable like Away bags—and what we’ve learned is that no matter what bag you carry, it’s (literally) all in the hands of luggage handlers. If your luggage gets carelessly tossed off a truck or thrown out of a cargo hold and falls 30 feet onto the tarmac (I have witnessed both of these things on more than one occasion), it’s going to get damaged (or potentially ruined), even if you have the priciest, most high-quality luggage. In those unfortunate instances, it’s really not the bag’s fault. Because of this, I’ve come to prefer brands like Bric’s (my personal favorite), which is a happy medium in terms of price point, quality and design. Specifically, we all own a set of their Bellagio luggage—Rich has a set in black, I opt for navy, and we recently bought a cream set for the girls. Their olive pieces are also gorgeous, but somewhat harder to find. Recently, I added the trunk size to our collection which is actually a full-sized (think checked luggage) suitcase that’s narrower and deeper than standard full-sized suitcases. I’m really excited about this size because I find the extra depth to be ideal—especially when packing a stack of jeans, sweaters or wanting to stand my toiletry bag upright instead of having to tip it over to lie flat. With a shallower suitcase, I find I have to split my jeans across both halves of the suitcase. With this much deeper “trunk” style suitcase, I can put things that don’t take up much space (like underwear) on the shallow side and things that are bulkier (like jackets) stacked together on the other side.
