(This post was inspired by an argument with a friend who is going abroad for several months and wanted to take a suitcase. We had a pretty vehement argument, which for her sake I hope I won.)
Look, what you carry your stuff in while you're on the road is largely personal preference. There is some logic to it though, however. Personally, I prefer a large internal frame backpack for several reasons:
- It fits a ton of stuff
- its convenient to move if you end up having to walk a ways
- it can be loaded up to do a trek of hike if you need to
-it comes with a rain cover
-it blends in to the travel culture.
The first time I went abroad, a bright green dufflebag was the luggage of choice for me. It did everything luggage was supposed to do. It got my clothes from point A to point B, all in one parcel. It worked because I was doing a fairly limited trip, and staying with friends, but I wanted to get something more convenient.
For my next international trip, I went with a large internal frame pack I found on Amazon for under $100. These things can get really expensive really quick, but investing in a good pack can land you with a solid piece of equipment for a decade or so. Some of the really popular, high quality brands you might see out on the trail are: Karrimor (UK), NorthFace (US), Quechua (French Canadian), Osprey (US), First Ascent (South Africa).
I used a Teton 85 liter pack, which certainly wasn't the same quality as those high end packs I mentioned above, but did the job just fine for me and it was CHEAP. In retrospect however, I probably would have dished out more for a brand with a little more staying power (my pack now sports a couple of broken straps after 9 months of hard use). I wanted a pack so large so that I could fit my sleeping bag and 1 man tent in it as well as my stuff, and as long as you're willing to carry it, get as big of a pack as you want!
Suitcases are great if you are going to one place for a week or so, and won't be using public transportation or the like with it. If you plan on moving around a fair bit then a suitcase can be a nightmare (trust me, having wandered the streets of Paris with both a backpack and a suitcase in the rain, I've been there). For me, backpacks offer versatility, which is incredibly valuable when you are on the road and not sure what you're gonna be getting into all the time. I will honestly probably never use a suitcase again in my life.
There is an entire culture of people living out of backpacks, traveling the world. Its the carrier of goods for a reason, trust me on this!
Here are some links to different companies that sell packs, as well as the one I used personally on my trip:
http://www.karrimor.com/rucksacks
http://www.firstascent.co.za/product-category/equipment/packs-bags/
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/C-541338-hiking-backpack
http://www.thenorthface.com/catalog/sc-gear/equipment-technical-packs
http://www.moosejaw.com/moosejaw/shop/search_Osprey____?ad_id=Google&cm_mmc=PPC-_-Google-_-Osprey_Osprey+Pack-_-osprey+packs_Exact_38214777763&cm_guid=1-_-100000000000000198309-_-38214777763&kcid=59f6edb7-55df-1a49-1363-0000656880e2&utm_medium=PPC&utm_source=GOOGLE&utm_campaign=Osprey&utm_term=osprey-packs_Exact&gclid=CNWO4NW-rr4CFZRcfgodkFgAZA
http://www.amazon.com/TETON-Sports-Fox5200-Internal-Backpack/dp/B000F38YIM/ref=sr_1_4/188-8429310-9870338?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1400176051&sr=1-4&keywords=teton+backpacks
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