What luggage to buy for young children?

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SwampDonkey
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What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by SwampDonkey »

Our young children are asking for their own suitcase/luggage. We'll happily oblige them as they are getting old enough they can now pull their own smallish suitcase through airports, etc.

I'm a user (and fan) of the Eddie Bauer BIFL luggage. My DW is a user/fan of whatever can be found at Ross/TJ Maxx. Neither of us have experience buying luggage for children, however.

What we are looking for:
1. Small enough to be pulled by a young child (carry-on size).
2. Sturdy enough to last 4-5 years @ 6-7 trips/year (airport and car travel). I'm 100% confident at least one of my children will drop it down a flight of stairs :happy .
3. Kid-friendly design/colors. It doesn't have to be bedazzled with rainbows, unicorns, and glitter, but it should look like a kid's piece of luggage.

Kid-designed luggage can be found at Wal-Mart, Target, etc, but I don't trust the build quality on those bags to survive the car ride back to our house, let alone cross-country travel.

Any experiences or recommendations?

Thank you.

*Answering this before someone mentions it in the comments:
1. Yes, the kids already wear backpacks when traveling through airports.
2. Yes, we're aware the kids will get tired of pulling their own luggage through airports and we'll eventually have to carry it. :wink:
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lthenderson
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by lthenderson »

Our kids get another roller bag that matches what the adults have and when they get tired of pulling it, I stack it on mine and pull it. Any kid designed bag is probably going to be inadequately built or so over priced it isn't worth it when they outgrow the kid friendly designs/colors.
Normchad
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by Normchad »

I’d just give them one of your carry in bags.... or it a backpack with wheels......

Don’t expect it to last for 24 trips......
ChrisB
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by ChrisB »

We bought our kids "Rockland Vision Hardside Spinner Wheel Luggage, Carry-On 20-Inch".

On Amazon they come in lots of bright colors and patterns. Kids enjoy them and it makes them easy to find at baggage pick-up.

Hard sided adds a bit of protection. Spinner wheels are nice as you can tilt and roll or just push along on all four wheels. Carry on size is good. Carries all the non-essential stuffed animals, books, games, and usually a couple socks and one shirt even makes it in there! :oops:

And instead of carrying the bags ourselves when the kids get tired I have rolled a 4 year old through the airport draped over the top :D

Found a very similar brand at Ross that I got for myself for about $30.
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anon_investor
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by anon_investor »

Normchad wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 4:52 pm I’d just give them one of your carry in bags.... or it a backpack with wheels......

Don’t expect it to last for 24 trips......
+1.
gnujoe2001
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by gnujoe2001 »

Since you mentioned the kids already have wear a back pack, have you all looked at pack optimization? Like, using packing cubes, layering clothing pieces, multi-use items, etc.

The kids (under 10) and adults in my household each have 1 backpack of appropriate size that serves daily duty as a general go-bag, and gets slightly modified* for air/car travel. Same bag for 3 days or 3 weeks (or longer). Saves us grief from having to fight for overhead storage.

*add 1 extra packing cube 'kit' of 2-days clothing to the 1 that usually lives in the bag, for trips longer than 3 days. Remove any non-TSA compliant tools for air travel.
texasdiver
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by texasdiver »

You can do what we did back when we did a LOT of international travel back and forth to South America with young kids.

Get a handful of identical generic black Costco Kirkland Signature rollaboards. They used to be really great but they keep changing the design so I don’t know how the current ones are. But whatever is the current top economical adult rollaboard on the market now.

Buy some colored duct tape and let your kids decorate them up with duct tape so they are personalized. You can even buy tie dye duct tape. That also prevents anyone else from ever grabbing them by mistake. Ours were done up in pink and tie die duct tape. NO ONE ever grabbed them by mistake and we could see them coming from 1/2 mile away on the carousel.

When you have identical rollaboards you can daisy chain them together so that you can pull all 4 of them yourself if you ever need to do a long late night airport jaunt with sleeping kids in your arms.

You will find this to be a superior solution than any flimsy kid-styled luggage that is likely to fall apart. And as they quickly get older they can still use the luggage without cringing.

They still brought their school backpacks with them on the plane for carryons.
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JonnyDVM
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by JonnyDVM »

We found some Mickey Mouse hard shell suitcases with roller wheels at Costco. The love them and they don’t seem to be flimsy junk. On the other hand, how many trips do I expect Mickey to realistically make before he’s no longer in vogue?
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chipaway
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by chipaway »

A while back I saw a couple of young kids in the airport with these luggage/scooters and they were having a lot of fun with them!

https://www.amazon.com/Scooter-Suitcase ... r+Suitcase
BionicBillWalsh
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by BionicBillWalsh »

None. Leave the little ingrates at home with family and enjoy the vacation.

Just kidding. Sort of.
Jerry Garcia: If I knew the way...I would take you home.
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JoeRetire
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by JoeRetire »

SwampDonkey wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 3:16 pm Our young children are asking for their own suitcase/luggage.

2. Sturdy enough to last 4-5 years @ 6-7 trips/year (airport and car travel).
How young? At young ages, it's unlikely you can purchase luggage that will make them happy now and will also make them happy in 4-5 years.

Instead, either get inexpensive, light, cute luggage to last for a couple of years, or purchase more expensive, rugged, more adult-looking luggage that will last.

Personally, I'd go with the former. Situations and tastes change fast when the kids are young. My grandson loved everything dinosaur a year ago. Now he says he's "done with that".
This isn't just my wallet. It's an organizer, a memory and an old friend.
squirm
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by squirm »

Our kids get our old luggage set, works good enough.
Topic Author
SwampDonkey
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by SwampDonkey »

texasdiver wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 7:32 pm Get a handful of identical generic black Costco Kirkland Signature rollaboards. They used to be really great but they keep changing the design so I don’t know how the current ones are. But whatever is the current top economical adult rollaboard on the market now.

Buy some colored duct tape and let your kids decorate them up with duct tape so they are personalized. You can even buy tie dye duct tape. That also prevents anyone else from ever grabbing them by mistake. Ours were done up in pink and tie die duct tape. NO ONE ever grabbed them by mistake and we could see them coming from 1/2 mile away on the carousel.
Neat idea. Thanks for sharing.
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SwampDonkey
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by SwampDonkey »

chipaway wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 11:18 pm A while back I saw a couple of young kids in the airport with these luggage/scooters and they were having a lot of fun with them!

https://www.amazon.com/Scooter-Suitcase ... r+Suitcase
Those would have been AMAZING to have as a kid.
Topic Author
SwampDonkey
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by SwampDonkey »

JonnyDVM wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 8:23 pm We found some Mickey Mouse hard shell suitcases with roller wheels at Costco. The love them and they don’t seem to be flimsy junk. On the other hand, how many trips do I expect Mickey to realistically make before he’s no longer in vogue?
Unfortunately, our local Costco (and their online inventory) are no longer selling kid-specific luggage.
Topic Author
SwampDonkey
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by SwampDonkey »

ChrisB wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 4:54 pm We bought our kids "Rockland Vision Hardside Spinner Wheel Luggage, Carry-On 20-Inch".
On Amazon they come in lots of bright colors and patterns. Kids enjoy them and it makes them easy to find at baggage pick-up.
Awesome. Thank you for the idea.
stimulacra
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by stimulacra »

Samsonite 4-wheeled spinner rollers are great for grade-school kids. The can pull them, scoot on them, or be towed on them through airports.

Depending on their height, maybe the underseater (18-19 inches) would carry easier than the full length ones (22 inches)

Pack them light. This comes in handy if they want to get souvenirs at the destination.

Go to Marshalls, Ross, or Nordstrom's Rack to find them at a good price.
hightechburrito
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by hightechburrito »

Costco seems to usually offer a 3-item set of wheeled luggage. They can fit inside one another for storage, so the small one is probably about the right size for a child. Get a bunch of their favorite character's decals and let them decorate it how they like.

The set will probably have the ability for the smaller bag to strap onto the the larger ones for when they inevitably get tired of pulling it in the middle of the airport.
sailaway
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by sailaway »

chipaway wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 11:18 pm A while back I saw a couple of young kids in the airport with these luggage/scooters and they were having a lot of fun with them!

https://www.amazon.com/Scooter-Suitcase ... r+Suitcase

I DO NOT COME HERE FOR Y'ALL TO SHOW ME THINGS THAT I NOW NEEEEED!
teCh0010
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Re: What luggage to buy for young children?

Post by teCh0010 »

My kids are 13 and 11. They have small hard shell spinners that were a gift, but they get a lot more use out of their LL Bean duffles. Sleepovers, quick trips to grandma, scout camp. They get used 4x as much as the spinners.
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