Best Carry On Luggage | Monos Carry On Luggage

If you’re new around here, you should know that I’m not a salesperson (gosh, I’m FAR from that) but I do like to share travel tips and tricks that we’ve learned over the years as a destination wedding photographer and videographer… and through our travels as well. We recently found ourselves having to replace our carry-on luggage and we feel like we found a needle in a haystack. We LOVE it! Keep reading to read exactly why and stay tuned to save $25 on your own luggage!

Carry On Only

When we travel, even when we’re shooting destination weddings abroad, we only bring carry-ons. First of all, there’s no way in heck that I would be caught putting our expensive, fragile, can’t-be-replaced-at-our-destination shooting gear in the belly of an airplane! I’ve watched baggage handlers throw bags around like they’re confetti. Nope, nope, nope.

But also, we generally find ourselves shooting weddings in warm, tropical destinations… so we don’t need a ton of layers when we pack our clothes. Carry-on only has given us the freedom to confidently book tighter-than-usual connections in airports we aren’t familiar with because we don’t have to worry about any checked luggage making it to the next plane.

Hard Side vs. Soft Side Carry On Luggage

Let me tell you a story. We used to travel with only soft-sided luggage. Then I replaced one of them with a hard-sided carry-on. Now, here we are with two hard-sided carry-ons – and we’re not looking back! We’ve loved the durability of the hard sides, plus the fact that they’re much more water-resistant is a plus. (Ugh, ask us about the time Sara’s soft-sided luggage got soaked at O’Hare from melting snow.)

Monos Carry On Luggage

We’ve fallen in love with the Monos Carry-On (we have the blue haze color that you see in these photos – it’s on brand 😉 ) because it’s hard-sided, made with some gosh dang quality spinners (are we wheel snobs? maybe!), and it can fit so.much.stuff. inside!!

I like that each side of the bag is divided and I can squish my stuff down even tighter by pulling on the straps to tighten its own divider. I don’t have to be strong to use it – it’s so simple, especially once your stuff is inside!

• 

• 

If you’re looking for an upgrade from the basic Carry On – go with the Plus, as long as your airline says it’ll fit in their overhead bins. We usually fly American (with a few United flights per year) and we needed to stay under 21 inches. If we didn’t have that 21-inch requirement, we’d have the Plus, no questions asked. However, I don’t think it’s necessary to buy the Pro version of this bag because the laptop sleeve in the front actually takes away from the inside storage. I’d rather keep my laptop in my backpack anyway!

The zippers on this bag are great – SO much sturdier than those on Away luggage! Like Away, these zippers clip into the bag and lock for extra security but you don’t have to worry about TSA breaking your bag to open it if goes through extra screening because the locks are TSA locks (praise! no more broken locks!).

There are countless blog posts you can stumble upon with a simple Google search but, as I said, I will always share travel tips if I feel they’re valuable enough – and this one is.

• 

• 

Referral Code

We’re happy to share a deal when we find one, especially travel-related. We purchased our Monos at full price, but you don’t have to (you lucky duck!). Click through this link and then enter your email address. They’ll send you an email almost instantly and it’ll have a code for $25 off your purchase. You’ll save some cash and it’ll send us a few points to spend when we make our next Monos purchase (already planning for an Olive Green Carry On!).

---

Looking for more destination wedding planning tips? We’ve got your back!  Click here to read more of our blogs that will help you. If you’re just starting your wedding planning journey, we have curated a series of 7 emails sent right to your inbox. No spam or anything, just lots of useful tips and wedding advice. You can sign up for those emails here.

And, if you’re ready to find your destination wedding photographer, contact us! We offer both photo and video services, custom collections for every single one of our couples, and we don’t charge travel fees. We can help make your dream wedding day come true.