Rolling Duffel Bags

Tough rolling duffel bags are handy for long trips

The rolling luggage discussed in this report also comes in bigger sizes, so you can buy larger luggage that matches your carry-on bag. Since checked luggage is handled roughly, it's a good idea to buy the highest-quality bag you can afford. A warranty that covers accidental damage is a big plus.

The top-rated REI Wheely Beast 28-Inch (*Est. $150) comes with REI's unlimited return/exchange guarantee. It wins Outside magazine's 2009 Gear of the Year award. "I packed this thing 25 times during a walking tour of England," writes Outside magazine's Ted Stedman. "The 6,000-cubic-inch main compartment ate gobs of clothing and gear." About a dozen users at REI.com give this bag an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5. Its biggest pluses are durability, capacity and ease of carrying. The bigger 35-inch duffel (*Est. $170) holds so much that owners say they have to be careful when they pack, so they don't exceed the airline baggage weight limit. We did see a few complaints about durability with the larger bag -- specifically, wear on or around the bottom, which may be due to all the weight it has to carry.

The Gear of the Year winner for 2008, the Eagle Creek Take 2 ORV Trunk 28 (*Est. $350), is both pricier and heavier than the REI Wheely Beast 28-Inch. Half of the duffel is actually a smaller bag that you can zip off, giving you two separate bags of about 3,000 cubic inches each. The 2010 winner is the much smaller Osprey Sojourn 25 (*Est. $250), with a capacity of 3,600 cubic inches. This bag converts handily from a wheeled bag to a backpack,and testers love the "straight jacket" system that compresses and centers the load. Both Eagle Creek and Osprey offer lifetime defect and damage warranties.

Those seeking a less expensive bag should consider the winners of Outside magazine's Killer Value award. The 2009 winner, the Case Logic 29-inch Lightweight Rolling Duffel (*Est. $100) is described as durable, lightweight and well organized, with two sections separated by a mesh divider that can be zipped out to create "a 4,639-cubic-inch dump bin." This bag ranks among the "best of the best" at eBags.com, with a rating of 9 points out of 10 from over 20 users. The 2006 Killer Value, the High Sierra AT3 Sierra-Lite 32-Inch Drop-Bottom Wheeled Duffrite (*Est. $115), survived a "20-bag squashfest trucking over 13,000-foot passes in Bhutan" and kept fragile souvenirs intact. Outside magazine reviewer Ted Stedman's one quibble: its wheels don't spin freely.