Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): The Briggs & Riley Domestic Carry-On Upright Garment Bag is the perfect bag for busy travelers that must transition seamlessly from casual to business suit to athletic shoes and back again. I wouldn't travel with any other full-size carry-on. This one was included in our recent Top five travel gear for people who don't have time to prep for the places they're going, but my current trip has inspired me to mention it again.
I'm on a weird trip right now. The destinations aren't terribly exotic, but the things I'll need at each place are very different. My itinerary takes me from home in Washington, DC to a business casual environment in coastal Florida and Georgia in late July, then to New York City where I'll be visiting my brother, going out to a nice dinner at an all-time-favorite Chimichurri Grill, playing outside with my two-year-old god daughter on her birthday, and then golfing with her dad. Put another way, I'm the traveler trying to fit very different clothing lineups into but one carry-on suitcase.
Fortunately, the Briggs & Riley Domestic Carry-On Upright Garment Bag is the indisputably best answer to packing a linen blazer, a pair of dress pants and pair of "Nantucket Reds" and a button down shirt into an actual no-nonsense garment bag with enough room yet for a full complement of clothes for the other five days, shorts and golf shoes, sweats, my Tumi Alpha 2 Split Travel Kit (aka the miracle of TSA-compliant toiletry packing), and (yes it's true) a shoe horn... as a legitimate no-cheating carry-on bag!
Briggs & Riley suitcases are pricier than much of the competition, but I've become a loyal fan ever since my last non-Briggs bag catastrophically broke while I was hiking through the depths of the Madrid metro. There are lots of places to save money, but when it comes to travel, your suitcase is an investment that will reward you time after time after time after time after time... well, yeah. Add to this that Briggs & Riley bags carry a lifetime repair guarantee, making them virtually indestructible for as long as you own them. They will hold up long after lesser bags have let you down.
My tips for packing this thing are in the photo captions below...
