By: Lucia Bučková
At Catania airport I once stood at the gate with a suitcase two centimetres too tall for Ryanair. The wheels. It is always the wheels. I paid 60 euros and spent the whole flight calculating how many lunches in Tuscany that would have bought. Ever since, I measure my bag at home, on the carpet, with an actual ruler.
Over the past few years I have flown dozens of routes with our groups and I have seen most things: a lady wearing three sweaters at once because her bag was a kilo over, a gentleman who packed three hardback books into his cabin bag. What follows is the routine that works for me and that I pass on to everyone travelling with us. It is not complicated, but a few details decide the outcome.
Dimensions and weight: the numbers worth checking
There is no single European standard, pleasant as that would be. Roughly, this is where the main carriers sit:
- Ryanair – free small bag 40 × 20 × 25 cm; the larger 55 × 40 × 20 cm cabin bag up to 10 kg only with Priority, usually 6 to 30 euros depending on route and date.
- Wizz Air – free 40 × 30 × 20 cm; larger 55 × 40 × 23 cm up to 10 kg for a fee.
- Austrian, Lufthansa, Swiss – 55 × 40 × 23 cm up to 8 kg plus a personal item. They weigh bags irregularly and measure them almost never, but I would not build a plan on that.
- Turkish Airlines – 55 × 40 × 23 cm up to 8 kg, and they do take the weight seriously, especially in Istanbul.
The catch: the measurement includes wheels and handle. A case labelled 55 cm often measures 57 in reality. If you are buying a new one, look for models where 55 cm is the total height. Mine is a seven-year-old Samsonite at 55 × 40 × 20 and it has passed every gate, Ryanair included.
Seven days in one bag
The foundation is boring and it works: one colour palette. If every top matches both pairs of trousers, you get fourteen combinations instead of seven fixed outfits. For a week in Italy in September I pack:
- Five tops, rolled rather than folded. Rolling saves roughly 20 percent of the space and creases less.
- One extra pair of trousers on top of the ones I wear. A third pair is a luxury, not a need.
- A light sweater. Evenings by the sea get cool even in August.
- A scarf, which doubles as a blanket on the plane, shoulder cover in a church and a pillow on the coach.
- One extra pair of shoes. The heavier pair goes on my feet, the lighter one into the bag.
- Charger, power bank (it must travel in the cabin, never in the hold), plug adapter if needed.
- Medication in original packaging, a copy of the insurance policy, toothbrush switched to travel mode.
What stays home: a towel (every hotel has one), hair straighteners, a third pair of trainers, an umbrella (five euros in Rome if it actually rains) and hardback books. An e-reader weighs 180 grams.
Liquids: the 100 ml rule still stands
Despite the new scanners, most European airports went back in 2025 to the limit of 100 ml per container and one transparent one-litre bag per person. Bratislava, Vienna and Prague all enforce it as standard. Do not count on exceptions, because the rules shift from month to month and security always wins the argument.
The practical fix is solid shampoo and solid soap. They cost four to seven euros, they do not count towards the bag and they cannot leak. I decant creams into 50 ml pharmacy bottles. Lipstick, stick deodorant and powder make-up are not liquids, so they travel loose.
The whole thing comes down to one bag and one minute at the belt. Have it on top and you walk through. Dig for it under your socks and you hold up the queue and start the holiday stressed.
Mistakes I made so you do not have to
I packed nail scissors with an eight-centimetre blade and lost them. I boarded with a water bottle bought before security and had to pour it out. Once I put all the group documents in my cabin bag and Ryanair took the bag into the hold because the plane was full. Since then my papers, medication and chargers live in a small bag that stays with me no matter what happens to the case.
One more thing: leave about ten percent of the bag empty. Not for souvenirs, but because on the way home you never repack as neatly as you did at your kitchen table. A bottle of wine or Tuscan olive oil will not fit the cabin rules anyway, so plan for checked luggage or the post office.
If you are travelling with us, our booking confirmation always lists the exact dimensions and weights for your airline. And if you are unsure the night before departure, write to me. I would rather check it twice than have you standing at the gate counting lunches.
