We now only take hand luggage Fiona it's with us all the time. Not too bad at all as pull along trollies. We just take it in turns to visit loo.

I "mind the cases" a lot so hubby can queue for food & drinks 😉

I do exactly the same, Fiona, and was extremely happy that I did that when on a trip for work and my case didn't make the connection at Madrid for Seville even though I did in the nick of time! Luckily, I discovered that Iberia was much more efficient than BA where at re-uniting me with my checked-case on the journey home when it went AWOL at Heathrow despite having 4 hrs between connections there for my flight back up to Scotland. I could have got by without the papers etc for the conference (which was what was mainly in the checked in case because of the weight) but not the clean underwear etc which was in the hand luggage!

When I go to Cuba, I always have extra stuff to take out with me so I pay the extra with Thomas Cook to check-in two cases (one of which will be big enough to hold 20kgs included allowance and the other the maximum size allowed within the hand luggage requirements to hold the extra 10kgs I will have paid for) and then use a very lightweight holdall that folds down really compactly for my handluggage on the way out with everything I'll need for me for the overnight stay at the airport and the first few days in Cuba. On the return journey that holdall gets folded up and packed in the case to be checked in and I use the smaller case for hand luggage on the way back. It means that I'm only paying for an extra checked in case on the outward journey rather than in both directions.

Glynis, I'd never manage with just hand luggage for Cuba! The TC longhaul allowance for cabin baggage just isn't good enough but I have done it when the allowance is either 10kgs or as much as will fit in for shorthaul with other airlines for short breaks but don't think I'd manage to travel light enough to manage on hand luggage only for a two week trip. :-). I look back and think 'How did I ever manage to spend a week doing hostelling tours in the Lake District etc with just what would fit in the backpack?' I gues the answer is that I'd wear the walking boots and there would just be one pair of spare lightweight shoes in the pack and I'd literally have just 3 sets of clothes maximum!

SMa I used to do a lot of back packing & I think it taught me how to pack "small & light", when you have to carry it you learn fast 😂

10kgs I can do but the 5kg allowance of some Airlines, would be a definite test!!!! 😵

The problem is Glynis that some of us obviously unlearn it just as quickly! I've been doing some very overdue de-cluttering and what should I find stowed away on a high shelf in the boiler cupboard but my ancient Karrimor pack from those climbing days. I'm not sure how old you are so it might be before your time but it was so old that it had one of those ladderback frames with a shelf at the bottom - state of the art in the late 60s/early 70s! I couldn't believe that I managed to live out it for a week on walking tours.

And that frame is still in use more than 45 years after I bought it instead of continuing to borrow my Dad's Bergen! A friend, who is a member of the Mountain bothy Association and who helps with work parties maintaining them etc, spotted it in the 'to go to the tip pile' and promptly leapt on it with glee and said they were always on the lookout for those old fashioned frames because they were just the thing for lugging bags of cement etc up the hill. So if anybody has something similar lurking in a shed there's a good home looking for one :-)

Mine was a Karrimor SMa! 😀 I didn't have the shelf one though as my bf at the time carried the tent.

I had a duck down sleeping bag that went into a stuff bag, now 41yrs later I have a duck down jacket that's got its own stuff bag 😀

We had a mountain tent & everything was bought on weight. I remember we cooked on a Primus stove & the pan we cooked in we ate out of. Dried food was often on the menu as lightweight, depending on where we were camped.

I must dig out some old photos of trips. 👍

Karrimor really was THE brand of the time wasn't it, Glynis? My cycle panniers were Karrimor too - or should I say are, because I'm still using them! The cycle attachement fitting bit zipped off and then you could use them as small backpacks! And Vanga tents - do you remember them? Though my tent was a Saunders one and most of my wild camping was done with my brother and Dad. One would carry the poles and pegs, another the inner tent and the wooden spoon was the flysheet if we'd had to apck it up wet!

One of my 21st birthday present was a goosedown sleeping bag in, yes, its own stuff sac. I still have that too though it doesn't get much use these days. And I still have the duckdown jacket that I bought in China in 1981 - that didn't come with a stuff sac because it was designed for general use. The sleeves zip off to turn it into a gilet but the one I brought back for my brother was designed for mountaineering and that did come with stuffsac. Not many Europeans visited China back then and I can remember the bemusement of the shop assistant when I turned up with a friend who was roughly the same size as my brother so he could try it on and I could be sure it would fit. He and my brother were both of what I would describe as medium build but compared to most Chinese men they were giants and I had to buy the XXXL size! For someone 5ft 9 and a 40in chest!

I can't remember the name of our tents, but do remember we wore Javlin jackets on our hikes 😁

I sold my sleeping bag to my BF's twin brother when we split up 😁

Do you remember having to wear Gaiters in the bad weather?

We also had those insulated ground sheets, like foam?, That we rolled up. They were to keep the ground frost at bay. Came in handy though in the forest at Chamonix! I had toothache once & just breathing in the cold air made it agony! I slept with a polo neck pulled up over my nose 😂

Yep, I remember gaiters and the kneebritches that we all wore them with! And the closed cell foam mats - my Karrimat eventually got cut up and put in the bottom of of the cat carriers to give them something cosier to curl up on and to insulate the bottom and sides of a makeshift coldframe in the garden :-). I remember camping one Easter up at Loch Morlich near Cairngorm and waking up the first morning of the trip to find my sleeping bag frozen to the tent wall. That was it, I refused to spend another night in the tent and we headed to a bunkhouse for the rest of the week :-)

That's the name Karrimat 👍 😁

I have two options for hand luggage, both bright pink, a small wheeled case which is easy to cart around but is somewhat restricted in size internally due to the wheels and a holdall into which I can stuff more things.

I remember coming back from Denmark with Ryanair and getting into conversation with a Danish lady returning to the UK. We were in one of those handy little smokers' pods they have at Billund. She only had hand luggage but it was clear that she had too much to go through Ryanair. My holdall was bigger so we sorted our bags out and I put some of her things in mine. We boarded and sat together and once we were in our seats I took her things out of my bag so no problems. All it took was a bit of common sense and the wish to help.

That was a nice thing to do Aslemma .