IME, the people in Europe who "stink" are often tourists from other countries or even locals, depending on the culture.

Some people from other cultures may not typically wear deodorant, don't shower every day and will re-wear the same clothes over and over.

I worked overseas for many years. We had one woman in the office who was like this. Just one example: she had a noticeable purple dress she wore to work for TWO WEEKS in a row, in the summer. She did not bathe regularly and did not wear deodorant. We had to open the windows it got so bad.

Finally, one of the other local employees had to tell her to bathe and change her clothes - it even got too strong for them!

I am sure wherever she went, she kicked up a stink. Including when she vacationed elsewhere.

This is a strange question. "Why does luggage come in different sizes?"

DCUM at its best. For the PP complaining folks in museums smell - I bet you anything if you knew the person you'd discover it's not a carry-on-only person. Travel carry-on only does not mean you have to sacrifice cleanliness or smell of body odor. Novel thought here...you can still bring and wear deodorant. You plan your clothes for the temperatures and for a laundry day if you need it. And yes, staying in a house or apartment with laundry is an excellent travel solution. As is laundry services in many locations. But as with most things - we all have our own comfort levels and ways to do things. Our family firmly believes in carry-on and laundry while traveling and we love the ease with which we can travel - along with not worry about lost luggage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recently came back from Paris, and I had the experience a few times in crowded museums where I could distinctly smell body odor from a number of people, most likely tourists wearing the same clothes over and over so they could avoid checking their luggage.

I wish the airlines would make checking luggage free and charge passengers to carry on their bags. That would solve a number of problems at once.

This is the platonic ideal of leaps of logic and hilarious assumptions that make DCUM so special.

I’m not sure what’s so hilarious- when in a place full of tourists- to think that very bad body odor smells might be emanating at least partially from clothes that haven’t been washed.

Sure, there are other reasons people might have a strong body odor wafting about them, but tourists rewearing unwashed clothes in a place filled with tourists is not that big of a leap as a possible reason.

You’re on vacation. Lighten up, Francis.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t like to smell, nor do I like doing laundry in a public machine every few days, so we bring checked luggage. It works for us. We have travel insurance and don’t check anything we would be heartbroken to lose. You do you but please be honest with yourself about how you smell.

DCUM: anyone who doesn’t do something the way I do it is wrong! Get over yourself, bish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IME the international flights are more strict about carryon sizes than domestic.

Yes, this is what I’m discovering.

I’m baffled by all the dcum posters who travel to Europe for multiple weeks with just a carry on. They must all stay in airbnbs with access to laundry facilities and rewear the same handful of outfits over and over.

Well yes. That is how we do it. I pack those laundry sheets and we make sure we have a washing machine every few days.

In Asia I have my clothes sent out. Super cheap there. I never rewear dirty clothes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IME the international flights are more strict about carryon sizes than domestic.

Yes, this is what I’m discovering.

I’m baffled by all the dcum posters who travel to Europe for multiple weeks with just a carry on. They must all stay in airbnbs with access to laundry facilities and rewear the same handful of outfits over and over.

We rewear stuff.

Yes, we do laundry in high end hotels. ie send laundry out. Comes back fabulous. Never bring anything expensive no big deal if something gets ruined or lost.

And I pack really well. Thanks, mom. LOL

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they make them for train travel or car travel or bus travel.

or PP.

About 10 years ago, IATA propose this scheme called Cabin OK (summer of 2015, I just looked it up). In retrospect I think it was actually kind of clever.

IATA proposed a new, much smaller size for carry-on luggage. Airlines could chose to comply with the program or not. Luggage that met the requirements would be marked "Cabin OK." The idea was that complying airlines would guarantee that Cabin OK-compliant luggage could always be in the cabin. If anyone had to gate check or carry-ons got removed from the cabin, it would never be your Cabin OK pieces. You could have bigger a carry-on that exceeded Cabin OK size but still complied with the airline's larger size, but your carry-on could be at risk of forced gate-checking.

This was announced with much fanfare. Instant outraged ensued. Airlines didn't like it for whatever reason. Passengers didn't want to have to buy new luggage. Then within a month the whole thing got buried. Seriously, it's a challenge to find much about it on the internet anymore. But it was a total thing for a month or so.

On reflection, if I had to downsize my (already small) carryon by about 1/3 to guarantee that it would always go onboard with me, I think I would do it. It would solve a variety of problems.

(I think the current problem with carry-ons overwhelming planes stems from airlines simply not enforcing their own size policies. I get why they might want to be lenient, but they're partly responsible for the situation.)

Anonymous wrote:I don’t like to smell, nor do I like doing laundry in a public machine every few days, so we bring checked luggage. It works for us.

Great. We're in agreement.

Anonymous wrote:We have travel insurance and don’t check anything we would be heartbroken to lose.

Christmas presents in checked luggage that arrive 3 days late (when traveling to a country that shipping in advance wasn't an option for)?

I also buy travel insurance and don't check anything I would be heartbroken to lose. Doesn't mean I enjoy the scramble to buy necessities when things get lost or delayed.

Anonymous wrote:You do you

We're still good.

Anonymous wrote:but please be honest with yourself about how you smell.

But why, why do you have to go with the cheap parting shot -- where you equate carry-on only with smelling?

Yeah, I know plenty of traveling people stink. I'm not one of them. I'm a middle-age guy who shaves his armpits regularly because I know my body odor. Just yesterday I told the checkout clerk at the grocery store that I could smell mold in the bread aisle but couldn't localize it. I am honest with myself about how I smell and don't smell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recently came back from Paris, and I had the experience a few times in crowded museums where I could distinctly smell body odor from a number of people, most likely tourists wearing the same clothes over and over so they could avoid checking their luggage.

I wish the airlines would make checking luggage free and charge passengers to carry on their bags. That would solve a number of problems at once.

This is the platonic ideal of leaps of logic and hilarious assumptions that make DCUM so special.

I've been on online travel forums of one kind or another for just shy of 30 years now. And I find some of the people here (DCUM "Travel Discussion") the silliest I've ever encountered. And the advice? LOL.

Anonymous wrote:I recently came back from Paris, and I had the experience a few times in crowded museums where I could distinctly smell body odor from a number of people, most likely tourists wearing the same clothes over and over so they could avoid checking their luggage.

I wish the airlines would make checking luggage free and charge passengers to carry on their bags. That would solve a number of problems at once.

OK, if we're making up arbitrary rules, then let's have the airlines pay me something like $50,000 every time they lose or delay my free checked luggage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recently came back from Paris, and I had the experience a few times in crowded museums where I could distinctly smell body odor from a number of people, most likely tourists wearing the same clothes over and over so they could avoid checking their luggage.

I wish the airlines would make checking luggage free and charge passengers to carry on their bags. That would solve a number of problems at once.

This is the platonic ideal of leaps of logic and hilarious assumptions that make DCUM so special.

I’m not sure what’s so hilarious- when in a place full of tourists- to think that very bad body odor smells might be emanating at least partially from clothes that haven’t been washed.

Sure, there are other reasons people might have a strong body odor wafting about them, but tourists rewearing unwashed clothes in a place filled with tourists is not that big of a leap as a possible reason.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IME the international flights are more strict about carryon sizes than domestic.

Yes, this is what I’m discovering.

I’m baffled by all the dcum posters who travel to Europe for multiple weeks with just a carry on. They must all stay in airbnbs with access to laundry facilities and rewear the same handful of outfits over and over.

Yes, this is what people do. Or we stay in hotels and pay for laundry.

I never check bags. Even if I check bags, it would be a carry on like we are doing going to Asia this summer for a month.

You can definitely make it work by doing laundry on your trip and it's not actually that hard to do. If you check a 40/45L carry on, bring on the plane a backpack of 20L and separately a duffle of 30L - you have like 95L worth of space right there. Esp in summer season, not sure why that's hard to do.

Checking in bags means hauling bags all over the place. In Europe and Asia, typically, you travel and not just stay in one place for weeks. And if you are, I assume it's with family or somewhere laundry would not be hard? So why would anyone in their right mind want to haul more than 95L around with them everywhere on their holiday??! That's what I can't understand.