“No matter where you’re going or how often you travel, luggage can make or break your trip. It helps with planning, packing, and staying organized while away — and sometimes determines whether you can bring back souvenirs. There’s a wide variety of checked suitcases, carry-on bags, duffels, weekenders, underseat bags, and backpacks on the market. Beyond that, you’ve got hardside and softside options with various organizational features. Amid what you might call the golden age of luggage, it can be hard to sift through your offerings.

To figure out what brands stand out from the rest, our Travel + Leisure team has tested more than 680 pieces of luggage ranging from compact carry-ons and spacious checked suitcases to duffels, weekenders, garment bags, and other types of travel bags — assessing capacity, maneuverability, durability, and design through a series of tests and simulations. We’ve rolled suitcases through obstacle courses, thrown them off tables, and hit them with baseball bats to see how well they’d perform in different travel scenarios, like amongst rough baggage handlers. We even recreated an airplane set in our New York City lab to lift bags into overhead bins and underneath seats. We continue testing each bag in our real-life travels for a minimum of six months to ensure it stands up to planes, trains, automobiles, and anything else life throws at it.

Our team has tested bags from many different brands, and below, you’ll find our current favorites. We will continue to update this article as we test even more luggage brands and new bags.