Cabin bag only for 12 nights in Florida

[JudyC]

I'm seriously considering this for our budget trip next year. We are three adults and staying off site at LBV then near the Keys for a few nights. No signature restaurants as not DDP like we've done before on site. If I keep it basic with shorts, t shirts, a light dress or two, a couple of pairs of flip flops. Can wear trainers and a hoodie on the plane, and buy toiletries at Dollar Tree. Has anyone done this, it feels quite liberating and will stop me keep piling stuff in the case I could do without.
Only downside is no shopping but the way the dollar rate is that won't be a big deal.

[BevS97]

Yes we have done that this year. We have a cabin bag each plus you are allowed a personal bag like a handbag so we also each had a small backpack.

[BevS97]

We flew with virgin/delta who have quite a small cabin bag size. Check the dimensions for your airline some are quite a lot bigger.

Saying that at no point was our case size checked.

[minnie29]

We done it last year with Virgin, 2 adults and 2 kids (age 2 and 14). Anything I thought I couldn’t get through security (like my fake tan) I ordered to collect from the boots shop at the other side of security. Worked out well for us

[cornishfrogboy]

We are 2 adults plus boys of 16 and 13.

We are currently in the middle of a 3 week vacation on hand luggage only. The reason is that we have a good deal of travelling.
London - Boston
Boston - NY (by train)
NY - Dayton OH
Cincinatti - Orlando
Miami -London.

With 4 x flights, Norwegian, American, Delta, Norwegian, then the cost of hold baggage would have been rather high, so we took the plunge. We have only averaged around 12kg recently with standard suitcases, so it was never going to be too difficult.

We knew that we had no clothes washing in Boston or NY, but that day 7 was in Dayton where the hotel had a washing room. First morning we put all washing in as soon as dressed, tumbled it over breakfast and it was all dry and ready before we went out that morning.

Arriving in Orlando, it was a night in the Ramada and a night in Royal Pacific.. before moving to our Villa where we were able to catch up with washing once more and are now ‘back on top’.

We used standard cabin luggage cases and carried the following.
We stood up in our heavier clothing and shoes/Vans, Chinos etc.
All clothing taken could be tumble dried.
Basic 100ml compliant liquids such as toothpaste, cosmetics etc.
Toothbrushes, stick deodorant etc in wash bags.
DSLR Camera, 3 underwater cameras.
2 x IPads plus 1 x kindle
Satnav
Lots of plugs and wires.
Book of paperwork.
Mandie’s scrapbook. (She does it as we go along).
Flip flops.
8x pants each and a few socks (we flip flop).

No towels (we used hotel ones until arriving in Orlando where we bought 4 cheapies for $36).

We are at day 14 and it has worked brilliantly.. and on a more complex plan than your own. We would most certainly do it again.

We do have hold luggage booked for the flight home. With Norwegian, 50pp purchased allocated seats (2x exit and 2 behind), In flight meals and hold baggage. We may be buying one bag to fill with Jeans and Vans to put in the hold.. or we may not! It gives us options coming home.

Hope it reassures you! ( and you can see how it affected us (positively) on our ongoing trip report.

[JudyC]

I think we'll go for it. Both the guys DH and DS have the Under Armour boxers which wash and dry in a jiffy, and we have a few dry fit tops/gym wear
I reckon it will be easy for us. I once went to Barcelona for a week on cabin baggage only. I actually took five pairs of shoes in my rucksack! and didn't wear two pairs of them 😁

[birdiesX4]

Wow. Not sure I could do it. We have done 5 nights on a city break on hand luggage but I think that's my limit. Although we had 7 nights in Majorca earlier this years and our checked in bags were only around 12kg each and we had a back pack each. So maybe with a bit more discipline we could do it. Shoes would be fine and I have plenty lightweight dresses. I have so many lovely clothes I hate leaving things behind! 🙄

[holidayforever]

Been doing Hand Luggage only for some time now , you will be surprised what you can get in the case but we don’t pack towels .

[evergreen]

Originally Posted by BevS97

Yes we have done that this year. We have a cabin bag each plus you are allowed a personal bag like a handbag so we also each had a small backpack.

See more...

This in my opinion is becoming a problem, luckily we only had small backbpacks because there was no room in the above lockers

[Guest]

We do it. We use BA who have large cabin bag sizes and no weight limit. The two wheel max size, 60l ones and packing cubes to squish it in. Easy.

Agree with Bev though, need to be careful doing indirect as cabin bags do differ between carriers. We tend to use villas though so can wash everything.