In the decades since air travel became commonplace, it has gone from being an adventure, to a pleasure, to the anxiety-attack inducing pain-in-the-butt experience we know today. Long gone are the days of airports as jumping off points to exciting places. Today, we are all too familiar with them as just an unpleasant waypoint between destinations.

One of those aggravations is carry-on luggage.  By most definitions (mine anyway), carry-on luggage is a suitcase big enough to hold all one’s belongings, yet small enough to fit in the overhead compartment thus avoiding the possibility of having the airline lose it between points A and B. It also must be light enough to lift onto the security conveyor belt and overhead bin without giving you a hernia, and agile enough so that you don’t trip over it while racing to the gate after the inevitable security-check delay or while shoving it down that tiny airplane aisle.

Travel & Leisure shows us ten of their picks that will satisfy nearly every need. Some are collapsible and expandable; most have lots of pockets for every need including electronic devices, and some are even designed to be used as a seat for all that waiting in line.

Photo: shopvali.net