Best hand luggage bags to avoid airline fees – tried and tested by a travel expert

From backpacks to duffel designs, these bags will soon become your new favourite travel companions - (The Independent)

Airlines are famously strict about the size of hand luggage you’re allowed to take on your flight. Unless you want to pay for extra baggage, you’ll need to squeeze your essentials into a rather small space.

We are starting to see some airlines soften a little, though, as following an agreement among European airlines to adopt a new minimum size for cabin luggage, Ryanair will increase its “personal bag” dimensions from 40 x 25 x 20cm to 40 x 30 x 20cm – giving space for 24 litres of luggage.

Easyjet’s basic allowance is a little more generous, but not by much – all passengers can take a bag measuring up to 45cm x 36cm x 20cm onboard. With both airlines, you’ll need to be able to fit this bag under your seat, rather than putting it in the overhead storage compartments, and the measurements need to include any wheels and handles.

Don’t assume the larger long-haul airlines are more generous, either – travel with Virgin Atlantic in its economy light class and you’ll be allowed just one bag measuring no more than 23cm x 36cm x 56cm (although this doesn’t need to fit under your seat).

Although all of the bags we’ve included will fit under your seat, we’ve deliberately emphasised ones that are soft-sided or expandable, so you can make the most of extra space when you’re travelling with airlines with slightly more generous allowances.

From duffel-style bags and totes to backpacks, keep reading to find the best hand luggage for your travels.

How we tested

Tamara put a range of hand luggage bags through their paces (Tamara Hinson)

As frequent flyers, we’ve become accustomed to airlines’ increasingly strict rules. We can tell whether a bag will comply with airlines’ ridiculously strict rules at 50 paces, and know exactly how much we can stuff into our favourite backpack without risking getting pulled aside at the airline gate by an eagle-eyed easyJet employee. We stuffed these bags to capacity, scrutinised every detail with a laser-like focus and spent more hours analysing carry-on bag restrictions than we care to remember. In other words, you can rest assured these bags are the best when it comes to hand luggage.

Why you can trust IndyBest reviews

Tamara Hinson is an experienced travel writer who has tested these bags on flights all over the world. She has tested and reviewed a wide range of travel gear for IndyBest, including mosquito repellent and packing cubes. Each of Tamara’s picks has been tested over thousands of miles, so you can be sure they hold up to their claims.

The best hand luggage bags for 2025 are:

• Best hand luggage bag overall – D-Robe the roll top: £69, Deltaroam.com
• Best hand luggage for squashability – Eco Hub cabin bag: £16.99, Amazon.co.uk
• Best budget hand luggage bag – Narwey cabin bag: £11.99, Amazon.co.uk
• Best hand luggage bag for security – Helly Hansen canyon duffel backpack, 35l: £75, Hellyhansen.com

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D-Robe the roll top

Rating: 5/5

Best: Overall

Size: 31cm x 43cm x 15cm

Why we love it

• Features an air compression valve

Take note

• Don’t fill it to capacity – you risk exceeding size restrictions on the strictest of airlines

Roll-top bags often feel somewhat flimsy but that isn’t the case here, thanks to a reassuringly solid back panel that provided sufficient support when we were wearing the bag but didn’t affect the ease with which we could slide it under airline seats.

There’s a compression valve on the side, to keep things compact, and we appreciated other added extras that are usually missing on bags of this style. For example, the bag has a well-padded internal laptop compartment, as well as two smaller elasticated pockets. 

There were none of the common security-related gripes with this bag, either – although it’s a roll-top, there’s also a zip, and the rubberised material (which is actually recycled TPU) will protect the contents from damp and dust, too.

Buy now £69.00, Deltaroam.com

Narwey cabin bag

Rating: 5/5

Best: Budget

Size: 40cm x 19cm x 25cm

Why we love it

• Boxy design makes the most of limited space

Take note

• Minimal pockets

This is another bag designed to meet Ryanair’s measurements for personal items, and its boxy shape means it’s impossible to flout them (unlike some other bags, which might risk exceeding restrictions when filled to capacity).

Favourite features include the extra-long handles (which extend down to the bottom of the bag, for extra security) and the accessible side pocket. We also love the way it folds flat when not in use – on occasions when we were travelling with checked baggage, we could simply empty it and shove it in our suitcase after the flight.

Buy now £11.99, Amazon.co.uk

Eco Hub cabin bag

Rating: 5/5

Best: For squashability

Size: 40cm x 20cm x 25cm

Why we love it

• Great value

This bag is exactly the same size as Ryanair’s previous maximum allowance for fitting under the seat, enabling you to make the most of limited space and still have some room left for souvenirs.

Waterproof fabric and a tough nylon handle offer a sense of unexpected toughness. Meanwhile, although the design is relatively simple, all the basics – including a small internal and external pocket, in addition to the large central compartment – were present. An unexpected extra was the trolley sleeve, which enabled us to slip it over the handle of our checked baggage.

Buy now £16.99, Amazon.co.uk

The North Face base camp voyager daypack

Rating: 5/5

Best: Large bag

Size: 30.5cm x 16cm x 49cm

Why we love it

• Generous size

Take note

• May struggle to meet Ryanair’s restrictions when full

First things first: admittedly, this bag will struggle to meet Ryanair’s restrictions when full, although, we’ve also used it without issue on flights with the airline, and the fact its generous proportions come mostly from its width means sliding it under most airlines seats won’t be a problem. Handles on the top, back and sides make wrangling it out of small spaces a breeze, and we found the abundance of pockets – on both the inside and outside – incredibly useful.

We loved the extra padding on the laptop compartment, and on the bag ’s rear – when bags are stashed under seats, it’s all too easy to deliver an accidental kick to our most valuable items, but the extra padding provided peace of mind.

Buy now £145.00, Thenorthface.co.uk

Helly Hansen canyon duffel backpack, 35l

Rating: 5/5

Best: For security

Size: 32cm x 22.5cm x 56.5cm

Why we love it

• Versatile

Take note

• We’d have liked more pockets on the inside

This is a simple but versatile bag that doubles as both a backpack and a duffel. It was easy to extract it from its accompanying stuff sack (and cram it back in), and we were slightly shocked that a bag of this quality could be squeezed into the aforementioned sack, especially as added extras include removable straps (for use when it’s being carried as a backpack).

A strip of looped material that extends around the top of the bag enables it to be grabbed at multiple points. When worn as a backpack, the lack of pockets on the rear provided peace of mind in the security stakes.

The interior errs on the minimalist side, although, we appreciated the small, accessible pocket at the top (perfect for keys and power banks). While it stashed easily under our easyJet seat, its capacity to expand makes it ideal for longer breaks when flying with more generous airlines. It gets bonus points for the three-sided zip, which made accessing the contents a breeze.

Buy now £75.00, Hellyhansen.com

Victorinox architecture 2 urban deluxe backpack

Rating: 5/5

Best: Premium

Size: 46cm x 23cm x 31cm

Why we love it

• Top quality materials

Take note

• Not the lightest

The beauty of this bag is its rigid design – not only will it slide under seats on the stingiest of airlines, but its wide, flat shape and sturdy sidewalls mean we could wrangle it into the smallest of spaces without worrying about damaging the contents.

There’s no shortage of smaller compartments (including one on the front and another at the top) and we absolutely loved the pen-shaped internal pockets in the main compartment (trust us – when you’re on a plane scrambling around for one to fill in your arrival card, you’ll appreciate them as much as we do). We also like the way the laptop pouch is an entirely separate compartment at the rear. Straps were soft, wide and comfortable and a horizontal strap allowed us to slip the backpack over the handle of our checked bag, making that dash to the departure gate infinitely less painful.

Buy now £325.00, Victorinox.com

Fjällräven high coast duffel 22 patina green

Rating: 5/5

Best: Duffel hybrid

Size: 50cm x 28cm x 20cm

Why we love it

• Great design

Take note

• On the larger side, compared with some other bags

We’re huge fans of Fjällräven – every time we pass through an airport, we see at least a dozen of the brand’s Ryanair-friendly Kånken backpacks. The high coast duffel is slightly larger but we can confirm it still made it onto a Ryanair flight, and its ability to expand dramatically when full means it’s suitable for occasions when you’re not bound by draconian rules relating to carry-on luggage.

We were especially impressed by the press-stud-adorned loop of material on the top handles – when we hadn’t quite filled the bag to capacity but weren’t far off, this allowed us to compress the contents and made squeezing it into the smallest of spaces even easier. It can be carried as either a duffel or a backpack, and even the most organised of travellers are well-catered for – the pocket on the front is ideal for boarding passes and passports and there’s a surprisingly well-padded laptop pocket in the main compartment.

Buy now £95.00, Amazon.co.uk

Briggs & Riley ZDX large travel duffel

Rating: 5/5

Best: Duffel bag

Size: 28cm x 60cm x 33cm

Why we love it

• Quality feel

Take note

• Pricey

Everything about this bag, from the zip to the slide-out luggage tags, feels top quality. There’s a huge amount of room, despite its ability to slide under airline seats, and the spare shoulder strap came in handy when lugging it through crowded airports. Duffels are often lacking when it comes to easily accessible pockets for items such as passports and boarding passes, but this one’s perfectly positioned exterior pocket was a hit.

Separate compartments are also often lacking on duffels but, again, this wasn’t the case with Briggs & Riley’s bag, which has two separate compartments at either end of the bag and a small internal pocket divided into the compartments (perfect for our keys and charger). A mesh pocket on the inside of the opening was perfect for stashing our dirty laundry.

Buy now £199.00, Amazon.co.uk

What is the best hand luggage bag?

Versatility was the main reason we loved D-Robe’s roll-top bag (as well as the ultra-secure closure), while the Eco Hub bag – fresh from its appearances on numerous jet-setters’ TikTok feeds – lives up to the hype, with a sturdy design created with the strictest airlines in mind. Finally, The North Face’s base camp voyager daypack fits under an Easyjet seat and is versatile enough to double as a brilliant backpack for longer journeys with less restrictive airlines.

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