Hi Guys,
its my first travelling far away for a longer period. I am doing an Asia trip in January for 2 months and I’m really unsure if I should bring a suitcase or a backpack? I am sure there are many people here that have more experience and could help me out. Any recommendation is appreciated.
Hi there!
I travelled to japan with a big suitecase and my friends with a smaller one. TRUST ME DO NOT BRING A BIG SUITECASE TO JAPAN! Especially if you are visiting a lot of places and taking the train. You’d think technology there is insane, but it hasn’t been applied to train stations yet 
Bring a backpack and if you want, a cabin luggage as well if you are planning to do some shopping. It’s better to carry a small one throughout the trip as it won’t slow you down and bring more stress to it!
I’m a huge advocate of the backpack - travelling to Asia or anywhere else! Besides the instant credibility, backpacks have practical advantages. In most long travels you’ll for sure find yourself needing to walk some kind of distances with your luggage (navigating airports and train stations, looking for your accommodation, during the day when you’ve checked out but it’s not time for your transport to depart etc, etc….). Lugging a suitcase around is noisy, it’ll run through all the grime on the ground AND their wheels are like wheels on shopping trolleys - eventually one breaks and the wheels try to run in different directions. What a headache! With a backpack, you’ll always have both hands free while you’re walking around - how else will you manage to drink a coffee AND eat an ice cream at the same time? (or properly check the directions on your phone because you’re lost!). Backpacks all the way… you won’t regret it.
Backpack, hands down! It was so easy to move around and I found myself walking a lot more then I planned.
Backpack all the way. I made the mistake of bringing a suitcase to Thailand and Laos and it was not fun. The suitcase was very unpractical walking around on the streets of Thailand and Laos. The wheels, the handle, dragging your suitcase through the dirt, all not so fun things to do. And I ended up buying a lot of things where I believe a suitcase would have fit the items more easily than a suitcase.
Backpack all the way! So much easier than trying to drag around a suitcase. Roads and sidewalks aren’t always the best, so being able to throw your bag on your back and go is a better option.
Get the best of both worlds with a bag that can be both wheeled and convert to a backpack. I have the “High Sierra Composite V4 Wheeled Duffle 76 cm” (see pic below). I have travelled through Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea and Europe 3x with this exact bag. It has handles on the sides and so is great for lifting easily on and off trains, buses and airline carousels. While the backpack feature on wheeled bags may not be the most comfortable for long term use I have walked up to 5km with it on my back and been fine. 
