This case was gifted to me by LEVEL8. The links in this post are affiliate links, so I earn a small commission if you buy through them. All opinions are mine, good and bad.
Seven days, two adults, two children and a car full of luggage, driving from Aberdeen to Cornwall and back again. If you’ve ever done a long road trip with kids, you already know what the car looks like by day two.
Here’s how the trip worked. We left Aberdeen, drove roughly halfway and stopped for a night in a hotel. Then we drove on to Cornwall and stayed four nights with all our luggage. Then we drove halfway home, stopped in another hotel, and finished the drive the next day.
That’s two hotel nights, and the boot of our car looked like a game of Tetris that nobody was winning. Jute shopping bags, a holdall, coats, a wooden crate and a suitcase wedged upright at the back. Pulling all of that into a hotel after nine hours of driving is not a thing I ever want to do again.
So I packed a hotel case. One cabin-sized suitcase holding everything the four of us needed for a single night, and nothing else. This post is how to pack a hotel case for a road trip, including what went in, how I organised it and what I’d change next time.
What a hotel case actually is
The idea is simple. On a road trip with overnight stops, most of your luggage never needs to leave the car. You don’t need your full wardrobe at a Holiday Inn in the Midlands. You need pyjamas, toothbrushes, tomorrow’s outfit and a hairdryer.
So you pack one case with exactly that, and it’s the only bag that comes out of the car. You park, pull out the one case, check in, and you’re done. The rest of the luggage stays put, out of sight, in the boot.
We did this on a previous trip and it was so much easier that I decided to do it properly this time. This was also the perfect excuse to test a proper carry-on case, which brings me to the green one.
The case I used
LEVEL8 sent me their Luminous carry-on in green. I’ll be honest, the colour is what got me. Black suitcases are fine, but I can never tell mine apart on a luggage belt, and green is far nicer to look at on a bedroom floor.
The specs, as LEVEL8 gave them to me: 54 x 37 x 23.5cm including wheels and handles, 40 litres, and around 4.7kg empty. It’s a hard shell with four spinner wheels and a built-in combination lock on the side.
That 40 litres is a lot less than it sounds when you’re packing for four people, which for this situation the whole point. A small case forces you to be strict. If it doesn’t earn its place for tonight, it stays in the car.
The case has a lovely texture and feels strong and durable. It’s super easy to wheel around, and even to lift up and down stairs.
What went in for four people
I packed it the night before we left, on the bed, in the order I’d need things. It did the first hotel night on the way down. For the second night, on the way home, I re-packed it just before we left Cornwall.
- Pyjamas for everyone
- Tomorrow’s outfit for each of us
- Underwear and socks
- Toothbrushes and toothpaste
- One wash bag with skincare and the essentials
- Hair tools, plus a detangling brush
- A phone charger
The only things outwith that list that came into the hotel were the kids teddies they had with them in the car seats.
Notice what isn’t on there. No spare outfits, no coats, no shoes beyond what we were wearing, nothing for the days at our destination. Those lived in the other bags.
I rolled the kids’ clothes rather than folding them, because rolled items fill the odd gaps and don’t crease as badly. Heavier things like jeans went at the bottom, with the soft items on top.
How I organised the inside
This is the part I liked most. The case opens flat like a book, and there’s a zipped divider panel in the middle, so you’ve effectively got two sections rather than one deep well.
Clothes went in the bottom half, which is the deeper side. Anything I’d want to grab first went in the top half: the wash bag, toothbrushes and hair tools. I could open the case on a hotel bed and get to the bedtime stuff without unpacking anything else.
The mesh pocket on the divider was a great place to store any stale t-shirts and underwear from the day before.
The top half held toothbrushes, the hair dryer, brush and washbag.
It was super easy to repack in the morning and when it was time to get moving again.
How it fitted in the car
I took a photo of the boot before we left, and it’s a good illustration of why this works. The green case sat at the back left, with the jute bags and a holdall beside it and coats piled on top of everything.
Because the hotel case was a known size, it went in last and came out first. No digging, no unloading a whole boot onto a car park floor while two tired children asked when we were going to eat.
What happened in Cornwall
Once we got to Cornwall, we were there for four nights, so everything came out of the car and the hotel case stopped being special. It got unpacked, and sat empty for 4 days in the car. The system only pays off on the nights you’re stopping in a hotel for one night and moving on, and the two stops either side of Cornwall were exactly that.
What I’d change next time
I’m not going to pretend it was perfect, but it was about as close as you could get. I’d still use it for the same job again. But if you’re packing for a family of four, and staying more than one night, expect it to be a tight fit.
FAQs
Can you use a cabin case as a hotel case?
Yes, and I’d recommend it. A cabin-sized case is small enough to carry up hotel stairs on your own and big enough for one night’s kit for a family.
What should go in a hotel case for a road trip?
Pyjamas, tomorrow’s clothes, toothbrushes, a wash bag, hair tools and chargers. Anything you won’t need before the next morning can stay in the car.
Is one case enough for a family of four?
For a single night, yes, if you pack ruthlessly. For anything longer, you’ll want a bigger case alongside it.
Does it work for a longer trip with more than one hotel stop?
It did for us. We had two one-night stops, one on the way down and one on the way back, with four nights in Cornwall in between. The hotel case covered both stops, and the rest of the luggage stayed in the car each time.
Want more trip ideas and what I pack? Have a look through my travel section.
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