For the Minimalist

I purchased the Essential Set that came with the Carry-on Pro, Metro Backpack, and Compressible Packing Cubes. Customer service does not have a phone number, so it took a little longer through chat/email for me to receive the delivery updates. They were very helpful to correct my email and make sure that the luggage was delivered in a timely manner.

I only took the Carry-on Pro for my 5 day beach trip. I was able to fit three pairs of shoes, 2 bathing suits/coverups, 5 days of clothes, a medium sized toiletries bag, a 15.6” laptop and battery, and a couple of small books. It would have been too heavy for me to lift into the overhead bin on the plane, so I checked the suitcase and only took a small purse onto the actual flight.

I actually laughed as the suitcase came out of the baggage claim carousel because the light gray color was covered with dark grime and huge scuff marks (wish I would have taken a picture)! The pictures I’ve included show that the luggage does appear scuff free after using the dry erase sponge included with your purchase. Save yourself an hour of scrubbing and purchase the plastic suitcase cover if you even think that you may check your monos suitcase. The wheels worked great on cobblestone, and the handle was sturdy as I carried the suitcase up stairs, but I had some trouble with the telescopic handle on the way back to the airport. I feel that I had packed it too tight and it was impeding the handle from smoothly coming all the way up at times.

As…

I used the Carry-on Pro and the Metro Backpack for a 12 day trip through Italy. While the Carry-on Pro did not fit as much stuff as I'd hoped (I'd recommend it for 7 days tops), I managed to make it work. This luggage combination was really nice for a short trip especially when you are moving around a lot. The Carry-on pro is very sturdy and held up really nicely being dragged through the streets of Rome, Naples, up and down the steps in Positano, on busses etc. Not to mention the fact that I ended up gate checking it. The suitcase definitely got pretty scuffed up but the most important part to me was how well it held up and how comfortable it was to lug around. I wiped it down with the provided sponge when I got home and I'd say about 90% of the marks came off, and the rest may come off with a little elbow grease. If I hadn't checked the bag, I'd probably have 0 lingering scuffs. I will say that you should definitely check the specs on the front pocket to make sure your laptop fits because even though my laptop is pretty lightweight, it did not fit properly in the front sleeve, bummer. All in all, I'd say this suitcase held up really nicely and made my travels a lot more comfortable.

So far so good. The terrazzo carry-on pro is very beautiful and scratches turned out not very visible. I especially love the front pocket, with this pro size, I can fit in a 15 inch MacBook Air but only in the pocket outside of the webbed one since I stuffed the inside of the luggage too much. The front pocket does take some space of inside the luggage so I think the pro version’s inside storage capacity is less than the regular version without front pocket.

I ordered the compression cubes together with this when the luggage was in stock and cubes are back ordered. Even though the luggage was in stock, Monos was going to wait until the cubes are restocked then ship my order altogether. I needed the luggage earlier so reached out to Monos, and they kindly shipped the luggage to me first and then the cubes arrived one month after. So just an FYI for people who are going to order back ordered items together with in stock ones.