Pure excitement and meticulous planning go into most vacations, while finding the right luggage for a trip can ultimately be stressful. Worries of zippers breaking, hard-cases denting, and having enough space for every outfit is overwhelming at best. Green Living wants to take some of the stress away and provide you with sustainable luggage choices for your next big adventure.
Paravel has a wide selection of hard-shelled luggage as well as duffels and bags that are “as easy on the eye as they are on the Earth.”
They work hard to reduce and offset carbon emissions, incorporate upcycled and eco-certified materials, and plant trees in depleted ecosystems. They have diverted over 3.5 million water bottles and counting from our oceans, planted 166,000 trees through Eden Reforestation Projects, and offset 12,247 tonnes of CO2 through carbon neutral shipping. They are the first 100% sustainable travel brand on the market.
Beyond their sustainability efforts, their luggage is downright adorable. The neutral color palettes look as if they came straight out of a Wes Anderson film and will elevate any travel attire whether comfy or classy.
While Paravel does a wonderful job with matching style to sustainability, after recently buying their Carbon Neutral Luggage set and taking it with me on a 36-hour flight from Phoenix, Arizona to Florence, Italy, I did run into a few issues. While packing, I began to realize shoving your whole life for four months into two hard-shelled suitcases was a struggle to say the least. While it is widely known that hard-shelled suitcases are less flexible than their soft-fabric counterparts, I was shocked by how easily the zipper broke.
I unfortunately had to forgo a few luxuries in order to ensure it wouldn’t break again during it’s tumultuous journey through four airports. Despite this, I was pleasantly surprised by how the luggage held up. I had no issues once I proportioned my belongings correctly and by the time I arrived in Italy, only a few scuffs marks I had anticipated, given with the lighter color choice of the luggage I selected.
Overall, I highly recommend this brand. After reading many reviews of hard-case luggage, some minor pitfalls of zippers breaking and inflexibility is a given. However, as a photographer, the protection of a hard shell casing is worth protecting my lenses and electronics when the time comes. Additionally, it is hard to beat their sustainability statement when it comes to buying luggage. The work they are doing is incredible and I’m proud to have supported it with my purchase.
Learn more about Paravel’s sustainability efforts and luggage options at https://tourparavel.com.
