Monos Hybrid Trunk Review: The Overpacker’s Dream Luggage

When a woman is going to be a parent, everyone tells her, “Now you’re eating for 2.”

But no one warns future parents that, from then on, they’ll also be packing for 2 — or more — whenever they travel.

As a proud light packer, it’s been an adjustment. I used to travel everywhere for a month at a time with a pair of sturdy shoes and about a grocery sack’s worth of clothes squeezed into a compression pack. My go-to for over a decade was an 85-liter Osprey Aether backpack, which was usually filled with about 75 liters of work stuff (laptop, notebooks, camera equipment, lenses, tripods, etc.) and 10 liters of the “me” stuff.

When my son was born and as he grew bigger, it was clear I’d need more space — and to save my increasingly aching back — if he were coming with me on trips. I soon switched to the large (95-liter) classic North Face Base Camp duffel, which held more, wasn’t constrained by the sometimes oddly shaped compartments of a trekking backpack, and was easy enough to stack in the back of an SUV or haul off an airport luggage carousel.

But lugging that thing around between the airport and a hotel or Airbnb was no joke, and I began to envy those people who wheeled their luggage around them like they were on futuristic hovercraft. It’s not like I was tramping around jungles or up and down volcanos anymore, either. Instead, I’m mostly going to places like Disneyland Paris and Cape Cod these days, so I needed a wheeled suitcase that could hold enough for at least a week’s worth of travel necessities for at least 2 people. I had a wheeled Samsonite for weekend trips for myself, but it wasn’t nearly big enough for a family, with those all-important stuffed animals and favorite pillows, toys, and books to carefully store.

After researching the alternatives, I ordered the Monos Hybrid Trunk directly from the Canadian company for $465. I then packed for my entire family (all my clothes, all my son’s clothes, and most of my wife’s clothes) for 10 days in Cape Cod this summer, plus 1 extra day on the road. Here’s how that went.

Features of the Monos Hybrid Trunk

When it was delivered to my doorstep, the Monos Hybrid Trunk came in a cloth protective bag inside the cardboard box, which seemed like it’d be a big bonus for the kind of person who likes a suitcase for his suitcase. I have enough Russian nesting dolls around the house anyway, and I don’t need my luggage to be hermetically sealed in a sterile environment when I’m not using them, so I just threw this inside one of the pockets and used it as a laundry bag during our trip, which turned out to be quite useful. The suitcase did, however, arrive without a scratch on it, so hats off to you, cloth bag!

The trunk is sized like an old-fashioned traveling ocean liner trunk, so it’s longer and has a squarish cross-section: It measures 29.9 x 15.7 x 14.3 inches and weighs 13.2 pounds. Its listed volume of 89 liters is actually a smidge smaller than my North Face duffel, but my spine hasn’t minded that at all.

The trunk is mostly a hard, polycarbonate shell built around an aluminum frame with aluminum corners.

It also has a telescoping handle with 4 settings, 360-degree spinner wheels, and hinged clasps instead of a zipper to keep shut. Each clasp has its own TSA-compliant combination lock. The trunk has a rubber side handle on the front between the locks.

For whatever reason, whenever I loaded the trunk onto anything, I wished it had just one more handle on the other long side. I get that it was less practical to have a handle on the hinged side and that a second-side handle isn’t a common feature on any suitcase.

The trunk-style length of this suitcase means it sits taller when wheeled around. Shorter people may have difficulty pulling it along by the telescopic handle even at the lowest setting.

If you’ll be traveling in a vehicle without a large enough trunk or storage space, the Monos Hybrid Trunk may be too long to fit easily. For air travelers, this is definitely checked luggage, not carry-on.

There are 3 interior zippered compartments, and compression straps for the main compartment.

Mine came with a vegan leather ID tag and a kit for buffing out scuff marks. Online, buyers complain frequently about how easily Monos suitcase shells accumulate scratches and nicks, and this seemed to be a nod to those complaints.

The main compartment was deep, but when I compared it to the North Face duffel and considered how much we had to pack for 11 days (including swimwear, activities, and stuffies), I worried that it wouldn’t be enough.

Packing the Monos Hybrid Trunk

When it came time to get everything ready, packing cubes were the key. The trunk was actually the exact width of the length of standard larger and medium-size packing cubes, so it was never a matter of cramming rectangular packing cubes into irregular or smaller spaces (as often happens with my backpack) or having to find ways to fill up empty crannies (as often happens with the duffel). They slotted in perfectly, and there was no wasted space.

In the end, we packed all the clothes for all 3 of us into the suitcase, along with a couple of stuffies and our kid’s favorite small pillow. But when I had to close it, the lid wasn’t even close to shutting, so I ended up having to sit on it to clasp it closed. Though the aluminum frame was sturdy enough, I got nervous that I’d dent the polycarbonate, which seemed lightweight.

When I managed to get 1 clasp closed, I had a momentary fear that the hinges on the back of the suitcase would bust, but after I closed the second clasp with a little effort, everything seemed O.K., and the trunk made it to Massachusetts and back in 1 piece over a road trip that last 3 days in total (2 days up, 1 day down).

When it was time for me to load up the car for the trip, it fit perfectly lengthwise into the storage of a compact SUV. With the lid side up, it was almost to the height of the pullout cover, meaning this was probably the most efficient use we could’ve made of that back storage. I laid it right along the central axis of the car, so it gave us plenty of space on either side for several more bags, backpacks, and bundles of firewood. The space between the top of the lid and the bottom of the storage screen was enough to fit a narrow laptop backpack and a folded-up picnic blanket.

On the way back, the packing was easier, even though the goods it contained now also included things like seashells and somehow “special” but really perfectly ordinary rocks that are now strewn around our garden.

Back when I regularly took on overseas assignments, figuring out how to safely pack a carbon-fiber tripod was always the biggest pain when it came to moving from site to site or prepping for the plane trip there or back — I’ve had at least 1 snap on me while stowed in the baggage compartment of a plane in my big backpack. With the Monos Hybrid Trunk and its elongated shape and sturdy aluminum frame, I don’t think that’ll be a problem anymore.

One of the reasons I bought this trunk was that it didn’t have external zippers — I’ve had my share of luggage instantly transform into garbage when the main zipper fails on a trip. Though I had my momentary trepidations about these clasps as I was getting them shut, they held the stuffed lid tight with no issues over sometimes bumpy roads. I haven’t taken this trunk on an airplane yet, but I’m optimistic it’d survive all but the most zealously suitcase-hating baggage handlers.

Another reason I got a trunk is that I’ve learned over decades of traveling and countless lost doodads, socks, and so on, to live out of my pack when I’m traveling. After all, you’ll never lose your passport or that critical, work-related electronic device in a dresser drawer if it never leaves your luggage.

But with the duffel bag, smaller and more traditional suitcases, and especially my backpack, finding anything inside was not only torturous, but the search itself always made a hash of whatever organizational plan I pretended I was following. Passports or other important documents or items would invariably end up at the bottom of the pack, and I’d have to rummage through a week’s worth of socks and underwear in front of unamused officials at the worst possible times.

This case, paired with the packing cubes, was long and rigid enough to keep everything organized inside the trunk for the entire 11 days we were on vacation. Plus, the lid itself was surprisingly deep, meaning I could keep it propped open as an extra (albeit partially vertical) shelf.

There were downsides, too. The trunk did indeed collect scratches and nicks easily. Several online commenters suggest getting darker colors to hide the scuffs, but my silver case definitely showed a little wear after less than a day on shell-and-gravel roads. I haven’t tried buffing them out with the included kit yet. (And, honestly, I like my luggage to show wear and tear as long as it’s not structural damage.)

Finally, it took a while to get used to the center of gravity being higher than on the traditionally sized carry-on suitcases. But once I got the hang of it, the trunk proved light, the wheels quiet and easily maneuverable, and the telescoping handle simple to use.

How We Tested the Monos Hybrid Trunk

We battle-tested the Monos Hybrid Trunk under real-life conditions: an 11-day trip to a house rental in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, including nearly 3 days stuffed into the back of a chaotically packed compact SUV over chronically underfunded Northeast highways and unpaved and bumpy New England coastal roads.

I personally tested how the fully packed suitcase rolled both on concrete sidewalks and said unpaved roads (oyster shell and gravel), and then had a shorter, female friend do the same.

Over the course of 10 days at the house, the trunk was also exposed to a range of 5 kids, from a rambunctious first-grader to an even-tempered 15-year-old, and survived.

Who Should Get the Monos Hybrid Trunk?

• Overpackers and those packing for more than 1 person
• People who like to live out of their suitcases instead of unpacking into hotel drawers
• Those who like to keep things well-organized in their luggage
• Those who bring along longer or unusually-sized items they want to keep protected
• Serial zipper killers

Who Shouldn’t Get the Monos Hybrid Trunk?

• Light packers
• Air travelers who only take carry-ons
• Shorter people
• People who like their luggage to look as good as new for as long as they have it

Is the Monos Hybrid Trunk Worth Buying?

Like any trunk, the Monos Hybrid Trunk is meant for a specific kind of customer who wants to travel in reasonable comfort, expects to be able to rely on certain amenities at their destination (like sidewalks and enough space to lay it down), and needs to carry a lot. This isn’t something to pack for a desert trek or a mountain climb.

But if you’re packing for 2 (or more) now, the Monos Hybrid Trunk is a case worth looking into.