Tempo Traveller Luggage Capacity: Where Your Bags Actually Go
A tempo traveller gives you a rear hold and roof space, not a coach-style underfloor bay. Here is how much fits per van, and when twelve cases beat twelve seats.
Ask us what people really want to know about a tempo traveller, and luggage comes up more often than seating. Everyone can picture the seats. Almost nobody can picture where eight hard-shell suitcases actually go.
So let us answer that properly. Where the bags go, how much fits, and the point at which you have simply brought too much.
Two places a bag can live
A tempo traveller gives you two storage zones. The first is the rear hold, sitting behind the last bench. The second is the roof, which on our Winger AC is a proper luggage rack.
That is it. There is no underfloor bay like a coach, and no overhead locker worth trusting with anything heavier than a day sack. A tempo traveller is a van, and vans carry luggage the way vans always have.
The rear hold gets bigger or smaller depending on how the seats are arranged. That is the part people miss when they book.
The numbers, van by van
- Winger AC 9/12 seat - Rs 2,600 a day, flexible 9-or-12 layout, plus roof luggage space
- Executive Tempo 10 - Rs 2,800 a day
- Executive Tempo 12 - Rs 3,000 a day, hold behind the rear bench
- Executive Tempo 17 - Rs 3,300 a day, more floor behind the last row
- Executive Tempo 19 - Rs 4,600 a day
- Executive Tempo 26 - Rs 5,300 a day, the one that takes group luggage without argument
Working rule from our own vans: a full-size hard-shell case has roughly the footprint of one seat. Twelve people with twelve large cases in a 12 seater is a squeeze. Twelve people with twelve cabin-size bags is fine.
That single distinction decides more bookings than price does. Extra km runs Rs 23 to Rs 30 depending on the van, driver allowance is Rs 700 a day extra, and 100 km is included each day. We have moved groups up a van on the morning of departure more than once. It is always better than a lap full of luggage.
The Winger trick nobody uses
The Winger is the odd one in the fleet, and in a good way. It gives you a flexible 9-or-12 layout. Book it as a 9 seater and the bench you give up becomes luggage floor.
You lose three seats. You gain somewhere for the prams, the cricket kit, a folded wheelchair. For eight or nine people travelling heavy, that trade is nearly always the right one, and it still costs Rs 2,600 a day.
Groups of twelve who insist on the full 12-seat layout will find the Winger tighter than an Executive Tempo 12. That is arithmetic, not a sales line.
Where the roof earns its place
Roof space is underrated. It is where the awkward things go. Surfboards. A folded pushchair. The box of wedding gifts that refuses to sit flat. Anything long.
It is not where the passports go. Nobody wants to climb up at a checkpost. Pack those in the cabin, where you can reach them.
Packing for Munnar or Alleppey
The route does not change the maths much, but it changes the feel.
Munnar is 111 km from our Aluva garage, about 99 minutes of clean road. Those climbs are where a rear-heavy van rides noticeably harder, because the last row sits over the axle and the hold sits over that. Heavy bags at the very back make a firm ride firmer.
Alleppey is 76 km, roughly 64 minutes. Flat, short, kind to everyone. Bag placement barely matters on that run.
If you are climbing to Munnar with real weight, put the heaviest cases as close to the middle of the van as packing allows. Small thing. You will feel it on the hairpins past Adimali.
When you have packed wrong
Here is a case where the van is the wrong choice. If every one of twelve guests turns up with a full-size international suitcase plus a cabin bag, a 12 seater will not hold them. You need the 19 or the 26.
We would rather move you up a van than have your group ride to Thekkady with cases on laps.
The honest downside of roof space: loading takes real time at both ends of the trip, and in heavy monsoon rain it wants tarping properly. We handle that, but it is a genuine ten minutes, not an instant.
Booking
Tell us your headcount and how much luggage is coming, and we will tell you which van genuinely fits. If a Winger on the 9-seat layout suits you better, we will say so.
Call +91 70343 01815 or book online. Rates here are indicative and rise on peak festive days. Your final quote is confirmed by our team against your actual itinerary, with kilometres counted from the garage and back to the same garage.
Common questions
- How much luggage fits in a tempo traveller?
- A rear hold behind the last bench plus roof space on vans that have a rack, like the Winger. A full-size hard-shell case takes about the footprint of one seat, so twelve people with twelve large cases in a 12 seater is tight. Cabin-size bags are no problem.
- Does a tempo traveller have roof luggage space?
- Our Winger AC 9/12 seater does. It is where the awkward items go - pushchairs, surfboards, anything long. Roof loading takes a few minutes at each end of the trip, and we tarp it in rain.
- Which tempo traveller is best for a group with heavy luggage?
- For twelve people with full-size cases, the Executive Tempo 17 or 19 gives the extra floor you need. The Executive Tempo 26 is the one that takes a group's luggage without anyone negotiating over space.
- Can I put luggage on the seats in a tempo traveller?
- You can, and groups do. But a case on a seat is a person who has nowhere to sit, so it only works if you have booked a larger van than your headcount.
Book this trip
Send us your dates and group size and we will confirm the van and the rate.