The first option we think of and consider the strongest for joining the wooden pieces of a piece of furniture is the mortise and tenon joint, but sometimes we may not have the means, time, or skill necessary to make this type of joint, so it’s always good to have a doweling jig on hand (among my homemade woodworking jigs you can find some). I have the Wolfcraft doweling jig for dowel joints, the one that consists of two metal pieces (one to hold both boards and the other that moves to drill the holes) and is useful for joining the edges of boards or panels, reinforcing the joint with dowels. But I think a self-centering doweling jig, like the one Matthias uses in this article where he makes changes to a kitchen table, can be much more versatile.
If you’re worried that the strength of the dowels won’t be enough, I personally believe that the four 12-millimeter dowels he uses for each joint will have little to envy the mortise and tenon joint. Besides, as he says in the article, there are tables for sale whose joints, very simple, are much weaker. And, as you can guess when you read this article, being a small jig, it fits perfectly in the suitcase, and you can take it with you to use it in any project that comes up wherever your friends or family live when you visit them. The only downside is that, apart from some online hardware stores, I never found that particular doweling jig model for sale. But with a drill press, we can make these joints in wood.
Look for the link to the article in Spanish about this modification of a kitchen table using a doweling jig from Woodgears in the woodworking projects tab of this blog and there go to Woodgears translations (number 29).