Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Travel Bags

I do a fair amount of short 2-4 day trips between holiday travel, visiting friends, weekend getaways, and of course, trips to Disneyland. As much as I can, I use a smaller duffel bag type of luggage. Personally, I'm not a fan of rolling suitcases unless it's a longer trip and I absolutely need the space. I find a duffel is less bulky, easier to travel with, and perfect as a carry on. Being as short as I am, I already to struggle to get my bag into the overhead compartment on an airplane. Much easier if my bag doesn't have wheels and a frame. ;)

My go-to travel bag, especially on plane trips, is a duffel bag. I can get about a weeks worth of clothes in there and the shoulder strap and handles make it easy to travel with. Plus it's the perfect carry on size. The large zippered opening is also super convenient if I'm not planning to unpack everything.

When I'm feeling a little more stylish and don't need to pack as much, I opt for a smaller bag. I have a bag in this same shape, but it's brown with pink and orange polka dots. It surprisingly holds a lot, but is harder to organize since everything gets stacked on top of each other. Mine doesn't have a long shoulder strap, so it's not such a great airplane bag.

I just got this Vera Bradley Weekender bag. (Thank you work appreciation points!) I know the quilted cotton look isn't for everyone, but I really like it! (I think it comes from loving to sew?) And it comes in tons of fun prints! It's a little bigger than my other bag of the same style and it *might* hold just as much as my go-to duffel. 
I did a quick test run for my upcoming Disneyland trip. I grabbed enough clothes for 4 days of hot weather, my running stuff, and my toiletries bag. (The bag with the fruit on it in the top left contains my undergarments. I prefer to contain everything in a bag just in case a TSA dude needs to rifle through my bag.)
It all fit! With my shoes! 
I love that it has a large zipper pocket on the outside. Great for my travel documents pouch and a book. 

Do you have a particular bag you like to travel with? 

8 comments:

  1. Dang, you are a master packer lol! I usually just bring my carry-on suitcase so I don't have to check a bag. Small duffels would be quite a bit more convenient (and less hassle though). Love the blue polka-dotted one!

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  2. Wow! Nice job! I tend to over pack a bit for race weekends, just because you never know what kind of weather you are going to encounter. I'll be at Disneyland for 6 days, so I'll only have a little bit more than you have packed there. I wonder if I'm able to downsize my travel bag (I only bring carry-on luggage on the plane nowadays, I never check baggage)for the trip to Disneyland. I'll have to check that out. Good food for thought today! Thanks!

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    1. For last year's half, I was at Disneyland for a week. I was able to get all my stuff into a decent size carry on, plus my hubby's running gear, too. You could probably make it work, even with packing clothes for different weather senarios. But... we did end up having to buy another bag to fit everything on the way home. We didn't go crazy at the expo, but between race shirts and other souveniers our stuff expanded. Haha :)

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    2. Oh yeah, expo and race stuff...I forgot about those. Nevermind, I'll probably just stick with my normal carry-on bag. Give myself enough room to bring home lots of booty!!!

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  3. LOVE LOVE LOVE Vera Bradley!! I have been in a debate between a lap top booksack or a weekender in Tutti Fruitti pattern. Can't decide! I need an easy carry on for Disneyland...and I like how everything fit so well into your weekender!

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    1. The Tutti Frutti pattern is cute! Are you planning to bring a second bag/suitcase for your clothes, etc? The weekender is great and hold a ton, but it's definitely a big bag to carry in addition to something else. If you're brining a laptop, I'd probably opt for the book sack since it has that dedicated slot for it. Let me know what you decide. :)

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