In the very informative BBQ skewer thread, someone mentioned bringing a fold-up cooler to tote stuff in the car and from the store. What a great idea! What else would be so handy to bring along that I know I haven't thougt of yet. We leave a week from today and I'm obsessed with not forgetting anything. Any thoughts would be great!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kim,

well some may find this silly, but whenever I travel to a hot sunny place and I'll be renting a car, I bring along one of those folding sunshades that you put in the front windshield. (Will that be totally weird in Italy?) I've brough them to Mexico and Florida and Arizona etc. and it keeps the car interior much cooler when you get back to it after a few hours walking! Especially if you have film (not a good idea) or wine (probably a worse idea) in the trunk!

It takes no room in the bottom of the suitcase and weighs nothing, and can be left behind.

Janet

Just thought of something else---we won't be bring this because we're not staying in rentals with fridges, but if you are, and you're bringing a folding cooler, you might also bring a couple of those "freezer packs" that you can freeze and put in the cooler. These however are a bit heavy and bulky.

I love the idea of the folding cooler (thanks Liz) - where would I find one in the US? Preferably somewhere in a catalog - maybe LL Bean? Liz, so you bring those freezer packs that Janet mentioned?

My list:
Flashlight (small - carry it in your purse)
good kitchen knife (they are never good enough in the vacation rentals)
I also bring an apron and potholders.
lots of guidebooks

I try desperately not to bring anything large or heavy, like books. Ideally, I leave for Italy with a carry-on and dot's it. When I come back, it never seems to work that way: I wind up buying a suitcase on each trip, and have a growing collection of suitcases. (Soft suitcases that I could fold and pack inside another on the way over are not an option: in 1975 I had a soft suitcase slashed at Orly, and learned my lesson.)

Has anyone else onboard here faced the Growing Collection of Suitcases problem? Better yet, solved it?

Actually Pauline, I do bring the little freezer packs along as well, forgot to mention. Traveling with kids it's always great for keeping drinks cold and more importantly, goronzola from turning into a nasty case of "who died in your car"?

Pauline, I have seen them in our local Shoppers Drug mart, also in London Drugs but you will probably have luck at a Wal-mart. I'm sure Santa Fe doesn't have one, but maybe Albequr....oh god don't expect me to know how to spell that one! I'm sure you could order them as well from LLBean or try this company http://www.sunwear.com/california_innovations.html

Great ideas - I would have brought the cooler with no freezer packs. I know you can buy both at Target. I'd love to hear from someone in Italy if you can get the freezer packs there. I love the idea of the car shade - I should use that here! Has anyone bought a great corkscrew in Italy? I have a mini collection going and that would be a great addition and a wonderful reminder every time I open a bottle of wine.

The most important things for me when I travel are books. They are great companions on long, SLOOOW afternoons or evenings, while waiting for a train, bus or airplane, when you can't fall asleep or just because you love reading, as I do.

My approach is to start preparing books for a trip by checking on second hand book stores, garage sales, library sales, etc, for books I never got around to read or I would love to read a second time. These would normally be paperbacks, light to carry. I will not confess how many books I take with me but I will just say that on one specific trip I was in transit in various hotels first because of an Iberia strike, then because Air Canada and British Airways could not get their act together at Heathrow and finally, once on the British Airlines flight to Toronto, there was a winter storm in Toronto and we landed in Chicago. I arrived home in Toronto 96 hours later, with a bunch of books bought in airports, etc.

As I finish reading the books I leave them behind with the hotel, pension, etc., for others to read. A side benefit is that in the space thus created in my luggage I can load whatever presents we buy for our children, grandchildren, my father, friends, etc.

So, my advice is: take books with you, read them and leave them behind for others to read. I figure just about anything else I need I will be able to procure locally, just about anywhere I travel.

Doru

I have a suggestion about getting rid of the extra suitcases one accumulates, or smallish carry-on bags that you buy when travelling. For a few years I was a foster parent, and it just made me so sad that kids would come to me with all of their belongings in garbage bags. Isn't it bad enough to be 8, and alone, in yet another strange place with strangers? And to have your clothes in a garbage bag- it's just not right! I would always buy my kids a suitcase, or a bag, to keep their belongings in when they left my house.

Now I go through the suitcases and bags I use (and haven't used) every year or so, and give the ones I'm no longer using to DSS- it's called other things in other states, but the agency that is responsible for child welfare. (It also may be good for a tax write-off.)

I can't give advice at all about NOT collecting suitcases and bags- I am constantly searching for the perfect one(s).

Maureen

When I was a little girl (a long time ago) the very first thing I ever wanted and prayed for was a suitcase! Even then I wanted to escape. I got it for Christmas. It was small and blue and I can see it as if it were in front of me now. That is a fabulous idea of what to do with leftover luggage Maureen!!

And I still love luggage!!

Maureen - What a wonderful idea about what to do with your excess luggage. It strikes me as ironic that what we use for pleasure (traveling, seeing new sights, etc.), these young children use to hold together their world. I need to talk to the guidance counselor at my school to see how to follow through with this.

Nancy

We got our fold up cooler (holds 12 cans and ice) at Target, I think. Many discount stores have them now. We didn't have trouble finding ice in the hotels we have stayed in in France, but I don't know about Italy.... We bring a supply of large ZipLock bags to hold ice, and reuse as long as possible.

Speaking of plastic bags, I buy the 2 gallon ones for packing, wet clothes, and messy shoes. I pack an assortment of these and squirrel them around my suitcase! No space, no weight to speak of.

I just packed my "picnic kit": 6"X10" flat plastic container with a Joyce Chen all-purpose knife (comes with its own scabbard); several plastic forks, knives and spoons; a few paper towels to avoid rattling; some fresh-wipes; some rubber bands and twisty-ties; and- don't forget!- a corkscrew!

Hello all,

As an 'old baggage' carter from way back ....... but meaning of the mental kind, leaving it behind is the way to go for that.

For the excess suitcases I relate to Maureen's solution as being the very best of good things to do. Thank you so much Maureen.

Carole

Can't wait to make use of my excess luggage for such a worthy cause...never would have thought of it.

So this may sound crazy... but to keep from buying more luggage on a trip, and to be sure I will buy what I really want, regardless of size or breakability; I pack what I need in a rolling carry on and pack the carry on in a larger rolling suitcase. On the trip home I wrap any breakable items in clothing & shopping bags and store them in the carry on. Everything else goes in the checked suitcase.

I don't mind my luggage getting lost coming home, which of course never happens, it's always on the way there... To reduce the chance of my luggage not meeting me at my destination I include my itinerary in my bag tag. Accommodation names, addresses, phone numbers, & dates of stay under my name card in the bag tag, "Itinerary inside" on the outside of the bag tag. That way if my luggage is seriously lost the airline will know where to send it to meet me. And of course I have a good strong bag tag. Just a little tip!!

The excess luggage idea is brilliant. I too had little children come for visits to my home with paper sacks and grown-up clothing, hardly a thing of their own.
All the things you mention can be purchased at a good grocery here. Insulated space age bags are sold at the end of the frozen food case, meant for getting your gelato home frozen and I have been reusing the same one for 1 1/2 years now. In the seasonal aisle, there are all kinds of picnic supplies, even to fold-up table and chairs incorporated into a picnic kit! I recognized instantly the type of Italian who would never sit on the ground.
I bought 4 of the blue ice thingies at the coop this spring for keeping things cool on the terrace.
When it comes to what one needs for a picnic or the beach, Italians are not behind the US one bit. You KNOW that 50% are off to some beauty spot every Sunday and you KNOW they eat sur l'erbe. I saw at the Coop a plug into the car refrigerator the other day. $50. You can't teach the Italians a thing about eating well, no matter where they do it.

I too buy a new suitcase to bring extra stuff back from every trip.
The Division of Family Services idea is fantastic. And one of my nieces is a social worker in Kansas City for DFS.
I was in an airport (somewhere, sometime) where there was a huge floor to ceiling sculpture made from luggage. Does that ring a bell for anyone. Since I travel all over the US for business, it is impossible for me to narrow it down. Could be anywhere from Oregon to Florida.

I have a Kipling duffel bag that I put in the outside pocket of my rolling suitcase and if I have more things coming home I put clothes in the Kipling duffel and the good stuff in my good suitcase.

It's June; I'm leaving in September, and already I have a pile of 8 books set aside to take wtih me for the fortnight (and the loooong flights both ways.) And the pile will grow. Am I nuts? And I don't mean the guidebooks, printouts, and maps; no, I mean novels. Sigh. I'm the guy you see dragging the duffle bag full of books across the terminal floor, his clothes and toiletries in a tiny shopping bag.
Yrs, Robert

We too bring many books - a pile of guidebooks and a few novels each. Although I find I do not read as many novels when traveling as I think I will - I read the guidebooks. Lately I have been bringing those little novels by the Oxford press I think - the classics. Very small.

My big packing trick is that I now put all our books in one of those carryon tote bags. We have a good strong Tumi one. All the weight in that one bag - so the big bags don't become too heavy. I am tired of checking in and being told how heavy my bag is (they always let me get away with it though). Everything is easier to manage this way and you have all your books in one place.

When I get into bed at night I usually have a pile of 2 or 3 books!! (in case I get bored with one)

Do you think people who like message boards are usually readers? I would say yes - because messge boards are all about reading and writing.

It is indeed sad that what to us is a burdensome addition to a collection of luggage is a way of holding together a child's world. That is a good tip, though: thanks.

Books, no, no, no. I try desperately not to take so much as one TO Italy, knowing that I will come back with dozens, which by the way requires a sturdy more expensive suitcase, which I usually buy in Rome not far from Termini (back behind S. Maria Maggiore there's a whole quarter, almost a little souk, of leather-goods places). Books at least enter the US duty-free.
   In practice, this boils down to my 2 indispensable local guidebooks: the little red TCI (Umbria, in my case; substitute your own region) and the DeAgostini (ditto). English-language reading material -- the kind of fluff many us need to go to sleep -- is readily available in outdoor stands in Rome, but even in Terni, and I imagine in Florence and all the bigger tourist places as well; provided we're not too fussy about selection, but then bookophiles aren't, usually.