easier packing

[curtiejoe]

hi funtimes

Will wonders never cease! I've never heard of the idea of mailing home some of your laundry while still on a trip somewhere. WOW! How innovative, imagenary and resourceful. I believe you may have started a whole new travel trend. But, pity the poor postal people who have to handle some of the more exotic laundry packages...

curtiejoe

[daldoc]

i have some of the ll bean bags that you roll your clothes in and that suck the air out. realatively cheap and you can use over and over. Now to the important issue. WINE now that you can't carry on the great cheap wine you can get in italy and germany etc. we have purchase the oversized zip lock bags. i think they are 2 or 3 gallon. and we put 2 bottles each in our bagggies with our dirty clothes and put in the middle of our checked luggage. we also never travel with one or two totes bags they are little bags that our zippered and when you unzip they open up to a good size bag you can either check or carry on. I keep id's on them so they can be easily checked. don't take up much room but come in very handy.

[curtiejoe]

hi daldoc

Speaking of wine, now you're getting into yet another totally fascinating and intriguing area that just about everyone, especially world travellers can relate to.

Carrying wine you've bought on your travels with you home can be tricky. I like your idea of the over-sized 2-3 gallon sized zip-lock bags.Also the zippered tote bags for carry-on. Ingenious solutions! Just hope they never leak while you're in transit...and what about the customs folk with their probing hands and all-seeing x-ray scanners???

curtiejoe

[emilymalone]

I take every size zip lock bag in my travels, Home Depot now carries the really big ones, the 2 gallon ones are available at the grocery. The freezer bags (2 gal)are the strongest and best for carrying wine, the quart size are perfect for perfume, toothpaste and other things you don't want broken and spilled over the contents of all your other luggage.

[daldoc]

We brought home 8 bottles from italy this past october if you pack tight and zip tight you shouldn't have any problems. I used send wine home but it has gotten so expensive to send from europe with the changes after 911 they wanted 95 euros for shipping wine isn't cheap at that price.

[curtiejoe]

Hi emilymalone (new user)

Wecome to the LL Community!

Looks like there are a few more folks using the zip-lock bags and freezer bags than I'd ever imagined. What a great way to pack things (like wine, perfume, toothpaste and the like) for your flights to and from exotic places. Just one question? Do you put the wine bottles into the bags and then seal them? Or, do you pour the wine out of the bottles into the bags??? Don't know if that would work?

curtiejoe

[daldoc]

the wine goes in the bag sealed usually pack it nice and tight in my bag with other things around it. but i do have friends that have taken wine in baggies that they poured in and sealed especially on cruises where it is hard to get wine on. and so far no problems

[curtiejoe]

hi daldoc



Very interesting. I would never have thought to pack wine in this way when travelling. Good to learn new ways of doing things.



curtiejoe

[funtimes]

Well - fellow winos - I knew this was a good group! We keep cardboard shipping boxes from wine club memberships or winery visits - if you visit wineries on your trip - they can pack wine for you as if for shipping - then place entire package in your luggage This only works for two bottles usually but it ensures no breakage. We've tried the baggie - surrounded by clothing trick as well with success so far. This is a very happy travel group! ...Funtimes

[curtiejoe]

hi funtimes

Luckily we live within a couple of hours drive of two of Canada's top wine-producing regions. The Niagara Wine Region's about 80 miles south of Toronto and the Prince Edward County Wine Region about 110 miles east of us. Other than a few choice wine producung areas in British Columbia, on our far west coast, these two favoured areas of ontario produce some of the best wines in Canada and even in North America. Only the wine regions of California (e.g. Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley) have the climate, soils and grape vines needed to produce wines of similar or higher quality.

One of our favourite Ontario wines is the "Collectors' Choice" Chardonnay (2004) out of the Hillebrand Estates winery near Niagara-on-the-Lake in the Niagara Region. It's a superb white that has a very smooth body and pleasingly delicate aromas of fruit and spices. We like the Hillebrand wines so much that last fall we joined their Wine Club and now receive two of their select bottles of wine by delivery to our door every month. We thoroughlyenjoydrinking these with our favourite foods and friends.

So you see, we don't really have a great need to bring wines home from foreign countries and run the gamut off customs and having to pack the stuff in our luggage, though every now and then when viasiting France, Germany or another great wine-producing country it'd be great to bring some back home.

curtiejoe