soft sided luggage question....good place to ask!

[Iluvstjohn]

Sooooo, my family of 4 is "trying" out the Bahamas this April vacation for 5 nights. We have "heard" the food in the bahamas is very expensive (like "other places" we know). We thought it would be in our best interest to bring some dry food, specially kid food to the hotel We will have a fridge and a sink...and microwave downstairs on the premises.

My question is to you fine folks....do you know of a good soft sided suitcase that I can get for this trip? We will be checking the suitcase...that will hold mainly food...We are hoping to fold it up and bring it back with us....Does anyone have any suggestions for a good soft sided foldable suitcase for this purpose?

Holly
(ps...we ARE returning to STJ in August this year...perfect time to get my first tattoo...to celebrate my 40th b-day, right? LOL

Holly

[byado18]

Try the Eaglecreek duffles!

[bubblybrenda]

I swear by anything REI or MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op up here in Canada). Rugged and durable and REI guarantees their stuff for life. I travel to STJ with the MEC duffle bag and that thing has literally been dragged through the mud and still looks fantastic after coming out of the washing machine. Personally, MEC has a greater and less costly selection than REI.

[djmom]

My advice is to just bring a cardboard box, like the smaller moving kind (get a sturdy one) Just tape it up and label well, and weigh before you go.

That is what we do every trip and have never had a problem. And one less thing to bring home.

[Gromit]

I like Djmom's suggestion but I like LL Bean's Duffles and Kipling Duffles are great too, albeit more expensive than LLBean. Plus Bean guarantees their stuff.

[catbat]

I wouldn't pack food in a soft-sided bag, except maybe granola -- the baggage handling will smash the heck out of whatever you put in there. Check with your airline about any restrictions they have with checking cardboard boxes.

[Iluvstjohn]

thanks for the ideas....we were thinking of doing what we did for our cinnamon by trip....we packed lot of things into cheap containers from the "Container Store"...gives a nice hard shell for food items. We are just trying to bring mostly snacky things for the kids..

this trip, is obviously...for the kids! we were just hoping to bring down stuff, and not bring it back!

Thanks guys!
Holly

[catbat]

Count on containers getting popped open and broken, then. I have a soft-sided bag that I love (Rick Steves' Convertible Carry-On, which works as a backpack as well as regular luggage). I pack it in my hard bag on trips to the states and use it as my extra bag on the way back home to STJ. On my last couple of trips, I brought back stateside "luxuries" like food and household items and checked this bag instead of my hard-sided case (because the hard bag has wheels and I didn't want to schlep the other through my connecting airport). Well, you would have thought the contents had been intentionally pulverized -- containers cracked, liquids leaking (they were in new heavy-duty Ziploc bags, but even some of those were split), and pretty much everything else bent or chipped (despite being packed in layers of clothing for protection).

To bring food one way, I would recommend either a heavy-duty cardboard box with bubble wrap or a yard-sale hard-sided suitcase that you don't care about leaving behind.

[khud]

We have brought food down to STJ every time we've gone. We take a heavy duty shoe box and pack all the crushables in it. This goes in our soft sided luggage and we surround it with clothes and shoes. The non-crushables we just disperse throughout the suitcase. We also bring frozen meat down in a collapsible soft cooler (carry on). We have saved tons of money doing this and been less wasteful. The two of us only need a small amount of each food and the rest gets thrown away so we bring as much as we can. They small packets of mustard, mayo, ketchup, relish, jelly and peanut butter come in particularly handy. We have never had a problem with this system. Knock on wood.