<p>We have a Lands End Duffle with wheels. It works great at airports for vacation. It was wonderful move in day, stuffed and heavy it was easy for me to roll and strong son to carry. Son used it under his bed as an extra drawer. We don’t stuff it w/heavy stuff and it is easy to keep under 50# for air travel.</p>
<p>D said that she could have used a smaller sport duffel bag during her freshman year–something squishable to pack your duds in for a quick 2-3 day trip to NY.</p>
<p>For hauling stuff to college, she said that large duffels are wonderful. After you unload them, they don’t take up much room in the closet. And when you need them at the end of the school year, there they are.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.toughtraveler.com/lug/duffel.asp[/url]”>http://www.toughtraveler.com/lug/duffel.asp</a></p>
<p>I bought three duffles, a sports duffle, and an overnight bag/attache in 1986. All are still in constant use. I have supplemented them with some samsonite harder shelled luggage but I am absolutely amazed at their tough traveler’s quality. My son took my attache/overnight bag to college because it is so functional and it takes abuse so well.</p>
<p>A locked suitcase may be the only really private place in some dorm settings.</p>
<p>In my experience traveling with anything more than a carry on during holiday visits home is an added headache. I never take more than my carry on…the hassle is just not worth it. I don’t take much more luggage to/from for I ship most everything else.</p>
<p>I love COSTCO brands - quality and price. They make two suitcases with wheels - a big one and a smaller (more like weekend sized) one. She’ll be limited to two pieces of checked baggage. I don’t know if the COSTCO small one works as a carry on (I have ‘issues’ with people who attempt to stuff too-big bags into the overhead. Especially after one nice little old lady dropped hers on my son’s leg and it was still badly bruised two weeks later when we saw him. As near as I can tell, she was on the Senior Pro-Am Bowling tour and didn’t want to check her lucky balls, but I digress …) The COSTCO rolling suitcases have held up well over many trips.</p>
<p>Excess bedding, cold weather clothing, etc. can be boxed and mailed later. It’s always fun to receive packages.</p>
<p>I have issues with overstuffing overhead also…I take 1 small rolling duffle. I leave cosmetics and clothing at home. I have traveled for 2 weeks in Europe with the same small rolling duffle…never a problem. May it is a guy thing.</p>
<p>If we are just dropping son off by car, and picking him up by car, I think I’ll just bring his luggage home and only leave him a small carry-on piece for holidays when he’s flying home. Is that the right idea?</p>
<p>But you will need to send back the large luggage with him for when he comes home for the summer vacation and needs to vacate his room.</p>
<p>marite:
Couldn’t we just bring it with us, or is that not enough packing time? (Not that son is a careful packer…He just got back from fly fishing in Montana and packed for that trip less than 15 minutes. It made me so nervous. But when he got back I asked him if had forgotten anything and he looked at me funny and said “No” as in Duh.)</p>
<p>It depends, I suppose, on your arrival time vs. the vacating deadline. When we’ve picked up our S from college (or either S from their camps), they’ve always been packed and ready to go. But perhaps you could bring the duffel(s) with you and stuff everything in in 20 minutes or so.</p>
<p>If anything needs more careful packing (lamps? computer? printer? etc.) you might make sure you arrive in May in time to do that, with the right luggage/cartons/bubblewrap. Fishing is not quite the same as belongings from 9 months away. Although my S continues in his vow to bring as little as possible…</p>
<p>For non-clothes items, students often go to liquor stores to get boxes. That’s how my S was ready to go almost as soon as we arrived.</p>
<p>We’ve always left the duffels at school, but there’s another handy old camping packing trick that helps a lot. Buy several boxes of the Jumbo sized (2 or 2 1/2 gallon) ziploc bags, and pack clothes, sheets, towels, comforters, etc in them. Then sit on the bag and essentially vacuum seal the bags. It squishes the stuff into tiny flat, easily packed bags that you can then throw in the suitcases when they arrive, or pack the bags into the liquor boxes.</p>
<p>Another really great box is one called a chicken box. They are heavy-duty cardboard, sort of wax-coated, with sturdy lids and handles. GREAT boxes, but definitely better if you can find some that haven’t just had large quantities of chickens packed in them (we got some from the Mead packing company directly). They are also easily collapsed flat for storage. My s’s roommate arrived with his stuff in those big giant plastic containers you use to store holiday decorations. Of course, he brought them in his car and they took up a lot of space in the closet.</p>
<p>Another trick:</p>
<p>My S’s company has moved a couple of times. Each time, he’s saved some of the packing boxes. They’re collapsible and sturdy and quite large, so they can pack larger, bulky items that would not fit into liquor boxes, but they also store flat and don’t need duct tape to hold together.</p>
<p>I arrived mid week to bring home stuff that would not fit in son’s small car. I had thought son would be neatly packed–I must have been dreaming about some girl on another planet-not my son. I gave son some boxes I had in my car. 1st mistake was believing him that he didn’t need boxes. Fortunately I had a messy car and forgot to throw out the Costco boxes from previous day. Son started packing drawers and removing stuff from the walls. I found those quilted? heavy duty kitchen bags great for clothes and bed stuff. We packed my car with just about everything, left him with clothes for graduation(he was performing) and the time he had left. I left the rest of the garbage bags-he used them and the rolling duffle to bring back the rest. Those bags held even lamps and electrical stuff. Stuff I never would have attempted to back in a plastic bag, but lucky for son I wasn’t there. We live only an hour away so son didn’t have to worry about plane limits. When he returns I will be sending more garbage bags. I had sent one of those under the bed plastic boxes-it just held the monogramed towels and washcloths he never used. He used a small duffle for weekend trips.</p>
<p>I have already asked for move in day off in just a few weeks. My SUV holds the refr and stuff that just won’t fit in an Xa. I agree about the suitcase probably being the only thing you can lock in a dorm.</p>
<p>Smart idea–
My s. just got back from a summer program at Duke. They redid the dorms, and you can lock the closet (yes- single closet) with the door key. It is shared by the 2 roommates (each with a key), but its better than nothing. Someone on a previous thread suggested bringing a 2 drawer locking fle cabinet to use as a nighttable, and to lock stuff in. Good idea.</p>
<p>If you only have one rolling duffel to take away to college (plane ride away), which would be more useful: a 22" carry-on or something a bit bigger, considering some vacations, like winter break or summer are pretty long and demand more stuff than a 22" can accomodate. Any thoughts on the duffels that convert to backpacks? Seems like the bigger duffels would be pretty awkward to carry as backpacks, tho they do seem to make 'em. Grandma has offered one nice piece of luggage as a grad gift–excellent idea. Any recs on good quality brands that are lightweight but take abuse?</p>
<p>Personally, I would go for the large rolling duffel for the reason you mentioned. When it’s time to pack up for summer (or any long vacation), having the larger duffel will work best. We got this for our S and it works well (in the large size). <a href=“http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=1&langId=-1&catalogId=1&categoryId=40386&parentCategory=4523&cat4=2916&productId=624846&display_id=49418&feat=dp50&catalog_id=TA&from=&rtnComp=[/url]”>http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=1&langId=-1&catalogId=1&categoryId=40386&parentCategory=4523&cat4=2916&productId=624846&display_id=49418&feat=dp50&catalog_id=TA&from=&rtnComp=</a></p>
<p>Stuffed full, it still met the 50lb airline weight limit and that included having 2 of his stereo speakers in there!</p>
<p>For a carry-on, he uses a quite small duffel that doesn’t really need wheels. It just can’t get all that heavy. This works (at least for a guy) for short trips.</p>
<p>PS An advantage of buying LL Bean is that they really stand by their products. If you have trouble with it, even long after purchase, they will replace it.</p>
<p>If Grandma is splurging for one nice piece of luggage, I would go for a larger rolling duffel, too. Reason being, you can buy a smaller rolling duffel or carry-on for $25-50 from Walmart that will be more appropriate for weekend trips, maybe even Xmas break/spring break. You can it drag it back and forth, and in 4 years - throw it away. Grandma’s nicer piece of luggage would only have to make, say one trip home per year, and at the end of 4 years will still be good shape. I’m assuming Grandma is planning on spending a little more than $25 ;). Those very sturdy, expensive rolling carry-ons are really better business travelers making lots of short trips - for most of us who do more leisure travel, a cost-effective arry-on can be very cheap.</p>
<p>Oh, and I really like the LLBean, too, they are very good quality for the price, which I would consider to be intermediate between Walmart and luggage store.</p>