Travel Gear Tuesday – Vinni Bags
Whenever my husband and I travel anywhere, we are sure to bring a couple of Wine Skins so that we can safely back bottles of wine, olive oil, perfume, even bottles of foie gras!
We liked the Wine Skin product, had never had any issues with it, but we could generally only get one use of out of them, sometimes two. At $10 a pop, that was getting expensive.
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While I was at the Sonoma International Film Festival, I discovered a new product called the Vinni bag. I was immediately enamored. It is a blow-up plastic bag that protects a bottle in the same manner as the Wine Skin, but it is made from recyclable materials, can be re-used over and over and it locally produced in California.
Having a product that is green and promotes greenness is really what sealed the deal and I bought several to use on our next trips. I really think the Vinni Bag is a really smart product idea.
Oh my…there have been so many! 🙂 Okay I have to go with Spring 2007. I was leading a spring break service trip for my college, which involved me getting about 30 students from Iowa to Texas during a blizzard. Fun times! We drove to Oklahoma before stopping for the night and upon breaking everybody up into hotel rooms discovered that the bumpy ride had caused a suitcase massacre.
4 girls had had full, huge cans of hairspray explode all over the inside of their suitcases. 2 guys had the same problem, but with shaving cream. The worst was that 2 of those girls were in MY room and the smell was HORRIBLE. I felt so bad, all their things were ruined and, due to lack of time to shop around, they rocked the spring line from Wal-Mart for 2 weeks.
PS – love the idea of this gadget!
I love that idea! While I’ve never had a suitcase related disaster, it has only been due to sheer luck. Example: at Disney World a few weeks ago I was given 2 bottles of wine in my room. I also bought a bottle of Magner’s, expecting to drink it. All of it came home in my suitcase, unharmed. But it could have easily been different. I would love to try this!
With the exception of the time I packed a turquoise necklace in my checked baggage and — surprise, surprise — it didn’t make it to its checked thru destination, I haven’t had any suitcase disasters. I mean, a bottle of shampoo once exploded, but it wasn’t a huge big deal. It washed out of everything. Love the Vinni idea. Thanks for putting me onto it!
Keeping my fingers crossed. No suitcase disasters, more suitcase mishaps.
My packing tip: use packing cubes. I use one set per family member. My suitcase looks spotless (where before it looked like a clothes-erupting volcano). When I unload the suitcases, I put the cubes in the dressers, unzip them, and voila… At the end of the vacation, I zip them close and back in the suitcase.
These are great…am definitely going to get some! I (knock on wood) have not had any travel disasters while carting both wine and olive oil in my suitcase, but I am fanatical about wrapping it in paper and usually brings tons of ziplock bags to stuff them inside in case they leak. I have to say though bringing CA wine to Boston or bringing French wine home from France or Cava home from Spain was not the most harrowing experience. It was carrying a full 10″ cake from a bakery here on the plane with me from SF to Boston…cake made in intact, but barely…the top 2 layers had almost slid off the cake, but I guess it still tasted good because my sister just shoved the top part over, like the frosting off her hands and cut herself a big slice! Ahh..the things we do for food!
Suitcase packing tip- don’t forget about the outside pockets, they are always good for sticking in other stuff like socks, etc and cushioning bottles so they don’t explode.
No disasters…yet….
My packing tip is to cram your shoes full of rolled socks, a mini-umbrella, all that stuff. Makes my big feet finally come in handy!
Thanks for the chance to win!
–Liza
ejm6x (at) yahoo (dot) com
I love mini-snow globes, it’s kitschy I know — but well I adore them and only buy them when I am visiting a foreign country. It’s my only tourist souvenir. I think they are whimsical. Well, since they are liquid filled you have to check them when traveling home and let’s just say 2 of them burst all over my luggage, ruining about half my clothes.
I would love to win this bag!
What a great give away! I could definitely use this as I’m travling to France this summer and it’d be a sin not to return home with a bottle of wine! My worse suitcase story happened before I even left for my destination. My cat, I suppose, put two and two together and realized that my packed suitcase meant I was about to leave for awhile. So, in what I can assume was an attempt to sabotage my vacation, she peed. ALL OVER MY SUITCASE. And cat pee is just about the worst smelling thing in the whole world. I had to throw the suitcase out and repack everything about 4 hours before my flight left. Hope this never happens to you! 😀
mine was the shampoo that somehow leaked over every item in the entire suitcase at the start of a 2 week trip in Turkey
Hi!
I will begin to travel a lot, so this post attired me.. I haven’t had a lot of disasters but I always fear to lose something or to take the wrong luggage…
What I do is never put inside precious stuff like jewlery and such, also, i write my name outside and pray to get it always back…
I’d really like to win this cause I just moved and for my new trip i would have to lend a luggage from my friend..
I’ve never had a disaster, thankfully. I can say, to avoid unexpected spills, make sure all items are secured in some sort of bag or container.
I’ve not had any major travel disaster yet, but once my tube of toothpaste exploded all over my comestics.
ms(dot)verymarried(at)gmail(d0t)com
wow – this is a very smart idea. I’ve traveled with wine from other countries before and would just throw tons of baggies around it – very un-eco friendly!
Wow! What a great product, and so utterly fitting for me. Ironicly, I had a bottle of wine break during handling on a long cross country flight. Worst case scenario, I know, all of my clothes for the trip were ruined!
six_one_nine_girlie86 (at) yahoo (dot) com
wow! this is such a cool product. I hope I win!! 🙂
I wish I had these bags the one time I went to Chicago. There was a winery that I love but I was afraid to buy the wine to take home with me. I was riding on Amtrak and was afraid somehow the bottle would break. Awesome giveaway! 🙂
I once had lotion spill all over my makeup!
I once forgot to put many bottles of shampoo in plastic bags before packing. When I got to my destination a few of the bottles had lost their caps and ruined all of my belongings! Awful!
That would be when a bottle of shampoo burst and spilled all over my jeans and tshirts. Yuck – it washed off in the sink but it was a pain. Now I always put liquid in plastic bags so if they leak it is at least contained.
My worst disaster was in Italy- we had bought some great olive oil and other souveniers. We packed it the best way we could- but needless to say- when we got home- we had olive oil that had leaked all over everything in its path- what a mess! This would have come in handy.
suitcase disaster: trying to bring all my med school books home to study – they were WAY too heavy and I couldn’t move my suitcase. Ended up having to take 2 just to meet airline weight requirements!