I have been reading these threads over and over again and I can't find where someone wrote about taking a duffle bag or extra piece of luggage in the main luggage so that on the return trip you can use it for laundry and use the luggage space for stuff you buy to bring back. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I have a smallish nylon duffle bag that absolutely takes up no room when I lay it flat in my suitcase. If, at the end of our trip, I need extra room to pack some goodies, I just cram all our dirty underwear in the duffle and check it with our other luggage. We've done this a couple of times and it worked out great. If it gets lost, then it's just some old dirty underwear that you won't really miss anyway!!

Any nylon duffle bag will work. Put things that can't be damaged into it, like your dirty clothes. Use your suitcase for special purchases, or if they are really special... pack them in your carry-on bag for the flight.

Thank you for your suggestions. I will be traveling with my husband and two teenage sons so we will probably have alot of laundry because I don't think I want to spend my vacation time washing all their stuff(some stuff obviously yes) so I thought about a duffle with wheels but it weighs just too much. So I guess I will just have to get a regular nylon duffle or maybe two to put in the boys luggage. Thank you again

I don't know where you are going, but here's what we did. We bought a cheap (8 Euro) back pack on one of the last legs of our trip to transport any extras that we bought. They sell this kind of thing outside the train station in Florence and other places I assume. Since we only had carry on suitcases for a 25 day trip we ended up putting the dirty laundry in the back pack on the final day and checked it instead of our fragile souvenirs.

Besides either taking, with each of you, a cheap synthetic fabric duffle that smooshes flat for most of the trip (or buying one towards the end of your trip, as also suggested), another useful thing I do is to pack one of those compression bags per person. But be careful to get the kind that doesn't need to be compressed with a vacuum- read the label carefully! The one you need comes in a pack of three, usually (great for your family!)and each has a plastic clip thing to seal it tight- then you roll and end up with a perfectly pancaked package of clothes. They get all wrinkled, so that is why I use it for laundry at the end of the trip. The last week I start putting stuff in there and gradually filling it. You will get oodles more room in the original bag. On the other hand, the loose laundry serves as better padding for souvenirs- so depending on your purchases maybe someone can do the vacuum laundry thing and someone can take the fluffy stuff!

Taking an extra cheap duffle for purchases etc is nice, but do think about doing some laundry while there. it will enable you to carry less chothing (say 5-6 days change) and less luggage all in all. Its no big deal if you are staying someplace for 2-3 nights to wash in your room or even to hit a laundromat. Laundry is one reason we very much like rentals rather than hotels when possible. We always take a ziplock of detergent and a piece of nylon cord to hang drying clothes. We also usually take some plastic grocery bags and find there are plenty of outside compartments to stuff them in (isolating any dirty clothes)when we head home.

Any bag will do. I use the large nylon, zippered Longchamp that I bought on board Air France.

Did both--have one of those bagalini-type bags that's a small square opening up to a large one so you can take home stuff and also swear by Large SpaceBags to compress laundry. They have one-way valves, so they compress just a bit more than regular plastic. I reuse them trip after trip (but I just put laundry in them--their microbe level must be awesome by now).

I have one of these Baggallinis - it's great. Folds up into its own little pocket and then opens up to a large bag. I think it comes in two or three sizes. This is the large one:

http://www.ebags.com/baggallini/zip_...?modelid=18648

Any major tourist area will offer cheap totes in shops or sidewalk stalls. I usually buy mine on the trip, as it makes a fun souvenier.

althom1122 You are great thanks for the link I will get it now. Did you get if from the internet site? Everyone says you can always get things from where you go, but it my experience when I travel with my husband and two sons it is always a mission to buy anything I might have forgotten. Then if I really want to go shopping for me or souveniurs I am only given a certain time frame. Now that they are older I can actually excape and do some shopping on my own. So Suze if I can bring it with me it would probably work better.
thank you

Understand that. Sooo I would just buy a couple nylon duffle bags and tuck them in the pocket of your suitcase. They don't need to be anything special, just a cheap gym bag will do. Easy peasy.