SHIP vs SCHLEP??
 

Well I was just reading the intro section of this site and looking at the "Today Show Travel Detective" story. He says you should ship all your luggage by FedEx or similar and that he has not carried any luggage for the last eight years! Well, I was just curious how many of you have done this on your European travels. I bet very few. Of course when all of your expenses are paid by some TV network you can do this. I find it pretty stupid myself, except maybe in the case of clumsly sport equipement perhaps. Seems silly to me

I have shipped some things. Ever since the no-lock-luggage policy, it seems safer to ship and insure certain pieces of photography equipment. This does lighten my load. Also, I've been known to ship my favorite tools from my kitchen at home, especially if I know I'll be away for long stretches. But, for the rest of my luggage, I thought the suggestion silly, too.

I was thinking about doing this last year and came to the conclusion that it is advice for the traveler in the US and not overseas. He uses the shipping method on business travels in the US.

I have never shipped my luggage around Europe because we usually travel very light, however when in Japan we always use Kuroneko-Yamato to ship our luggage from location to location. It is so convenient and really makes train travel so much easier.

I have read about this and actually did search on it once. I came to the conclusion that unless someone else was paying..... I figured it would almost as expensive to overnight my clothes as it was for me to fly!

Actually, this isn't the only thing that seems to be disconnected from the "conventional wisdom" of "actual Fodorites" here on this forum. Does anyone else scratch their head at where they came up with the "top hotels" or "romantic getaways"?

For example, the Portobello in London - - might be a great place, but you can't tell it from Fodors Rants'n'Raves - - it has that telltale "Be the First to Rate It" link!

Europe in general, seems under-represented.

Best wishes,

Rex