My husband is temporarily using a walker and doesn't want to worry about schlepping luggage on his next business trip. What are the pros and cons of using a luggage service--and can someone recommend a good one?

It can be very convenient, albeit expensive. Watch out for textiles on international - always prevents problems. My first rookie experience with basic DHL had my luggage tied up for two weeks. Luckily my first stop was Italy and I was able to shope for suits easily...it actually was fun - but i wouldnt reccomend it. Look at this site: http://savvytraveler.publicradio.org...20020920.shtml

joseyrobin, thanks for that link. Have you ever used those luggage services?

My daughter is starting school in Italy in September, and we need to get 2 large suitcases of her school things there (and stored somewhere)while we travel around for 3 weeks in August.

I would appreciate any suggetions anyone has.

* suggestions

Maire- Does her stuff have to actually be shipped in the suitcases? I'm just wondering if possibly a few large boxes using a service like FedEx might be easier to arrange?

Suze --

Well, she'll be flying home with her stuff in December, so she will need her suitcases then.

Plan A:
Shipping school-luggage from here to Italy: possible, but very expensive and not recommended by her school for other reasons.

Plan B:
We wanted to fly into Venice, ship her luggage from Venice to Perugia, and travel in a logical path towards Rome and Perugia, where she would reunite with her luggage.
Pitfalls: The hassles, effort, time, expense, etc. of shipping from Venice plus finding someone to receive and hold her luggage in Perugia. Three UPS offices in Italy won't answer my emails (which I wrote in English and Italian*).

*of course, they may be so busy laughing at my Italian that they don't have time to write back

Plan C:
Take her luggage on plane with us to Italy, and find somewhere in Rome or Perugia to store it while we travel. This will mess up our route and cause some backtracking, but seems easier than other options. Now, we just have to figure out where to store it. I’m about to contact some hotels. (Her school won’t hold it.)

Maire - I don't know anything about "luggage services" but have a little experience with study abroad which I assume is what your daughter is going to do.

Have you considered sending her suitcases via an airline. Just a suggestion because I don't really know how much it will cost. But since you are traveling before start of the school and have no place to store her stuff it might be worth investigating.

"Well, she'll be flying home with her stuff in December, so she will need her suitcases then."

How about putting the suitcases in shipping boxes?

Esm - thanks, good suggestion, I'll check it out.

Jed - yep, I've considered and inquired into putting the suitcases in boxes--but that doesn't eliminate the problems of shipping.

Kathyngs and Maire, I should have mentioned this in my reply before. Post this to Europe forum and you'll get more replies. It seems very few posters check this spot. Good luck.

I don't believe that you can "ship" suitcases without you going with them for security reasons-bags have to match the people going. If you add more than two checked bags per person, the airline will charge you anywhere from $75 to 100 a bag depending on weight. Shipping things in boxes to your daughter will be very expensive to Italy.Between the weight and possible duty(yeah, they will charge it on used stuff!) it really gets ridiculous.

Thanks, Dutyfree. I've investigated shipping luggage from the US to Italy, and although it can be done (putting luggage in boxes), it's very expensive, as pointed out above. Also complicated; there are tons of forms to fill out, your boxes will be opened and searched, and there might or might not be a delay going through customs, before your luggage continues its journey. And, like you said, apparently they can charge a lot in duty fees if they choose to.

So, we're taking the bags with us.

I recently shipped my 2 large pieces of luggage from Lisbon. I shipped it from a cruise ship.....yes, it was expensive, but I flew back to Texas "luggage free!"
The ship used DHL.
Hope this helps.
MBH