Oct 9, 2007
You can double the room in your luggage by carrying your clothes in space-saving compression bags
I have friends who swear by these compression bags, which are essentially like giant Ziploc baggies fitted with one-way pressure valves along one edge. Once you fill the bag with all your clothes and seal the top, you squeeze all the air out of the bag by rolling it up, then unfurling it again, to reveal that your kit has been compressed into literally half its original size. These bags were originally hawked as a way of shrinking sweaters, bed comforters, and other bulky seasonal items to maximum household storage space, but they also make an excellent space-saving tool for travelers. As a bonus, they help organize the mess in your bag -- at least this way all your clothes are compartmentalized into one place. One warning: they can wreak havoc on wrinkle-prone materials, but savvy travelers know to avoid packing wrinkly clothing in the first place.
There are two main brands. The Compression Sacs from Eagle Creek (www.eaglecreek.com), sold at luggage stores and in travel gear catalogs such as Travel Smith (www.travelsmith.com) and Magellan's (www.magellans.com), are the heavier-duty option, and sized for travelers, but are also more expensive: $8 to $12 a piece, depending on size.
Less expensive, but also less sturdy, is the Space Bag (www.spacebag.com), which you may recognize from their infomercials, widely available at places like Target (www.target.com) and Walmart (www.walmart.com, which sells a set of eight travel-sized bags for around $20). If you choose the Space Bags, be sure you pick up the smaller sizes and not the Extra Large bag (or the kind that needs to be sealed by a vacuum cleaner hose) intended for household uses.
Also, pay little heed to the user reviews on some retail sites that complain about the bags' inability to stay vacuum-sealed. It's true that, if not sealed properly, the bags can slowly lose their compression over time (and, after several years of use, will start springing slow leaks even when sealed properly). However, this is only an issue if you're trying to keep a brace of sweaters compressed for six months at a stretch in your basement. The bags have no problem holding a tight, compressed vacuum seal for the brief period they'll spend in your luggage, and besides, you'll be opening and resealing it every time you switch hotels.
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Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
