5 Reasons This Quilted Van Bag Is the Only Thing I Pack for Lake Weekends Now

5 Reasons This Quilted Van Bag Is the Only Thing I Pack for Lake Weekends Now

I used the same black duffel for 12 years. Then a stranger at a campground asked about my bag, and I realized how much I had been missing.

Every summer it is the same routine. The cabin, the lake, the long drive with the windows down. And every summer I threw everything into the same tired black duffel that looked exactly like everyone else's.

This spring my daughter sent me a link to a quilted bag shaped like an old camper van. I laughed. Then I ordered one. Here is why it has not left my trunk since.

Get Yours – Buy 1 Get 1 Free

1. It holds a full weekend. Really.

It is 18 inches long with a wide zip opening that goes almost end to end, so you can see everything instead of digging with one arm.

Three days of clothes, a pair of sneakers, a sweater for the cold evenings on the dock, my toiletry pouch and a paperback. Zipped, no sitting on it.

2. It is light, even packed.

Quilted polyester, no heavy buckles, no stiff frame. Empty it weighs about as much as a sweater.

Full, the handles are long enough to go on your shoulder, which matters when you are walking from the parking lot to the cabin with a cooler in the other hand.

3. Everyone at the campground asks about it.

I have been stopped at the gas station, at the boat launch and twice at the campsite next door. "Where did you get that?"

It is a quilted little van with stitched flowers, tiny windows and a peace sign on the front. It turns a boring errand into a conversation.

4. It folds flat when you get home.

No more bulky duffel taking up half the closet. It folds down and slides onto a shelf.

On longer trips I pack it folded inside my suitcase and use it for everything I bring back.

5. There is one for every kind of trip.

Desert florals, forest and pines, ocean blues, sunflowers, a rainbow patchwork. Sixteen designs.

My sister took the pines one for her camping trips, I kept the desert one. With Buy 1 Get 1 Free, most people pick one for themselves and one for their travel buddy.