No More Schlepping

Posted Friday, August 03, 2007 1:35 PM

By Nest Rosie

We love to travel, but traveling with baby makes me crazy. I mean, there’s so much stuff involved (like the stroller, the car seat, the toys…). There are so many “portable” products, but they still add up, and they aren’t always really so…um…portable. On our last vacation, poor DH couldn’t possibly have carried one more thing, PLUS we had to pay excess weight charge on our luggage! Add in all the new luggage restrictions, the fact that some airlines are planning to start charging fees for all checked luggage, and the number of people that now carry on EVERYTHING (meaning no extra room in the overhead bins) -- I get a headache just thinking about it.

So, now I’m getting really curious about luggage forwarding services. I saw a press release from a company called Luggage Free, which simply picks up the goods at your door and drops them off at your destination (same thing on the way home). No schlepping. They charge by the pound -- $1.50/lb. for 5-day service and $4 for overnight delivery, plus a $40 pick-up fee -- so if I shipped one 40 lb. bag, a stroller, and a car seat, I’d wind up paying somewhere between $290-$640 for a domestic trip. Not exactly cheap, but it would sure spare us a lot of hassle. There are apparently a bunch of these services out there; they’ve been used for bikes, skis, and such for years. We’ll weigh our options, but it might be worth it. Anything to make traveling easier!

Have any of you tried forwarding your luggage? Or do you think this is totally ridiculous and a waste of money? Should parents just suck it up and carry the stuff?