I am heading on a week long business trip and the usual option is to grab my hard-sided Travelpro garment bag. If I'm careful not to overpack and keep all my shirts and sport coat in the drycleaning plastic, it seems to arrive at the destination in acceptable condition.

I much prefer however using my duffle bag for travel as it has a lot of reserve capacity and can be slung around my shoulder easily. But have generally relegated this green canvas vintage North Face bag to leisure travel.

My question is if I bundle pack my clothes (approx 5 dress shirts, 3 pants, and a sportcoat) into the duffle does it have a hope of arriving in reasonable shape to my destination? Secondly, when you bundle pack does that mean nothing else can go into the main compartment with the 'bundle' i.e. a pair of shoes or an Eagle mesh pouch?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Ash, other things can go easily in the same compartment. You just have to see to it that the bundle doesn't come undone. When the clothes start rubbing against each other you get wrinkles. One solution would be tie down straps, or a plastic bag (ziploc) around the bundle. I put my shoes in thin plastic grocery bags. This way the other contents won't get contaminated and the grocery bags weigh next to nothing. Stuff the shoes with socks and fragile items or computer cords for example.

I really like to use an Eagle Creek shirt folder in bags that don't have an integrated shirt folder. You can wrap the pants around it to prevent wrinkles.

What are you wearing while traveling? Why not wear the sports coat on the plane? This way you don't need to pack it. There are some great wrinkle and stain resistant sports coats out there.

Also, three pants (plus the one you are wearing) seems like a lot for 6-7 days. I'd say you can definitely leave out one pair. Are you ok with sink washing or using the hotel laundry once? If so, you can even do with only one pair of chinos (you wear the other pair of trousers) and three shirts.

All shirts and pants should be non-iron and machine washable. If that's the case you can reduce your load by easily 50-60%. Packed: 3 shirts instead of 5, 1 pair of trousers instead of 3.

You might end up being able to take really just a single bag. For example, all these things plus office stuff would fit into the Valoroso six-pocket tote I wrote about in the Andiamo/Pathfinder thread here. Look it up.

If you give us some more specifics we can certainly help more.

When I've used my Ogio duffel bag for trips, I've noticed that it depends on the length of time things will be packed -- if I'm driving someplace, the bag will likely be packed less than a day, so things come out relatively nice, but if I'm going to Europe (I live in NYC) the bag will probably be packed for more than a day and clothes get wrinkled. Probably it's because there aren't tiedowns (as Till mentioned above). And lots of things can go into the (only) compartment with the bundle!

I read the above -- I also use the "Eagle Creek" shirt-folder-thingy to prevent my sportcoat, trousers, and shirts from getting excessively wrinkled -- it fits in a duffel bag and you can stuff things like underwear, socks, etc in the bag without any problem -- also I have a shoulder strap that attaches to the duffel bag. Very easy to pack this way and ligther.

Thanks for all the advice! What makes this trip a little more complicated (and my preference for a duffle) is that I plan to perhaps add a couple of days of leisure travel after the business for a total of 8 days of travel. I really dread carrying around

Till, you are correct - I can get away with certainly having at least one less pair of pants. I can drop perhaps one shirt too. My concern about shirts is that they get much more wrinkled or sweaty than pants after just one day of wear which necessitates getting them cleaned or cleaning them in a sink. Not something I want to do on primarily a business travel. You are right - I should wear the sport coat when I travel since it's useful to have the extra pockets.

Thanks Paul. This was exactly my fear was that on a long trip to Europe (from EWR), my bundle would get wrinkled. I had heard that this can be mitigated for bags without tide downs by placing the whole bundle into a mesh laundry bag. I might try this.

Tim, I actually have the EC folder. The shirts come out of it looking like they do when you get your shirts from the cleaners and ask them to have it folded rather than on hangers. So there are vertical creases on the front and a horizontal one across the bottom. This is no problem if you have the 'wrinkle free' no iron shirts but for regular cotton ones it does means some touching up in my experience with an iron.

Ash, thanks for the specifics. Your plan of attack is good, I think. You could also use ziploc bags instead of mesh folders. They can compress your clothes a little when you squeeze the air out and they also slide much better than mesh bags that have a tendency to get hung up on other things. The friction phenomenon at work.

Of course, nobody really enjoys sink washing but me. I always feel it is a moment of triumph against a heavy bag. :) If you are gone 8 days and you pack 3 non-iron shirts (I recommend Brooks Brothers) and wear one. You would have to wash only once on day four. The shirts dry overnight.

If you wear an undershirt or t-shirt under the dress shirt it might be good for two days. Sometimes I also wear a dress shirt not tucked into the pants on the first day, like for casually going out in the evening. It wrinkles less that way. The next day I can still tuck it in and it will be wearable for 1.5 days.

The Downy Wrinkle releaser that Brad posted here is supposed to work pretty well. It comes in travel sizes, too. When I checked the ingredients it was basically diluted Downy fabric softener in a spray bottle. Easy enough to make yourself.

I always take a light sweater and two Polo shirts. That can be casual or quite chic depending on how you combine it. And you get good layering mileage out of the sweater and even the Polos because they can be worn with a sport coat.

I see you've been down this road a lot. I have also had very positive experiences with a Brooks no iron shirt actually folded up in my briefcase. Put it on and it looked very crisp.

I think you're very right - a light sweater, 3 shirts, 2 pants, a polo shirt - and wear my sport coat on the plane and i can pack quite a bit less. Thanks a lot for the thoughtful advice.

Thanks, Ash. I like the way you summed up the packing list. I think this could be the standard packing list for males on business trips. Some people may need to include a more formal suit but a sport coat should still be part of the list.

I just got an Eagle Creek 15" shirt folder. It even fits into my Tumi 26141 briefcase. Very cool.

Till