Taking your expensive digital camera on your dream trek across the windswept dunes of the Moroccan Sahara, or the misty Scottish Isles, and want to keep it protected? Store it in a ZipLoc.
Don't want to open your suitcase and find that your shampoo and conditioner has exploded en route and ruined your best silk blouse. Pack it in a ZipLoc.
Carrying on regulation sized liquid cosmetics and lotions but don't want to get hung up in security? Carry it in an easy to see through ZipLoc baggy.
Do you save every brochure, business card, day-to-day tour or cruise itinerary, trip receipts, airline boarding passes, city maps, and any piece of information you get your hands on during your vacation? Store it in a ZipLoc and file it away for taxes, future trip planning, or that scrap book you keep thinking you'll get to one day. The two-gallon and “XL” Ziploc bags are perfect for this task.
Want your e-mail on the beach in Rio, but don't want your precious BlackBerry ruined by sea and sand? Sure you could buy an expensive protective case, but unless you plan to dial and swim, save your $ for the Rio nightlife and store it in a Zip Loc.
From packing smelly hiking boots to storing postcards and stamps or show-and-tell photos from home, ZipLoc baggies are always on my packing list.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".