Tauck Duffel bags
Does anyone know what brand and style duffel bag, Tauck is using on the K&T and B,SA,Z Africa tours and the P&G tour?
I went looking for the info on Eagle Creek the brand formerly used by Tauck and was surprised to learn the company had been purchased in 2007 by VF Corp, owners of about a dozen outdoor sports and apparel brands (Jansport, Timberland, North Face, Vans, Dickies, etc., etc.). Earlier this year VF announced they would shutter/retire their Eagle Creek brand by the end of 2021. Then in September, they announced the former president of emerging brands of VF Corporation would acquire the Eagle Creek brand.
Eagle Creek still has a website, but I didn't see any duffel bags that match the ones we were provided in the past. This one, the Cargo Hauler, looks similar:
Comments
Wow, that looks a nice bag.
With all the cutbacks, maybe they are using paper carrier bags since plastic bags are banned in K and T 😀
British - As if you need another bag.
Sam, I thought you might say they switched to e-bags.
Tauck trips could become BYOB (bring your own BAG)
me like it!!!
We already saw them shift at some point in the past from the green Eagle Creek bags which seemed to be made from ballistic nylon (strong and light-weight) to a very similar size black bag made of a heavier and stiffer material. The construction was very similar to the previous Eagle Creek bags, but have no identifying markings other than Tauck. Not bad, but we like and continue to use the green bags since they pack better as an overflow bag in our regular luggage. Our thought at the time was that Tauck was getting bags custom-made for them to presumably cut down on the cost. If that's the case, the black bags may still persist. This is what we got on India and Nepal a few years ago.
Portolan hi.
I do have the same black one, it was given to me on my India trip and the green one on my K&T- I heard there is a 3rd type also green for one other Safari trip.
I like the green that AlanS posted, it looks nice
I think we took some of our bags to Goodwill! Shame, they looked brand new
I first bought these Eagle Creek bags for a Galapagoes trip with Celebrity;s Xpedition. Then we got the Tauck bags for our first K&T. The older bags had ‘Tauck’ embroidered instead of stenciled. I liked that better. We will see what they send for the next trip in a few months.
mil, et al,
While the bag Alan posted looks nice, I doubt Tauck will supply anything that elaborate (backpack straps, end pockets) since (I imagine) Tauck's goal is to provide simple bags of known (and constrained) size to ensure that people won't exceed the limitations for the small aircraft.
I remember when people were provided with Tauck bags and didn’t want to use them until Tauck insistsed and explained why it was important.
When we went to Africa with another company, the duffel bags had wheels. We thought great, but we read on their forum that they got holes and fell apart easily and to take large plastic bags to put your clothes in before you put them in the bag, just in case. Taking a roll of duct tape for repairing was also suggested. Sure enough. Before the end of the tour, the bags had big holes in them where they were dragged along by careless handlers. These were the only bags we could take on the trip. We should be grateful Tauck provide such good bags.
Duffle/K&T 7/2019
We've got three sets of those, although our first set below look to be two-tone.
2015: Baggage handlers gathering our bags at the Arusha municipal airport after we arrived from the Seronera Airstrip in the Serengeti:
No exciting bag photos for Peru.
2019: Same size but slightly different bag for Botswana. (Large orange bags belong to our TD):
I think the point is, we won’t know what the bags are like now until someone has been on the tours post pandemic amd reports back now.