Review: Pocket Rocket Bag from Scout by Bungalow

Do you ever wish you had a multipurpose bag for beach trips, road trips, to bring your farmers’ market goodies home in, lugging around baby toys and necessities and maybe even use as a carry-on bag? One that has tons of useful pockets that keeps all your important stuff safe and readily available? A bag that is both stylish and easy to clean? If that’s what you’re looking for, you will love the Pocket Rocket Bag from Scout by Bungalow.

With six outside pockets, you can carry a bunch of beverages if you want. I tested it with a regular size bottle of water (24 oz) and a larger one (34 oz) and they both fit perfectly. Get really thirsty? You can carry half a dozen giant bottles of water, beer, sodas or bottles of booze for that impromptu beach party. I stuffed it with everything I would take with me to the seashore, but you could easily fill it with fancy cheeses and snacks and fill those outer pockets with a variety of wines or throw some ice in it and carry picnic goodies to the park.

As you can see from the photos, the bag is large enough to carry all your essentials and then some. I stuffed this bag with a beach towel, sunscreen, flip flops, my camera, phone, a beach cover-up, my bathing suit and reading material – my Kindle and a good magazine. The bag can be left open for easy access to things inside or you can zip it closed, so nothing falls out.

It has two sets of handles – short and long – so you can hand-carry or sling over your shoulder. They are sturdy and reinforced for even your heaviest loads. Which also brings to mind another use for the Pocket Rocket: use it on vacation to carry your laundry and detergent to the Laundromat. The bottom is also reinforced, which gives you peace of mind when packing the bag as full as possible. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten a bag and when carrying a big load, the bottom has not held up or the handles have just snapped. I either had to make it work or buy a new bag that I didn’t want to spend money on.

The inside and outside are easy to wipe down, in case of spillage. This makes it perfect for carrying wet clothes, like bathing suits or even baby items. I immediately thought that the Pocket Rocket was not only great for the woman on the go, but awesome for the busy mom. Carry this bag on road trips and load it full of travel games and toys. All their goodies will be in one place and easily identifiable, because the bag comes in so many fun patterns. The Pocket Rocket I received was the Coral Barbara Stripesand pattern and is on-trend with this season’s nautical styles. You won’t want to leave home without it. If you love this bag, check out some of their other cool bags and coolers.

More information

Where you can buy it: On Bungalow Co.’s website

How much it costs: $34.50-43.00

Colors it comes in: Coral striped (Barabara Stripesand) | Pink and orange stripe (Meryl Stripe) | Blue animal print (Boca) | Pink animal print (Flamingo) | Bright Paisley (Flashback Paisley) | Black paisley (Racy Lacy) | Blue paisley (Rad Paisley)

Size: 15″ x 14.5″ x 5″

Other specs: Zip-top tote, leatherette reinforced bottom, durable polywoven water resistant fabric.

Disclosure: I was provided with a bag from Scout by Bungalow for the purposes of this review, but all opinions are-my own.

Fall Getaway Tips 8.18.12

So, it appears as if Fall may be right around the corner, at least for the travel industry. Airfare is on its way down to more reasonable rates come Monday and that means there will be deals galore for September/October/early November travel. If you want some of the best discounts, then make sure to follow me on Facebook or Twitter. Today, we’re going to talk about what you can do to make your fall travel less stressful and more affordable.

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Pack less, even when your clothes are bigger. Yes, this is totally possible. I will always tell you to plan to do laundry whenever you travel, but it’s even more necessary when you are taking things bigger than tank tops and shorts, because more items mean less valuable space for things that aren’t clothes. Look for lightweight and warm layers, like a fleece pullover or waffle-knit hoodie. I take one or two of these that will match with all my travel clothing and am set to layer them over my t-shirts if they weather becomes chilly.

Women's Savvy Zippy from ExOfficio.com

You will also want to look for a good packable jacket. I have several and prefer to bring one with a hood when traveling, as weather can be uncertain and nothing sucks worse than getting rained on when it’s already cold. You could also bring a hat, but I don’t like to bring more things than I have to. This is also why I choose a hood over an umbrella, aside from the obvious reason that umbrellas are cumbersome and only really good for one thing. Everyone in your travel party is likely to bring a jacket, so everyone is covered. (Pun intended.)

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Late September and Early October are the cheapest times to fly during the year. Kids are back in school and it’s not Labor Day or Halloween, so there are no notable parties or holidays. This makes it the ideal time to travel, if you can, and can save you huge dollars. Airfare can be as much as 50% less than the rest of the year and hotels slash prices in order to get their rooms filled. Can’t beat that with a stick!

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Pay for your rental car up front. This is actually a trick that works throughout the year, but when trying to cut costs somewhere while planning the basics, this is a brilliant way to do it. I’ll use myself as an example. I’m traveling next month and was looking for a car for 11 days. If I booked through the regular sites for car rentals that let me pay when I picked up my car, then my rate was going to be somewhere in the range of $432. That includes taxes, but come on! That’s over $40 per day.

I’ve been holding out for something cheaper and caught a great email in my inbox saying I could find rates as low as $9.95 per day. While I never find that rate when I see that email (like once every two weeks), I did click through and find one for $16.95 and was able to book my rental car with Hertz through Hotwire for a total with taxes of $247. That’s almost $200 less! I paid up front and it is non-refundable, but I’m fairly sure that is the best deal I’m going to find and also will be making that trip. If my flight gets delayed or cancelled, it says I’m covered, so I will revel in my rental car hunting skillz. It pays to do your homework and compare multiple times before booking. A week ago that rate was up to $303.

Head to the beach when the weather cools down. Fall and winter are not the times that people flock to places like Myrtle Beach or Santa Monica, so it’s the perfect time to go and beat the crowds and the soaring temps if you can go right before the weather turns. Next month is going to give you great weather and cheap hotel and condo rates. If you have a big travel party now is the time to book for a budget vacation for everyone.

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Plan a trip to Disney and other theme parks. Once school is back in session, the crowds drop dramatically around the big theme parks, so you can find huge deals on vacation packages to Anaheim and Orlando. You’ll face way shorter lines and be able to do more, even when the parks are open shorter hours. A lot of them have special events this time of year, too. Eric and I will be taking part in our 3rd Disney Halloween party. If you have little ones, this is like magic times two: Their favorite characters who are dressed up in (different) costumes, they get to stay up late, see special shows and fireworks and they get to dress up and go trick-or-treating in the parks. What?! Uh, yes! Even big kids like us have a blast on the trick-or-treat trail.

If you are into bigger thrills than Tigger dressed as a pirate and meeting Maleficent for the first time ever, then you might be more inclined to do Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. It’s truly terrifying, for those that like pee-in-your-pants-scary fun. These parties cost their own admission fee, so you can skip the park during the day to avoid paying double and then ride what’s open and see all the cool stuff that’s not available to the regular public before the sun starts to go down.

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These are just some of the ways to save and create a unique vacation experience outside of Summer. I’ll be using many of these tips myself and you’ll be bombarded with I-told-you-so posts in the coming months, along with a review of GoCards from SmartDestinations.com. They will save you a ton and should be super-easy to use. I guess we’ll all find out!

Do you have some useful Fall Travel Tips that have saved you big? Let us know what they are!

Super Useful Travel Posts 8.17.12

Happy Friday, my budget travel friends! In my journeys on the interwebs recently, I’ve come across some fun stories. Possibly they don’t qualify as useful, unless you are bored and need something to pull you out of your funk, but you may learn something about how airlines work or places you want to visit in the future, so I share!

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How come nothing exciting like Flavor Flav or dancing flight attendants never happens on my flights? I guess I’ll just have to travel more and cross my fingers. I’d even take crazy guy stripping and running down the aisle…or not. I suppose I should be lucky that my flights are pretty much uneventful and get me where I want to go.

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Would you stay on hold for 15 hours? I stayed on hold for 3 hours once and thought I was going to hang myself with the phone cord…you know, if my phone had one. I was getting a countdown of my number in line, which I’m sure is more than this crazy guy got and by the end he probably wished his only problem was a swarm of bees.

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I don’t know about you, but I’m always fascinated when they make a hotel or a restaurant in a building that used to be something totally different, like a jail or a factory or a school. VirtualTourist brings you the World’s 10 Best Converted Hotels, which are super cool and will make you want to stay there just to say you did! Imagine the fun pictures you would be able to show your friends and family when you came home.

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Have you heard of the Museums on US program from Bank of America? Over 150 participating museums worldwide offer free admission on select days to BofA card members. That’s sure to save you some bucks at home and on vacation. Just a few of the institutions you can visit on the first full weekend of each month: Children’s Museum of Phoenix, Birch Aquarium at Scripps in San Diego, Museum of Discovery & Science in Fort Lauderdale, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and the Houston Zoo.

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FareCompare has found the worst airlines ever! Well, at least the worst for 2012. Based on a number of factors and customer complaints, they have come up with the least loved airlines and those that have come up on top…though maybe only due to lower expectations among customers.

I hope you are all enjoying what’s left of your summer and this gave you something to think about for your next trip. I’m definitely always thinking about these things I read and how I can include them in my future vacations.

Have you heard anything fun or informative in the travel world lately? Link us up!