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Packing Gear when traveling internationally for swim. Water bottle suggestions?
SydneD
Senior Member
Hi all,
Excuse me if this has been addressed before. I couldn't find it in my search.
I am going to Lago d'Orta next week and getting all of my gear together this weekend. If I pack all of the water bottles I need and like, I will basically have a suitcase of bottles.
My preferred feed bottle is a camelback insulated bottle. Easy to drink from, and keeps my feeds from becoming a disgusting warm carbopro mess. But, to take enough of those?? I'm looking at like 9 bottles. Plus cooler. Plus rope. Plus.....
And I'm going to Italy! I need suitcase space for shopping! 
Do I just shut up and pack the damn bottles? Or does someone have a great suggestion for me?
Collapsible bottles?
Thanks folks!
Comments
In the past, when I've flown to swims, I've packed my own bottles. Some things, like Goggles, can fit in them so they aren't complete wastes of space in the suitcase. I collapse and pack a soft sided cooler, too, to keep my feeds cool during the swim
@timsroot
That's exactly what I usually do. David Barra gave me a great suggestion about using the same cooler they use for 8 Bridges, which is kayak specific and cool, and then using single serve water bottles that can be recycled.
Makes everything easier!!
Sydne, put all the necessary things for your swim into your cabin luggage. Don't check them in. They lost my luggage in Milano when I was flying to Capri.
When we flew down for Key West 2 years ago, I carried on a soft-sided cooler that was packed with bottles and all the other swimming gear for the race. I had all the lids taken off to get through security (showing that there wasn't any liquid in them) and never had any problems with TSA.
9 bottles?
You can only drink from 1 at a time.
Take 1 bottle for drink, buy 1 cheap plastic squeezy water bottle locally for mouth wash.
loneswimmer.com
I've had this issue when I've done swims that are fully kayak supported and you don't want your kayaker to have to make your feeds for you while kayaking. In that case, I do suck it up and pack a lot of water bottles in my suitcase. I also stuff other things into them to help save some space. A hassle, for sure. If you're being boat supported and your crew can make feeds for you, you really can get away with 1 or 2 bottles only. In those cases, I bring plastic baggies to premake my feeds as much as possible, so all my crew has to do is dump in powder and add water/juice as we go.