Forty years of weekends away and I never wrote a word about a bag. This is the exception
Six things the Happy Camper gets right that weekend bags get wrong, from a woman who does not review luggage.
Denise Walker · Customer · Newcastle, NSW · 5 min read
Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Denise, I am 61, I live in Newcastle, and I have never in my life sat down to write about a bag. What I have done is pack for forty years of weekends away, out of holdalls that sagged, cases that scuffed, and one wheeled thing we do not discuss. So this is not a review. It is a woman who was wrong about a bag, saying so.
The one I am writing about is called the Happy Camper, from Olivia Bennett Melbourne, a small Australian shop that has spent thirteen years quietly making the ordinary things a bit lovelier. I first saw it on my daughter's spare room floor, and when the shop later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
A quilted bag with a little cream caravan across the front of it, pink door and curtains in the windows, under clouds and stars. On my daughter's spare room floor. Read on.
Carrying the Happy Camper up to my daughter's front door.
Here is what a lifetime of packing taught me. Weekend bags come in two piles. The sensible pile, black or grey holdalls that sag like disappointment and all look alike in the boot. And the smart pile, stiff little cases that scuff, weigh a tonne empty, and hold less than they promise.
Saggy and invisible, or stiff and heavy. Those were the weekend options, and I had done my years in both.
The Happy Camper is the first bag I have owned that is neither, and having taken it on three drives down to my daughter's, a night at my sister's and a week minding the grandkids, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The day it came. I ordered it expecting a flimsy novelty. I apologised to it within the week.
It does not look like luggage
It looks like somewhere nice to be going. The whole scene is printed across the quilted bag, the little caravan with its pink door, curtains in the windows, clouds, stars and flowers along the bottom. In a boot full of grey and black bags, it is the only one anybody smiles at, and the only one nobody picks up by mistake.
The caravan up close. The curtains in the window are the detail that finished me.
Three women asked about it on the platform at York. My husband found us by the bag. Nobody has ever asked about a bag of mine before.
Karen DyerIt swallows a proper weekend
Two outfits, a wash bag, a book and the cardigan I pretend I will not need. It all goes in without wrestling, and one long zip runs right down the middle of the top, so I can see everything at once instead of excavating. Packing stopped being the worst part of going away.
Took it for three nights. Everything fit including the boots, and I could find all of it.
Wendy BarkerThe quilting is the clever part
It is soft on the outside, so it squashes into whatever gap is left in the boot, next to the esky and the flowers from the garden, without an argument. And it still comes out looking like the nicest thing in there.
Shoved it into the overhead locker on a flight from Melbourne to Perth. It came out looking better than I did.
Helen RenfreyThe handles are part of the show
The two handles are printed to match the bag, so even the practical bits are pretty. They are genuinely comfortable in the hand, even with a full weekend inside, and there is nothing to dig in by the time you reach the front door.
The handles. Even the load-bearing parts got dressed up.
Two honest sizes, measurements included
The 40 centimetre one does an overnight or a cabin bag. The 46 centimetre one does two to three nights with room to spare. The shop prints the measurements plainly, and I went for the bigger one, which matches my experience of weekends and of life.
Went with the larger size on their recommendation, glad I did. You never wish your weekend bag was smaller
Penny LawrenceIt earns its keep between trips
This is the part I did not expect. It does the weekends at my daughter's, the overnight at my sister's, and it carried a care package to a friend in hospital last month with more cheer than the occasion had any right to. The old holdall lived in a cupboard between outings. This one barely gets put away.
Packed for two nights at my daughter's. The caravan faces the door, ready.
The Happy Camper, against the weekend bags you have been buying
You can find a weekend bag for thirty-odd dollars anywhere. I know, because I own the evidence. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Black or grey fabric that sags like disappointment
Identical to every other bag in the boot
Stiff cases that won't fit the gaps
Handles that dig in by the front steps
One vague size, no measurements
Soft quilted fabric, printed all over
A little caravan scene nobody mistakes
Squashes into any gap in the boot
Comfortable handles, printed to match
Two honest sizes, measurements printed
About the price
The Happy Camper is $89.95 for the 40 centimetre size and $99.95 for the 46, down from $299.95 and $334.95.
I will pass on what the shop told me, which is that they are made to order, and Olivia is closing the shop after thirteen years, so once what is left is gone, it will not be made again. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that a price like that is usually where I start asking what is wrong with something, and three trips in I have not found it.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over twelve hundred of them, sitting at 4.7 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots.
By the door, packed for my daughter's, round two. The lemon slice is coming.
If you have a weekend at your daughter's, a night at your sister's, the grandkids' school holidays or a birthday lunch up the coast anywhere in your future, and your current bag is a grey holdall apology, this is the one I would put in your hands myself. Stop dithering and go and have a look.
Denise
HAPPY CAMPER CARAVAN | Quilted Duffle Bag
- Little caravan scene, printed across the quilted bag
- Swallows a proper weekend without wrestling
- Soft quilting that squashes into any boot
- Comfortable handles, printed to match
- Two honest sizes: 40cm $89.95 · 46cm $99.95
- Part of a whole collection of designs
- Free tracked shipping in Australia
Made to order. Once what's left is gone, it won't be made again.