Choosing LuggageIf you're not in a hotel, where can you store your luggage?
There are times while traveling when you may find yourself strapped with your airline luggage with no obvious place to store it. This may happen because you have a long layover at the airport, you arrive in town too early to check into the hotel, or you're traveling by train and making a short stop to see something before moving on to your final destination. Whatever the reason, what can you do with your airline luggage so that you're not stuck keeping it with you?
Hotel Concierge. If you stayed in a hotel the previous night, or will be staying there soon, the hotel will generally store your airline luggage for you in a secure place free of charge. If you're not staying in the hotel at all, it still sometimes works to ask them to hold onto your airline luggage. Sometimes they will agree to do it for a fee or tip, particularly at nicer hotels.
Renting a Day Room. After asking a hotel concierge to hang onto your airline luggage without success, another angle is to try to rent a hotel room for the day only. You may get a lower price than renting the same room for the night. Try to negotiate a bit.
Airport or Train Station Lockers. A lot of airports and large train stations have lockers where you can stow your airline luggage. After 9/11 many of the lockers were closed down, but more and more of them are once again available for use. Ask at the information area to see if lockers are available for airline luggage storage.
Coat Check at a Nice Restaurant. If your airline luggage is nice looking and you don't have a ton, you might be able to persuade a restaurant with a coat check to let you store it (perhaps with a generous tip). Do be careful, though, because restaurants usually aren't open all day long and it may be difficult to get your airline luggage back.
