L.L. Bean Softpack Cooler and Adventure Tote Review

L.L. Bean is one of my favorite companies ever. I am completely and madly in love with just about everything they carry. I was pleased to discover their great selection of summer items – I had no idea they had so many!  L.L. Bean always has such unique and well thought out products too – I think that is one reason I adore them the way I do.

I was thrilled beyond words when I found out I would be reviewing the Softpack Cooler, Picnic {$39.50} from L.L. Bean.

Now better than ever – using your feedback in customer reviews, we’ve redesigned our popular soft-sided cooler for 2010. Easier to use, with more pockets and greater capacity. The new rectangular shape allows it to fit more easily into your car or camp kit. Shoulder strap for easy carrying. Zippered pocket on lid holds utensils and other accessories. Front zip and stuff pockets hold condiments, napkins and other essentials. Zippered interior mesh pocket for ice packs. Food-grade, non-PVC liner is easy to clean and won’t leak. Tough 600-denier polyester ripstop fabric will hold up to years of family camping trips. Front pocket is monogrammable.

We have used this cooler several times already – at family outings, and also at the beach.  It is the perfect size to hold everything we need, and light enough for carrying around {especially those long treks through the sand!}. It is extremely durable and sturdy, and has just the right amount of pockets, nooks and crannies to hold everything you might need.  It is much roomier than I expected.  It might look compact, but it holds quite a bit!

I also reviewed the extra-large Adventure Tote from L.L. Bean {$19.99 to $29.95}.

This is available in three sizes.  I received the largest size, and I am thrilled with it.  I figured that if you’ve seen one tote bag, you have seen them all, but this certainly wasn’t the case with this.  This is the tote of totes, in my opinion and experience.

Designed with six exterior pockets and a spacious interior, this colorful, lightweight nylon tote is ideal for separating beach gear, workout items, sailing essentials or gardening tools. Choose from three roomy sizes, each with an internal pocket and secure zip-top closure. Made of rugged 420-denier nylon, with reinforced base and over-the-shoulder-length handles.

The first “outing” we took our tote bag on was to Santa Cruz.  My daughter and I went to Santa Cruz for  Spring break and we packed quite a few things.  Of course, we had all of those extra items that we wanted to bring, and normally we would use several tote bags to hold them all.  The L.L. Bean tote bag held everything we brought, as well as everything we bought while on vacation.  Packing up to come home was a breeze.  All of those extra purchases – we just put them in our huge tote bag and we even had room to spare!  We have used it quite a few times already – but then we had something really neat happen, where it came in so handy again.  For the end of the year school celebrations at my daughter’s school, she was supposed to bring a bunch of cupcakes for one of the parties.  We made the cupcakes, and stored them in two large plastic containers.  The next morning as she was trying to pack them for school, she discovered that the two containers wouldn’t fit into a paper bag, or even a store grocery bag.  I remembered the L.L. Bean tote and we both were almost giddy.  Not only was it much stronger than any paper or plastic bag would be, it was comfortable to carry to school.  The shoulder straps helped tremendously!    L.L. Bean totes {and many of their other products} can be monogrammed, for that personal touch.

In addition to the products I mentioned above, L.L. Bean has products for summer and every season.  They are currently having a big sale on summer products – where you can save up to 60% on hundreds of summer items, through  June 30th! You can find the above items on the L.L. Bean website.

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The opinions expressed herein are those of blog author only. I received products above to facilitate this review/post. For further information, please refer to my Acknowledgment Policy.