I would like to save my panel layout so I can change it and then easily recover it.

I have a laptop that I also attach a second monitor to when at home. I have a panel on top and bottom on BOTH monitors. However, when I take my laptop away from my dual monitor setup, the panels obviously double up, so now I have two on top and two on bottom.

Is there an easy way that I could save panel layouts so when I go away from the dual monitor setup I can use the setup with only 2 panels, and then when I'm back home I can simply regain my 4 panel setup?

You could locate the configuration file that holds the settings you want, and create a script to switch between two configurations. But I don't use gnome so I don't know how feasible that would be.