Daily Deals at Steep and Cheap

There once was a time when just a few companies put out all the travel gear. The pioneers like Patagonia, Columbia, North Face, and Eagle Creek had a good lock on what was in stores and new product innovations were a big deal each year. Then the Web came along, physical travel and outdoor gear stores got bigger, and the number of competitors snowballed.

Now it's safe to say there's a downright glut of adventure gear out there, from sunglasses to sleeping bags to fleeces. This means when the new stuff comes in--which it does almost constantly now--it's time to get rid of last month's overstocks. Good for you the shopper.

I'm a big fan of the Backcountry.com outlet and have found plenty of good travel gear deals there. They took it up a notch, however, when they launched the Steep and Cheap page. The idea behind this is refreshing simple. Each day there's a new item for sale at a deeply discounted price. Once it's sold out, they're gone. Then you wait for the next item to see if it strikes your fancy.

This is by nature quite hit and miss. A pair of sunglasses one day, mittens the next, a snowboard after that. The one thing they have in common is that they're a screaming bargain. You can sign up to have the deal e-mailed to you each day if you're a real gear-head or are addicted to shopping. Otherwise you can subscribe to the RSS stream and just check it out in whatever blog and news reader you use each day. Happy hunting!

Keeping Cooties Off Your Head in Flight

I seem to have a rather robust immune system and don't get sick much from traveling, but other people who are not so lucky may want to check out these airplane headrest protectors from TravelKleen. They sent me a sample to check out before my last flight, so I gave them a whirl and they deliver as promised.

The idea is airplane seats don't get cleaned very well or very often, especially the overworked ones that are hitting three or four gates in a day. So you whip out one of these, attach the velcro, and put your head on something where you know the origin of it. Two come in a package and they're reusable--there's a set of plastic pieces that keeps the velcro from sticking to everything else when you fold it up. You paranoid or extra-sensitive types can also use them in movie theaters, on trains, or wherever else you're worried about catching cooties. (Just remember the old adage, "That which does not kill you makes you stronger.")

The TravelKleen headrest protectors weigh about as much as a few sheets of paper and take up almost no room. So if you're concerned about the state of where you're nodding off (or are protecting the rest of us from the gobs of mousse in your hair), check your favorite travel gear store or go to TravelKleen.com.

I Use the Travel Gear I Write About

You read a lot of travel gear blogs and travel gear magazine articles that are obviously written by desk jockeys sorting through press releases. Even though the magazine has a 6-month lead time, the review magically appears the same time the item hits the shelves. The review text often sounds eerily like the gear company's own promotional material--probably because nobody has actually tested the thing.

In the Practical Travel Gear Blog, you'll mostly read about items that have been road tested and have performed. Sometimes a company will send me a sample. More often I've bought the item retail because I needed it--or thought I had to have it, like the flip-flops with a bottle opener in this photo. That's part of the reason you won't read about aspirational items in here that cost what most of us earn in a week. I'll leave those purchases to the stockbrokers and surgeons who feel a need to show off.

I also travel a lot, which is another key difference. I'm not a perpetual backpacker anymore, but I did do that for years on end. Now I am on the road about seven or eight weeks a year, at different budget levels of accommodation and in varied climates. So the items you read about on this blog will probably be worth carrying around.

P.S.--I try to spend a week or two a year at the beach pictured above, in a fishing village called Chuburna, near Progreso in the Yucatan. You can also have this beach almost to yourself by renting the Chuburna Mexico beach house sitting a few steps away. Like the items I cover here, it's a good value at $250-$300 per week.

Pocket Travel Beach Towel

The folks at LightLoad towels sent me one of their pocket beach towels to check out right before the holidays and as luck would have it, I was about to head off to the beach. So I gave it a trial run. The verdict? Probably not something you'd want to use by choice if there are regular towels lying around, but if you're in a position where you need to conserve space, weight, or both, this item is a winner.

This lightweight beach towel comes in a little waterproof package that's a tad larger than a hockey puck, so it's obviously quite easy to fit into your bag when you're preparing to head out. It would work well as an emergency towel for the glove compartment or bike kit also. When you open it there's an odd petroleum smell, but that goes away after it airs out and the thing is supposedly biodegradable.

As a beach towel, it's long enough to lie on but is so light that it would get carried away by the slightest gust. It does the job drying you off though, no matter how sopping wet you are, so it's a better option than one of those wierd chamois-type travel towels or a sarong. The company claims it will absorb nine times its weight in water.

Key for travelers is that this pocket beach towel came through with flying colors on the time-to-dry test. In a mild breeze, the wet towel was dry again in less than an hour. Nice. Did I mention that it's less than $5 at REI or your local gear store? Buy two, they're small.

Headphone Jack for Two

If you've seen those couples snuggled up at the airport listening to the same tunes or watching a movie together, no doubt they are taking advantage of a headphone jack for two. These headphone adapters plug into the jack on your MP3 player, laptop, or portable DVD player and split the signal in two.

The only trouble with the ones you get for three or four dollars at the electronics store is that if one person's hearing is more sensitive than the other, you're in trouble. The volume control on the device applies to both sets of headphones. (Unless your headphones have their own volume control.)

The solution is to spend a few dollars more and get a two-person headphone jack with two volume controls, like the one pictured here from Amazon. (Less than $8.) That way you can crank it up or not, no matter what your kid, partner, spouse, or whoever likes it.

Hygear SmartDynamo Crank Radio and Flashlight

I've been out traveling instead of sitting on my butt, but for a recent Christmas gift I got Sis this handy little crank radio and flashlight she's been eyeing for her frequent camping trips. It's not the most fantastic item ever bestowed upon mankind, but for around $30 from REI it's a good value, especially considering that it will charge up your cell phone in a pinch. That feature alone would make it worth carrying around whenever you've got room in your bag.

Many of these crank radios (including most of them made by Eton) are not very portable. They're kind of big and unwieldy and are meant more for storing in the basement or car trunk than traveling. This Hygear SmartDynamo crank radio is a different story. It's less than the size of two packs of cards put end-to-end and weighs very little. We cranked it up the requisite 10 minutes at first to charge the battery initially than gave it a whirl.

The flashlight isn't all that bright, but is good enough to get you where you need to go on a dark night. The radio isn't high fidelity, but it does the job. We didn't try the cell phone charger since none of the six adapters included fitted the two phone brandss we have on hand. (Blame the damn cell phone manufacturers for purposely making their products create more garbage and waste.) If you have a standard phone from one of the largest manufacturers, you should be okay, but you might want to research this if not.

All in all, for a mere 30 bucks this is a worthwhile purchase for yourself or someone else, especially if the phone charger function works. It's a nice way to use muscle power to provide power instead of burning more fossil fuels to do it. Why isn't this concept more widespread?

Buy it at Amazon