Wireless iPod Speaker from Cy Fi

Whenever I hear the words “wireless” and “speaker” together, two bad visions come to mind. One is the set of Advent wireless stereo speakers in my daughter’s playroom: if you even look at them funny, they lose the signal and sound like crap. The other vision is a party I was at a few years ago where the host spent half the night moving around a set of those all-weather wireless speakers like you see in the Skymall catalog because the sound kept cutting out or getting distorted.

Fortunately this cy*fi speaker is a different story: it promises “CD-quality” sound while broadcasting tunes from your iPod and my skepticism was dashed as soon as I fired it up. When I compared the sound on this nifty 4-ounce device to a couple heavier ones that plug in, the cy*fi actually sounded better, even when the transmitter was on the other side of the room or I was moving around the room with my iPod.

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Lightweight ExOfficio Cruz'r Shirt for Men

For looking good during your travels and having a sink laundry option for packing light, this men's Cruz'r short-sleeve shirt from ExOfficio is a dream.

When I was a hard-core backpacker setting out on year-long travels through the world's cheapest destinations, clothes were a secondary thought. After all, you can revamp your wardrobe in Bangkok or Delhi for next to nothing when you get tired of your faded t-shirts. No way was I going to spend the equivalent of a few nights' lodging for a shirt just because it would make me look nice. The standard scruffy backpacker wardrobe was just fine.

Now I travel more on business or vacation and need to look, well, more presentable. I still want to travel with a carry-on whenever possible though, which means stepping up and packing quality lightweight clothing with extra benefits. This ExOfficio shirt is a real winner in that regard. It weighs just a few ounces, but feels expensive...

...continued on the new Practical Travel Gear blog

Sansa Slot Radio Pre-programmed MP3 Player

The Sansa slotRadio is a strange concept, but it works brilliantly in practice. It’s a pre-loaded MP3 player with 1,000 songs, plus a radio, all in a tiny clip-on package. Put a new chip in the slot, you’ve got 1,000 new songs instantly.

I love my iPod Classic, especially when I’m on a long flight or I need to keep my daughter entertained while traveling. The thing is, as user-friendly as the whole interface is, I’m really lazy about loading it up with new music, despite the fact I’ve got a thousand CDs sitting one room away from the computer…and I have an eMusic subscription…and I review new world music albums every couple months for Perceptive Travel. But unlike a teenager with all the time in the world, I always seem to have something else higher on the to-do list.

So I was intrigued by the idea of this Sansa slotRadio player as a time saver and I’ve enjoyed it far more than I expected. First there’s the level of surprise, which is ever better than it is with the iPod Shuffle because you really don’t know what’s coming next. You didn’t load it up to start with. Plus you can see the artist and song name on the display—my main beef with the Shuffle. It’s almost as small as the 2nd generation Shuffle though, and has a clip on the back, plus it has a radio for listening to NPR or local music in a foreign country. Not a bad value for a hundred bucks including the first 1,000 song sampler.

...continued on the new Practical Travel Gear blog

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REI Adventure Pants Review

Walking through your local REI store can be like a traveler's version of a trip to Tiffany's. When I stopped in two weeks ago to use my annual rebate check and a "20 percent one full-priced item" coupon, I had trouble actually using the latter. After perusing racks of $95 slacks from Columbia, $80 t-shirts from Mountain Hardwear, $200 sunglasses from Smith, and $18 socks from a whole slew of companies, I ended up using the coupon on some heavy-duty DEET bug repellent. I saved $1.60. Woo-hoo.

In all fairness though, REI does run some killer sales now and then, in the stores and their outlet site, plus the prices on their own private label versions of popular clothing items are much easier to swallow. Like the lower-priced snacks and cereals under the Target or Costco brand name, the REI versions of pants, jackets, or wicking shirts won't sting you so badly at the cash register.

So I used my rebate check to go toward these nice REI Adventure Pants, marked down from $44 to $32.83---a deal that is still up on their website too at the moment.

...continued on the new Practical Travel Gear blog