Power to Go from Chargepod Fueltank

I’ve long been a fan of the Callpod Chargepod, a device that allows me to leave a whole collection of chargers and cords at home. (God forbid the electronics companies can manufacture standardized connectors for the simple task of delivering A/C power to a battery.) You just pack the mini hockey puck, one cord, and the little adapters for each device. Then you can recharge everything simultaneously with just one plug.

This new Fueltank item from Callpod is similarly cool, but it solves a different problem: not having the time or the ability to recharge your devices while you’re on the go. For business travelers moving from place to place, it provides a round of charges when and where they need them: on a plane, in a foreign country, in the back seat of a car—whatever.

It’s essentially a battery pack that you charge up from your wall socket, then you take it along with you, armed only with the connector tips for your particular devices. You you can get charged back up several times over without ever plugging in or crawling around an airport floor searching for an outlet. For a trip that’s only going to last a few days to a week, this is all you need to take and you can even charge two devices at once.

...continue to the full Callpod Fueltank review

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Heys Travelmate Sling Bag

Heys is a travel gear and luggage company best known for its very hard but lightweight rolling suitcases---those colorful ones you see whizzing by you in the airport. But they also make a lot of practical travel accessories and bags that aren't hard-sided, including this cool little Travelmate bag that slings over your shoulder.

Think of it as a miniature daypack, a travel purse, a hands-free travel carrier for dads, or a man purse, but the idea is that you can stow what you need in a small bag that doesn't get in the way. It's smaller than a backpack or messenger bag, but large enough to hold the essentials. In my test I managed to fit in the following: trade paperback, notebook, camera, passport, snacks, cell phone, pens, lip balm, and my Chargepod. There's a zippered mesh pocket on the side that will hold a small water bottle.

The Heys Travelmate stays snug against your body so your hands are free---especially helpful if you're trying to keep track of a toddler or push a stroller. If you're not traveling on business and you're on an airline that doesn't sock you for baggage fees, you could check your suitcase and complete the whole trip with just this bag. Then on the other end, it would do the trick for your days of sightseeing.

I have no complaints about the bag itself: it's rugged, well-made, and has lots of pockets for keeping things separated, including one on the front that's handy for things you need to get at often, like money and an ID. The flap on the front is attached with velcro, so you can open it with one hand. One inside pocket is clear and waterproof: handy if you're carrying cosmetics that could leak.

Two of the three accessories that come with it are a different story though and should have just been left out. There's a cheap LED flashlight that was already dead in the model I received and a mirror that's about as clear as a piece of tin foil. The included travel wallet is nice though: the kind that hangs around your neck and goes under your shirt---handy in places where pickpockets could be working the crowd. (The bag itself would be pretty hard to snatch too; it would have to be slashed.)

The regular line of Heys Travelmate bags includes models in 14 different colors, from subdued to very bright. There's also an "exotic" line with zebra and leopard prints or the houndstooth one pictured here. Some of the shades and patterns are too feminine for guys, but there's plenty to choose from.

These bags generally retail for $23 to $30, so they're a good value. They're available in some retail luggage stores. Find out more online or go shopping:

Heys Canada
Heys USA

Solid colors at Amazon
Exotic line at Amazon

TSA-friendly, No-metal Belt from Beep Free

With as much travel gear as I review on here, you'd think more gear would be the last thing I'd request as a birthday present, but I needed a new TSA-friendly belt. So when I told my mom that, she tracked down this model from a company that specializes in these things and scored me the Beep Free Belt.

See, the only no-metal travel belt I have is the Eagle Creek All Terrain belt with a hidden money pocket. That's all well and good when I'm going on a long vacation or a hiking trip, but it doesn't look so hot if I'm going to meet someone at the other end or I don't want to pack a separate belt for going out to a nice restaurant now and then.

With the Beep Free Croco Finish model pictured above, I can look respectable and be respectable too on a business trip: I don't have to do a strip tease for the airport security agents every time I take a flight. I just pop off my loafers, put all the metal into my checkpoint-friendly laptop bag, and I waltz right through the metal detector.

When you check Magellan's or similar sites, you don't find many choices when it comes to metal-free belts like this. Usually there is just one style in either brown or black. On the Beep Free site, there are a variety of styles and colors and you can even choose the belt buckle finish.

Now I won't tell you that this is some elegant, finely crafted belt you would want to wear with an Armani suit. It is around 25 bucks after all. When you get within a couple feet you can tell the buckle is faux-metal and really plastic, but if it really bothers you they sell a real nickel buckle that you can switch out in your hotel room. That way you can still avoid packing another belt for meetings or presentations.

Cute Portable Digital Picture Frame From Royal

Bring your favorite pictures along for ten bucks or less!

Over the years, as a traveling dad, I have found it extremely useful to pack plenty of diversions for the kid or kids tagging along. I haven't sprung for a Sony PSP or a Nintendo DS because I know how addictive they can be even for adults. But I share my iPod classic with my daughter so she can watch cartoons and listen to her favorite tunes. And often I'll pick up a cheap gadget to bring on a trip, something that has the flash of the new.

This little 1.4-inch digital picture frame from Royal is a toy in terms of specs, but at a retail price of $7 to $10, it's a great value. My daughter loves it and she can't wait to hook it onto her backpack the next time we take off, bringing photos of all her friends and grandparents along for the ride.

Set-up was dead easy. There's a mini CD that installs the program on your computer. Then you plug in the device, select the photos you want, and sync it up. The photo frame gets the time and date from your computer and charges up via the USB cord. Your photo library is presented in the software in the normal folder system. When you select a photo the software puts a cropping box over it (which you can move around) to size it for this device. In other words, you get the faces, not a shrunken version of the entire photo.

The picture quality is not going to win any awards, but it's pretty good for the price. You can scroll through the pictures manually, or just sit back and let it go in slideshow mode. After a period of inactivity it shuts off by itself. Thankfully Royal resisted the urge to add a bunch of useless features to it, but there is an alarm clock, so I guess this qualifies as a double-duty item for packing light. The clip also doubles as a stand.

There aren't a lot of good travel gadgets that will cost you an Alexander Hamilton or less. This is one that delivers.

Get the Royal PF140 Digital Photo Frame at Overstock.com

Get it at Amazon

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Travel Gear on the Wish Lists

Every once in a while I pull up the stats on this travel gear blog to see which posts are really getting checked out by the most readers. Which gear items are people researching and drooling over? (Okay, so maybe "drooling over" is the wrong phrase to use when talking about travel underwear, but hey, you like it a lot better if someone else spends $20 on it instead of you, right?) Since I'm on deadline for some magazine articles due this week, I've been taking a break from the travel gear tests. So here are the most popular posts over the past month:

Pacsafe's theft-proof travel bag. This post is two years old and is the most popular, so apparently lots of travelers are looking for a good slash-proof bag for walking around town. This one is highly recommended.

Quick-dry travel underwear from ExOfficio. Save money on the road with sink laundering and have dry undies in the morning.

Portable room safe. Apparently I'm not the only one who wonders how to keep valuables secure in a cheap hotel.

Are packing cubes worthwhile? Apparently a lot of people are pondering a purchase of these organizing aids.

The best backpacks for travelers. Your most important gear item for long-term travel.

Timex rugged Field Expedition watch. This was what I took with me trekking in Peru this past December. Great watch for a reasonable price.

Travel adapter, converter, and USB charger. This is a handy item that does double duty. I used it in Europe a few months back and was very happy with it.

Lightwedge innovative reading light. This one surprised me as I reviewed this way back in the summer of 2007. This book light takes some getting used to, but some people love it.

Altus Lumen Multi-use LED Light

Flashlights are fine when you've got a free hand and headlamps are good when you're walking around in the dark, but neither is much help if you want to play a game on the guesthouse bed or work collectively on something. This Altus Lumen PAD-L LED light is a great solution and is small enough to carry on any trip.

The design of the PAD-L is all about flexibility to put the light where you need it. There's a fold-out metal stand and an attached stand that will swivel around to either side. So you can direct the light in multiple directions. There's also flexibility in the intensity of the light itself too, with a low setting for say, brushing your teeth while camping, to high for finding the contact lens you dropped on the floor. The brightest setting uses up power about 30 times faster, but you probably won't need it very often anyway: it feels like your blasting out the brightness of a cop car's search light.

It comes with a nice carrying case and a cable manager contraption (with no cable) to help you hang the thing from a branch. For now anyway this appears to be a direct orders only situation though. You order from their site and then wait for it to arrive from Hong Kong. When there's retail distribution in place, I'll post a note here later. The PAD-L LED light is $40 plus you have to register on their site to order.

My main beef with this product is that the company's sustainability efforts are worthy of some kind of award---but for greenwashing. Their site is full of nice-sounding slogans such as "Protect and Enjoy the Environment" and "Preventing pollution is more effective than cleaning up the mess after it has already been made." That's true, so why does your product use FOUR disposable AAA batteries and use them up in an hour on the high setting? They say that "PAD-L is the world first sustainable portable LED light," but considering I've seen plenty of shake lights that use LEDs and no batteries, plus others that are solar powered, this is just plain wrong. It turns out the "sustainability" claim is just because 75% of the materials are recyclable when the thing dies on you. Nice, but not all that noble.

Putting the truthiness spinning aside though, this is a powerful light in a small package, good for multiple situations when you need to have your hands free.

CVS Picture DVD Slide Show

CVS has installed some cool Kodak kiosks in their stores to get your megabytes of photo data onto something more permanent than your Facebook page. I tried one of them out this week and turned out a DVD that's pretty darn cool. It took 60 of my photos (the max) from two vacations with my family and made a DVD with motion and music. Not bad for $12.99, especially considering the almost-instant gratification.

You can bring in your photos on a media card, on a burned CD, or on a USB thumb drive. The machine reads your photos and you then decide which ones to use and in what order. You make choices just by touching the screen and dragging things around. Then you give it a title, select which song you want as background, and hit "burn." Then you wander around the store looking at painkillers, condoms, and chocolates while it does its thing. (10 minutes in my case)

The music choices on the one I used were limited to 16, but for most people that's enough to find something that will work. The Isley Brothers, Willie Nelson, and KC and the Sunshine Band may not be current, but they're pretty good accompaniment for this kind of thing. Then the photos zoom and pan their way through to provide movement the whole time. When the combination ran on my average TV at home, it looked great.

I'm sure you can do the same thing yourself at home if you're willing to play around with your Mac all day, but since the price of this equates to about 20 minutes of my time, screw that.

I hit a few snags though. The CVS closest to my house didn't have the right machine yet. One machine at the second location I tried gave me an error message just as I was finishing and I had to start over on the one next to it while a clerk rebooted. As you would expect for the wages they get, the clerks aren't exactly tech wizards when something goes wrong either. But as long as you're not cutting it too close on your schedule, you should be okay.

Overall, this is a nice way to preserve your travel photos from one trip or to group a bunch of them together by theme. It offers you a way to show pics to friends and relatives later in the comfort of a living room or to send a neat gift off to someone who was along with you.

Handy Travel Scale from Travelon

Most of the travel gear reviews on this blog are for travel items you take with you on a trip. But here's one that could relieve some frustration before you step out the door: a travel scale that tells you whether you are over the weight limit or not.

I actually received this Travelon luggage scale as a holiday present back in December and have used it a couple times since. My old method was to stand on the bathroom scale holding my luggage and see where it came out. Close enough when I'm well below the limit, but this is a far more accurate method if it's close.

You pop the hook out of the recessed holder on the back and put it around your suitcase handle. Turn on the unit, lift, and check out the verdict on the display. It needs AAA batteries, but they were included and I can't imagine they will run out of juice anytime soon.

On most commercial flights you can get away with 50 pounds for your bag, but on an African safari or Alaska puddle jumper you may be limited to 25 pounds. On a cheapo flight in Europe, the limit could be less than 20 pounds, or 8 kilos. If you have a rolling bag with wheels, you may be at 10 pounds before you even put anything in it, so this scale could tell you whether that fourth pair of shoes makes the cut or not.

There's another cool feature to this that also helps you determine whether you bag qualifies as a carry-on. There's a tape measure you can pull out of the side to measure the bag dimensions. Some of those rolling suitcases advertised as carry-on compliant are really pushing the envelope when it comes to total linear inches, so using this you can see if you are definitely in the clear or not.

I think my gifter got this for me from Target, but it's also available at Amazon for 20 bucks.

iGo Everywhere Saves Packing Space

If you want an example of an industry that is about as far away as you can get from "green," it's the consumer electronic gadget industry. There are four cell phones in my house and every one of them has a different charger connection for both the wall outlet and the car. (This includes two phones from the same manufacturer). Then you need a different charger for a Blackberry, an Apple device, a handheld game device, every digital camera, and on and on.

So when you travel with your gadgets, you are forced to carry along a whole array of chargers to keep everything juiced up. Unless you have a power adapter from iGo that is.

If you pack an iGo and a few tips to fit your particular gadgets, you can carry one charger that works for everything. Instead of three or four different plugs, you've got one plug and the interchangeable tips---all fitting into a handy little travel case. Despite the small size, it's also dual-voltage, so as long as you're carrying a plug adapter too, you can use this around the world.

After I wrestled with the treacherous plaster blister pack the iGo Everywhere came in, the device was intuitively easy to set up and use. The plug itself is one part, the retractable cable is another, and then each tip is separate. So the whole thing takes up about as much space in your bag as a pack of cigarettes would. The $40 "iGo Everywhere" version also comes with a car charger. It worked flawlessly charging up my iPod and phones as fast as the proprietary charger does.

The tips are labeled with cryptic markers that don't mean much (A133 for an iPod for instance) and the main downside of this product is that you have to buy each tip separately, at a list price of $13 a pop. So if you have four devices with different connectors now, you're up to $92, or more than $100 if you buy the splitter to enable you to charge two devices at once.

In comparison, the Chargepod Callpod I reviewed before has a much bulkier profile (mainly because of the clunky plug), but it will charge six devices at once and you can buy an $80 bundle pack that has the six most common plugs supplied---including USB and mini-USB.

Overall, this is a sleek and cool device that solves a major annoyance for frequent travelers. If packing small and light is more important than the simultaneous charging offered by the Callpod, the iGo charger could be a worthwhile investment. Just understand that you will have to pony up $13 every time you get a new gadget---unless the electronics companies join the 21st century and start cutting down on wasteful proprietary connectors.

Get the iGo products at your local electronics store, Amazon, or igo.com.

Carry-on Bliss with the Flybag

I noticed that it has been quite a while since I reviewed something fitting into the "cheap and light" category, so I present to you the Flybag.

The company sent me one of these to try out for my last trip and as soon as I got back I ordered one for my Mom. How's that for an endorsement?

Plenty of companies now make some kind of carry-on cosmetic kit that helps you cope with the shakedown at airport security. I've reviewed a few here on this travel gear blog. This version adds a bit of fun and novelty to the mix though, which made me smile.

Sure, there is the clear case that will keep most TSA agents from messing with your 3-ounce or less containers and three refillable bottles for special goop you need to take with you. But in an attempt to make your flight more comfortable after you have cleared security, there is a cool eye mask to enable you to catch some sleep and some earplugs for plane noise or crying babies.

The mask and earplugs can also come in handy if the hotel that looked so lovely on Orbitz turns out to have badly-fitted windows and is right on the busiest street in the city.

And I like their sense of humor. The Flybag carry-on kits come in "blue bomb," "pink scissors," and "grey dagger" colors.

You can order direct from the Flybags.com site or get it for under 20 bucks from Amazon.

NGA's Best Gear of 2008

The current year-end issue of National Geographic Adventure has a "must-have" gear list for the best of 2008. Some of the items are well beyond the scope of a blog called "Practical" Travel Gear of course. I don't think I'll be trying out the $11,500 mountain bike, $6,900 watch, or $350 sunglasses anytime soon.

There are plenty of featured items though that are fairly affordable yet do what they do very well. I haven't personally laid hands on any of these, but I assume NGT gear reviewer Steve Casimiro has. Something tells me he's at the top of every gear company's mailing list.

Columbia Rapidfire Windshell - made of stronger-than-usual 20-denier nylon, water and wind resistant, but weighing only 4.5 ounces. At a list price of $80, this doesn't hit your wallet or your backpack very hard.

Hi-Tec V-lite Hornet HPi hiking boots - Could they make that name any longer? I've always viewed Hi-Tec boots as the cheapo choice, probably because I lived in Korea where they were made and you could buy them for a song in Itaewon. Apparently they have improved, as this model gets the nod for its innovative new moisture management system: some kind of plasma ion-mask that uses nanotechnology instead of the normal wicking membrane. Vibram tread and a 3/4 shank make it ready for any conditions and despite all the technology, list price is $115---not much above the norm.

KOR ONE Hydration Vessel - This gets featured for its cool-looking design and its BPA-free Tritan plastic. I like the fact it has a flip-open wide top so it's easy to fill and easy to purify (unlike the cool-looking but less practical Sigg bottles). Plus for this price, $30, you also get a rubberized base so it's not so slippery.

Nokia MD-8 - (picture below) OK, this is the one I'm really lusting over, to be honest. It's a "booming sound quality" iPod speaker set that blasts out tunes in stereo, yet fits in the palm of the hand. It runs for 40 hours on the batteries, has an FM tuner, and is a reasonable $50 list. Damn, too late for the Christmas list...

See a photo tour of the best gear items on National Geographic Adventure's site.

Fun Designer USB Drives from Mimobot

Almost all of the travel gear reviews I run on here are based on items I've tried out myself, but sometimes an item is just so perfect that I know I'd buy it immediately. When someone from SeekingDesigners.com contacted me about these cute Mimobots, they screamed out "cool stocking stuffer!"

Let's face it USB thumb drives are pretty much all the same if you go with the basic features. They get the job done and they're fine. But if you have someone on your list who likes to instill a little style in his or her workplace, one of these might be the ticket.

There are a variety of designs, some more feminine, some for those with a Star Wars fetish. (Besides the Storm Trooper one here, there's also a funny Chewbacca one and a not-so-scary Darth Vader.) Some are based on Japanese manga figures, so there's another obsessive type you can take care of.

They come in capacities from 1 to 8GB and are loaded with character-specific animation. See a quick sampling of Mimobots at the Seeking Designers site, where there's also some background on the artist.

To actually buy them though, you need to head over to the Mimoco site, where there's a whole slew of new ones posted on a regular basis. Most designs are $18 to $25 for the 1GB version and go up from there. Buy a few and you'll get a sizable discount.

Luggage Tags and Handle Wraps from Travel Chic

This travel gear blog has been quiet the past week because I have been...traveling! A real vacation, chillin' with the relatives, stuffing myself, and not doing any work. It involved some flying, which means picking out our bags among a sea of suitcases on the luggage carousel. My daughter didn't have any problem spotting hers from far away: her suitcase was adorned with a luggage tag and handle wrap set from Travel Chic.

Travel Chic specializes in hip and fashionable accessories that help you find your bag in a hurry, without resorting to an ugly piece of colored tape or a ribbon tied around the handle. When Travel Chic offered to send a sample to try out, my little one went for the pink ensemble pictured here (because you can never have enough pink apparently). There are a whole lot of colors and styles to pick from, however, from the wild and flashy to the elegant and restrained. There's also a kids' line--see the example at the bottom.

You can order the luggage tags by themselves for $16 or get one of the reversible handle wraps for $14. Or order a matching set for $27 and save a few bucks while getting coordinated.

The items are well-designed, attractive, and feel like they'll hold up to whatever the baggage handlers throw at them. If you're tired of sorting through identical black rolling bags as they come down the belt or you want to buy a nice gift for the frequent traveler on your list, one of these will look thoughtful without setting you back too much.


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Teeny Tiny Micro Lantern from Coghlan's

If you want to pack light and still illuminate your whole tent, you can't beat this Coghlan's LED Micro Lantern. It's so small and cute it looks like a Christmas tree ornament, but it cranks out an impressive amount of light from its tiny package.

The output of light is 3.5 lumens, which doesn't mean much to me, but it seems to rank somewhere between a single-LED keychain flashlight and a "real" flashlight with two or three LED bulbs. It won't illuminate the whole campsite, but fine for a cheap guesthouse room nightstand or a two-person tent.

Unfortunately, the small size doesn't allow it to use rechargeable batteries, but the two CR2032 coin-style batteries keep it going for 25 hours before they need to be replaced. Or if you're lost in the woods, they'll flash for 50 hours.

Considering that this micro lantern is only two inches hight and not much bigger than my thumb, it'll be easy to pack no matter how light I'm traveling. It's water resistant and weighs less than an ounce (24 grams). See more about it on the Coghlan's product site.

You'll have better luck finding this at a camping store than a regular gear store. It generally goes for $8 to $10, but Walmart.com has it for$6.74. A great bargain.

Coghlan's Clip-on LED Headlight

A headlight that is tiny, multi-functional, and long-lasting; maybe I'll pack one of these contraptions after all.

I'm personally not a big fan of headlights for regular travelers. If you're spelunking or robbing a bank, sure, but for just finding your way to the latrine at night or stumbling from the bar to your bungalow, it's overkill. They often end up taking up as much or room in your pack as a flashlight and when you factor in the straps, they can be a packing annoyance. Plus I've been shined in the face by the infernal things more times than I can count by trekkers who try to make eye contact while shining a bright light from their forehead!

I like this cute little light that Coghlan's sent me though.

If you're a camper, you probably have plenty of Coghlan's products. They put out a whole long list of items that keep you comfortable, safe, and out of the dark when you're in the woods. This one is as reasonably priced and well-designed as the rest. For a mere $11.53 list price (yea, no .99 at the end), you get a little 1.3-ounce orb of a light that can be worn with a strap or clipped onto the bill of your cap. Or of course you can clip it onto anything else when needed: a tree branch, the top of your tent, your book, whatever. It uses two small lithium batteries that will wear out eventually, but the estimated life is 25 hours, or 50 with the strobe. If you're lost for more then 50 hours with a strobe flashing, well, you've got bigger problems.

This is a nice double-duty item: strap it on your head when you're hiking in the dark, carry it as a flashlight, or clip it onto something when you need light. There's even a little red filter than flips down to give you "night vision," in case you have to bust up a hidden terrorist camp I guess.

This clip-on LED headlight weighs a quarter of what other models do, it takes up almost no room in your bag, and it's priced at less than 12 bucks. What's not to like? Pick one up for yourself and another for a stocking stuffer. I had trouble finding this online at the usual outlets, so you'll probably have better luck at a camping retail store or Wal-mart. Coghlan's has a list of physical and online retailers and a zip code search function on it's website.

Checkpoint-friendly Laptop Cases Out Now

If you travel with a laptop, getting through the security gauntlet at the airport is almost as much fun as when you travel with a toddler. You normally have to remove it from the case, lay it flat with nothing on top of it, with a TSA agent barking at you for still not doing it right as you fill up bin #4 with your belt and shoes. Get to the end and put it all back together again.

Things took a big step forward recently with the approval of laptop bags that will fly through security with ease. They are now hitting the market, including office stores like Staples where you can get different versions from Samsomite and Targus. With these cases, your laptop stays in place and all you have to do is unzip the bag and lay it flat on the belt. At the other end you just zip it back up and you're on your way in a flash (well, after you put your shoes and belt back on.)

I've been trying out the Samsonite Checkmate laptop case, which will make my life easier next time out. It fits a 15.4-inch computer snugly or a netbook-sized one with room to spare (see pics). For that see-through compartment, it's laptop-only. But then the rest of the bag is like any other one you've used for travel or going back and forth to the office: lots of pockets and compartments, comfortable handle, and a shoulder strap. There is plenty of room for chargers, gadgets, and reading material, plus a front pocket with spaces for pens, business cards, a phone, and the like.

It uses lots of pleather around the nylon at the stress points, but the Samsonite Checkmate bag retails for $80 and comes with a 3-year warranty. It's rugged and looks like it will take any abuse you throw at it, while the cushioning inside keeps your equipment intact.

Staples also carries a few other computer bag options, including a rolling version. These models are just now getting into stores and taking longer to trickle out online, but should be easy to find as we get closer to the holidays. If you've got a business traveling road warrior on your list, this would be an appreciated gift.

Activetrax Travel Crank and Solar iPod Speaker

There are a lot of solar and crank radios out there now, which is a beautiful thing, but this little Activetrax cube from L.L. Bean goes beyond the rest in several ways. It's a speaker for any MP3 player, iPod, or phone. It's an AM/FM radio and a NOAA weather band radio with an extending antenna. It's about 2/3 the size of a Rubik's cube (3"L x 3½"H x 2¼"D), easily fitting into the palm of my hand or the corner of my backpack.

All well and good, but this is an off-the-grid electronic item that I've used for 12 hours without it coming near an electrical outlet. (There is an included A/C adapter for lazy people who want to charge it up before leaving home.) There's a small crank on the side that provides an hour of play time with only three minutes of cranking. Then there's a solar panel on the top that does even better. In my tests, an afternoon in the sun provided the full seven hours of play time.

The Activetrax comes with a carrying case that essentially doubles the size in order to accommodate the adapter, so if packing space is tight it's better to leave it at home. Otherwise, it's heavy-duty and comes with a carbiner to attach it to your bag or tent.

Alas, there's always a trade-off, and in this case it's the sound quality. It's okay, especially for the radio, but nothing like the sound you'll get from most powered MP3 speakers, like the Altec Lansing Orbit speaker I use a lot when I travel. Plus you need the included mono adapter to hear both channels from an MP3 player and the tiny and sensitive radio dial is hard to tune. For me though, it's worth it to have something I can use anywhere, without electrical adapters or batteries. It also gives me a lot of pleasure to use something so practical pulling nothing but green energy.

Most people know L.L. Bean for its quality outdoor clothing at a good price. They do carry some unique gear items too though. The new catalog has a cap with built-in tiny LED lights in the brim and several crank flashlights. Got to llbean.com/gear to see the line-up.

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Comfy TravelRest Travel Pillow

I always carried an inflatable travel pillow with me when I was backpacking around the world and there are times I still use one on a stingy airline with no pillows. There are basic flaws in the two main types though: the basic pillow-shaped ones and the C-shaped ones that go around your neck. Neither is all that flexible in terms of how you can use it and where it will fit when you're in a cramped coach seat.

I've been testing this new TravelRest inflatable pillow from HiGear Design and as is often the case, a slight change in outlook has made a huge difference. By reimagining the shape and design of a travel pillow, this company has turned out something that looks strange but works really well.

Deflated, it rolls up into a small and light package about the size of a pair of tube socks. A snap keeps it from unraveling. You can even snap it to the outside of your carry-on bag for easy removal on the plane.

Once you're ready to use it, a few puffs into the valve gets it ready. What you're holding looks like an oversized quotation mark, one that can be used in several ways. The attached cinch line allows the TravelRest pillow to attach to the back of your seat and stay in place when your head starts lolling around. You can snap the bottom of it to your seatbelt to keep it more secure. If you're stuck in the airport, you can just sling it over your shoulder, hug it like a Teddy bear, and snooze for a while during your delay. (Don't be surprised if you start dreaming of your childhood bedroom...)

This pillow is also handy in the car. It can attach to the headrest and seatbelt for a nice nap during a long car ride---especially good for kids who have to be stuck in a car seat for hours on end. It's easy to wash after someone drools on it too.

The TravelRest pillow lists for $27 and you can buy it direct from their site or in some luggage stores.

Nomad Travel Journals

On my three round-the-world journeys, I was an avid travel journal keeper. I still get a kick out of going back and reading these journals and they come in handy when I'm trying to recall the name of a particular place or what year it was exactly that I was in Bukkatingi. And was that hotel room with a view in Jaisalmer really only a buck a night? (Answer--yes.)

While some would argue that personal travel blogs online are more interesting because of the visual element, they're certainly not as convenient. With a paper-based journal you can be at the top of a mountain or writing by candlelight, no outlet or gadget required. A journal does not need to be booted up, recharged, or repaired and when do you not have access to a pencil or pen?

These Nomad Adventure Journals want to put a little structure into your spiral-bound notebook or Moleskin habits though, keeping your writing protected. The two elements are a case and a printed notebook inside. The case I tried out was zippered "weatherproof" nylon. It's rugged and feels nice in the hand, with the dimensions of a thin guidebook. There's a pocket inside for notes, ticket stubs, or receipts. There's also a fancier leather version for a couple bucks more.

The type of journal inside is up to you. The one I tried is a little too organized for my tastes, with a separate page for each day of the journey and blanks to fill in for "recommended maps," a "tick list" of what to do and see every day, "most memorable daily event," "weather conditions," and more. If you're the type that loves packing cubes and carries a map every step of the way in a new city, then this is probably a good fit. Others who are less concerned about structure can go for a blank version.

There are different journals for different situations though and some fit a nice niche. There's a live music/festival journal that has spaces for the band you saw, set lists, and people you met. The birdwatching edition looks like it would be really handy if you're into that since it's a passion all about ticking boxes and recording notes. Others are journals for fishing, hiking, climbing, and wine tasting, with a waterproof version for rafting and kayaking.

That last one is $8.50 but a new package for the others runs $27 to $29. Then the replacement journals are $15 each. If you like to record your experiences but would like something with more structure and durability, check out the options at the Nomad Journals site.

Quality Photo Book from Eurobook

Putting together a collection of photos in a EuroBook from dotPhoto is like working with anything else that boasts of "German engineering." A lousy interface and a steep learning curve, but an impressive end product once you figure it all out.

I have put photo books together before through Kodak Gallery and Shutterfly and have been quite happy with the results. So when someone from dotPhoto asked me to try out Eurobook, I was glad to give it a shot.

The experience did not start off well. First, you have to download their proprietary software to your computer in order to get started---no web interface option available. You would think that would speed things up, but it doesn't. I found each step to be far slower than the ones I've encountered with the other companies I've used. I eventually grabbed a magazine to read while listening to my PC grind away. All in all it took me close to three hours to complete the book, counting one false start I had to scrap.

All the coding creativity went into the back end of the software, apparently, as the interface involves a lot of pop-up windows and almost useless help menus. Then you basically have to cede total control to its design wizard unless you just pop in photos where you want, which defeats the purpose of using software that resides on your computer.

So why go through all this? Well, the design wizard is pretty cool IF you understand how it works. Its objective is to take a collection of photos you throw at it, with just a number of pages you pick and an average number of photos per page. Then the wizard does its work and lays out the pages itself in an attractive way, using some as background as well. Photos can fill a whole page and then have a small one inset, can spread across two pages, or can appear on a page with several others. In essence, you are saying, "Surprise me" and letting the software do its stuff.

When this works, it really works. When it doesn't, well, that was my first lesson. I selected a whole bunch of travel photos from different trips. What I ended up with was a mess. Argentina mixed with Mexico, Hungary mixed with Peru, and me looking five years younger in one shot than the photo next to it. So after all that effort going down the drain, I stuck to one part of one country---the Yucatan---and found a box that let me tell the wizard to put then in date order. Voila! I still had to go in and move and resize some things, but overall it looked great.


I then put in the order, specifying what kind of cover I wanted, and it arrived about a week and a half later from Germany. The price was around 50 bucks including shipping, which is in line with U.S.-based competitors' books that have a nice linen cover with a window. My book was 34 pages too, which is more than some online services will allow.

One corner got dinged in the shipping, but not badly. The overall quality inside was impressive. EuroBook has this claim on its site: "Most photo books are printed on 100 pound paper. dotPhoto EuroBooks are printed on 135 pound paper that resists tearing and lasts for generations."

Be prepared to set aside some time to put a book together, but if you want to take some of those digital photos sitting on your computer and make something lasting you can pass around or give as a gift, this is the most designer-looking option I've come across.

See more at the dotPhoto EuroBook site.