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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ExOfficio Pants Keep the Bugs Away

It’s always great when summer arrives, but not so great when the mosquitoes arrive. If you travel to a tropical country, it’s always mosquito season, plus the bugs carry nasty diseases, so three months of annoyance turns into year-round danger.

Thankfully it’s easier to keep the bugs away than it used to be if you pack the right clothing. This pair of ExOfficio Altyn Insect Shield Pants is going with me to the coast of Mexico and the jungle of Belize this summer. They’re great travel pants on their own, but the kicker is built-in Insect Shield repellent that stays active for 70—yes 70—washings.


Continued after the jump - ExOfficio Altyn InsectShield pants

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

Keen Sayulita Smart Travel Shoes

Shoes are always the big obstacle when you're trying to pack light, especially for men. While we're content to make due with less, there's no equivalent to "little black flats" in the male shoe wardrobe and we can't get away with flimsy little sandals when going out to a nice restaurant. So the challenge is to find a pair of travel shoes that look decent enough for a variety of situations, as in any situation that doesn't require hiking boots or dress shoes.

This pair of Sayulita shoes from Keen I've been trying out do the trick quite well. They're light, they're comfortable for walking around a city, and they look good with jeans or khakis. The top is suede and the bottom is reasonably environmentally friendly: recycled polyurithene and renewable cork.

Yes, cork is going to compress over time, but in this case that's a good thing. The base of the shoe ends up conforming to your foot so you get more support than you would expect in such a lightweight, flexible shoe. (The shipping weight for the two of them together is 10 ounces.) I put about five miles of walking on them over four days and they're conforming to my feet like a glove.

The Keen Sayulita shoes come in two colors (brown or gray) and two styles: lace and slip-on. The slip-on version make breezing through the airport easy too.

You can buy them at most online retailers specializing in shoes or travel gear. But check out the Keen Footwear website for a whole range of shoes that are ideal for travelers: toed sandals suitable for rafting or kayaking, the Market Street and Blvd. lines of casual shoes for strolling around town, and the Trailhead line---which includes the great Shellrock hiking boots I reviewed after trekking through Peru. And yes, there are female versions too, because you can't just travel with flats and thin sandals.

Get yours:

Direct from Keen.

KEEN Sayulita Lace Shoe at Backcountry.com


Keen Sayulita at Amazon

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

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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A Bracelet That Could Save Your Life

Imagine you could wear something around your wrist that could save your life. Imagine that instead of some woven backpacker bracelet you won in a backgammon game in Dahab or that you bought in Panajachel for 25 cents, you wear a bracelet woven from 18 feet of super-strong parachute cord. How cool is that?

OK, so you've got to spend $19 on it unless you have the time and concentration to weave one yourself, but if it gets you out of a jam, that's a pretty cheap insurance policy. Plus it makes a cool conversation piece. That's the idea behind the paracord survival bracelets from SurvivalStraps.com.

Normally this is where I tell you how the gear item worked in practice, but thankfully I haven't needed to rappel down a cliff or spend the night tied to a couple of tree branches. So here's the rundown from the company:

In an emergency situation, you can unravel the bracelet and deploy the paracord for use. If you do use your Survival Bracelet, simply send what is left back to us, along with your story, and we will make you a new one, free of charge (shipping charges will apply).

Whether you are in the woods, stranded on an island, at the range, or running errands around town, you will always have several feet of 550 lb. test paracord with you at all times. Oh yeah, we also think they look pretty great! And since they come in almost 900 different color combinations, you shouldn't have a problem finding something you like! (Check out the colors tab to view our standard color choices.) They come with either a tough plastic side release buckle or a marine grade stainless steel shackle for attachment purposes.

So if you actually have to use it for its intended purpose, they will send you a new one. How many time do you see a guarantee like that? The company also makes belts, lanyards, watch straps, and more. See the whole line at SurvivalStraps.com.

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.

Gear Advice from Around the Web

I'm going to step back from the mic today and point to a few worthy travel gear posts I've come across lately from elsewhere.

First, Beth Whitman discusses the thorny issues involved in picking out a travel adapter. For some good specific choices, check out this travel adapter round-up I did for Tibesti.com. I especially like the Travelon one with a built-in converter. I've used it successfully on a few trips now.

One of the Traveling Mamas has a great post on how to avoid those pesky travel illnesses. I especially like the Earplanes. Besides the catchy name, they solve a common problem and they're only $6.95 at Amazon.

Here's another reminder why you should never put anything valuable into your checked luggage. (Well, unless it's a bottle of duty free liquor since you've got no choice.) Gadling notes that two thieves employed at Portland's airport made off with more than 200 items stolen from passenger bags, including laptops. Who checks a laptop?

Fresh off my recent complaining about cell phone charger non-standardization, Dan Tynan looks at how the cell phone companies are waking up to their environmentally unconscious ways, sorta.

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.

A Jacket That Packs Some Heat

Baby it's cold outside! Bundling up in lots of layers is fine, but not so great when you need to move around a lot, say snowboarding or skiing. Each layer adds more bulk and less flexibility.

How about packing some heat?

I've been trying out a sample of a vest from Ardica Technologies that is definitely unique. The Ardica Moshi System provides your own private heater for up to 8 hours on the low setting, or three hours on high. Basically it's a thin battery-powered heater that goes in a flap resting against your back, between the shoulder blades. You recharge it before you go and then control it through a lighted insigna on your chest, Star Trek style. In my tests the heater made a major difference, keeping me toasty on long walks in sub-freezing weather. It's light enough and thin enough that it wasn't a nuisance either.

But wait, there's more! The system also has a USB plug that allows you to charge up your iPod while you are on the move. Unfortunately that plug is situated in a side pocket rather than the one close to your ears where there is a slot to put your earphones through. So you either listen or charge, but not both. However, you can also use it to charge your cell phone or anything that has either a USB plug or an adapter with one. Other commercial jackets on the way will probably have multiple linked batteries and charging ports situated differently.

This is no thrown-together piece of technology. You can thank the U.S. government for laying out the millions in research grant dollars it took to develop it all. You see, soldiers don't like to be cold either.

The only problem is, the marketing has gotten ahead of the actual availability. You can't buy it from the Ardica website, so apparently I'm special to have gotten this loaner. Mountain Hardwear is going to put out a jacket equipped to use the Ardica heating system, but not until the fall of '09. Assume this will add a chunk of change to the price of a jacket as well, anywhere from $150 to $200. (Yet as it stands now, there's only a one year warranty.) But hey, my wife would have gladly paid that last time we spent a long weekend skiing in the blustery cold.

Stay tuned...

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.

Epson's Artisan 700 Printer for Photos and Docs

In these days when contract manufacturers in Asia are building almost everything electronic, you would think brands don't matter much. But when it comes to printers, Epson seems to always have the edge for models that handle photos well. I just got a confirmation of that when trying out a new Artisan 700 3-in-1 printer from Epson.

First of all, man have these printers come down in price. A few years ago I paid around $320 for a highly rated Canon one, then my last one with even more features was $160 online last year. This Epson model lists for $249, but even the Epson site sells it for less and you can routinely find it for close to $150 on sale. Of course part of this is the razor blade model: don't charge so much for the printer, but soak everyone badly on the ink. This Artisan line uses six, yes SIX ink cartridges, so you'll be spending a pretty penny if you run off hundreds of photos on a routine basis.

If you're like me though, you've got a thousand or two photos on your hard drive and it seems you rarely get around to printing them out. Sometimes you just want one or two of them and you don't want to pop by Wal-mart or put in an order through Kodak Gallery just for that. So it's helpful to have a printer in the house that can do the job well.

Earlier I reviewed Epson's PictureMate model, which is dead simple and handy for just doing 4 X 6 prints. This one is a different story. There are more features than I'll ever get a hang of, but in short it will print any size photo up to 8.5 X 11, will print a few on one page, will print out picture CDs you've burned, and will work as a regular printer and scanner. Furthermore, it does all this through a network and wirelessly as well.

It took me a few dud photos to realize I needed to tweak the printer settings each time I did a new task, but once I figured that out I ended up with photos that were really close to what I get from a commercial printing service. Suitable for framing. It seamlessly hooked up to my network and printed out photos from a computer on the other side of the house. It printed others from my wireless laptop. (I just had to install the drivers.) The printed CDs were the only disappointment. They look fine, but you can just print a picture onto them---no ability to add a track listing for music, or even a title, unless you're able to create all that in Photoshop beforehand and save it as a file. It's a whole lot faster to just break down and use a Sharpie.

I compared the pics to what comes out of my 4-cartridge Canon Pixma and must admit those other two cartridges do seem to help: my Canon shots weren't as accurate or crisp. They took longer to print too.

The scanning, copying, and document printing have been going fine too in my tests, so this is a great workhorse printer that can do almost everything you need done, without taking up a lot of space. It even prints on both sides of the paper if you want and with a two-year warranty, you should be set for a while. With this as your home printer, you can get some of those photos out of the virtual world and into the real one. See more features at the Epson site.

Get it at Amazon

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.

Be Seen at Night With Illuminite Clothing

I've been wandering the streets of my neighborhood at night this past week wearing black, but I have not been hard to see. No, it's not a tease from the Riddler, it's reflective clothing from IllumiNITE.

There's nothing new about reflective clothing of course. Highway workers have donned it for decades and every night I see someone jogging around with some kind of reflective orange vest on. This line of clothing is different though: it actually looks good. There are no random stripes of tape or big logos that might as well say "Look at me, I'm a runner!"

This clothing is cool because the designers looked at things from a different angle. The reflective parts are around the outside of your body instead of the middle of your chest and back, so everyone behind the wheel can recognize that you are a moving human and not a road sign. Plus the reflective part is built into the design instead of being an obvious add-on. There are solid sections that look normal by day but act like a collection of tiny mirrors at night, or dots that just appear to be normal design elements until the headlights hit them. You may feel like a superhero getting ready to save the world when you put on one of these pieces, but you won't feel like a dork.

I've been trying out a illumiNITE thermaGARD Early Riser fleece (pictured here). It performs as it should and then some. Nice locking zippers, a comfy fleece liner, a good fit, and a sleeve pocket for a (small) MP3 player. It's lightweight, breathable, wicking, and downright cozy.

When I've not been wondering what's wrong with the caps lock on the keyboards in their marketing department, I've been thinking of how useful this would be as the go-to fleece on a long trip. It may, for example, reduce the number of times you are almost run over by a tuk-tuk in Thailand or an auto rickshaw in India. It would be good for nighttime walking along the street in Latin American cities, where the sidewalks are only about as wide as your two shoes. It would be good for one of those "we will leave camp at 3 a.m." hiking trips where you're trying to keep track of each other with voices and flashlights.


So, while this stuff is mainly marketed to cyclists and runners, it might make you safer as you travel the world as well -- while still keeping you looking good. They make waterproof jackets, caps, t-shirts, and much more. You can get the background and specs on the illuminate.com website, but considering they have "See our 2007 collection" on the front page and it's mid-October of '08 as I write this, you should go elsewhere to buy the latest models.

Click on that women's jacket to the left or here to go to REI, where there's a big selection in lots of colors and styles.

Or you can find this line in a lot of good retail shops catering to cyclists.

Classy Money Belt and Money Sock

It's important to keep your cash tucked away when you travel. You should assume that there is always someone around wanting to separate you from your money. After all, people even get pickpocketed in the Vatican on a regular basis.

Many money belts and pouches out there are suited better to backpackers and adventure travelers though than to someone trying to do business abroad. I take the Eagle Creek All Terrain money belt I reviewed earlier with me on almost every trip and like it, but it requires dressing down, not up.

The leather belt from the National Geographic Store pictured here is a different story. You'll have to cough up $48 for it (click the picture to check it out), but it'll work with a pair of dress pants or a pair of jeans equally well. Magellan's sells a similar leather money belt for around $30, with both coming in black or brown and a range of sizes. The descriptions say you can stuff $1,500 in one of these, but I'm not sure why anyone would need to carry that much cash around and if you only put in one layer of bills they hold 5 hundreds.


I also like these money socks because it takes the old idea of hiding money in your shoe and makes it simpler and cleaner. You have to buy these in sets of three for $30, and they're really nothing special in terms of the socks themselves, but an extra layer of protection. There's a zippered pouch at the top of the sock and it's big enough to hold your credit card(s) as well. Alas, you'd better have normal feet: one size fits all. These also require being in a place where you're going to wear pants all the time, so no dresses/flats or shorts and flip-flops.

Versatile Cold-weather Shells from Marker

I've had this coat in my closet for a while, rarely pulling it out since I live in a southern zone that doesn't get freezing cold all that often. I'm in Iceland right now though, and this shell from Marker is getting a workout.

It was made for this kind of weather: whipping wind, spurts of rain, and fluctuating temperatures. Iceland in late September is like a year of weather in one day. This coat is meeting the challenge head-on though, resisting the rain, blocking the wind, and keeping me snug. The hood tucks away when not needed, but when the nasty weather returns, I can just unroll the hood and form it to my head with cinch straps and Velcro. It all dries quickly when the sun comes back out and the coat is light to carry when it's not needed at all.

There is a detachable vest on the inside that I left at home for this trip because I already had a fleece I was planning to wear underneath. If I were using this to go skiing, which was my original intent when buying it, I would put the vest back in for an extra layer of warmth.

There are other little extras here and there, like an inside zipper pocket, a sleeve pocket for money, and even a front pocket for a MP3 player. Velcro on the sleeves allows you to wrap them tight and cinch straps around the waist allow a custom fit.

The various Marker shells retail for $180 to $240 and if I remember right I got mine for less than a Ben Franklin at Sierra Trading Post. I haven't gotten as much use out of it as I would like, but I would still buy it again. There are more heavily marketed jackets that are very similar in style and structure selling for two or three times this price. Marker seems to be more focused on its bindings and helmets, so you can find closeout deals on last year's models all over the place.

Solar and Crank Radio Flashlight

I do more traveling than camping, but this past weekend I got out of the city and went on a fun canoe and camping trip with a bunch of friends. I got to use some of the gear I've reviewed before, including the mini candle lantern (nice), my shake flashlight (awesome), and even a spork.

This combo solar radio and crank flashlight from Gaiam.compictured here has been sitting in my basement in case a tornado hit, but I finally got to toss it into the car and get some use out of it. This item goes beyond "double duty," with a flashlight, flashing signal light, and radio. It can be powered by an A/C adapter, but that seems to defeat the purpose when you've already got a crank and a solar panel. I stuck it out in the sun for a while and then cranked it for half a minute for good measure. We used the flashlight all night without having to recrank it. The claim is that it will run 25 hours on a full charge.

The AM/FM radio sound could have been better in something that lists for $50 it seems: it sounds like your basic cheap transistor radio with a tuner that seems to drift off signal quite easily. Don't try to find a station when your hand is shaking. The whole thing is surprisingly light though, so there's the tradeoff.

The radio is good enough to provide some tunes without being plugged in though and you don't have to worry about the batteries giving out. When you're not using it, this item can also provide some peace of mind. Keep it in the trunk of your car or in your house and you know that no matter what happens to the power supply during a storm or a breakdown, you've got a light, a signal, and a way to hear the news.

By the way, this is post #200 on this travel gear blog. To catch all the new reviews, subscribe here.

Solutions to Airplane Pillow Woes

In the latest sign that nearly every U.S. airline has given up on making its customers remotely happy, JetBlue is now going to charge $7 for a blanket and pillow. I've got a better idea: either fly on Continental (where they're still free) or buy your own much nicer kit and keep it.

In the past I reviewed the great Pacn'Nap flight kit pictured here and it does a great job of solving both issues at once. It contains an inflatable pillow and a fleece blanket and it feels much nicer than what you're going to get on any plane in coach. You can get a very similar double-duty item from eBags from a different manufacturer: Foldable Blanket Pillow/Lumbar Cushion


If you don't care about the blanket and just want a pillow, you sure aren't hurting for choices. At REI.com for example there are 25 to choose from and at Backcountry.com there are even more.

Judging by what you see in airports and luggage stores, a lot of people go for the horseshoe-shaped pillows that conform to the neck, but they turn into useless baggage once you deplane. I prefer the idea of a regular-shaped pillow like this Comfort Plus pillow from Magellans because that can also be used in other circumstances, including when you need something under your butt for hard train/bus seats, watching a ball game, a hostel stay, whatever.

Timex Expedition E-compass Titanium Watch

The Timex Expedition line of watches is a favorite with adventurers and casual travelers alike. They're rugged and comfortable, yet are priced at a level that's affordable to most anyone. You won't get in a fight with a mugger to hold onto your watch and you don't have to worry about being a theft target.

This E-compass Titanium version has been on my wrist the past few weeks--without getting in the way. It has a wide, easy-to-read face, but is slim and attractive, with a black watch face on the inside and metal hands with glow-in-the-dark accents. It has the Indiglo function too, which means you can check the time in complete darkness, whether that's while hiking through the forest or checking how long the damn commercials have been running while you sit in the movie theater.

The defining feature of this particular model is the electronic compass, which is nifty but not something to bet your life on. If you just need to know which general direction is north or south it works fine. The watch instructions come with some rather complicated steps for calibrating it to "true north" but it takes a lot of tweaking. Plus there's a warning not to calibrate it or use it around electronics, so I had to walk out into the middle of my yard to set it up. Still, even without tweaking it should get you out of the woods or tell you if you're walking in the wrong direction in a city, which is enough for most needs. The compass only comes on when you press a button too, so it's not whirling around all day as you walk down the sidewalk.

The "titanium" in the name comes from the bevel part of the case, which is crafted from this very tough metal and seems quite resistant to scratches and bangs. It is also water resistant to 100 meters/300 feet, so you can wear it into the pool or on a rainy hike with no fear of it fogging up. Battery life is estimated at three years. There's also a second hand and a date function, but refreshingly it stops there. You only need to get to know two buttons.

The Timex Expedition E-compass Titanium watch lists for $175, but you can generally find it for sale in the $130 to $150 range. Try here, for example:

Timex T49211dh Expedition E-compass Mens Watch at Buy.com