It’s time to start thinking about summer travel, and that means not just where to go, but how to make the trip smoother. One way to do this is by taking along travel tools designed to make your life easier. Of course, these tools should be useful AND compact. While traveling “light” is always a good idea in general, these days it’s also an absolute must.
Whether you’re traveling by car or by plane, taking up less space makes your journey more comfortable and (especially in the case of air travel) more economical. Here are five gadgets that will make your travel easier and don’t take up much room at all.
We don’t want to imagine ourselves in this scenario, but it happens: luggage sometimes gets lost. These days, you don’t have to wait for the airline to find your luggage to know where it is. With the help of a luggage tracker, if your bags don’t arrive at their intended destination it won’t be long before you know where they went. Attaching a tracking device to your bags will help you find them easily thanks to GPS technology. The QR smart dynotag, for example, is a lightweight, waterproof tag that uses “passive GPS” to help track an item with no batteries required.
Reusable water bottles are great – for you and for the environment – but when they’re empty, they become just one more item to carry around. That’s not the case with flexible water bottles. These lightweight items can hold a good amount of water when filled, but lay flat when empty. This means when you’re done drinking water, you can just fold the bottle up and put it in your pocket, purse, or backpack, taking only a tiny amount of space. Most of these bottles, like those by Vapur and Baiji, have a metal carabiner so you can clip them onto a belt loop or backpack. These clips also hold the folded bottle in place. (Tip: these bottles won’t keep your water cold for long, so on hot days, fill and freeze them the night before).
We’re traveling with more and more electronics these days – even kids have their own devices – and don’t always have space to charge all these items at once. Although hotels have gotten great at providing more wall outlets and USB ports in places such as lamps, for some families this is not always enough. A multi-port USB wall charger is a great solution for today’s tech-filled travelers. An item such as the Photive Desktop Charging Station charges multiple devices quickly. Best of all, the manufacturer specifies that it “works flawlessly” with all Android AND iPad and iPhone devices – good to know, since often Mac products can be temperamental when it comes to “after-market” chargers.
Traveling with babies and toddlers can be especially challenging because of all the “equipment” that goes along with them. The last thing you want is yet one more item to pack, but there are some things that take up minimal room and have enormous impact. One is a travel baby bottle warmer for when you’re on the go and don’t have a way to warm up a bottle the traditional way. For long car rides, the Munchkin Travel Car Baby Bottle Warmer is a big help, since it plugs right into the car adapter. Another warmer by Prince Lionheart serves as an instant heat source anywhere, warming baby bottles and food jars with no power source needed.
For bigger kids who use a booster seat, you need not worry about hauling one around during your travels anymore. The BubbleBum Car Booster is a portable, inflatable (and yes, safe) option. This lightweight (less than a pound) car booster inflates by mouth within 20 seconds. It also deflates easily and folds compactly to fit in a purse or backpack.