Keep Your Travels Organized with TripIt
For the past year, I’ve been using TripIt to keep up with trip details such as flights, confirmation numbers for rental cars and hotels and meeting schedules.
Here’s how it works. I forward confirmation e-mails to Tripit and it neatly arranges the information for viewing online. You can let friends view your itineraries and also see if any traveling friends will be close by during your trip.
I can edit my itinerary to include meetings and other details. Then, I can export the information and bring it into my Outlook calendar. In my experience, Tripit does an excellent job of grabbing the information from confirmation e-mails, and that saves a lot of time compared to entering the information manually.
Tripit also offers free apps for the iPhone, Android phones and the BlackBerry platform for viewing the information on mobile devices. I also print out a hard copy and keep it with my boarding passes and other travel documents.
TripIt will even print out maps for getting from the airport to the hotel and to meetings, though I depend on my GPS for directions.
One improvement I’d suggest is using actual weather forecasts for where I’m traveling instead of historical averages. Historical data tells me nothing about actual conditions on the ground. And with all the weather providers available, it seems that would be an easy addition.
The basic version is free. TripIt also offers a pro version, for $69 a year, that will monitor your itinerary and send information about flight delays, cancellations and gate changes, and will also suggest alternate flights. There’s a 30-day free trial available for TripIt Pro.
I’m using the free version of TripIt and depend on flight alerts from the airlines for notifications of any changes.
For my travels, TripIt performs better than another travel app, Tripcase. I can’t get Tripcase to look up itineraries using a reservation number with flights booked directly on American Airlines’ website. Tripcase is adding the ability to get the information from confirmation e-mails, but that part is still in beta.
After using it for dozens of journeys, I can recommend TripIt for keeping up with the many details that go into trip planning. A few improvements, such as real weather information, would make it even better.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear on March 9th, 2010
Top Tech’s Slim Data Drive Fits in Your Wallet
For years, I’ve carried a flash drive attached to my keychain on every trip. But Top Tech Products’ Slim Data USB Card convinced me there’s a better way to carry data.
My poor flash drive. The first one I had, I lost the protective cap and had to scour the web to find a new one.
Then, I bought a higher-capacity drive as a replacement. But after six months or so, the plastic piece that attaches to the keychain broke. So I went back to the older drive and soon some protective rubbery trim outside the plastic case was starting to crumble off in my pocket.
Toptech came to my rescue, sending me one of their flash drives that’s almost the exact size as a credit card—just slightly thicker in the center—and easily slips in my wallet. It’s the slimmest flash drive available. And the 4 GB capacity is plenty large for most uses on the road.
Using the Slim Data USB card was easy. The top flips open to expose the small memory card. Then, I just plugged it in to one of my Windows computers and it was recognized almost instantly. The card supports Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.
A flash drive is one of my must-carry items while traveling. I don’t use it on every trip. But it’s there when I need it for backing up or copying pictures, storing word processing or music files and a dozen other uses.
The Slim Data 4GB USB Card sells for $24.99 from Top Tech and is also available through Amazon. Mine is orange, which is bright and easy to see. Other color choices include blue, red, smoke and clear.
My old flash drive
The drive includes a limited lifetime warranty. It won the 2009 Novelty Accessory Award from CTIA-The Wireless Association.
Now I’ll have to pick one credit card to leave behind or just carry a slightly thicker wallet. But I think the Slim Data card will ultimately hold up better than the drives I’ve tried that attach to a keyring.
Tucked away in my wallet, I believe it will also be less likely to get lost than a drive that hangs from a keychain. My ID, credit cards and other valuables go in my wallet—so it makes sense to keep important files there, too.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on March 8th, 2010
Bolle Sunglasses and Goggles
“Jackie O!” was what my husband exclaimed when he first saw me sporting my new Bolle sunglasses. Indeed, these shades (style name: Queen) have bigger lenses than I typically wear — but not nearly as oversized as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis did in the 1970’s. I absolutely love the style — I feel rather Hollywood movie star when I’m wearing them out and about. While the sunglasses may not take to the hiking trail or the river quite like my sporty and versatile Native Eyewear shades do, I’d happily wear these sunglasses to the pool and the beach, to shopping malls and city streets. They hug my face, don’t slip down my nose and successfully keep me from squinting in the sunlight.
Not only are the Queen glasses hip, but they protect my eyeballs, too. I appreciate the polarized lenses that reduce glare, as well as the extra anti-reflective coating on the backside of the lens that further reduces eye strain. The polyarbonate lenses are super lightweight and offer 100 percent UVA and UVB protection from the sun’s rays. Thermogrip® rubber temples and nose pads deliver a solid (but comfortable) grip.
Manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the Queen style in dark tortoise (pictured) is $139.99, but I found them on Amazon for $111.99.
I also tested some Bolle goggles on the slopes of Keystone, Colorado, a couple weeks ago. While the bright orange stripes of the Quasar Coral Snake frame with Fire Orange 50 lenses aren’t exactly my first choice of hues and style (should have asked the friendly Bolle marketing rep to please send a pair in solid black without the mirrored lenses), I very much appreciated all the fancy features of this technologically advanced goggle.
First, they cover a lot of my face — which is good when the wind is whipping at 11,000 feet in elevation. In comparison to my years-old Bolle goggles (which are narrower in solid black with rose-colored lenses) they just seem to offer more protection. Though I get the feeling I’m channeling Shaun White, or some other sort of rad teenage snowboarder when I’m wearing them, I do like how “solid” and protective they feel.
Second, in a side-by-side comparison with my older Bolle goggles, the orange Quasars blocked out a lot more of the sun; in my old pair I squinted when facing the setting sun, whereas with the Quasars I didn’t have to. The thick, triple-layer face foam is super comfy and cushy, and special coating on the lenses prevents fogging and most scratching (love that, since somehow we lost the nifty pouch that came with the goggles for storage — darn).
Overall, I appreciate the quality of these goggles, but the style is better suited to boys or men. See my husband sporting the goggles while tubing in this Keystone video — he can pull off the look so much better than this 40-year-old, non-flashy, mother of two.
These Quasar goggles (pictured above) retail for $119.99, but I’ve seen them as low as $79.99 on Amazon.com.
Browse a great selection of Bolle styles (and sale items) at Campmor.
Posted by Kara in General Gear on March 5th, 2010
Brunton Restore Portable Solar Power Supply
If we’re not all charging up our music players and cell phones with solar power, it’s not for lack of trying on the part of device manufacturers. Some of these solar devices actually work quite well too, like this portable power supply from Brunton.
The first idea here is you can charge it up at home or in a car ahead of time, like the iGo Power Extender and CallPod Fueltank Charger we reviewed before. Then you take it with you on a trip, using it to charge up your devices when you can’t get near an outlet, like on a plane or bus.
This goes a big step further though. The second idea is to use it as a solar charger when you are on a long camping or mountaineering trip off the grid. With the Brunton Restore and ample sunlight, you can restore your devices to full power. If it’s fully charged, it’ll reload your iPod or regular cell phone two or three times. It’ll fully charge a smart phone or gaming device one or two times. It has enough juice to recharge four AA batteries and can recharge your Bluetooth headset seven to eight times. For an iPod, one hour of sun equals six or seven hours of music—that is far superior to what most other competitors promise.
I left the unit in the sun for seven hours and it was all charged up—I could tell from the handy 4-light LED system. I was then able to fully charge my iPod twice and a half-empty phone and still have juice left in it.
This Brunton version is a bit heavier than some others I’ve tried, at 7.2 ounces, but it’s rubberized and really solid. It feels like it could be dropped off a roof and survive. It’s water resistant too. It flips open too and exposes two rather large panels, making it easier to operate (especially with one hand) than the three-panel Solio charger I’ve tried before.
There’s a handy design to this whereby you can plug in a USB cord to charge up anything attached to that, or you can pull out the male USB plug and insert it into the device. Or pull out the other end of the cable instead and it goes into a mini-USB slot like you see on Google phones and the SlotPlayer for example. There’s an adapter for micro USB as well, which other devices use. So basically you’re okay charging up any music player, communication device or camera, provided it uses some version of USB.
“But Tim, my damned Nokia phone and my damned Samsung phone need different adapters than these!” Well, there’s the biggest drawback with this. Eventually we’ll get to a happy place where every device shares the same standard charger setup, but until that time you have to keep fooling with tips and adapters. Brunton doesn’t offer any help in that department, so if your device doesn’t come with some kind of USB charger, you’re SOL unless you can find some adapter on eBay that will do the trick. For Apple devices, you’ll have to bring along the USB cord to connect the device to a USB port on the charger.
The Restore retails for around $90, but the packaging says it’ll give you the output equivalent of 1,372 AA batteries. You can use this charger 500 times before the internal battery will wear out, which is probably plenty for a lifetime unless you’re a hermit moving to Death Valley. If you’ll be in the wilderness or you’re just a backpacker who will be in a place where sunshine is far more prevalent than reliable electricity, this is a solid solar charger that really works.
Get the Brunton Restore Portable Power Device at REI.com
Posted by Tim in Adventure Gear, General Gear on March 4th, 2010
GoLite Lime Lite Shoes Put Paws on Your Feet
I try out a lot of travel shoes (and wear out a lot of travel shoes) in my search for what will work when the rubber hits the road. Or the cobblestones. Or the trail rocks. The best shoes can perform well in all these circumstances, and still look good at happy hour. Like these new Lime Lite shoes from GoLite Footwear.
“Now those are cool,” was the comment from my jaded other half when I came back from the Outdoor Retailers show and pulled these out. Like many women, she’d rather tool around in uncomfortable shoes that look fab than to wear performance shoes that are too clunky. These GoLite shoes manage to turn heads, putting them in a different league than most boring brown cross trainers, but they’ve also got some impressive innovations going on under the hood.
The first one is how the sole is set up, with pyramid-style rubber lugs on the bottom on top of a soft sole that gives easily. This is supposedly modeled after how an animal’s paws work, a trait we lost long ago in our evolutionary development. I don’t know what this softness means in the long term after months or years of solid use, but for now anyway I’m loving it. To test these out in real world conditions I took them on a three-mile hike through the woods, over rocks, over roots, and through the mud. I also wore them around the mean city streets and even spent a day on a convention hall floor with them.
The flatter the surface, the less difference I could feel between these and any other shoes. In hiking trail conditions though, they excelled. I’m sure they’d be great on cobblestones as well, but I haven’t been to the right spot yet to try that theory out in person. The lugs move around independently, providing great traction but also great comfort in varied trail conditions. In the middle layer of the shoe though is a stable chassis. The idea is that the sole absorbs the shock, without these being all flexible and unsupportive.
The other welcome feature differentiating GoLite is that they seem to be one of the few companies understanding that we don’t all have the same foot shape. I must have toured 20 shoe booths at the Outdoor Retailers show and only found two companies marketing shoes in different widths. To me that’s as crazy as selling bras in only one cup size. Yeah I know, shoes take up more room than bras, so it’s not as practical to sell them in different widths, but “D for everyone” is not a good situation for either product.
GoLite has come up with a serviceable solution though. They make their shoes a bit wider than the norm, but then provide a customizable insert for the footbed. Plus on this model anyway, they feature tongue-to-toe lacing so you can then make them narrower if needed at different parts of the foot. If your feet swell up, adjust the insole and loosen the laces. Brilliant!
These Lime Light shoes are like the drop-dead gorgeous date who is also smart and has a great personality. The whole package, no compromises.
GoLite footwear generally runs for $60 to $120 and this model is at the higher end. The shoes are available at specialty retail stores or online at PlanetShoes.com and Amazon.
Get the women’s Lime Lite at Amazon.
Get the men’s version pictured at the top at PlanetShoes.
Posted by Tim in Adventure Gear, Travel Light on March 3rd, 2010
