Posts Tagged cheap and light
Comfort Eye Shade from Eagle Creek
Just in the past month I’ve had two overnight bus rides and a nine-hour overnight flight, so I’ve had plenty of opportunities to try out this Comfort Eye Shade from Eagle Creek.With this on I was oblivious to flickering screens and neighbors’ reading lights and I snoozed as well as can be expected while not lying in a flat position.
This Eagle Creek version is basically a soft microfleece upgrade on the scratchy cheap eye masks some airlines still hand out. Unlike an upgrade on a plane though, this one won’t cost you much: it retails for a mere 10 bucks. It comes in gray or blue and weighs less than an ounce.
In another improvement on the scratchy kind, this eye mask is molded to block out more light around your eyes and it has a thick adjustable elastic strap instead of some flimsy thin strap that won’t hold up to multiple uses.
Let’s imagine though that Business Class is just not good enough and you want to upgrade further. Well there’s a Comfort Plus Eye Shade that is a little softer and more feminine, with a quilted fabric and Primaloft filling on the inside. It wouldn’t look good on me, but if this look and cooler surface appeals to you more, it’s $15.
Like most Eagle Creek products, both versions are widely available and easy to find. I even saw the first version in the Santiago, Chile airport as I was browsing the shops before heading home. (There it was $12, in case you were wondering…) You can buy the Comfort Eye Shade or Comfort Plus at many travel retail stores or online at just about any of the travel gear outlets. Follow the link of your choice below if you want to snooze better on your next flight, overnight bus trip, or long train ride.
Comfort Eye Shade at REI, at Campmor, or Amazon
Comfort Plus Eye Shade at Backcountry or Magellan’s Travel Supplies.
Posted by Tim in Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on August 25th, 2010
Citronella Wilderness Wash from Sea to Summit
We love to review double-duty travel gear here on Practical Travel Gear, especially when it’s cheap and light as well. So how about hand-washing laundry detergent than also helps keep the bugs away?
That’s the idea behind Sea to Summit’s Citronella Wilderness Wash. You squirt some of this in the sink and wash your sweaty clothes. Then instead of your shirts smelling like flowers or perfume (which insects and bees will just love), you smell like citronella—a scent that the critters hate—and sandalwood.
Even better, this concentrated washing liquid comes in two sizes that are easy to carry on and airplane. The 1.3-ounce one goes for $3.50 and the 3-ounce one is a buck more. (If you’re going on a long overland or camping trip, however, you can buy an 8-ounce version.)
I tried this citronella laundry soap out on two recent trips and it did the job as well as any other liquid detergent I would use. I kind of liked the smell too—it’s not overpowering. If I were in a sensitive area I would rather have this along than one with harsh chemicals: it’s biodegradable and paraben-free.
It lives up to the “super concentrated” label as well. I’ve done five hotel bathroom sink loads with the smallest size and still have nearly half of it left. Whether you’re hiking through the mountains or backpacking around the tropics, this bug-unfriendly washing liquid is easy to pack and well worth the minimal cost.
And hey, this is multi-use soap meant for camping, so in a pinch you can use it for dishes, your body, or your hair. Double duty indeed.
See more details at the Sea to Summit site and follow the link below to order it from REI.
Sea To Summit Citronella Wilderness Wash Soap – 1.3 fl. oz. at REI
Posted by Tim in General Gear, Travel Light on August 12th, 2010
Natural Outdoor Products From All Terrain
I had to wait until the heat of summer to try out an array of product samples I got earlier in the year from All Terrain. Most of what they produce is meant to protect you from two menaces: the sun and biting bugs. They do both in an all natural way though, with no DEET in the insect repellent and no wide array of tough-to-pronounce chemicals in the sunscreen.
Some of these products I liked more than others. If the stuff works as well as its chemical counterpart—or close at least—then naturally I’d rather go natural. When there are performance issues, however, using the natural variation is more of a moral or health choice than anything.
Lip Armour Balm – This lip balm was my favorite of the bunch, and a bargain at a list price of $2.59. In this case the product feels (and tastes) better on the lips than the usual petroleum-based alternatives. It’s made of Shea Butter, Vitamin E, hemp seed oil and All Terrain’s proprietary Z-Cote zinc oxide for SPF 25 sun blocking. Great stuff!
Herbal Armour Insect Repellent – My past experience with natural insect repellents has mostly been disappointing, with the results ranging from “not bad if you reapply every half hour” to “bugs thought I was breakfast.” This All Terrain version is the first one I’ve tried that I would consider a fairly good alternative to DEET. The company claims it stays 100% effective for two hours (and 95% for another hour) and while I didn’t scientifically test those claims, the 5-oils repellent didn’t require frequent reapplication to keep the mozzies at bay. Especially if you have kids or sensitive skin, Herbal Armour offers natural protection without a lot of trade-offs. At $7.99 for four ounces or $4.99 for a two-ounce travel size, this is a great value too.
Biodegradable Sunscreen -Unfortunately, it wasn’t a three out of three with the all natural products. “I absolutely hate this sunscreen” was my wife’s reaction after a couple of days using it at the beach and I had zebra stripes on my belly after not rubbing it in uniformly enough one day. I tried all three versions (Terra Sport, Aqua Sport, and Kid Sport) and the results were similar. All were tough to apply without a lot of elbow grease, streaky on the skin, and quick to leave white streaky stains on all three of our bathing suits. These problems aren’t unique to this company, but are issues that plague nearly every brand of natural sunscreen. Without all the binding agents and nanotech wonderstuffs you get with the more popular kinds, and with the tendency of any zinc oxide product to be less-than-transparent, natural sunscreens have a tough comparison battle with the chemical alternatives.
Having said all that, I would still use this in sensitive areas like Yucatan cenotes or when snorkeling around protected coral reefs. It’s worth it to put up with a little inconvenience to protect our planet mates. In a swimming pool though? Unless you have sensitive skin, bring on the Banana Boat.
See the full line of All Terrain Natural products and order direct.
All Terrain Herbal Armor Spray Insect Repellent at REI.
Kid’s Herbal Armour at Amazon
Related review:
Beyond Coastal Sun Care Products
Posted by Tim in Adventure Gear, Kids and Family, Travel Light on August 5th, 2010
Eagle Creek Multi-function Travel Clock
I’ve long been on a quest to find the perfect travel alarm clock. This Eagle Creek one is still not it, but it comes closer than most.
It seems like designing the perfect travel clock wouldn’t be all that hard: lightweight, small, inexpensive, quiet, dependable, stingy with batteries, and lighted.
It’s the combination of those last two that always seem to throw the designers and this Eagle Creek Multi-function clock fits the pattern. It hits most of the right notes, but doesn’t have a light, which left me, as the Jayhawks say, stumbling through the dark.
“But hey,” they would probably answer, “what were you expecting for $16.50?” (You’ll rarely find it discounted from that, so go with the best shipping option for the online retailers listed at the end of this review.) For that measly price you get an alarm clock with snooze, one-button displays of 16 time zones around the world, the date, calculator/currency exchange and—my favorite extra—a thermometer. (When your bedmate says she’s freezing, you can look up and see if she’s delusional.)
Getting the clock set up is not exactly Apple-intuitive: you’ll definitely need the instruction manual. And the manual is pretty useless when it comes to figuring out the currency conversion function. The battery is included though, so you can get going out of the box and after the initial set-up you can leave it alone until you change time zones. Then when you reset that time zone later, all the others adjust as well.
In normal display state, you see the date, time, and temperature, though oddly the time is displayed as 2-45 instead of 2:45, which still looks odd to me after weeks of use. As mentioned before though, there’s no light—not even one you can press in the middle of the night to see what time it is. So if you want to check the time, you need to take it with you to the bathroom or something.
But the lack of a light is likely because of using a watch battery to keep the weight and size down. The whole thing closes up, clam shell style, for traveling and is less than five inches long. It only weighs a few ounces and it comes with a lifetime warranty.
I’m still looking for that perfect travel alarm clock with all of the above plus a light and easy-to-deduce controls, but until I find it this will work. I just need to keep my Timex Indiglo watch next to it at night…
When I say this travel alarm clock is widely available, don’t take my word for it. Follow these links to shop for it at eBags, Buy.com, REI, or Amazon.
Posted by Tim in General Gear, Travel Light on July 21st, 2010
Camelbak’s Podium Chill Insulated Water Bottle
I have probably tried out a dozen different water bottles this year, but this Podium Chill one from Camelbak is my new favorite. (The Podium Ice model is newer and maybe better, but harder to find as of yet.) I can’t say it’s a 10 out of 10 when it comes to the marketing pitch of keeping the liquid inside cold for a long time, but if you consider that part gravy, this is a good all-around choice for staying hydrated on the move.
Camelbak knows plenty about hydration, with their bladder packs in use by triathaletes, mountaineers,the armed forces, and anyone else with no time to stop and pull out a container. For us less hard-core mortals, they make an extensive line of BPA-free water bottles. This newest one has pretty much everything I want:
- a wide mouth for use with a Steripen purifier
- a lock at the top that effectively keeps it from leaking
- a 21-ounce capacity in a standard shape
- a durable material that won’t scratch or dent
Sure, I like steel water bottles too, like the handy Vite Plus from Innate I reviewed before. But they get scratched up on a bicycle and they start dented up after two or three travel trips. Plus if you fill them with really cold water, they sweat with condensation. None of these things are deal-breakers—and they get positive points for being recyclable—but given a choice I’ll reach for the plastic before heading out the door.
The big marketing push for this particular Camelback bottle is that it will keep your cold drink cold longer. In this case, “longer” is a vague and relative term. The marketing materials say “Keeps beverages cool for hours,” but that claim didn’t hold up in my tests. I found that even when I filled the bottle with ice and topped it off with water, it seldom took much longer than an hour to reach room temperature. The only time I came anywhere close to two hours was when I was in a frigid movie theater. More like 30 minutes in the Florida sun. If you really want real insulation that will last for hours, you need some kind of vacuum bottle, not just this extra layer of plastic.
There’s a newer Podium Ice version that says, “keeps water cool 4 times longer than standard bike bottles,” and that’s probably closer to reality. Let’s say it take 20 minutes on a sunny ride to reach room temperature with a regular plastic water bottle. This one, with “Zeroloft insulation,” would then take 80 minutes, which sounds about right.
Better than a regular bottle though, at roughly the same price—$12-$14 for the older Chill model, around $20 for the newer Ice one. The real benefit of the extra layer, however, is it cuts down on condensation. So even loaded up with ice, it won’t sweat in your hand (or in your water bottle caddy) on a hot and humid day. Plus the valve on this Camelbak bottle is reason enough to buy it: it truly shuts off completely with a twist, then two other settings allow sipping or gulping.
Overall, this is a water bottle I can heartily recommend for travel. I’ve been using it non-stop for weeks in traveling and on bike rides and it still looks new. See more at Camelbak.com and buy it at your local gear store or online here:
CamelBak Podium Chill Bottle at REI
Podium Ice water bottle at REI
Posted by Tim in Adventure Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on July 1st, 2010
