Posts Tagged travel underwear
Smartwool Microweight Underwear
Merino (my wooly fiber of choice, as you may know by now) gets shoehorned over into the cold weather clothing cubby, and really, it makes sense. Stylish sweaters, soft long underwear and hoodies, it’s the kind of stuff that makes up good winter base and mid-layers. But Smartwool makes what they call a “microweight” layer, too, and believe it or not, it works well in hot weather, too. I know — I wore this stuff for a long sweaty day in 94F weather.
First, I really like the material. It’s soft, and no, for the 1000th time, it’s not itchy even though it is, indeed, wool. Smartwool’s “intimates” line is made of their 150 weight merino, which simply means it’s their finest, lightest fiber. It launders up nicely, getting softer each time I put them in the wash and while I prefer not to dry my woolens, the underwear made it through the dryer without shrinking.
Next up, the fit. Smartwool’s clothing seems true to size, meaning they fit exactly as I expect they would. The underwear stays put, no awkward climbing (a-hem). The adjustable straps on the camisole don’t slip. It’s all really comfortable, no itchy plastic-y stitching next to your skin, no bunchy seams, no weird lines wrecking your svelte (okay, or not so svelte if you’re me) profile.
As for wearing super light wool in next to the skin on a 94F day? I’m sold! Sure, things got a bit sweaty. But the clothing didn’t stick to my skin, develop that weird sweat plus artificial ingredients smell, and it dried quickly.
I tried the camisole and the underwear but Smartwool’s microweight line comes in a bunch of cuts and colors, for both men and women. As usual, Smartwool’s products aren’t cheap — the camisole is $45 and the boyshort/hipster underwear are $40. If you’re used to buying expensive underwear, this won’t surprise you, but it is a pretty steep price for a person who’s used to paying department store prices on three packs of boyshorts from Hanes. (And now you know more about my underwear than you ever needed to know. Apologies.).
That said, if you don’t mind paying the price, I can tell you that I have Smartwool in my travel and outdoors wardrobe that’s easily 15 years old and still performs very well. It’s tough stuff, it feels great next to your skin, and it lasts. That makes for great travel gear, even in the blazing heat.
Want your own microweight Smartwool underwear? Sometimes, you can find it for a bit less than Smartwool’s full retail price on Amazon.
Need more merino wool? We’ve reviewed a whole variety of stuff. Start here.
Posted by Pam in Adventure Gear, Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on September 16th, 2011
Five Things I Always Pack — Mike Barish
Mike Barish is a freelance travel writer and regular contributor to Gadling. He is a universally respected expert in the SkyMall catalog whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Budget Travel, World Hum and Intelligent Travel. He was also the host of Chevrolet’s Travel Cruze-arati web series. You can always see what Mike’s up to on his own site and on Twitter. Mike is based in New York City where he lives with his fiancée and their two dogs.
1. Merino Wool Underwear
Between sitting on planes for hours, going on hikes and layering various types of clothing to keep the elements at bay, my special areas can get a tad warm. My absolute favorite items for travel are Icebreaker’s Beast 150 Boxer Briefs with Fly. They’re breathable, don’t absorb odor and are phenomenally comfortable. I’m able to pack fewer pairs of underwear because I can wear these several times before they need to be washed and, if I do wash them on the road, they dry quickly. Speaking of which…
2. Liquid Soap
I refuse to spend time at laundromats while traveling. That just seems like lost time. Instead, I wash clothing in the sink at my hotel or, more often than not, the apartment that I’ve rented. Most of the clothing that I pack dries quickly, so sink washing and hang drying is my best strategy for keeping fresh and not wasting time. Dr. Bronner’s Baby Mild Liquid Soap isn’t too abrasive, can be used on clothing as well as body and, most importantly, is unscented.
3. Extra Batteries
Maybe I’m a jerk, but I always giggle when I hear someone moan, “Oh, crap, my camera battery is dead,” while I’m traveling. Whether you’re on a family vacation or searching for Dr. Livingstone, you know you’re going to be taking plenty of pictures. Don’t let an easily remedied issue keep you from capturing your memories. I shoot with a Canon PowerShot S95 and love my off-brand spare battery that actually lasts longer than Canon’s stock battery.
4. Collapsible Backpack
The quickest way to lose or forget your belongings while traveling is to frequently unpack and repack your bags. That’s why the bag that I use on the plane for my headphones, iPad, passport, etc never goes out with me on day trips. Instead, I bring a second, easy-to-pack backpack with me. My favorite is the Patagonia Lightweight Travel Pack. It’s a tad pricey, but it’s far more durable than other travel packs out there, has a few easy to access pockets and packs down to a fantastically convenient size.
5. Baby Powder
I’ll end the same way I started, by discussing my crotch. Whether I’m going someplace hot and humid or ice cold, I always bring some baby powder with me. If you’ve ever gotten a heat rash or – and let’s all behave ourselves now – crotch rot, you know how uncomfortable and trip-ruining it is. Rather than overpay for expensive talcum powders that often come in large bottles, I opt for a simple travel-sized bottle of Johnson’s baby powder or a store brand if they have one.
Curious about what other travelers have on their “Five Things” list? The entire series is here.
Posted by Pam in General Gear, Travel Light on July 1st, 2011
Hi-tech (but soft) Underwear from Polarmax
Kara and I have raved before on here about travel underwear from ExOfficio and Tilley, but Polarmax wants to get into the game with something made from cotton.
This is not your department store cotton underwear though, it’s “TransDry cotton” that is supposed to breathe and wick away moisture. “Wicking cotton?” Yes, it sounds like an oxymoron, but the short version of the story is that the fibers are treated so they’ll take on more characteristics of synthetics, but still feel a whole lot softer against your skin.
These AYG Boxer Briefs (from the All Year Gear collection) do indeed feel great. As soft and comfy as any other cotton underwear I’ve worn. I don’t have a lab to run any wicking tests on them, but they do seem to stay dry better than Hanes and the like and they’re treated with Acclimate Fresh technology that makes them anti-microbial.
Alas, cotton is still cotton when it comes to sink washing on the road. When I washed these, a pair of ExOfficio underwear, and a pair of regular cotton underwear about the same size, these dried faster than the regular ones, but not by much. They took an hour longer in the outside breeze than the synthetic ones, so figure two hours more than synthetics (at least) indoors.
Still, you can wear these longer than regular cotton before you need to wash them, they dry a bit more quickly, and they’re comfy. (There’s 4% spandex to make them a little stretchy too.) So I’ll be packing them for many trips, especially when I’ve got some others to sink wash in a pinch. For men they come in the boxer brief style pictured at the top, a shorter sports brief, and regular boxers. They make styles for women too: see the whole AYG TransDRY cotton collection here.
The best bets for finding Polarmax boxers is to order from Amazon or hunt around at the sites on this dealer locator.
Posted by Tim L. in General Gear on June 8th, 2011
5 Things I Always Pack: Pam Mandel
Pam Mandel is a freelance writer stricken with wanderlust and a bizarre affection for the ukulele. She’s written stories for World Hum, National Geographic’s Intelligent Traveler, MSN, WGBH Boston (an NPR affiliate), Perceptive Travel, and lots of online travel publications. She’s a recovering guidebook author (British Columbia and Hawaii for Thomas Cook). Next up on her travels is Antarctica, as a blogger for TravelWild.
The really cool part? She’s about to start regularly blogging for us here at Practical Travel Gear. We had her give us our picks before that went down though, so here’s what she packs for her worldwide adventures:
1. Noise-canceling headphones
Good news, everyone! The price on these things has come way down since that fancy brand hit the market with their luxury headphones. I’ve got a pair from Able Planet, and while I’ve never compared them with the pricier brands, I can tell you my set really does cut down on noise, big time. They’re on the must have list for long-haul flights; I rarely travel without them. Bonus? They come in plaid.
2. Pashmina shawl
I am not a fancy person, not by a long shot. But that does not mean I can’t appreciate a soft, cuddly, and elegant even, wrap. I have a few of these, they take up almost no space in my luggage. I use them for extra warmth on the plane, as an evening wrap in the tropics, wrapped around my head when I’m somewhere windy and feeling a little bit wacky… they’re versatile and not as expensive as you’d think.
3. Pepto Bismol
Oh so unglamorous. But what’s worse than having to sit through a long bus trip or flight when you need to leg it for the loo every 23 minutes? It’s also good for settling general travel nausea, and hey, it’s pink and comes in TSA-friendly chewable tablets.
4. Merino wool long underwear
Lightweight, warm, washable, not too heavy if the weather goes sunny on you… I don’t leave home without it. I wear the bottoms as leggings under a skirt sometimes, or the whole set as jammies. I pack ‘em even for the tropics, you never know when it’s going to get chilly — sometimes I just wear them as a base layer on a long flight — planes are often too cold. Lots of folks make them, SmartWool (pictured at right) and Ibex are my favorites.
5. A plastic bag
Yeah, yeah, I know, plastic is evil, use something recyclable. Thing is, sometimes there are dirty shoes or a wet swimsuit or a leaky bottle of sunscreen or who knows what oddball item you have to wrap up and keep isolated from the other stuff in your bag? If it’s any consolation, I have started to throw in a reusable shopping bag too. Confession: Sometimes I poach the laundry bags from hotel closets because they’re slightly heavier weight and have those drawstring closures on them.
Pam blogs about Hawaii at Holoholo Wale and Nerd’s Eye View. If asked to list a sixth item, she’d have included her ukulele.
Posted by Kara in General Gear on January 25th, 2011
Travel Underwear by Tilley
The challenge: Pack only two pairs of Tilley “fast drying, sweat defying” underwear on my week-long road trip from Colorado to California. The reasoning: The undies are made with 100% polyester CoolMax Extreme Mesh fabric, so I could wash them by hand in hotel sinks (or my mom’s bathroom), and they’d dry by morning. My goal: Take this test so that PracticalTravelGear.com readers would know if they could do the same when packing light really matters (i.e. when you’re on an extended backpacking trip or you only want to pack a carry-on bag for your next plane flight, not when you’re driving a mini-van that could actually transport two dozen pair of underwear).
I’m not one to typically buy underwear for its quick-dry qualities, but I sure found the Tilley CoolMax Extreme Women’s Briefs ($22) fit the bill here. On our trip, I was able to wash my underwear by hand at night, wring it thoroughly, towel it dry twice (per instructions), hang to dry in a well-ventilated place, and it was dry by morning. I almost made it through the entire nine days of our trip on one pair of black and one pair of white Tilley briefs … if only I hadn’t forgotten to do my hand-washing one night. Since both were dirty the next day (hey, it’s not part of my nightly routine; mea culpa), I had to pull out my back-up pair of Hanes.
I am very impressed with how comfortable and light the underwear are. The weather was cool in California over Christmas, so I couldn’t fully test its moisture-wicking capability on our hikes in Joshua Tree National Park (I just didn’t sweat that much), but I sure intend to wear the underwear this summer when I’m hiking in the mountains here at home.
My husband was given a pair of Tilley CoolMax Travel Boxers ($22) to test on our trip as well. He could not speak more highly of how comfortable they are. To wit: He said he was more comfortable driving our 10-hour day in his Tilley CoolMax boxers than driving for just 4 hours in his Gap cotton ones. He says they are the most comfortable underwear he owns.
Testing Tilley Underwear in Jamaica
I wanted to test the quick-dry theory on our trip to Jamaica last week, so I packed my Tilley briefs again. I figured that doing the overnight-dry routine in arid Palm Springs would be quite different than in the humid tropics. Indeed, the quick-dry feature just didn’t work well in our hotel room in Jamaica. It might be that my husband and I abhor air-conditioning, and I dislike ceiling fans, so we actually slept in a room with no air circulating (really, it was better than it sounds), and whenever we were in the room, we had the sliding doors open, so the humid breeze blew in. All of these factors added up to my underwear not drying overnight, unfortunately.
But, to be fair, neither pair of my Hanes underwear dried overnight either (yes, at one point, I had four pairs of wet underwear hanging in various places in my hotel room … the housekeeping staff must have thought I was nuts). In fact, all of my clothing ended up slightly damp by the time this trip was over, as is typical when I travel to tropical locales; it was downright musty when I unpacked it all in Colorado, and had to rewash everything.
Testing Tilley in Colorado
I wanted my Tilley underwear experience to end on a high note, so just last night, I hand-washed a clean pair and hung them to dry on the doorknob of my bedroom. I went to bed at 11 p.m., and by 7 a.m., they were perfectly dry.
So, what did I learn from this experience?
- I’ll do just about anything in the name of research for this blog.
- I highly recommend Tilley underwear for frequent travelers, with the caveat that it may not wick and dry as well in humid climates as it does in arid ones.
- I know what I’m getting my husband for his birthday.
Tilley manufacturers all sorts of other travel clothing, including its awesome lifetime-guaranteed hats. I wore a pair of “Unholey”quick-drying travel socks ($16) on my two most recent trips; similarly, they dried no problem overnight in desert California, and took longer to dry in Jamaica. They are super comfortable, mid-calf socks with ribbed arch support and a “moisture escape panel for breathability.” They really resist odor, too. The Tilley CoolMax Extreme Women’s Briefs have matching black or white Extreme Tanks ($26), made from the same moisture-wicking fabric. These, too, are very comfy, and great for layering for active outdoor pursuits in cold weather.
Yes, Tilley costs more than the underwear you might find at your local Gap, Jockey or Hanes outlet. But because Tilley underwear is built to last with material that will keep its shape much longer than traditional cotton underwear, I look forward to wearing my Tilley travel undergarments for years to come.
To purchase — and browse more Tilley offerings — visit the Tilley Endurables website.
Related post: Travel underwear by ExOfficio.
Posted by Kara in Travel Light on January 21st, 2010
