Practical Travel Gear is a blog about travel clothing, gadgets, and other items to use when you hit the road. We write about things we like and sometimes we trash things we don’t like. Overall we are trying to answer these questions:
1) Does this thing do what it’s supposed to?
2) Is it practical and worth packing?
3) Is it worth the money?
Some of the items we review we have had in our possession for years. Some we have recently bought at retail. Others we have received for free from manufacturers who are trying to get the word out through online media. Since we are the top blog on the web for travel gear, we say no to as many items as we accept for review.
Occasionally we get these items as a loaner. Sometimes we give them away as prizes here or on other blogs we write for. Usually we keep them and keep using them, writing about them multiple times if we become fans. If we don’t say we bought it, assume the product came to us via one of these arrangements. This is common practice in print, on TV, and online: if we had to purchase every item we reviewed, we would only be able to cover a fraction of the items we try out.
Links in our reviews will usually go to the manufacturer’s site and at least one online site where you can buy it if you want. In many cases we will make a small commission if you purchase a product through that link—any product. So whether you buy what we review or some alternate product doesn’t matter to us and you will pay the same price as you would have if you had just entered that site’s URL into your browser without us. Banner ads on Practical Travel Gear are a mix of direct placements and affiliate banners.
We put our gear to the test in the real world
Regardless of the method of product acquisition, we promise to always tell it like it is, giving you the pros and cons of each item. If a gadget doesn’t work right or is a pain to use, we’ll say so, even if it does result in nasty e-mails from a PR person. If we think a piece of luggage works well but is way overpriced compared to its peers, we’ll tell you that too. If we love something and can’t stop raving about it, it’ll be because it’s worth your hard-earned money, not just because it landed on our doorstep one day as a sample. (And in general we only agree to review items we think you the reader will be interested in.)
We hope this honesty shines through without us labeling every affiliate link, acquisition source, and history of ad relationship. If you are annoyed that we don’t disclose how we attained every single item in every single post, we assume you’ll go elsewhere. Fair enough. It’s a free blogosphere. But I’m guessing most readers can tell that we’re authentic and will trust us. We hope you’re one of them.
For the record though, we do not accept any paid posts, commercial guest posts, paid in-content links, or other deceptive practices.
You can always reach any of the contributors via the “about us” page for comments or questions.