Solution to the pants problem?

I’m still looking for a really good pair of quick-dry pants for travel. Polyester and microfiber leave something to be desired - and often leave something to be smelled too. Orvis has new pants in a nylon canvas fabric that might be the answer. I’m beginning to think that tropical-weight wool pants, which can be worn a few times at least without getting funky, are the best three-season solution. Just hang up and air out the wool slacks and they’re usually good for another day.

 

Coolmax jeans from TravelSmith are interesting as well. Anybody worn ‘em? 

 

 

Update on March 26, 2008 by Frank@OBOW

OBOW reader Sam (see comment below) gives a strong recommendation for the REI Adventures Pants. They look good to me. Unlike a lot people I can’t bear the zip-off leg, heavy cargo look. I’m too old I guess…

Flckr lightweight travel photo group

From our OBOW Light Travel Forum- there’s Flickr group where light travelers display the contents of their bags Thanks to Kit for the post

Patagonia changes, stays legal

It looks like Patagonia has discontinued the One Bag undersized overnighter/laptop bag. Not to worry, the Tom Bihn Western Flyer is a very similar product and is probably even more versatile. Patagonia has updated their larger MLC® (Maxiumum Legal Carryon). It’s worth a look. 

 

Update on March 25, 2008 by Frank@OBOW

Someone has rightly pointed out that the Patagonia One Bag has been replaced by the Lightwire Brief, a very similar concept to the Tom Bihn Western Flyer - though more briefcase than suitcase.

 

Start your own thread

Today we enabled a forum feature that allows OBOW readers to make posts and respond in a forum format. Click on OBOW Light Travel Forum on the right side column just above the search field. Please limit yourselves to to topics generally covered by this blog. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll try to link to particularly interesting threads from the main page,

Garment bag help

OBOW has a reader in need of a carry-on garment bag recommendations. I used to travel almost exclusively with a garment bag but it has been years since I’ve used one. Can anyone recommend a good one? I like the looks of the Victorinox Travel Luggage Porter Garment Bag - Tri-Fold. (Siera Trading Post has it for under $90 at the moment) 

 

Below is another interesting one from US company SkyRoll, I’ll be reviewing one of these in the next month. The divas at divainacarryon like the rolling version; I’ll be testing the shoulder model.

 

 

The (unscientific) results are in...

Our “whaddaya carry” poll results are in: OBOW readers heavily prefer convertible backpack/shoulder bags and traditional shoulder bags to other types of luggage. As of today with 124 respondents, 47% go convertible, 29% shoulder their load,  and 17% roll. Duffel bags and  straight backpacks brought up the rear. I’m a little surprised rolling cases were not more popular. There’s a certain bias against them among the light travel crowd, but it’s not entirely deserved. They don’t work best for my type of travel, but it would be silly to say no intelligent traveler should use them.

 Our new poll asks “What brand of carry-on luggage do you use?” You may vote for multiple brands, but - unlike our first poll - you may only vote once. Not everyone’s brand will be found among the 19 choices so just vote OTHER if yours isn’t there…

Aeronaut-Western Flyer size comparison

Here’s a look at the relative sizes of Tom Bihn’s two carryons: the Aeronaut (gray )and Western Flyer (red). Both are shown fully packed (the Aeronaut weighs 18 pounds and the Flyer weighs 15 including a Brain Cell sleeve containing a  13” Macbook). I’ll append these photos to the Western Flyer review as well. Click on the image below for a four-image gallery of full-size images.

 

 

Shoeless, beltless shuffle

Peter Hitchens is my favorite reactionary. And he travels in the good old USA now and again - and reacts:

“One of these days I will turn up for a flight clad only in my swimming trunks, having sent all my possessions on ahead.

I can think of no other way of speeding up the ridiculous, humiliating procedure we endure at airports. But would I be arrested for making fun of the War on Terror?

Every time I fly, I am compelled to take more and more of my clothes off – first the jacket, then the belt, then the shoes, next, no doubt, the shirt, before long, I expect, the trousers.

Why not the lot? I believe they have a machine at Heathrow that allows “security” staff to see through your clothes.

You cannot even complain. At the humorously named George Bush Airport in Houston, Texas, last week, I was hectored – as I shuffled, shoeless and beltless, towards a metal detector – by loudspeaker announcements warning me that I could be arrested for making jokes about security.” - The Daily Mail

TSA: Calling all bag designers

TSA approved, no-open laptop bag? From the TSA website:

Air travelers who fly with their laptops in tow are hoping TSA’s latest appeal to private sector innovators will mean one less thing they have to remember to do at airport security checkpoints. TSA has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to bag designers and manufacturers to develop a unique laptop carrying case that will allow travelers to keep their PCs in their bags during screening.

TSA provided vendors with some design requirements, noting the materials that make up the bag cannot degrade the quality of the X-ray image of the laptop and interested companies have until mid-April to submit their best concepts. Those companies selected by TSA will have until the end of May to submit prototype laptop cases that TSA can run through the screening process to see if the images meet security requirements.

The goal of this “TSA recognized” laptop bag would be to enhance the security process by eliminating one screening requirement at the checkpoint, thereby lowering travelers’ stress levels and reducing the number of claims for lost or damaged laptops. TSA administrator Kip Hawley commented, “This is yet another example of TSA partnering with the private sector to find innovative ways to simplify things for air travelers. It also speaks to Secretary Chertoff’s desire to evaluate the screening system and make some changes that will decrease some of the burden without compromising security.”

We’ll keep our eyes on this one. More to come… 

ALSO on the TSA/laptop front - a post on the TSA blog about traveling with the new MacBook Air. 

Maybe they should photograph your luggage too

Heathrow’s mew Terminal 5 brings with it an onerous new security regimen:

“For the first time at any airport, the biometric checks will apply to all domestic passengers leaving the terminal, which will handle all British Airways flights to and from Heathrow. 

The controversial security measure is also set to be introduced at Gatwick, Manchester and Heathrow’s Terminal 1, and many airline industry insiders believe fingerprinting could become universal at all UK airports within a few years.

All four million domestic passengers who will pass through Terminal 5 annually after it opens on March 27 will have four fingerprints taken, as well as being photographed, when they check in.

To ensure the passenger boarding the aircraft is the same person, the fingerprinting process will be repeated just before they board the aircraft and the photograph will be compared with their face.”

— from the Telegraph of London

Maybe they should photograph your checked luggage as well, since - with British Airways (the exclusive user of Terminal 5) - you’ll often never see it again. Their unoffical slogan is “Fly the Flag, lose the bag!“ 

The clones are coming - be patient

Clones and upgrdes of the tiny two-pound $400 EEE PC notebook computer are coming fast and furious. My advice: wait. Some of the newbies on the horizon will have screens larger that the EEE’s 7-incher and more flash memory. By this fall there ought to be several tantalizing choices for the light traveler who wants to carry a computer and hardly know it’s there.

And, late news: the 8.9”-screen EEE is coming! 

New poll feature added

OBOW now has reader polls. Vote in the panel on the right-hand column on the question: What type of carry-on luggage do you use?

Readers respond: How light can you go?

Are you really a light traveler, or - should I ask - are you a really light traveler? Tell us how light you can go for a trip of four nights or more. I’ll go first: just over 10 pounds (including day bag/personal item) for five nights, trans-Atlantic to Europe.  And this summer I did sub 15 pounds for 11 days in England and Scotland - including day bag/personal item. I don’t know if I’ll ever beat Tim Ferriss’s 10-pound kit which includes a computer. I’ve resolved not to buy another laptop until I can afford a featherweight (three pounds our less).

 

How to weigh? Well, you can step on the bathroom scales with and without your bag. Even better is a luggage scale (above). Mine came from Target. It actually has a tape measure built in.

Cheapskate or economic opportunist?

Not all light travelers are cheapskates, but anyone who would consider washing underwear in a hotel sink is suspect in all categories. Mea (ahem) culpa. Here’s a pence-pinching Brit’s recipe (many have to do with food) for stretching pound notes and dollar bills on the road - found in the Times of London. A few of my favorites:

• 1 SMUGGLE DRINKS AND SNACKS - It is quite astonishing what hotels have the nerve to charge for a bog-standard drink or a packet of non-fancy crisps (ed. - potato chips) or plain old water.

• 3 NICK LUNCH FROM THE BREAKFAST BUFFET -This is quite low-rent, but what do they expect if they put out lunch-based items (cheese, ham, steak, champagne) at breakfast? I make the sandwiches and bag them long before I’ve finished breakfast.
  

• 8 MAKE THE MOST OF MONDAY- Museums, galleries and exhibitions the world over offer free admission on Mondays to let the impoverished locals have a squizz. How very civic. But scrimpers are impoverished too after refusing to take advantage of a 1p flight. Do wandering around, beach, eating – whatever it is you get up to – over the weekend and squeeze all the free stuff in on Monday

Actually, in most of the places I stay there’s no shame in carrying in food. For the UK I can suggest a cheap lunch which is available in most areas: the delightful Cornish pasty. At t£1.50 - £3 each they make a tremendous lunch. Pub lunches can be a great value too. The Ploughman’s lunch is filling and wholesome - had one of those at the historic Eagle & Child in Oxford.

In west London the lovely Churchill Arms pub is not to be missed. It contains a fantastic Thai restaraunt with a variety of £6 curry plates - a bargain for London. It has an amazing collection of chamber pots hanging from the rafters, and the exterior of this corner building is usually covered with hanging flower baskets.

 

Overweight undershirts

I just picked up a six-pack of premium 100% cotton undershirts for everyday wear and was struck by how heavy they were. The six of them weighted two pounds. No wonder I carry only two or three poly/nylon quick-dry undershirts when I travel. Two pounds would amount to about one-fifth of my normal load for a trip of up to 10 days.  Two synthetic shirts (which can be laundered in the sink every night or so) weigh eight ounces or less. It’s not just pants and shirts - which you can often wear two or more times without washing - that weigh a suitcase down. Carrying a daily change of cotton underclothing may make you fill good all under but may be hard on your back or shoulder. Think synthetic. But be choosy: the worst of the poly/nylon undies can be brutally uncomfortable. The good ones are a delight.

How to fly

For those of us with short memories the NYT travel blog has produced a user’s manual for the modern airline seat. An excerpt: 

Ahead of you is the marsupial-like SEAT BACK POUCH. In it you will find a magazine featuring ads for foreign language software favored by farm boys hoping to impress hot Italian models; an emergency evacuation card depicting families who seem disturbingly calm for people about to abandon a sinking airliner for a shark-filled ocean; stray bits of Life Saver foil; and a boarding pass stub from someone named Richard from Ohio.

Also, you will find the SKYMALL CATALOG, from which you may order a product called “Poop Freeze,” described as a spray refrigerant that “chills animal waste to -62°F, creating an outer ‘crust’ that enables you to quickly place in a bag and dispose.” Feel free to spend the remainder of the flight trying to process this information.

The Eee PC has more competition

The Cloudbook - another two-pound notebook - is here. The options for light travelers who want to stay connected - and still keep the luggage under 20 pounds - are increasing.

From Laptop magazine:

Weighing in at just 2 pounds, the CloudBook certainly lives up to its near-weightless name. It features a VIA C7-M ultra-low voltage (ULV) CPU clocked at 1.2GHz, which helps achieve its 5 hour battery life on a 4-cell battery. By way of comparison, the Asus EeePC has a 900MHz Intel Celeron processor.

Everex’s CloudBook features the same 7 inch 800×480 resolution screen as the Eee PC, similar built-in speakers, and 802.11b/g that the Asus Eee PC 701 has, but instead of packing in a measly 4GB SSD, Everex has opted for a full-blown 30GB hard drive…

Reader review:Tiny Asus Eee PC

OBOW reader Eric has reviewed the tiny (8.9 x 6.5 x 1.4”), two-pound Eee PC computer - a real traveler’s temptation for only $400:

I purchased an Eee PC a few weeks ago when my Dell 15” laptop died. I didn’t expect it to be much more than an internet device. Boy, was I wrong. It’s quite a full-featured laptop, capable of surfing the internet, working on documents and spreadsheets, playing music, looking at photos, and watching movies. There are plenty of reviews of the Eee posted online, so I won’t include too many details about the hardware or software. This review is more about using the device for travel.

It’s so small it will fit into the end pocket of my Tom Bihn Aeronaut. The charger is also small, about the same size as most cell phone chargers, and has a 10-foot cord! The laptop, charger, a wireless mouse, and a usb cable for my phone all fit into the end pocket with plenty of room to spare. This is only one benefit of the small, light form factor. While the keyboard is pretty cramped, the small size makes working in an airline seat much more comfortable (especially when the guy in front of you leans back).

Battery life is about 3.5 hours. Could definitely be better, but Asus now offers replacement batteries so I could pick up a second one if needed.

There are a few caveats. It runs Linux, so there is a learning curve if you want to do anything other than work with the applications provided out of the box. Movies have to be formatted for a smaller screen (I use tools to format for an iPod, then load them onto the Eee.) It doesn’t have an optical drive, but one could be connected by USB if you were so inclined. There is no hard disk, only a 4GB SSD (solid state drive). The operating system takes up about 2.5GB, but there is an SD slot, so I’ve got an SD card plugged in which acts as a second hard disk. I keep movies, music, and documents on the SD card.

The Eee has 802.11b/g built in, and I’ve only had a few problems connecting. Most of the time it connects without a hitch. It does not have Bluetooth. I’ve been able to use a USB cable and my phone as a modem, so I can connect to the internet anywhere I have cell phone service. Nice!

Ed.: Here’s Laptop magazine’s take on the Eee. OBOW welcomes reader reviews and comments on luggage, clothing, and travel technology. Use the E-MAIL OBOW link on the right sidebar for submissions. Thanks Eric, and happy traveling!

Pack like a pro

A London Times travel writer learns packing tricks from a persnickety, dapper professional concierge in this online video and story. An excerpt from Times travel writer Ginny McGrath:

For someone who considers themselves a master in the art of travelling light, I was surprised to learn some canny new tricks from Fraser: a belt wrapped around the inside of a suitcase instead of being rolled into a coil will protect the clothes inside and save the belt from creasing.

Likewise, a folded shirt can be rolled at the bottom, where it is tucked into trousers and wrinkles aren’t seen, but should be folded on top to avoid creasing. The other tip I’ll take home is to leave shoes and other bulky items at the bottom of the case at the wheel-end. Fraser explained that this stops these items sliding down and crushing clothes when you tip a wheelie bag upright.

 For the greatest possible contrast with this proper English gent, check out light travel, Tim Ferris style. This post has a video as well. The difference is like, well, Brideshead Revisited vs. Monty Python….

Gadling.com has its own piece on travelin’ Tim. 

United charges for second checked bag

According to USA Today United Airlines is now charging $25 for a second checked bag. The article offers this suggestion for skirting the fee:

…packing more in one bag without exceeding the 50-pound weight limit, packing more carry-on luggage, having a fellow traveler check the second bag (this would violate airport security rules), or bringing a bag that exceeds carry-on limits to the gate and checking it there.

Unfortunately, “packing more carry-on luggage” means more people bringing more overweight, oversized carryons which - if you’re lucky - won’t fall out of the overhead compartment and kill you.