Archive for the 'TRAVEL ESSENTIALS' Category

Are you going on a business trip? Follow these tips to pack your luggage smartly and ensure you look professional.

Packing tips for business travel:

Choosing luggage bag:

• Choose a luggage bag and briefcase that looks professional.
• Select a suitcase that contains extendable handles.
• Choose firm bags, preferably with wheels, which are easy to carry and ensure your luggage is neatly packed.

Dresses and Accessories:

• List the items you want to pack. Pack travel essentials like business suits, causal wear and underwear.
• Roll up t-shirts, skirts and ties. Start from the bottom end of the shirt and roll it tightly, leaving the collar unfolded.
• Roll up jeans by keeping their legs symmetrical.
• Stuff socks into shoes to save space.
• Choose ties in dark colors to match all suits. Choose natural fabrics like cotton, wool and silk.
• If you’re female, take simple metal jewelry for light elegance.
• Choose neutral colors for mixing and matching instead.
• Pack a warm jacket. Carry watertight plastic covers if you ought to land up with wet clothes.
• Pack underwear for each travel day and an extra pair in your handbag.

Toiletries:

Are you going for a long holiday? Did you complete packing things for holiday? For short trips, packing is not at all a difficult task.

But, if you are going for long holiday, packing your most essential things can be very tough job for you.

You can miss many of your essential things while packing for long trips. Consequently, you will face lot of problems in your traveling.

If you are confused where to start, what to keep and how to organize things for your packing, here are few useful packing tips for your long trips.

Smart Packing Tips For Long Trips!

First of all, list out essential things!

Prepare a check list [Travel checklist] of all your essentials for your holiday.

This can help you to remember every thing that you need for your holiday. Keep this list along with you during your journey, so that you can use it while repacking your things at your travel destination.

Heed the comfort factor!

It is not necessary to mention that you should never leave on long journey without comfortable clothes or shoes. Don’t immediately run out to buy a new wardrobe for your trip.

Are you planning to travel with newborn? Traveling with children is an overwhelming experience and traveling with new born is really a challenge.

Try to avoid the trip with the newborn babies, as it is very risky traveling with new born. If the trip is compulsory, then try to make some arrangements for making it as an easy task.

The newborns are very sensitive and are prone to many diseases. If proper care and arrangements are not made for the baby, then you are the one who is responsible for diseases and infections which newborns face.

Many baby experts suggest that traveling with a baby less than 3 months age is very risky for the baby’s health. So, make sure that your baby age is more than 3 months for healthy traveling. As you have decided to plan a trip with your newborn, follow some basic rules for making the trip successful and pleasing for you and your baby too.

Tips to travel with newborn:

• The first basic tip to follow while traveling with the baby is to stay alert and conscious always about the surroundings. Make sure that the place where your baby resides is the safest place you can provide to the baby. Safe places can avoid unnecessary accidents to happen.

Knomo bag:

First look: “Beautiful handbag,” remarked a flight attendant as I stored the Knomo bag in the overhead compartment above my seat. “Thanks,” I answered, “but it’s not a handbag. It’s a laptop bag.” The canvas and leather bag — the one I carried was chocolate and tan — fits most 15-inch laptops, is lightweight (2.43 pounds) and lightly padded. Three internal compartments and a zippered back pocket help organize material. The bag has a two-year guarantee.

Likes and yikes: The beauty of the Knomo bag is that it can be used as either a smart-looking handbag or as an efficient laptop bag. It is roomy enough to store files, laptop paraphernalia, a cell phone and other travel necessities. But my favorite thing about it: The top is magnetized to close automatically.

Negatives: Because the padding inside isn’t very thick, a dropped bag could cause havoc with your laptop.

The 411: $295, available in four colors and fabrics. Call (800) 737-5160 or visit www.knomo.com. Also available at Benchley Luggage Ltd. in Newport Beach.

Packing the right gear can make a trip with your small child roll more smoothly.

Kelty Child Carrier:

The Kelty Child Carrier is a good piece of equipment to bring on hikes with a toddler. Price: $119 to $240 at Sport Chalet.

Gogo Kidz Travelmate:

For transporting older babies, a Gogo Kidz Travelmate comes in handy. It’s a car seat that turns into a stroller by pulling out a handle and wheels. Although it’s too low to the ground to act as a real stroller, it is great for airports. Price: $89 at www.gogobabyz.com.

Lighten up the next time you board a plane. Black or other dreary carry-on totes are as dated as the terminals at LAX. Each new fashion season brings a broader selection of colors, shapes and styles from the travel accessories industry.

The new crop of women’s bags, many designed by women, come in bright and light colors; some add fun illustrations, polka dots and other lively prints to the mix.

Six women from The Times’ staff teamed up to test some of the new models. Here’s what they thought.

SNAKE YOUR BOOTY:

First look: This roomy Perlina Studio bag will hold a newspaper, a magazine or two, a paperback book and a change of clothes or you can tuck a laptop inside (The bag is 15 inches wide by 16 inches deep and weighs 1 pound, 7 ounces).

The soft leather tote comes in snake prints, black, cashew, off-white and wine. There are five roomy organizer pockets and a small, removable zipper pouch. There are zippers and snaps on outside pockets and at the top of the bag.

Likes and yikes: The bag, especially in the eye-catching reptile prints, adds an attractive wardrobe element.

Dan Neil’s Utility Belt:

The electronic devices on Dan Neil’s utility belt aren’t there just to add color to his ensemble. On a recent solo jaunt through rugged Joshua Tree National Park, the Times writer carried 21st century communications devices as his safety net. They included a satellite phone, a GPS unit, a locator beacon and a solar charger for his iPod.

solar charger:

A solar charger is just the tool to energize an iPod, always useful for tuneful trudging in the desert. This one is from Solio.

Neil cites the Solio Portable Hybrid Solar Charger, weighing about 5 ounces and costing about $70. It stores a charge from a wall outlet or three-leaf photovoltaic panels, he adds.

Compass:

Do not assume you can find north on a cloudy day without instrumental assistance. Yes, moss does grow on the north side of a tree. But in the near-rain forests of the Cherokee, it also grows on the south side, and the east side, etc.

Look, you probably spent five or ten buck’s worth of gas getting to your hike. Don’t feel like you have to spend much more on a good compass. And invest ten minutes worth of your valuable time reading the material that came with it. It can be really amazing to learn how many people carry compasses and don’t know how to use them.

Maps:

Many areas are covered by guidebooks. At least carry one of those with you. Better yet, carry topographical maps. You say you don’t know how to read the maps? Learn. C’mon - it’s not that hard. Compare a topo map to a state highway map. It is really important that you have basic map reading skills.

Is there any good news for family fliers? Yes, but this isn’t it. American Airlines will charge $15 each way for the first checked bag and $25 each way for the second checked bag, assuming you are flying domestically on a discounted ticket and are not a top-level frequent flier.

No one knows when or if other airlines will follow American’s lead and start charging for the first bag. “We are seriously studying it,” said United spokesman Robin Urbanski.

Many airlines already have instituted fees for second bags. Blame it on oil prices. This is being done, the airlines say, in an effort to defray spiraling fuel costs that have already cost them billions.

They’ve already cut back on food and number of flights. They’re upping fees for pets. Be prepared for higher ticket prices and even less room in the overhead compartments as passengers try to cram even more in their carry-on bags.

The record-high gas prices are already making nearly 60 percent of us rethink summer vacation plans, according to the latest Discover U.S. Spending Monitor, which polls consumers daily on their spending habits.

Travel gadgets are the essential equipment that you need during the whole trip. Here are some essential travel gadgets that you need to take along with you.

Travel Adapter:

This universal AC travel adapter allows you to charge your laptops, PDAs and mobile phones while you are traveling around the globe.

This adapter is designed to work with all varieties of outlets. This adapter works in places like Asia, Europe, China, U.S. and U.K.

This adapter can handle both 110 and 220-240 volt standard. This universal AC travel adapter allows you to connect to various international power outlets without any complicated power conversion.

This adapter is light weight, easy to carry and pack. There is no need to carry multiple adapters and it provides you with a convenient and reliable power solution.

Electronic Travel Translator:

This high tech lingo global travel translator converts 11 international languages, they include: English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch Russian, Swedish, Italian, Chinese Mandarin, Portuguese and Japanese.

This translator has 705 commonly used travel related sentences per every language.

You can insert voice card to enable voice mate to speak in the required language.