Travel Adaptor

Travel Gadgets: Handy Gizmos for Stress-Free Travelling

There are so many things about travelling that can cause stress, that sometimes we wonder why we bother leaving the house at all.

For one thing, there's the packing. Stressing about whether or not there’s room in your suitcase for everything you need on your trip can be a real headache – and if you go over your baggage weight limit, you'll either have to pay the airline an excess baggage fee, or leave a few things behind.

But we say: Stress not! There are some excellent travel gadgets and accessories that can significantly reduce the stress of going on a trip, and we’ve selected a few of our favourites that can help you have a happier holiday.

Trace Me Luggage Tag

One of the things most likely to spoil your holiday is losing your luggage. Spending your entire trip wearing just the clothes you arrived in is painful enough, but knowing you’ll never see your precious suitcase contents again is deeply distressing.

With the Trace Me Luggage Tag you can greatly reduce the chances of losing your luggage forever. The Trace Me Luggage Tag is strong and durable, and contains an individual serial number and 2D bar code, linked for life to your registration details on a secure data storage system used by law enforcement agencies, airport baggage handling organisations and lost property services worldwide.

If your luggage goes astray, a simple scan of the Trace Me Luggage Tag will identify it as your property. Registering your Trace Me Luggage Tag is quick and easy to do online, and there are no recurring fees or subscription charges.

Travel Charger Adaptor

If you rely on mobile phones and other gadgets to stay in touch while travelling, the Travel Charger Adaptor is probably the most useful travel gadget you will ever own.

The Travel Charger Adaptor combines adaptors suitable for use throughout Europe, North America, Africa, Australasia and the Far East, as well as featuring a handy USB power socket for charging MP3 players and other gadgets that you would normally charge through your computer.

Digital Portable Luggage Scale

Airline baggage weight limits can be very confusing – they differ from one airline to another, and when you check your bags in at the airport there's always that little nagging worry that you’ve exceeded the limit and will have to leave something behind or pay an excess baggage fee.

With the Digital Portable Luggage Scale, you'll never have this worry again. This handy travel gadget can handle up to 50kg – before you leave home, simply attach it to your case, wait for the beep, and read the weight. If you're over your baggage weight limit you can remove a few things and leave them at home, or pack them into your hand luggage instead.

The Digital Portable Luggage Scale can then be carried in your hand luggage so that you can check your bag weight again on the way home – which is very handy if you’ve stocked up on souvenirs and duty free goods during your holiday.

Paper Toiletries

Camping and backpacking holidays are lots of fun, but without a car to carry all the equipment in, you need to be quite strict about what goes in your luggage. Bottled toiletries can be heavy; even travel-sized bottles, if you carry enough of them, will weigh you down and make walking uncomfortable.

The best solution to this problem that we've seen is a fantastic range of paper toiletries that are ideal for travelling light. The range includes paper shampoo, paper shaving foam and paper anti-bacterial soap - simply remove a sheet from the small, lightweight pack, add water, and lather up.

Paper toiletries are also ideal for carrying in your hand luggage on flights; they're not liquid, so they won't break any no-liquid regulations when you go through security checks at the airport.

Portable Solar Charger

The Portable Solar Charger is another travel gadget that's ideal for camping trips, when access to an electricity supply might be restricted.

The Portable Solar Charger contains a Li-Ion battery which is charged by the sun during the day. Once charged, the Portable Solar Charger can charge your mobile phone with enough power to talk for two hours, or load your MP3 player with power equivalent to six hours of listening time.

The Portable Solar Charger comes complete with cables and a selection of adaptors, making it suitable for a huge range of mobile phones as well as many iPod models.

About the Author

Anna Clare is Website Manager at ShinyShack.com, one of the UK's leading sources of unusual gift ideas and suppliers of travel gadgets.