Carrying everything you need to stay productive and comfortable traveling can be tricky. In this article, we discuss new travel gear that we currently enjoy!
New Travel Gear We’re Enjoying
- Apple Air Tags
- Electronics organizer for carry-on
- Ebags Classic Pack-it-Flat Toiletry Kit
- Mother Lode Carry-On Rolling Duffel
- Airplane Phone Holder Mount
Question: What is your favorite piece of travel gear?
Please let us know in the All Things Travel Podcast Facebook group!
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Ryan and Shayne are both Travel Advisers with Creating Magic Vacations, an authorized Disney Vacation Planner. Feel free to reach out to us for a free quote and to start making magical memories.
- Contact Ryan at DisneyTravelDad.Com.
- Contact Shayne at Shayne.fun.
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Episode 149 Transcripts
Episodes are transcribed with artificial intelligence, so some highly amusing translations are likely!
Ryan: Hello and welcome to All Things Travel. It’s been a while since Shayne and I have talked to you about travel gear, and as we’ve been traveling together, we realized we have some new toys and gadgets to talk about in the world of travel.
so Shayne, we are together at Disney for our travel training for our agency, creating Magic Vacations. And as we’ve talked about travel gear, cuz we’re a bunch of geeks that love travel.
We realize that we have a few new toys and we wanna share them with you
Shayne: One of the funny things from our Cancun trip was when you had come into my room when we were about to go meet the rest of the agents for a dinner, and you looked at my toiletry bag, , and you said, you definitely need to get rid of that brick.
which I just thought was kind of funny. And then looking at it going, yeah, that’s, that’s kind of even big for a brick. It’s more like a cinder block. And so, that brings up something that a new, not necessarily a toy, but a new travel thing that I’m gonna talk about. But since you’ve got a, a couple of them, I’m gonna let you go first.
Ryan: So the first thing that I’ve started using, and this was my first trip for it, after we had trouble this summer on our Italy trip with losing our luggage for Christmas. I asked for apple air tags and this was our first, this was my first trip using it, and it worked really well. Basically you just put it in your luggage or whatever you want to keep track of and like, so for instance, I was able to see when my bag had moved from one resort to the other, I knew that my bag was on the plane. It was pretty slick you know, easy to use. No problem at all. Oh, I know a lot of people use them, but this was my first time with travel.
Shayne: It seems like it would be very satisfying knowing where your bags are. That’s one less concern. When landing did my bags make it here with me? And then if they didn’t, then you have a good idea of of where they are. You don’t have to Wonder about it.
Ryan: So my next one is something that I used on the plane.
So one of the things that I do is I don’t like having a bag down with me, like under my feet and things. So what I would often do is before the flight starts, Shayne, before I go through the gate, I take everything that I think I’m gonna need during the flight, and I kind of put it in my pockets and in my sweatshirt pocket or my pants pockets.
And then I’ve kind of got all of my stuff there. Isn’t practical. So I wanted kind of a, a little organizer bag to have with me, but it wasn’t too big. I could keep it on my lap if I needed to or if I was lucky enough to have the seat next to me open. And so I ordered the in a tech electronics organizer from Amazon, and I love this thing.
I used it for the first time the other day, and it holds everything I need for a flight. So I’ve got my phone in there, I’ve got my charger in there. I’ve got an extra pair of headphones. I have my earbuds, I’ve got my Kindle. I’ve got a couple snacks. I’ve got a pen, you know, kind of everything that I’m gonna need over the course of a, of a regular flight.
But it’s all there and, and right at my fingertips
Shayne: I’ve got a similar case that came with a laptop bag several years ago that I’ve been happy with, but it’s starting to fray and as it wears out, I’m gonna need something else. I’m probably gonna be looking at this same item that you, that you are using.
since we were traveling to my daughter’s this past Christmas, we didn’t wanna carry a bunch of gifts to or from Tampa on the plane. so we decided to do a white elephant Christmas where we each drew names and only about one present per person.
And then we texted each other with things that we would like to have. And so I included this eBags flat toiletries. And when I got it in the mail, when I opened it up and looked at it, I thought, there’s no way this is gonna work. This isn’t, there’s no way this is gonna hold anything. This is pointless . So I, I unwrapped it, it kind of rolls up, I unwrapped it, it’s got a hook so you can hang it up on a hook or a door, wherever you wanna hang it.
And started transferring my stuff from the cinder block to this new one. And through my surprise, The, the cinder block was pretty much empty, at least of everything I wanted to take. And I still had a little room for stuff in the, the flat one from eBags. And then I just left it out for a couple of days until it was time.
That’s the Wednesday morning to leave from my trip, put my toothbrush in it, wrapped it up, and it just, Packed so much easier because it gets so flat. I couldn’t believe it and I don’t know how I’ve ever traveled without it. , and I’ll put a link to that in the show notes. I would recommend if you are interested in any kind of, Gadgets like that to that eBags might have just get on their mailing list because they send a few times a week.
They send 25% off, 20% off, and you can probably find what you’re gonna need if you’re, you can be patient for a few weeks or a few months.
Ryan: Yeah, I have the same torture kit and I absolutely love it. And speaking of eBags I have the small roller carryon and I’ve started to use that. Usually I don’t use a carryon that big although it’s really not that big.
But since I’ve started to have to travel with my C P A P machine and then it also, I mean, I can have my C P A P machine. I can have my work backpack that’s full of all of my work stuff, my laptop, my, my notebooks and everything like that. Plus extra space for, let’s say my large battery charger and some cords and stuff that I may want to have in the airport.
And it all fits in that mother load. Rolling. Carry on. So that’s kind of become my go-to because I don’t want my, my, my computer and my C P A P and stuff like that to be checked. So that’s kind of be, kind of become my go-to. And obviously, you know, from listening to past episodes, my work backpack is also eBags, so we, we, we highly recommend that, that brand.
Absolutely.
Shayne: Ryan, do you think that that carry on suitcase for me bags, would it work for someone spending a few days somewhere who didn’t want to check luggage and only wanted to carry on?
Ryan: Yes, absolutely. If you.
Used a toilet bag, like what the eBags one is, if it’s flat. If you didn’t try to pack a coat like in in it, if you had that outside. If you didn’t have more than one extra pair of shoes and you use packing cubes, and I’ve done all of that and absolutely you can pack a ton of stuff in that mother load and there is a backpack version and a wheeled version.
I have the wheeled version for carryon. My wife has the backpack version and she absolutely loves it for, for the same reasons. .
Shayne: just keeping in mind that the backpack version is, is a bigger backpack. It’s not a little theme park day backpack, and it’s more than just a, a laptop backpack that you might use for work if you carry a laptop back and forth.
But great for traveling, not checking your bags and having plenty for a few days. Stay wherever you’re going and not a new toy for either of us, but packing cubes. Bears repeating you. We cannot repeat enough how handy packing cubes come in. Just like here today, I just took the cubes out and put ’em in the drawers, did the same thing in Cancun.
My unpacking was pretty much just putting the cubes in the drawers and leaving everything there. Then it was easy to reback when it was time to go home.
Ryan: So my last new travel gadget is the para logics airplane phone holder mount. This is something that I saw, I believe, on Facebook. And I looked into it on Amazon and looked at reviews, and this is a really cool thing that actually once I got. I can use it for a lot more than I thought. It’s basically a metal mount for your cell phone that has a little clamp that you can put on your tray table or the plastic piece on your airplane seat, and you can watch your phone or play games on your phone or just have it there.
So it’s kind of up and away during your. It works perfectly. I watched TV and, and listened to some music on the flight down here to Orlando Works great. But when I unboxed it and started playing around with it, it has a lot more features. So, for instance, you can use it as a. Table mounted phone stand.
So if you’re doing, watching something there or if you’re needing to, if you have a zoom meeting or something like that, it’s hands free. You can also use it as a little tripod for your camera or yeah, for your camera on your phone. So it’s got a lot of little uses and I’m really glad that I got it. My son got one for Christmas, so did my wife, and then I’m like, Hey, wait a minute.
Why didn’t I get one? I’m the original one that asked for this and my wife. I think Santa had a mix up somewhere, so I went ahead and ordered that, and I’m glad that I did.
Shayne: I didn’t see it in action on the plane, did it? Help free up a little room on your tray table, maybe for a soda or whatever you might have been drinking.
Ryan: Yeah, at least on the Southwest flight, the, the piece that I attached it to was up high enough that I could have my tray table down with my water bottle on my tray table. So. It didn’t e it didn’t need to live there. It didn’t, it wasn’t on my lap, so it would eventually, you know, fall on the ground or I wasn’t trying to hold it while the tray was out.
It, it’s pretty cool. I like it. And, and it folds down nice and compact so it fits in that little plane bag that I was talking about earlier. I like it. I’ll use it a lot.
Shayne: Well, that’s a few things that we’ve found lately that have helped make our travels a little more convenient, a little easier, and hopefully it’ll work out. Hopefully one of them is something that’ll help your traveling more pleasant.
Ryan: Well, we would love to help you plan your next trip, and we can help you with packing those gadgets and toys for your travels. Reach out to me at Ryan@creatingmagicvacations.com. That’s R Y A n, at creating magic vacations.com.
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