Road & Travel Magazine's Blog

Guide to Lightweight Luggage

A Guide to Must-Have Lightweight Luggage
by Denise McCluggage

In the days of steamer trunks, grand tours by rail and an abundance of porters, nobody cared about the weight of the luggage (except perhaps the porters). Rugged durability and good looks were what counted in those days. That meant sturdy leather, brass fittings and locks worthy of a bank vault.

With the norm now being air travel and do-it-yourself toting, weight ranks high on the list of considerations when choosing luggage. Covering long gate-to-gate dashes with your bags is relatively painless when they are on wheels, but lifting is involved when you encounter stairs, a common occurrence if a commuter flight or international travel is involved. And even if you roll your bag directly on board there's that lifting it into the overhead.

What is lightweight?
Don't just see the word in the blurb and believe it; look for the actual weight. I put the top limit to qualify as lightweight at nine or ten pounds for a maximum-sized carry-on (21- 22 inches long). [Full story]

 

Free Pocket Ranger App Powered by ParksByNature Network

Have you thought about visiting a State Park? These parks are often within 50 miles from home, making it easy for visitors to come and go as they please.

ParksByNature Network is working with the Government to Save the Parks by marrying today’s technology that is often used to navigate through our days by bringing The Sanctioned and Approved Mobile Tour Guide to enhance your visit.

Pocket Ranger™ apps are offered in a “FREE” and “purchasable” Pro-Enhanced version formatted for Apple and Android devices.

These tour guides also translate into a universal mobile website for each participating state park system, making Pocket Ranger extremely accessible for everyone to use. With its innovative features, Pocket Ranger™ enhances a visitor’s experience before, during, and after an outing to a state park.  These guides deliver to users hundreds of maps, real-time location-based weather conditions, park overview, park history, calendar of events, reservations, photo sharing and social networking capability through today’s popular sites.

Did you ever lose child in a park? Well, the Friend/Family Finder feature can help reduce this problem. Users can sync their devices to locate and keep track of one another. Full story

How to Pick the Perfect Luggage

by Denise McCluggage

Mobility, flexibility, expandability, compatibility, packability.

All those “abilities” should be your guide when you choose your travel equipage. And that goes for both luggage and what you put into it.

Let’s start with exteriors for now - your luggage, part one.

If you haven’t yet taught your bags to heel, get with the program. It’s far easier to roll a bag than lug it by its handle or dangle it from your shoulder.

The wheel has been invented and found good. So either buy a bag with built in wheels or get a luggage cart of some sort.

Those devices of collapsible tubing, large wheels and bungee cords are inexpensive and do the trick, but they pose almost as many problems as they solve. Airlines do not permit them to be carried in overhead bins, they are awkward underfoot and are easily damaged when checked.

Try instead the lightweight, flat-folding ones that fit in a carry on. One such is the CompacCart by Moveasy. The 100 model weighs three pounds and carries 40 pounds, the 200 weighs five pounds and totes 110 pounds. (Try EzShop.com. Similar carts can be found at eBags.com and one called Roleasy at Magellans.com)

When wheels first appeared on bags they showed up on four corners at the bottom of conventional suitcases. These were pulled with attached leashes. This arrangement - still around - is notoriously unstable tipping easily in corners, making for a high annoyance quotient.

Airline personnel were the first to adopt the now ubiquitous dual-wheel vertical cases that are towed by a pullout handle, wide side at your heels. Variations quickly hit the market and now some are even pulled narrow side. These are obviously easier to tow down narrow airline aisles, but their narrow wheel base makes them inherently less stable when dodging about busy airports.  [Read full story]

What is your Packing Plan?

Figuring out to wear in the morning is hard enough, but figuring out what to wear for you entire trip, even just a weekend away, is down-right daunting. Packing a successful wardrobe without bringing six bags requires some planning.

Globeandmail.com tells you how to pack like a pro in an article offering tips and tricks for travelers trying to simplify the packing process. Packing tips include bringing fewer clothes and shopping at your destination, leaving travel essentials in your suitcase so you don't have to remember them for each trip, and coordinating your colors to make sure pieces can mix and match.

ROAD & TRAVEL Magazine also offers tips for packing light and a packing checklist to make sure you're prepared. Remember, a good packing plan will make for a better, saner trip.

Stay Warm While Traveling

Are you freezing while your co-driver is warm? Do traveling temperatures leave you feeling a bit chilly? If a sweater seems like just a little too much for you, the causal shoulder wrap might just do the trick. The lightweight, warm wrap made from washable, acrylic knit is a simple way to add a bit of warmth whether on an airplane or taking a brisk stroll. ($39) Find it here.

For more great travel products visit RTM.