Recorded in the beautiful home office, Chateau’ Relaxo, FL.
Holiday travel, we touched on this a bit last episode but one to always pile on here’s one more thing to consider apps on your phone that will help you through your travels.
Airline apps, if you’re flying, make that you not only download your airline’s apps but make sure you’ve logged into it, or at least know your user name and password. At the airport isn’t the best time to try to log in for the first time.
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* Check flight status
* Check-in
* Boarding pass
* Airline contact information
* FlightAware - I’ve used this app for years and it not only tracks flights but it alerts you to flight delays and cancelations, oftentimes before the airline acknowledges them. It will also let you know what gate you’ll be departing from and arriving at.
* If you have streaming services like NetFlix, Hulu and Disney+ download their apps. Most airplanes are equipped with WiFi, sometimes it's free, sometimes it’s not but at least you’ll have some entertainment. I know that Netflix allows you to download content for offline viewing, which means no WiFi is required.
A few others worth mentioning -
* TripIt - I’ve been using this for going on 10 years and this app combines all your airlines, hotel, and rental reservations and combines them all in one easy-to-read and share trip itinerary.
* TSA has an app
* Where you can quickly search which items you can bring with you through the checkpoint onto the airplane.
* Check the delay information at your favorite airports nationwide.
* Check how busy the airport is likely to be on your specific day and time of travel based on historical data.
* Most airports have apps as well, which will help to let you know where bathrooms and restaurants are located in an unfamiliar airport.
I’m a gear nerd, just listen to any of the past shows. Some stuff is in regular rotation like my 5-port USB charger. Some stuff gets used once, maybe twice like a Bluetooth speaker, before it gets left behind. And some things become obsolete, like my old GPS unit.
Our 2020 gift guide was more geared towards working from home
* Solid cologne, at home or on the road, male or female there’s no excuse for not smelling great.
* HLT - A Handy Little Thing (HLT) Pouch from Tom Bihn - This American-made pouch is a great organizer pouch.
* Collapsible Straw
* GoPro travel kit.
* Dual Monitors
* Kindle e-reader
* RocketBook
Since we’re getting out traveling again 2021 will reflect that.
- But first, let’s talk about what not to get for the road warrior in your life. And most of these we’ve talked about before
Typically gifts with the word “Travel” in their name are useless, travel pillow, travel wallet, travel scale.
Here are a few ideas that sound great, but they’re not.
Stainless Steel Tumblers – Yeti, Rambler, Rtic or any of those tumblers that keep ice intact for 3 weeks. We’ve all got one, three of them to be exact and while it’s a great gift they’re not great for traveling. Hanging out on the boat or at a neighbor’s cookout is what those behemoth steel tubes are made for, not traveling.
Blacklight Flashlight – While this sounds as practical as it gets, but no one wants to know what germs are lurking in their hotel room.
Anything Associated With Washing Clothes In Our Room – We don’t need a clothesline that stretches across the bathtub. Nor do we need a sink stopper soap contraption. Most hotels have a washer and dryer hidden somewhere.
RFID Blocking Anything – I’ve never understood the hype over this. With the introduction of chipped cards, this is even less of a necessity. Besides if they, whoever they are, really want your information, they’ll get it.
When choosing road warrior gifts consider size and weight. Most of us are good at Luggage-Tetris, which means we know what goes where in our luggage. Give us some odd or oversized item and it’ll throw us off our game. The same goes for weight. If it’s too heavy we may travel with it once, yes once, and then we’ll be donating it to Goodwill.
Speaking of luggage as tempting as it is do not, I repeat do not, buy a seasoned road warrior luggage. Most road warriors are very brand loyal, size loyal, or two-wheel vs. four-wheel loyal. And to most of us, our luggage is as important to our daily life as our phone or laptop.
If a road warrior mentions that they need new luggage you can always get them a Visa or American Express gift card and let them get what they truly want.
The one exception is if it’s a baby roadwarrior, or someone traveling with their household vacation luggage then it’s probably safe to go with a carry-on from Samsonite, Victorinox, or Away. Just don’t purchase a $70.00 Jaguar bag from TJ Maxx and expect it to last.
Personally, for at least the last 30 years I’ve had (2) holiday items on my wish list.
The first is the Rolex GMT. It can be the Pepsi (blue and red bezel) or the Batman (blue and black bezel) either one works just plan for a $14,000 hit to your wallet. If you want to plan for the 2020 Holidays you can up your game to the Rolex GMT Root Beer, roughly $35,000, and at least an 18-month waiting list.
The other would be a mid-1990’s Range Rover Defender. Not the current 2020 Defender, which is a joke. The Defender from the ’90s was one tough vehicle, there was no place you couldn’t take it. I passed on the chance to buy one in 1994. It was yellow a soft top, loud, and drove like hell, and at the time, just what a father of two young kids needed. If I recall it was around $31,000 at the time, you’d be hard-pressed to find it for less than $60,000 today.
Depending on your viewpoint we could mid or post-pandemic, regardless if you have a road warrior in your life you need to take this into consideration, which is code for COVID-inspired gift ideas.
* Masks, if you’re flying you still need one, so why not drop a few shekels on one or two that’s washable.
* Vax cardholder, if you’re vaxxed these are perfect for carrying around proof. The Entrepreneur gave me one for my birthday and it’s always in my backpack.
* COVID test kits, possibly a bit overkill, but they do come in handy. Not just for international travel, but no one wants to expose others if they’ve suddenly become patient zero.
Now onto the fun stuff -
Packing Cubes - I’m a believer, and this makes the list every year. Why? Because they work. We talked about luggage Tetris earlier and packing cubes makes it easier.
Patagonia Nano Puff Jacket– I hate jackets, first they’re bulky, and second, they’re bulky. Three years ago I picked up a Nano Puff and it rocks, I like the fact that it’s thin yet keeps me warm. I can put it in a compression bag and it reduces to nothing. Retail is $200.00, but if you search you can find it much cheaper.
Amazon Fire Tablet - I got one of these from my company as a Christmas gift last year, and I really didn’t do much with it until I started traveling mid-yea. I’ve always traveled with my laptop as well as an iPad or Surface tablet. The reason is that the second device allowed me to work on my laptop while watching YouTube or Netflix on the tablet. The Fire tablet weighs in right around a pond and can be connected to most hotel TV with a Micro HDMI to Standard HDMI cable.
Speaking of cables if the road warrior in your life is always having to remember to grab cables before a trip, they’re a great gift.
* Smartphone charging cable
* Smartwatch charging cable
* Laptop charging cable
* HDMI cable
If you do some searching you can find cables that support Lightning, USB-C, and smartwatch all on the same cable bundle.
Snacks - Somehow we always end up talking about food, but there is nothing worse than being stuck in a hotel room and finding yourself hungry. Sure you can head downstairs and purchase a $4.00 bag of stale chips. First find things that won’t church. Personally, I find that Cheese Nips is the perfect snack, but ith then there’s always the risk that they get crushed and turned into a bag of Cheese Nips powder. Go with things like beef jerky, protein bars, and candy My favorite Twizzlers pull-apart and Hot tamales.
Headphones - The headphones that come with your smartphone are an afterthought or a loss leader in the hopes that you spend more money on something that’s decent. My personal choice is Skullcandy Ink’d.wired headphones They’re less than $15.00 and I’ve been wearing them since 2008, the CEO buys them for me in lots of 5 because I tend to destroy them rather quickly. If your road warrior needs the whole over-the-ear noise-canceling type, there is nothing better than a pair of Bose QuietComfortheadphones. They have Bluetooth and all the bells and whistles. For some reason I don’t like having both ears completely covered, if I did, this would be the pair.
If you’re budget conscious I bought the CEO a pair of TaqTronics noise-canceling headphones way back in 2018. And while she doesn’t use them on a regular basis I was impressed with what we got for under $50.00.
Along with being a gear nerd, I’m also an EDC nerd. EDC being Everyday Carry, hence stuff you carry every day. Typically I always have a knife or multi-tool close at hand, that is unless I’m flying. However, Leatherman makes a multi-tool that is TSA friendly. It’s their PS Keychain packed with 8 handy tools. Such as spring-action needlenose, scissors, screwdrivers, a nail file, and tweezers. All for $35.00. If the road warrior in your life doesn’t fly drop $150.00 on a Benchmade Bugout. If they happen to be a fancy lad you can bling out the bugout with custom scales and hardware.
You can always offer to renew their TSA pre-check, CLEAR or Global Entry. If they don’t have any of them, you can always purchase them for them.
You can gift them a Spotify subscription.
This next one isn’t for me, but it might be for someone in your life. For some reason, people love airport lounges, but the cost of entry is one of four ways.
* Log an S-Ton of miles in the air.
* Purchase first-class tickets.
* Carry a very high-end credit card. Think credit cards that are named after expensive metals.
* Or pay each time you visit. Not a great value.
You can purchase the road warrior in your life a Priority Pass membership. Access to over 1300 airport lounges, and depending on the pan you select the visits can be free or as little as $32.00 depending on the plan you purchase. Side note, I had a year membership to Priority Pass, and never once used it. The main reason was the Southwest terminal at the O-Town airport is loungeless… If that is even a word.
For online meetings,I use OneNote, Atl+Shift+S for a quick screengrab, For journaling I rely on the app DayOne. But for logging ideas or taking notes during a phone call I’m still a pen and paper person, so why not a decent pen and notebook?
For a pen, the Retro 51 rollerballs can’t be beaten, and Lamay makes a great fountain pen for less than $50.00. I travel with a Lamay and have never had a wet ink accident while flying.
When it comes to notebooks I like ruled pages, no calendars, no grid pattern, and no bullet journal-style checkboxes. I like the varying cover design of the Field Notes brand. They even offer a quarterly subscription, the gift that keeps on giving. I have traveled with a classic Moleskin or Lechturnm 1917 notebook for at least the last 15 years.
That does it, for the 2021 Gift Guide…. If you want detailed show notes, links and pictures head over to podpage.com/travel-stories/
Leave a message on Anchor, or shoot me an email at TravelFrick@gmail.com.
As I always say, travel safe, stay safe, and thanks for listening.
