Gadling

Osprey Porter 46

You tend to go through a lot of travel bags when you write for a travel website. Whether it’s business travel, a quick jaunt home to Chicago for the holiday, or a 2 week trip to Japan, most of my bags have been through a literal trial-by-fire. Now, after burning through all manner of business-style rolling suitcases, shoulder-sling duffel bags and over-the-shoulder backpacks, I’m ready to declare a winner. It’s Osprey’s Porter 46 backpack.

What is it about the Porter 46 in particular that gets me so fired up? The best part for me is the size. Specifically designed to fit the exact maximum airline carry-on size restrictions, the Porter 46 ensures you’ll never have to check luggage again. I’ve fit this sucker on everything from Boeing 747’s down to those tiny Embraer regional jets, and it always has been able to squeeze into the overhead.

I’m also a big fan of the Porter 46 configuration. Unlike most typical backpacks, it opens like a duffel bag, with a zipper on the “top.” This prevents the annoying situation with most backpacks where you have to dig all the way down the bottom to find your toothbrush. No such issue here. I also really like the Porter’s backpack setup – the straps fold completely into a zippable compartment on the backside, ensuring nothing will get snagged on a conveyor belt if you do decide to check the thing.

Where: Head to the Osprey website to find a dealer online
Price: Though the Porter 46 retails for $99, I’ve seen it as low as $75 depending on where you look

Icebreaker Travel Shirt

Traveling sometimes means making do without the necessities. But that certainly doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still be able to look good and be comfortable while doing it. Enter the Icebreaker Superfine140 travel shirt. This ultra-lightweight fabric shirt is crafted from an ultra-fine merino thread, which ensures that it dries quickly and is extremely breathable.

These two properties of the Icebreaker offer an added bonus – they are very resistant to body odor. Internal consensus from the Gadling staff has it that the shirts have lasted as long as 15 days without taking on any kind of “funky smells.”

While Gadling does not endorse the extreme avoidance of regular personal hygiene, we are willing to give our readers the benefit of the doubt. Anybody looking for a versatile base-layer and all-around good travel wear should give Icebreaker a look.

Where: www.icebreaker.com
Price: $69.99

Gravis Hobo Messenger Bag

For the past 5 years, I have been on a relentless search for the best messenger bag. I wanted something that looked sharp enough to take with me to work, but not so corporate looking that I couldn’t take it with me when I was out and about on the weekends and traveling. That’s why when I stumbled on the Hobo Bag by Gravis, I knew I had finally found my choice.

While there are a number of great messenger bag makers out there, I like the Gravis Hobo Bag because of the multitude of pocket space inside. This includes a separate compartment for a laptop, as well as smaller zippered pouches for any small personal necessities. It works equally well day-to-day as well as while you’re traveling, holding items like a small camera, an umbrella and perhaps a change of clothing. I also particularly like the quirky patterns – while the exterior of my bag is white and black, the interior is made up of a pattern of robots, donkeys, elephants and monkeys (weird combo, right?). The ones online have similar colorful or more simple styles to them, leaving you free to pick a design that best matches your own style and needs.

Where: www.gravisfootwear.com or www.ebags.com
Price: $50 for the medium size, $75 for the large

Blackberry Curve by T-Mobile

Earlier this year, Scott mentioned a unique feature of T-Mobile’s Blackberry Curve phone. Not only does the Curve let you make calls over the normal wireless network of T-Mobile, it’s also equipped for Wi-Fi calling in areas where traditional cell phone service is not available. Basically this means you can make phone calls anywhere in the world over a local Wi-Fi connection, even if you have no service or are roaming in whatever country you happen to be visiting. If you’re not interested in going through the process of unlocking your phone to use it in other countries, this can be a godsend.

T-Mobile is also fairly generous when it comes to their Blackberry international data plan. For only $19.95 per month, you can send and receive as many emails as you want in other countries, with no hidden data charges.

Where: www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones
Price: $99 after instant discount and mail-in rebate, $449 without

SeV Quantum Jacket

I can never have too many pockets when I’m traveling. Between my wallet, a digital camera, a guidebook, a cell phone, my music player and all those other travel doodads we all like to have, your pants end up bulging with stuff. In September, we reviewed the SeV Quantum Jacket, noting its versatility for gear junkies. Between the jacket’s main body and sleeves it’s got 28 pockets for your digital and analog paraphernalia.

But it’s not just the many, many pockets that make this jacket a snap. It’s also got small openings throughout the fabric for something called the “personal area network,” allowing you to connect wires and cables from a device in one pocket to those in another. The Quantum also includes touch-screen accessible pockets for fans of PDA’s, iPhones and the iPod Touch.

Combined with the jacket’s breathable and water resistant shell and the optional fleece and you’ve got one tough, durable piece of outerwear.

Where: www.scottevest.com
Price: $250

iPod Touch – 8GB

Have you heard of this crazy iPod gadget? I hear they’
re totally popular now. OK, OK…you probably know all about the iPod, iPhone and iPod Touch at this point. Rather than dwell on the obvious, let’s talk about why the iPod Touch might be the perfect digital media solution for all you travelers out there.

First and foremost, the iPod has built-in Wi-Fi. If you’re not looking to spend $5 bucks at the internet cafe every time you want to check email during that trip to Spain, the iPod Touch lets you log on, surf the web and send a hello to the family without breaking the bank. Second, it has all the digital music, game and movie-playing goodies you’ll need to keep you entertained on those long plane or bus rides.

And perhaps most useful of all, you can even turn the IPod Touch into a “personal digital guidebook.” Let’s say I’m going to be touring around Seattle during the day. Instead of lugging around that Frommer’s book all day, you can just pull up the Wikitravel (or Gadling) page on your iPod Touch. Now even when you move out of Internet range you’ve got all the information pre-loaded and at the flick of a finger.

Where: http://store.apple.com
Price: $229 for 8 GB

No Reservations: Seasons 1, 2 and 3 on DVD plus Book

If there is one travel TV show that has kept us consistently entertained and delighted over the past few years, it’s definitely No Reservations. Say what you will about the Amazing Race or Bizarre Foods – the fact of the matter is no travel show on television is as consistently hilarious, interesting, blunt and entertaining as No Reservations.

If that someone special in your family is dreaming of some travel this holiday season but won’t be able to go there in person, why not buy them a couple seasons worth of No Reservations on DVD and the behind-the-scenes book? You can get the complete First, Second and Third seasons on Amazon.com. Yes, we admit – we are 100% in the tank for Anthony Bourdain.

Where: www.amazon.com
Price: $69 for Seasons 1, 2 and 3 and the No Reservations book