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My fabulous blog network, b5media, has recently launched another blog in the travel channel - this one will feature a lot of great travel products that might be of interest to you. Unlike Geeky Traveller, the Travel Product Blog won’t just give you the geeky tech side of travel ease, so even if you or someone you know isn’t too tech-inclined, you’ll be sure to find something awesome and useful over there.
Do drop by and check it out!
Or at least let them THINK they’re driving!
This kind of thing is a total lifesaver for someone like me. With two kids in our family and our most common method of traveling being via the car, anything that can make the drive a little less stressful is key. If the little one is tired she’ll fall asleep, and both kids enjoy listening to music, but all kids have their limits and that’s when you get the whining and fussing in the back seat.
If they have their own steering wheel to play with, they’ll ideally feel like a big kid, driving along with you. Meanwhile, it has lights and interactive sounds to keep things interesting a bit longer.
Yesterday our family went to a local tourist spot (the Montreal Biodome, well worth the visit if you’re in the area, I try to go at least once a year) and just that short half hour drive involved an awful lot of “are we almost there?” I’m going to check out our toy store to see if I can find this or something similar before our next road trip!
You can get it for $29.95 and save your sanity on your next family road trip.
(source // product photo)
While I have the utmost respect for travel agents (I studied to be one myself before changing career track ideas), there’s something I absolutely love about websites that allow your average amateur at home to help you with your travel. Many sites feature sections where you can review your opinions on hotels, restaurants, and attractions where you’ve traveled. However, Guideal (how cute is that name) lets the locals help you out - in person.
Basically, the gist of it is that people sign up to offer their wisdom and advice as a tour guide in their own area. A local guide will sign up and place an ad, basically, explaining what they’ll show you on their tour of their city. If you’re traveling, you can then contact a guide and set up a personal tour. Much like eBay, there is a feedback rating to help people figure out if a guide is right for them.
Some guides offer their services for free while others will charge a nominal fee - it’s up to you to decide how much you wish to pay, if anything, and choose your guide from there.
The benefits of this is that travel books and travel agents will focus on the bigger, more obvious attractions, the restaurants that are reviewed in papers, the sights everyone knows about. The local guide will know about that really good Italian restaurant that outsiders haven’t heard of. A local guide will be able to tell you a great place to go dancing that isn’t as crowded as the one that got listed in the travel brochure.
The site is still fairly new so they’re working on building it up - there are still a lot of places that don’t have guides yet. It seems to be catching on a bit though, so it may grow quickly.
I know that I enjoy telling people who plan to visit Montreal about a few of the places they might otherwise miss, so I think this idea is great!
What do you think? Would you sign on for a travel guide? Would you hire one?
(source)
Are you heading off for a summer getaway at the cottage? If you pack along the Aqua Sounders Floating Speaker you can enjoy your favorite music while you float around in your pool (or hot tub if you have one of those!). The speakers are packed inside a spherical piece of water proof plastic and have LED mood lights for extra fun at night.
Each speaker will work within a 150 foot range using a wireless transmitter that hooks up to your MP3 player. You can get about ten hours of music per charge.
I imagine that you could use it on a lake as well if you can keep it close enough to the base to stay within range, but of course the big danger is that it could drift away and get lost, something you don’t want happening at $149.99!
I wouldn’t advise bringing this Aqua Sounders Floating Speaker if you’re planning on going to a hotel and using a shared pool - many large pools use a sound system anyway, and if not you would run the risk of annoying the people around you. However, if you have a private pool at your vacation home, this is the speaker to get! Since you can still use it when you come back home - even in the bathtub if you’d like! - you can get your money’s worth.
Buy yours here.
(source // product image)
If you’ve just gotten off a long flight and all you’ve had to eat are questionable airline meals and overpriced chips at the airport, you just might be ravenous when you arrive at your destination. Depending on your hotel, you may be able to eat something when you arrive, but not all hotels are the same. One hotel, a place I loved and enjoyed, closed their kitchen by 10 pm and didn’t offer room service. When I arrived at almost midnight, I was hungry but had no food to eat. Luckily I found a great place to indulge in some local food, but OpenTable.com’s website would have been a useful solution for me.
OpenTable allows you to make reservations in advance online. They have thousands of restaurants listed worldwide (including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Japan). On their site, you can search by city, neighborhood, and even type of cuisine. Specify what date you want to eat out and how many people will be dining with you.
The site will search its database and tell you what restaurants are available to you, where it’s located, the type of food, and the general price range. They even tell you which time slots are available that day.
You have to sign up as a member, but once you do so, you can go ahead and book your reservation from the comfort of your home before you even get on the plane.
There are a lot of advantages to this. As I mentioned, if you’re starving upon arrival, at least you know there’s a table waiting for you where you can fill up on some good food. If you’re hosting a business lunch, you can take care of all the details before you’ve left the office, fly out, and just make sure everyone knows where to go and what time.
The Internet is making it possible to do just about anything in advance and it saves you a lot of time on your vacation so you don’t have to waste time trying to find something suitable after you’ve arrived.
PlanetEye is a fun little website that gives you a chance to get to know your chosen destination a little better, almost like seeing it before you arrive. You can also use it to help plan out your itinerary depending on your interests.
It works by using over 70,000 photos that are geotagged to help you find the cities you’re looking for. After you’ve located your destination, you’ll find city guides with interactive landmarks. From there you’ll be able to view photos of the area in general, really giving you a good idea as to what you’ll find when you get there.
It’s great if you’ve never been somewhere before because you can practically map out all the places that are of interest to you and get a feel for it. You can also find out about hotels and restaurants in the area (with photos too!) which can help you collect all sorts of local information. You can even save the info that you collect in a “travel pack” feature which can later be shared with other people you’re traveling with.
PlanetEye is affiliated with various travel-based companies so you can even book your hotel, flight, and car rental on the site (through Travelocity), make dinner reservations, and purchase show/attraction tickets or spa packages.
Because it’s set up in some ways that are similar to social media sites, you can get direct advice from local “experts” on the site who will let you know their opinion on an area’s sites and attractions, as well as fill you in on what you just can’t miss.
Talk about an informative website!
It’s rare to come across places that don’t offer payment with your debit card, but it’s still important to know where the nearest ATM is when you’re traveling. For one thing, you don’t want to be stuck if you do need cash, and for another, if you use the right bank you’ll save on fees.
No one wants to waste time walking around looking for an ATM, so use the ATM Locator website to track down the closest machine in over 170 different locations. The site is simple to use. You just type in an address (your hotel, the restaurant you’re sitting in, the building on the corner, whatever), and you’ll be given a map that shows you the ATMs that are closest to your current location. Heading to a museum? Type in the address and you’ll know where your ATM of choice is located along the way. You can even get detailed information about the bank and what services are offered by hovering over each one on the map.
A nice touch is that once you’ve entered your area, you can also specify your own banking institution so that you don’t have to pay banking fees at another bank’s machine. Handy!
It’s compatible with most web-based cell phone programs as well, so it’s very convenient for on-the-go money grabbing needs.
(Photo sxc.hu)
If you’re not that familiar with airplanes, your airline ticket is just a ticket. An experienced flier may know where his or her seat is, but if you don’t, you can go to Seatguru.com, plug in your flight information, and pull up a map of the plane to see exactly where you’re sitting. After all, sure you knew you’d gotten an aisle seat, but did anyone tell you that you’re also seated right next to the bathroom? Now you know!
More than just a basic map though, Seatguru.com also gives you in-depth information about your seat. Does it have limited legroom? Not a good seat for someone tall. Maybe you’re sitting in front of something that restricts how much your seat reclines. Perhaps you’d prefer a seat closer to the door so your nervous flier self can be one of the first to race off the plane and kiss the ground. You can even get information about what sort of in-seat power port is available to you.
That’s a lot of information that won’t come with your ticket!
(Thanks Emily, for the tip!)
More and more places are banning cellphone use in cars unless you go hands-free. However, using an iPod can technically be just as dangerous. If you’re driving down the highway while trying to scroll through your playlists to find the song you want, you’re not giving the road the proper attention. Muso has come up with a nifty gadget to help you access your music without taking your eyes off what’s in front of your windshield.
Muso allows you to access the music on your iPod by using voice control. The pocket-sized receiver will sync up with your iTunes library. You don’t even have to be completely specific to the song title - you can holler, “Play me something by The Beatles!” or you can even access a style of music by telling it “I’d like some country music!”
Apparently it will even find you similar songs by saying, “I’d like to hear something like that last song” though I can’t quite figure out how it can understand that request - if it works well that’s a pretty cool additional feature.
This is perfect for that long road trip to your destination. The most important thing is to get there safely so voice-activated music is one more way to keep the distractions away.
(source // product photo)
Here’s a fun way to check out the UNESCO sites from the comfort of your own home. The World Heritage Tour website presents various UNESCO World Heritage sites that you can peruse on a world map.
Simply choose the area of the world you want to see. The map will zoom in to show the UNESCO sites within that area. Again, choose the one that interests you and you’ll have the chance to click on photos that will then load into a panorama. You can use your mouse to drag the image to spin yourself in a complete circle, as though you were really standing there. You can also zoom in and out to get better detail.
The Internet will never replace actually being there, but it’s a great way to learn about UNESCO spots in your planned, upcoming vacation and they’re also a fun way to show your friends and family where you’ve been once you get back.
Thanks to Shane of The Tokyo Traveler for the heads’ up!
(photo: sxc.hu)
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