Guide
Travel: The Parts That Go Wrong First
Not destinations or flights. The bag that will not close, the socket that is already taken, and the hotel bathroom with nowhere to put anything.
Packing & Luggage3 min read
Travel guides
Organised by the problem you have, not by the aisle a shop would put the product in.
38 pages in Travel.
Start here
The broad guides. Read one of these first if you are not sure what your actual problem is.
Problem guides
One narrow, specific, annoying problem each.
Guide
The Unglamorous Half of Travel Security
Most travel security is sold against theft. The arrangements that matter more are for after something has gone wrong, and nobody markets those.
Documents & Security3 min read
Guide
A Hotel Room for More Than Two Nights
A room designed for one night stops working on the third. What changes is that dirty clothes accumulate and there is nowhere to put your feet.
Hotel & Working Away3 min read
Guide
Arriving With Clothes You Can Wear
Creasing is caused by pressure on a fold, not by folding. What that means for shirts, and why shoes belong in bags for a reason that is not tidiness.
Packing & Luggage4 min read
Guide
Finding Things in a Suitcase Away From Home
A case opened flat on a hotel bed becomes a pile by the second morning. What stops that is structure inside the lid, not more bags inside the base.
Packing & Luggage3 min read
Guide
Food and Drink on a Long Drive
Stopping to eat costs more time than the food is worth, and a bag on a seat becomes the footwell. What travels well, and what a cool bag actually needs.
On the Road3 min read
Guide
Hands Full in an Airport
Two hands, a case, a coffee, a phone and a boarding pass. The fixes are ugly, cheap, and mostly about moving weight onto the case you are already pushing.
Packing & Luggage3 min read
Guide
Keeping a Child Occupied in a Back Seat
A tray stops things landing in the footwell, headphones stop the argument, and a screen is a tool with a real cost. What to reach for and in what order.
Family Travel3 min read
Guide
Medication on a Trip Across Time Zones
The two failures are losing the supply and losing track of the schedule. One is solved by where you pack it, the other by counting doses rather than clock times.
Carry-On & Comfort3 min read
Guide
The Bag You Work Out Of
A laptop is a complete computer and a poor workstation. Four small things make it usable anywhere, and none of them is a second screen.
Hotel & Working Away3 min read
Guide
Too Hot, and Unable to Open a Window
On a plane, a coach or a hotel room with sealed glass, you cannot change the temperature. What works is evaporation and moving air, and one of them is free.
Carry-On & Comfort3 min read
Guide
What Should Live on the Outside of the Bag
Some things get produced ten times a day and belong where you can reach them without stopping. Working out which is a security decision as much as a convenience one.
Carry-On & Comfort3 min read
Guide
When a Suitcase Is Worth Repairing
Wheels fail first and are usually the one part you can replace. Handles and cracked shells mostly are not. How to tell which failure is worth fixing.
Packing & Luggage3 min read
Guide
A Hotel Room a Small Child Will Sleep In
Strange room, wrong light, wrong noise, and everyone in one space. Four things make an unfamiliar room close enough to home that bedtime still works.
Family Travel3 min read
Guide
Car Sickness in the Back Seat
A mismatch between what the eyes see and what the inner ear feels. Almost everything that helps works by fixing that mismatch, not by settling a stomach.
On the Road4 min read
Guide
Changing and Feeding Away From Home
The facilities you were counting on will be occupied, missing or unusable. What makes a bag work is being able to do both without one, in a car park if necessary.
Family Travel4 min read
Guide
Compression Socks for a Long Flight
Sized by measurement, not shoe size, and the wrong pressure is worse than none. What they are for, and when the answer is a doctor rather than a product.
Carry-On & Comfort3 min read
Guide
Sleeping Upright on a Plane
The neck pillow is the famous answer and the least important one. What decides it is darkness, noise, and whether your head can fall forward at all.
Carry-On & Comfort4 min read
Guide
Solar Chargers, and When They Are Not the Answer
A folding panel is genuinely useful on a narrow set of trips and disappointing on all the others. A power bank beats it for anything short of days off-grid.
Power & Charging3 min read
Guide
Washing Clothes on a Trip Instead of Packing More
Hand-washing in a sink is how a week fits in a carry-on. It needs a plug that fits any drain, something that dries overnight, and honest expectations.
Packing & Luggage4 min read
Guide
Waterproof Phone Pouches and What They Are For
Splashes and rain, reliably. Swimming and diving, only if you test it first and accept the risk — and the touchscreen stops working underwater anyway.
Documents & Security4 min read
Guide
Which Travel Security Threat Is Actually Real
Wireless card skimming barely happens. Opportunistic theft and losing documents happen constantly. Most travel security products are sold against the wrong one.
Documents & Security3 min read
Guide
Working From a Hotel Room With No Desk
The bed is not a desk and the room will not be redesigned for you. Three small items turn almost any surface into something you can work at for a full day.
Hotel & Working Away3 min read
Guide
A Cable Roll Instead of a Drawer in a Bag
Every cable in one pouch is a knot by the second flight. What a roll does differently, and the count that matters more than the container.
Power & Charging3 min read
Guide
A Power Bank You Can Actually Fly With
Carry-on only, never checked, and the number that matters is watt-hours rather than mAh. How to work yours out, and what to check before you travel.
Power & Charging3 min read
Comparisons
All comparisonsTwo or more options, and who each one actually suits.
Comparison
Luggage Cover vs Luggage Strap
One protects the shell from scuffing, the other holds a strained case shut and makes it findable. They solve different failures and are often bought backwards.
Packing & Luggage3 min read
Comparison
Travel Umbrella vs Rain Poncho
An umbrella keeps you dry and needs a hand. A poncho keeps you and your bag dry and needs none. Wind decides which of those matters more.
Carry-On & Comfort3 min read
Comparison
A Dedicated Sat Nav vs Your Phone
The phone wins on maps and traffic and loses on the two things that end a journey badly: no signal, and a battery that overheats in a windscreen mount in summer.
On the Road3 min read
Comparison
Travel Extension Lead vs Multi-Port Charger
A hotel room with two sockets, both behind the bed. One of these solves it and the other is the one most people pack — and they are not interchangeable.
Power & Charging4 min read
Comparison
Hanging Toiletry Bag vs Flat Wash Bag
The hanging one needs somewhere to hang and solves a bathroom with no surfaces. The flat one packs better. Which hotel you actually stay in decides it.
Hotel & Working Away3 min read
Comparison
Packing Cubes vs Compression Cubes
Cubes make a bag findable. Compression cubes make it smaller and heavier to carry. Which problem you actually have decides this, and they are not the same problem.
Packing & Luggage3 min read
Comparison
Padded Car-Seat Bag vs Basic Cover
Airlines handle a gate-checked car seat like luggage. What padding actually protects against, and the inspection rule that matters more than the bag.
Family Travel4 min read
Comparison
Personal-Item Backpack vs Under-Seat Tote
The backpack holds more and is harder to reach in a seat. Which one suits your flight depends on whether you need things during it or only at either end.
Carry-On & Comfort3 min read
Comparison
Seat-Back Organiser vs Footwell Box
The organiser sags and takes knee room. The box slides and becomes a projectile. Which failure you can live with, and the loading rule that outranks both.
On the Road3 min read
Comparison
TSA Luggage Lock vs Zip Tie
Neither stops a determined thief and both show you if a bag was opened. Which one does that better, and what a lock genuinely prevents.
Documents & Security3 min read
Collections
All collectionsThemed sets. Every item has to earn its place, so these are short.
Collection
Charging Four Things From One Hotel Socket
The constraint on a trip is sockets and what you are allowed to carry, not battery capacity. Five things that fix it, and the popular answers that just add weight.
Power & Charging4 min read
Collection
The Car on Hour Five of a Long Drive
Five fixes for the state a car reaches on a long drive: nothing has a place, everything needs charging, and the back seat is too bright for anyone to sleep in.
On the Road4 min read
Collection
The Equipment a Small Child Adds to a Trip
Five things that earn their place in the bag when a toddler is coming, what each one actually prevents, and the popular items deliberately left off the list.
Family Travel4 min read