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I'm looking for a new pair of travel headphones. Every time I leave for a trip I look around for my brand X earbuds, and I can't find them, or the earbuds are covered in bottom-of-travel bag dust, and I end up taking this massive pair of silver/black Panasonic headphones I found at Target some 6 years ago. They probably take up half a cubic foot of cargo room in my bag (I do a lot of international backpacking using just a backpack and a day pack) and the pleather ear cushions have started to flake badly. Mainly I'm looking for a) something under $50 for if/when they get crushed/stolen and b) over the ear (no earbuds!), and c) no garish colors that will attract attention on public transit/airport (i.e. no skullcandy, 'beats by dre' etc or whatever). I've tentatively narrowed it down to these three models 1) Sony MDR-V150 - $30 I had a pair of these in college about 10 years ago and I don't remember what happened to them they just disappeared one day. They don't fold flat 2) Sony MDRZX100 ZX - $16 Basically the same headphone but worse construction quality, however they do fold flat 3) AmazonBasics On-Ear Headphones - $15 Probably the same quality as the first pair (V150) but with the fold flat functionality. They seem fairly sturdy from photos and amazon's consumer products division seems to do a pretty good job of providing average to better than average generic versions of stuff. I've never had fold-flat headphones before but that's an appealing idea since that means I could just jam them in whatever bag without having to make special space exemptions for my non-earbud headphones, just pack them in with the clothes or something. I'm open to other ideas.
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Aug 30, 2015 18:13
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 19:36 |
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Update I bought the "3) AmazonBasics On-Ear Headphones - $15" on a whim and they're pretty comfortable/durable, and come with their own drawstring bag which is nice. I think I am going to take them on my next trip. Man, drawstring bags are the poo poo when it comes to traveling with electronics. I always carry two spare USB charging cables, one spare (tiny) usb wall adapter and a three way adapter (someone is always already charging their laptop on the only wall socket) and whatever else. When I bought some sheets a while back, they came folded up in this drawstring bag which is maybe big enough to hold a cantaloupe. I just toss all my weird electronic poo poo in there, and then toss it in the bottom of my main storage compartment, and I can find it later. Like a shave kit bag for all your electronic poo poo. I loving love it, it's changed my life. Generally the only things I need ready access to are my 1) money, 2) travel documents and 3) the ability to charge my phone on the go (Access to google maps, etc); while the money belt solved 1+2, #3 has always been a hassle Oh right, and Tmobile has FREE 2G international data now, so I'm burning up my phone battery even faster than ever now. I bought a 5600mah battery (again from amazon) and phone charge anxiety has dissapeared forever. Knowing you can go three days between finding a wall socket, even with heavy use, is amazing. That battery pack is about the same size as a 5" phone and just lived in my day pack with a USB cord snaking out the top and in to my pocket to keep the phone perpetually charged.
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Sep 6, 2015 19:19
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Yeah I only carry about 3 micro usb cables, but typically I have 2x dual USB chargers (one is a backup), plus my world power adapter, plus laptop power supply, large external USB battery, small external USB battery (backup). All that stuff just goes in the bag. And a 3-way US plug T adapter so I can charge laptop and phone and external battery all off the same plug at the airport/hostel/etc. Oh and a USB rechargable flashlight for digging around in my pack at night in the hostel. It's actually a bicycle headlight called a Lenzyne Micro Drive but it's the perfect travel flashlight being about the size of a case of lipstick but also not being chinese garbage. All that goes in a sack about 6x6x3"
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Oct 7, 2015 18:36
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Years ago (2009) I bought some "shaving oil" in lieu of shaving cream for travel purposes. Over a month of backpacking, it got everywhere. How do I clean my backpacking backpack? Dry cleaning? It has a semi rigid pad on the back that's not removable which would make it nearly impossible to put in a standard washer. Just hose it down in a big wash tub full of Tide?
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Oct 21, 2015 02:04
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Towel chat: I'm still rocking this REI camping towel. I've heard it called "shamwow", "shammie towel", "shammie" and a couple of other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. It's really efficient at being a towel, but like you linen people pointed out, they still take forever to dry out fully. Generally it will dry in 30 min or less, but the problem arises when you try and squeeze in a shower before your departure, leaving you to pack the damp towel. REI sells the towel with a little zipper pouch that's mesh on one side but that's not enough unfortunately. I think I got this one, 22 x 12.5" (56 x 32cm). They make two larger sizes but this one is about the size of a deck of playing cards when folded, and if you're a dude with normal length hair you don't need anything larger for drying purposes. http://www.rei.com/product/832933/rei-multitowel-lite-medium-towel-22-x-125 The big problem I have with travel towels is that they don't have big enough loops attached. Shared bathrooms almost always have too few hooks, or the hook is located somewhere that all your stuff is going to get drenched, or stolen, or both. I've started packing a carabiner with me in my shaving kit to hold the shave kit, travel towel and whatever else on a single hook. Side note, one time the hostel had free linens but you had to pay for towels by the day, on my last day there I just recycled my bedsheet for a towel, worked pretty well actually. Saved me a whole $2 whoo. That's like, 2-3 beers depending on what country you're in.
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Nov 2, 2015 09:44
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I am cheap as hell, I guess I would throw everything in a giant oversize duffle bag from REI and then just rent an airport cart for a dollar. The entire world did just fine without wheeled luggage up until the early 2000s when it suddenly became popular. You're probably going to want a hard shell luggage piece for sensitive stuff like photos, electronics, art, etc. My buddy came back from living in Beijing abroad for two years with some art and other mementos in a semi rigid wheeled thing. He also shipped home probably 200 lbs of mandarin language books via boat which I think was a mistake as he lived with me for a year and the only time I ever saw the books was when I helped him move the stuff from a storage unit in Houston to one in Dallas.
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Nov 10, 2015 12:35
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Boris Galerkin posted:e2: Also i always see in some regional flights that they tell people to check their bags at the gate. I've never had to do this before but do they just load them onto the plane at the skywalk and then unload them back at the skywalk when you land? Generally if you arrive at the gate early and let them know you're traveling internationally on another leg of your trip, flash the onward travel ticket to some far away land, they'll remorsefully say there's nothing they can do to help, but suspiciously every time I've done this, the carry on baggage cut off was the person behind me in line, or they let me board first with my boarding group.
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Nov 11, 2015 00:47
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I have some thermal underwear I bought from Patagonia when I was probably 14 for an overnight igloo build/camping trip on Mt Rainier in Washington. It then went with me all over the world in my mid 20's and when I settled in Dallas. It's in my suitcase I brought with me when I moved to San Francisco this week at age 32. It still fits, no tears or holes 18 years later. You get what you pay for. I'd never heard of their return policy, but I'd guess the number of people actually exercising their policy to it's fullest extent is almost 0.
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Nov 30, 2015 20:56
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I've always done coin op laundry at the hostel, works amazing. The only two places I couldn't find coin op laundry (anywhere in the city!) was Rome and Prauge. Rome's laundry service was at least affordable. The lady at the front desk in Prauge looked at me crazy when I told her I wanted to do coin op, since laundry service in Prauge is so expensive (€17 for 1 load washed and dried), "we don't have Australian style laundromats here," is basically all she said. I burnt up probably 3 hours trying to find affordable laundry services in that stupid city.
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Jan 3, 2016 19:29
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I ended up washing my clothes in the sink in Prauge, and then it rained for two days, so everything stayed damp and got mildewy. It sucked. I (re)did laundry in Nuremberg the next day like a civilized human being.
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Jan 4, 2016 04:29
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Ryanair has a carry on size limit of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm Make sure you can plausibly stuff whatever bag you buy in to that space, even if it means putting on an extra two tshirts and a sweater at the gate to make it fit. Checking luggage is for suckers, and so is waiting in the luggage pickup area at the airport. I bought the first gen version of the REI Vagabond 40 and holy poo poo, what an amazing piece of kit. Mine has been to 20+ countries over 7 years and still looks brand new. Looks like they're discontinuing it, I'm tempted to buy another one as I think I might die if I had to look for a replacement for mine. They changed the aesthetics a little bit since 2009, made it look more "luggage"-y, but I promise you, that thing will happily go rock climbing, across the pervian andes, sailing across the gulf of mexico, fishing in the philippines and everywhere in between. http://www.rei.com/product/896256/rei-vagabond-tour-40-travel-pack
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Feb 23, 2016 06:06
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That's the maximum "inflated" size, I just measured mine with tape measure, and converted to cm 22 x 12 x 7" 55 x 30 x 17 cm With Ryan Air they allow you one personal carry on in addition to the overhead, so it's best to transfer any large hard objects you have to the personal bag (for me this was my laptop and shoes) to leave more room to put the squishy clothes. Also are you rolling your clothes? Always roll your clothes, they compress about 30% better that way. The only time I've ever had complaints about my bag was flying in to Morcco, and that's because they explicitly only allow ONE carry on of any kind, so I had to wear a bunch of clothes to make room for my day pack. Nobody's ever said a word about the size of the bag. In my experience if you look a little rough and foreign and you're obviously hauling a backpacker's travel bag, the flight crew tends to look the other way. In the rare situation where they announce that carry on space is limited, I always make a note to go to the flight desk and let them know, gosh miss, I really like flying with your airline, the planes are the cleanest I've ever seen (flattery goes far, lay it on thick) I'm traveling internationally, this is my only bag and I have a connecting flight with (insert budget carrier here) at the next airport to (insert tiny country here that only has a couple flights a week). Miraculously, they've always done the carry on baggage cut-off one or two people after me in line, and never before me. Flight crews are pretty awesome and know what you're up to, if you're friendly and polite about it. You have to be pretty heartless to deprive a backpacker of their backpack, even if your company is run by a cut throat rear end in a top hat. edit: i've flown delta, ryanair, easy jet and KLM with this bag in europe Hadlock fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Feb 23, 2016 |
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Feb 23, 2016 07:33
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I would live in HK for 18-24 months. It's about $200 round trip to anywhere in SE asia, you have access to more beaches within a 4 hour plane ride than anywhere else on the globe, probably. I would not raise a family there, but if you're 22-34 it's a great place to hang out for a year or two. Re: day packs, I've had a flash 18 pack from REI for approximately 80,000 airmiles over nearly a decade and it hasn't let me down yet, they still sell them (revision 2 or 3 by now though)
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Apr 26, 2016 08:07
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Re: daypacks Living in a city I don't need one, but traveling abroad I find them useful As cell phone cameras continue to improve only once or twice have I wished I had some kind of incredi-zoom lens, and traveling with an SLR is just a huge loving liability for a number of reasons. That said, what goes in to my cheap day pack: 5x7" Hardback blank notebook (has offline emergency numbers, the address of my hostel, and a poorly hand drawn map between a subway station and my hostel) this is what keeps sharp stuff from poking in to my back. Umbrella (depending on location) Bottle of water, usually 1.5L 10,000mAh backup USB backup battery + cable (2g unlimited T-Mobile international data ftw) A Cliff Bar, or bag of nuts, or whatever. Tourist trap food is way expensive. Hat and or sunglasses (sometimes) USB rechargeable flashlight $10-20 local currency for an extra transit ticket back to the hostel in case I lose mine Spanish pocket translation book (if you can't find anyone who understands English or Spanish you're hosed anyways) If I'm about to walk on a 2+ hour train or plane, I'll try and stuff two tall boys of whatever the local brew is Ebook reader (lays flat with screen against the hard back journal) I bought some elastic cord and laced it to the outside of my bag. Typically that's where I store my fleece pullover, which keeps it out of the bag, properly aired out, and doubles as a pillow/sunshade
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Apr 29, 2016 16:45
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The old Nexus 5, iPhone and a few other phones have a little magnetic thing that lets you snap on a telephoto lens, it's not ideal but that's an option. But I don't print my photos; at best I'll post one or two photos a day to FB while on the go. I used to take a million billion photos but over the years I've learned to spend less time taking photos and more time hanging out at the location. And yeah I totally left off headphones. I use the cheap $15 Amazon Basics brand headphones, they come in a dust resistant bag + fold flat. They're plenty loud for the airplane, and I haven't managed to destroy them yet. The cable is pretty short too which keeps it from snaking around all your poo poo in your bag.
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Apr 29, 2016 18:43
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.Z. posted:Does anyone have suggestions for a laptop/tablet stand to use on the airplane? Something elevate the screen up to eye level. If you get an X or T series Thinkpad, the display rotates more than 180 degrees, so you can open it flat and lean it against the seat in front of you. That's what I've been doing the last 4 years. The hinges will happily do that all day long. Otherwise I have a grippy clamp thing I use to prop up my cell phone to watch movies, but the Thinkpad comes drat near everywhere with me so it doesn't get much use.
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Jul 9, 2016 08:52
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Need more info on this whole colored sand thing. More curious than anything else
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Jul 11, 2016 00:56
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Coffee in Colombia isn't substantially cheaper, and the coffee you can buy in Colombia, is the Grade B and Grade C coffee. All the Grade A coffee is sent for export. As a result the not so cheap grade B coffee is pretty terrible. I don't know if the same applies for wool, but I suspect it does.
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Dec 5, 2016 03:44
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REI Flash 18
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Mar 13, 2017 18:48
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Waroduce posted:My gf and I are going to Italy for 10 days and we ordered a 40L G4Freebackpack and an Outdoor Master 50L off amazon....they were like $20 and 36$ respectively. For 10 days of not hiking and poo poo are these ok? I was originally leaning toward a Kelty Redwing 50L but they were like 100$ and she was bitching at me about how much it was when amazon had cheaper stuff. I'm a bit worried, but just for getting from Cologne to Rome for 10 days and back...should be ok? Yeah for 10 days you can generally use whatever bags. I spent $110 on a bag at REI in September 2009 and it's still my primary travel bag years and years later. I have at least 100,000 air miles and probably that many miles jammed in the back of some lovely local transport van, pls everything in between. If you don't need to trust it beyond two weeks take the cheapest duffel bag you can find Edit: actually if you want to beat your girlfriend at the cheap travel bags you guys could just take a dollar worth of thread and sew all your stuff up in a bedsheet like a big taco. I saw some destitute Australians doing that once in an airport. After the first 10 stitches or so you get the hang of it I bet and would only take five minutes or so to restitch. Good travel bags cost a lot but last a lifetime. Cheap ones are single season use at best. Mine still has at least five more years in it. Hadlock fucked around with this message at 04:17 on May 10, 2017 |
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May 10, 2017 03:54
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I usually carry $100 USD + passport + debit card in a money belt (old habits die hard) in the big pocket, and then $200 in local currency in the small pocket of the money belt, and $20-50 in my left pocket, cell phone in my right pocket. I formalized this system on my first international trip and I've never really strayed from it. If I have my money belt I know I have everything I need, and at a moment's notice can pat my front pockets to know if everything else is where it needs to be. Some people leave their passports etc at the hotel or hostel. It's really up to you and the situation. Everyone has a different system. The important part is that you have one and keep it consistent and stick with it. The people always losing their money and passports are the people who don't have a system. Same goes for packing your poo poo, both travel bag and day pack.
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May 12, 2017 17:27
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If you're just using cooking oil as a non-stick coating, a half size can of PAM does a great job.
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Jul 18, 2017 04:52
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We've used tortilla chips, peanuts and probably other oily foods to start fires before in Texas. Everything is typically dry as poo poo, except when it isn't, which usually means a giant squall line just rolled through and dumped 3" of rain on everything in half an hour.
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Jul 25, 2017 16:37
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What is your workflow like where you're using a KML file with 2000 placemarks? Just curious Getting ready to do a 6-8 week trip to SE asia, mostly hostelling and airbnb-ing by train and bus, it will be wet as we're arriving during monsoon season. I am basically ready to go, using the same general gear from my first trip 8 years ago (REI gear is amazing). Girlfriend has done a fair bit of traveling, this will be her third international trip this year The Pack/Bag section is way out of date, most of the links don't work anymore. I am looking for a pack for my 5'4" girlfriend of average size, I'm looking for a 55-65L bag, right? Has anything changed since 2009 in this space? Just your standard Cordoba "ballistic" nylon and oversize zippers? We bought her an Osprey day pack for hiking last year and we've mostly been happy with it but travel packs are designed/built differently. Also I think men are way less sensitive to how the weight of the pack is distributed across shoulders/chest/hips than women. We're probably going to hit up the SF and Berkeley REIs to find her a pack, is there anywhere else we should be visiting. Thanks
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Aug 30, 2017 22:31
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