It’s amazing how a pair of headphones, a pillow, or a carry-on bag can make or break your trip. That’s why we’re going through all of our favorite travel gear in this week’s special bonus episode. The list includes strollers, luggage, eye masks, neck pillows, earplugs, and more. Plus, we help a listener use his Capital One miles, and the guys answer: What’s the one piece of travel gear you want if money (or shame) were no object?
It’s amazing how a pair of headphones, a pillow, or a carry-on bag can make or break your trip. That’s why we’re going through all of our favorite travel gear in this week’s special bonus episode. The list includes strollers, luggage, eye masks, neck pillows, earplugs, and more. Plus, we help a listener use his Capital One miles, and the guys answer: What’s the one piece of travel gear you want if money (or shame) were no object?
00:00 - Gunnar’s travel etiquette proposal
03:06 - Jeff and Angie at the Alila Ventana Big Sur welcome us to the show!
04:15 - Gunnar’s Half-Day Garment Duffel Bag
06:30 - Kyle’s headphones and AirFly adapter
08:12 - Kasey’s headphones, backpack, and toiletry kit
10:10 - Gunnar’s Patagonia Black Hole Duffel Bag
11:30 - Tracey’s MiFold Booster Seat
13:15 - Kyle’s Tumi Backpack
16:10 - Join us at the Thrifty Traveler Podcast … Live on June 12!
17:10 - Gunnar’s Mzoo Eye Mask and Turtl Pillow
20:20 - Katie’s Bose Quiet Comfort Headphones
22:35 - Kyle’s Epicka adapter … and the new, better one from Anker
25:50 - Gunnar’s BabyJogger travel stroller
28:05 - Kyle’s pill and contact case and Mack’s earplugs
31:10 - Jon’s Ostrich Pillow
33:40 - What would you do with 125,000 Capital One Miles?
37:55 - Your dream piece of travel gear
Produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas
Video editing by Kyle Thomas
Show music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot
Yo, welcome to the show. I'm Gunner, that's Kyle. We're talking about our favorite travel gear today. And to be honest, I have a few. Favorite's Kyle, but I'm not like a huge gearhead. But I do have a lot of things that have made my life a lot easier over the years. What about you? Are you a gearhead?
Definitely not a gearhead. I'm like a borderline Luddite. I barely buy anything for myself, um, and almost never buy like the next new piece of technology. So, but that I do like really rely on the things that I have. Grind everything into the ground and then buy it again once it's fallen apart. Yeah. So I, I, there are a couple of things we're gonna talk about where I have had multiple versions of the same thing because I just used them and liked them so much.
Yeah. Luckily we have lots of team members who are borderline gear heads or people who love gadgets and fun things. So we solicited some of their help and we have some submissions into this podcast as well from our friends here at Thrifty Traveler. But first, before we get started, Kyle, I have a pitch for you.
It's like a travel etiquette proposal. Okay. So at ski resorts and on golf courses, excuse me, my, my privilege is showing
you, you really need like a white sweater wrapped around and tied in front. If you're gonna start that sentence.
At ski resorts and on golf courses, people. People are always asking each other and complimenting each other on the equipment.
Obviously there's like a ton of equipment and people spend a ton of money to be in those games. Uh, but people are always like, you know, uh, where'd you get those skis? Or, how do you like that putter? Or, I love your jacket, and things like that. Can we bring this to the airport? Can we bring this kind of like this, this stoke to the airport?
Like people just gassing each other up about the gear they have. Like I, I think, I think if, if we brought some of this energy. To people at the airport like, Hey, I really love that bag. Where did you get it? I, there's not a lot of that going on in the travel experience. Maybe if maybe people would stop wearing Crocs and pajama pants and a SpongeBob hoodie on their flights, if they knew that if they dressed up a little bit.
People like you and me were, were gonna be gassing 'em up at the airport. What do, do you think? Okay,
calm down, Sean Duffy. I, I do, I do like this idea, but my question is whether you genuinely believe that this will improve the travel experience or what, if what you're really asking for is you just want a hype man.
Yeah, I do. I would like a, I would like a hype man. I think maybe, maybe there's a chance it could improve the travel experience, but, you know, mostly I just want people to, uh, to head to the airport thinking, Hey, maybe I'm gonna get a compliment today. This does, however, break a lot of my rules, opens me up to a lot of conversations and maybe not, don't wanna have every day, but I don't know, maybe just a little more positive energy at the airport.
I, I like it. You know, be the change you wanna see in the world. Yeah. You start next time you're at the airport, which by my measure, is probably within the next 24 hours as we're talking. Just find somebody and compliment 'em on their travel gear.
I'm gonna do that. You tell
me how it goes.
I'm gonna do that.
I'll report back. Alright. Today on the show we've got suitcases, pillows, headphones, strollers. And more of our favorite travel gear. All that and more.
Okay. Welcome back to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast from Ali Ventana, big sir.
And we found this points redemption. Thanks to an alert from Thrifty Traveler Premium.
Okay. That was Jeff and Angie from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. They were at the Alila Ventana Big Sur in California. One of those Hyatt properties. I know I need to see, by all accounts, one of the best ones in the world. Thank you so much for sending us your video. Always great to see the Midwest showing out in on the West coast in some of those fancy resorts, you know,
beautiful looking property.
Extremely jealous of Jeff and Angie. Haven't made it there myself. I did, however, realize a couple of weeks ago on the pod when we talked about. On my trip to Phoenix and going to Travel on Points Meetup I said and a I that I had met a lovely couple from Eau Claire, Wisconsin and I didn't catch their names.
Lo and behold, it was Jeff and Angie. So I recognized them straight away when I saw this video. So thank you Jeff and Angie for sending this in.
Alright, Jeff and Angie, thank you. If you want your video featured on the show, upload it to thrifty traveler.com/voicemail. Okay, let's talk travel gear. I think we'd agree.
This list is by no means comprehensive. We took, we talked about at the beginning, maybe we're not the biggest gearhead, but it's just a good sampling of things we love and that make our travels easier. And of course our, our colleagues that submitted some stuff to us in the form of videos, uh, showed us that we don't know what we're talking about at all.
So I'm excited for everybody to see what they have.
So, tune into this Must listen. Authoritative podcast. Having said all that.
Having said all that, I'm gonna start with my first thing, Kyle, and I am actually really proud of this and it's not something that I would've ever bought for myself. It was a gift from my mom and I didn't know that I needed this thing, but it is called the half day garment duffle bag.
We'll put a video on the podcast for our YouTube listeners of me, Vanna Whiting. This. Thing and showing you exactly all the bells and whistles and a video on the side. But, um, it is basically a suit bag that folds up, kind of wraps around itself into a duffle bag that you can then fill full of clothes.
Um, I love it because it keeps my suits from getting wrinkled. I'd hit, you know, I've before had to travel with like a steamer because, you know, we go to a lot of weddings and our. Twenties and early thirties, and I find myself needing to keep my suits nice. And it's a perfect, like carry on size, a perfect weekend, wedding sized bag, you know, and it's got like spots for your shoes on the inside as well, which I really love.
Um, this is $118 on half days website. Uh, there's a roller version, uh, that's a little bigger and fancier for $258, but this is from half day travel, the garment duffel 40 liter bag. I love this thing. Have you seen this before?
I don't know that I've seen this particular one, but, uh, my wife and I have something similar, which we're at now, at a different season of life where the last wedding that we went to, let alone traveled for was a couple of years ago, but we, the, the last big trip that we took for a wedding, we actually did two in the same summer.
One was in San Francisco. And then the other was in Italy over the course of a five day span. So we packed one of these garment bags full of, uh, suits and dresses. Um, and it is really, really handy. I think the one thing that you need to be mindful of is getting it into the overhead and not having it squished, because no matter how good your garment bag may be, there's only so much you can ask it to do to protect your clothes.
Yeah, I love that one. What's your first item here?
I'm gonna go a little bit out of order because the, the first item is on my head. It's these, uh, Bose quiet comfort, Bluetooth noise canceling headphones. These come with me on every single trip. So, um, you know, I'm gonna be making my way to Southeast Asia pretty soon.
These are gonna leave the studio. They're gonna come with me, but I'm gonna pull out the accompanying device and Airly Essentials. By 12 South Bluetooth adapter. I just call it a dongle, which sounds a, a tiny bit sexual. It is not. It just allows me to plug into any seat, back screen, uh, flying Delta, flying Cafe Pacific, whatever airlines that for the most part still don't have Bluetooth connectivity.
And so that I can turn these on. Noise cancellation drowns out a ton. Makes it much easier to watch something fall asleep. Uh, this is just a must have for me. And I think I bought these for like. $149 during Black Friday a couple years ago. Typically, it's in the neighborhood of 249 even more. Uh, but if you wait for a good deal, this is one of the best buys I think a traveler can make.
Whether you get the, the, the Bose noise canceling headphones or something from Sony or another company, I think knows. Noise canceling headphones are just kind of an essential for at least long haul travel.
Yeah, absolutely. I would totally agree with that. And the, that, that dongle, the airly is also a really, really good product.
Uh, you see people with them on Delta flights all the time watching their inflight entertainment screens. Hands free or wire free. I guess there's always hands free viewing. It would be strange to have your hands on the screen in front of you. Um, okay, let's move on. And we are, we've got a submission here from our coworker Casey, who you know, from, uh, as Casey Meets World.
She was on an earlier episode of the podcast. We'll let Casey introduce her own product here.
My name's Casey, and I'm the influencer and affiliate marketing manager here at Thrifty Traveler. I travel pretty much full time, and here are three things that I never leave my house without. Number one are my Sony headphones.
These are the 1000 XM six series. They are noise canceling and they have over 30 hours of battery life. So when I'm in an airport or an airplane, I can hear nothing when I put these on and they're very comfortable to sleep in. Number two and three are both from Bear Bradley. This is my backpack that I take with me everywhere.
It doubles as a carry-on or personal item depending on what I need for. For, and also as a day pack when I get to my destination. I love that this opens up like a suitcase. It has plenty of pockets and storage and also it has a water bottle holder, which, uh, is perfect for me 'cause I always have my water bottle on me when I'm traveling.
Lastly, like I said again, from VE Bradley, this is a toiletry bag. I've had this for 10 years and it still looks brand new. I love that it is water resistant, so if I need to put anything that's wet in it or if I take this through TSA on the airplane and my liquids explode, it never. Leaks outside of this bag.
That's awesome, Casey. Thank you so much for submitting those. Um, yeah, another set of noise canceling headphones. These are really nice ones. These 1000 XM six series. Uh, and then it was, uh, the Vera Bradley backpack also looked like it had a ton of functionality, but I really love that she had a toilet bag in here because my toilet tree bag game is horrible.
Is it, is it just a big plastic bag, like a big Ziploc?
It's like a big, like mesh bag, like a, almost like a camping bag that I have various, uh, amenity kits that I've gotten from flights inside of it to like, compartmentalize different things. So like all, all the waterproof things go into one, but I could use just like one nice toilet tree bag and, uh, I haven't found the one.
Maybe it's from Vera Bradley. What are your, any thoughts on, uh, Casey's gear here?
A lot of good stuff. Yeah. Um, yeah.
A lot of really good stuff. Okay, I want to go to my second item and this is my Patagonia Black Hole duffel bag. Um, I was trying to figure out which size mine is. I think it's the 70 liter one, which, uh, retails right now@patagonia.com for 199 bucks.
Um. I got a pretty huge one. I'll show it to you again on the video on the side here, but it's, uh, I, I think I'd probably size down one size. The one I have is currently huge. When I stuff it full, it doesn't really fit in the overhead bin. I've made it fit before, but, uh, it's when I, I usually don't stuff it completely full, but.
What I love about it is it's just super versatile. It, it works really great with packing cubes 'cause as it's a duffle, you know, things get shuffled around. But with packing cubes inside, I can fit everything that I need that my daughter needs. Um, it works great as like a, you know, bag for my ski trips 'cause it goes on as a backpack and then I could wheel my skis behind me.
Um, it's also has worked for me as just a simple weekend carry on. But I love this bag. Crazy, durable. I've, I've put it through the ringer. It's gone through all sorts of conditions all over the world. This thing has traveled with me everywhere, so I love this bag. The smallest one 40 liters is 165. The largest one a hundred liters is 225.
I don't know why you'd need that much space unless you're only checking bags.
Calling this bag, the black hole is a choice.
Yeah,
that's really good.
Very, very Patagonia. Okay, I want to bring in Tracy now who has another submission for another piece of gear.
Hi, this is your product manager, Tracy, and one of my most used travel items is the My Fold booster seat.
It folds down to about the size of a book, so it makes it great for throwing in a backpack or a suitcase, but when you open it up, it has a strap. That attaches to the seatbelt and helps bring the seatbelt down to the child's correct shoulder height. It also unfolds and has two sides that come out that help bring the lap belt across the width of the child.
Well, I wouldn't recommend this for daily use. It is great if you are. Jumping in and out of Ubers and taxis for short distances. Um, it just makes those trips where you don't have a regular car seat a lot easier. It's recommended for kids ages four and up and meets us safety standards. But please do your own research on that part.
The booster seat typically runs $75 and can be found on my fold. That's MI fold or on Amazon.
That's great. Thank you so much, Tracy. I, I feel lucky every day that we have so many competent parents, uh, who went through the glass ahead of me at this company who can now, you know, show me all the ways. 'cause having something that small, that compact to, you know, is, you know, you can throw it in a, a purse or a, a backpacker, anything.
And then if you're, you know, like she said in and outta Ubers or just as you travel, just having something that compact for your, your small child to, uh, get around in and. Only 75 bucks on my Folds website. That's a pretty good deal there too.
That's, that's so handy. Yeah. I, I, I guess be just, it never occurred to me that you would need something like this, let alone that there would be a product for it.
That is really a really good shout for parents with young kids.
All right, Kyle, you're next.
Yeah. Um, my, probably my single favorite and most important piece of travel gear is not a carry on. It's my personal item. It's my backpack, which I've talked about on the show. Um, it is from, to me, I don't know what, like, name of the bag that I have is because I bought it on sale at TJ Maxx like five years ago.
Um, but. It. It's less about the bag itself and which backpack is best for everybody. It's about finding the backpack that has. Spots for everything that you want to bring in your personal item to have easy access to onboard and man, this big is just so killer for me. We'll show it like off screen a little bit and kind of give it, give a quick tour through all of the different pockets.
But there's a pocket on the side for my laptop charger. There's a pocket on the other side where I store these headphones 'cause they can just fold up and fit straight in there along with a cord for if and when I need it, if my Bluetooth adapter dies or something. There is a slot for the laptop in the, in the back of the, kind of the main compartment.
There's one in the front for either an iPad or a Kindle, or both. There's like a huge main compartment, which is where I put my toiletries, um, and amenity kits and stuff, as well as a water bottle and maybe a hat or a cha, uh, like a small change of clothes. It just, it really has everything including like these two front pockets where I have one where I put a pair of sunglasses in a case and might.
Glasses in a case, which I, I always need my glasses on a flight after I take my contacts out if I'm going to sleep. So having easy access to that is awesome. And then on in the other one, I always have, um, a international travel adapter, cords for easy access. Kind of wound up well, and then after we leave the house and lock the house and hop in an Uber to go to the airport, I put my keys in there and it has like a little key ring to keep 'em secure so there's no risk of them falling out or getting lost.
This is. To, to me, having a good backpack is way more important than having a good carry-on. Most carry-ons are basically the same. It's two big compartments, maybe with some additional features like a kickstand for luggage or um, a laundry bag or something like that. But other than that, they're more or less the same.
Having a good personal item just gets you so much further and having all of that easy access to the things that you want on the flight is just, it's a game changer.
Yeah. I've been, I've been chasing the elusive perfect personal item and considering you can't even tell me what the name of your backpack is.
It doesn't bode well for my future that I'll find something as good as you found. But
you gotta go on the hunt. You gotta find it. TJ Maxx, buddy.
I gotta find it, man. I gotta find it. No, that's, that's a really good one. I, I've, I've seen you with this backpack. It's, this is your everyday backpack and your travel backpack.
It's just all in one for you, huh?
Yep. Yep. Everything I need.
Outstanding. All right, we've got a few more things to get to, but first we're gonna take a quick break. Uh, alright. Listeners, this is starting to feel a little one-sided. You all get to look at us and listen to us every single week, but we've never seen you before and so we're gonna try and change that.
At the Thrifty Traveler Live show June 12th at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis. Kyle, are you excited to see what our listeners look like?
I don't know that they're excited to see us in person. I don't know if I'm ex Are we ready for that, is the question? Are we ready for the insults?
I don't know. I don't know.
It's gonna be, it's gonna be strange. Um, I just assume that people enjoy listening to us, but it might just be very awkward if it's just crickets the whole time.
Not, not an ounce of laughter.
Well, that's what, uh, a couple of cocktails, maybe two red wines at the bar at the parkway beforehand. It'll make us sound a lot funnier and a lot cooler.
But in all seriousness, we would love to see you there June 12th at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis. Tickets are on sale now@thriftytraveler.com slash live. Uh, premium members get a little discount too. Check your email for a discount code there. Alright, back to the show. Alright, welcome back. We have more gear to get to, and if you're watching the YouTube, you could see that I'm doning my next set of gear right now.
Kyle, I cannot see you, um, because I am currently wearing my MSU sleeping eye mask as, as well as. My turtle pillow. Now you've, if you're a thrifty traveler follower, you've probably heard us talk about the turtle pillow before because the turtle pillow is one of the best travel gear items. One of the best travel objects out there.
It's actually the only pillow. Where you can sleep on a plane, at least in my experience.
I'm sorry, I can't take you seriously. I'm dying over here looking at you.
Look, it's, this is what it looks like when I go to sleep on a plane. It's a very strange look. It, it feels like you're in a neck brace in this thing.
The way it is, if you're just listening, it wraps all the way around your neck and it's kind of got this, this structured base on one side so that you can just kinda lean into one side or the other and fall asleep that way. I've now lifted up my eye masks so that, uh. I can actually see your reactions to me, Kyle.
It's significantly less funny now than it was 30 seconds ago, but it's probably, you were about to like headbutt your mic for a second there,
but, uh, this, I, I love this turtle pillow. I mean, it's the only thing I've ever been able to sleep on an airplane with, and I love this eye mask because it's one of the structured ones, so it doesn't touch, like there's no fabric touching your eyes itself.
I, you know, the, the. Freebies that they give you on planes on in business class or premium economy doesn't cut it for me. I need something with some structure around my eyes that really cuts out all of the light. So I love this. This is the MSU Luxury Eye mask. It's $16, uh, which is pretty cheap for a luxury item.
And then the turtleneck pillow, which is $65, all the new. Turtle pillows come with like carrying cases too. This is just an old amenity kit that I carry mine around in. So, uh, I love these two products. If you wanna sleep on a plane, you need both, in my opinion.
How, how are you as a plane sleeper in economy?
Uh, okay. Okay. Um, third red wine will get me there for sure. Uh, no, I'm, I like sometimes good, sometimes bad. It kind of depends if I'm, you know, in a comfortable situation. Like if I'm in a, if, if I'm in a two, you know, in a 2, 4, 2 layout in economy, like if I'm just sitting next to my wife, that's pretty easy to sleep.
If, if it's in a row of three, then I'm constantly worried about someone having to get up and go pee or whatever, and then, you know, then I find it hard to turn it off, but. Usually when I'm flying economy, I just write off the sleep and if it happens, it's a bonus kind of thing. Um, but if I have both of these things on, that's the only chance I've got.
Yeah, that's fair. My, my personal record for sleeping in economy on a long haul flight, um, a long haul flight of 14 and a half hours is 15 minutes. So I think I need to try out the turtle pillow. I've tried a handful of different ones. Um, it's been a while since I've flown that long in economy. Uh, but yeah, sleeping on an airplane, not, not my jam.
Not good at it. Can't do it. I can't even sleep in cars. Meanwhile, my wife falls asleep on a 30 minute drive for 20 of those minutes.
Yeah, I definitely can't fall asleep in cars or anything like that. But the turtle pillow is the closest thing I've gotten to real sleep on a plane before. Okay, let's kick this over to our coworker Katie Rollins.
Katie, what do you got?
Hey everyone. My favorite travel accessory is the Bose Quiet Comfort Headphones. They are over the ear headphones. They work super well. I really love them, especially when I'm flying. I just got them for Christmas and before only used Air Prod AirPods, and these are our game changer.
They literally block out like every single noise and the audio on them is really great. I got them for Christmas present, and I'm not sure exactly. How much they cost at the time, but I, they were definitely less than $200. I just looked these up on Amazon and they're currently going for about $230, and I do know that there's the Quiet Comfort Ultra headphones, which are supposedly even better than these, and those are going for around 300 right now.
I highly recommend. These are great, do a really great job blocking out noise. They get the job done, and they also come with a little. Um, headphone jack. So if what you're watching doesn't have Bluetooth capabilities or if you don't have one of the little airly things and they work really great, I've loved them and I highly recommend.
Awesome. Katie. Thank you. That was Katie Rollins. She's one of our flight deal analysts. She finds all the thrifty traveler premium deals that you all are booking and flying all over the world, yet another endorsement for the Bose Quiet Comfort headphones. That's also what I've got on here that, I mean, I, I think it's just.
F the combination of value and how good they are. It's just the perfect headphone, in my opinion.
Yeah. I Especially if you can get 'em on sale, like Yeah. Like Katie did or like I did, it's, they're so reasonable. And you know, I've had these for. At least six years prior to that. I had another pair that I bought used that lasted more than six years.
It was like an older model, but still, I mean, they do last a long time. It's a, it, it can be a little bit of sticker shock if you've only ever bought a, you know, 20, $30 pair of headphones, but especially if you're traveling internationally at least once a year, if not more. I, I just think it's an investment that makes every, every flight better.
Yeah, for sure. And like you said. Chase the deal on this Black Friday, they almost always get discounted, and then usually once or twice a year we'll see a good discount on the Bose quiet comfort headphones. Awesome poll. Katie. Thank you so much. Kyle. What's your next item here?
So every international traveler needs an.
International travel adapter. 'cause you're gonna go some places, whether it's in the UK or the rest of Europe or Asia or Australia, and their plugs are a little bit different. And I'm telling you, you do not need that bag full of like four different adapters that you plug all of your things into. You need a one and done solution.
And so for years, I used this one from a company called Epica. Pronunciation, probably not correct. Um, but it's super handy. It can do EU, UK, USA and Australia, which covers everything. All every country in the world uses one of those versions of a plug. They're all a little bit different. And then it's got, um, four USBA slots, A-U-S-B-C.
Slot on the side for faster USB charging and then kind of your main universal power socket. And so this has been in my bag for probably five plus years. And then just recently because it was on sale, I bought the ANCO anchor nano adapter, which has basically all of the same functionality. But is roughly a half of the size.
This is actually kind of incredible how much they packed into this. There it has all of the same adapters, uk, eu, USA, Australia. It has, uh, as well as just a normal power port to plug in a laptop charger or whatever. Um, it has two USBA Chargers and two USBC chargers as well. And this is, this is never gonna leave my bag, period.
And if and when it breaks at some point in the next decade, I'll just buy it again. And I'm sure by the time that happens, there will be an even smaller version until it basically disappears. It amazes me that they can make these things this small, all of which is to say, stop carrying around that weird bag.
Or, you know, the thing you can buy from AAA where it's like five different sockets that you bring one with, and then you forget it one time, or you bring the wrong one. Just knock it off this cost. $20 on Amazon. Um, I think full price is somewhere in the neighborhood of $24 on Amazon. It's a great deal and I think a must have.
Yeah, I, I, I have something similar to your bigger one. Uh, and I use it all the time, including just flying around domestically because it just basically serves as a multi-port option for me. So, you know, you get to a hotel room that just has the one outlet next to your bed, and I need to. You know, charge several different things.
I also use it on the planes all the time when you know, the USBC isn't working, or sorry, the USBA isn't working on your, uh, in flight entertainment screen, or, you know, you don't have any in flight entertainment screens to plug into. You plug it into the seat in front of you, and then you have all these extra options.
And it's like, they're very sturdy too. But that nano one is amazing. I can't believe how small it's,
yeah. These are also great for planes because the, the power sockets on planes are notorious for being too loose and you're, you're. You know, your normal cord just won't stick in there. This solves that problem every single time.
So it's a great thing to have in your bag, even traveling domestically.
Yeah. I'm, I'm jealous that you got that nano one. I, I balked. I didn't pull the trigger on it 'cause I thought the one I had is good enough. But it is a brick.
Yeah, it's a
brick.
I mean, and even the old one is not that big. Like, if this is what you have, you're fine.
But this smaller one, it's one of the few newer pieces of technology that I've bought within the last decade probably.
Yeah. Very good. Okay. Um, my fourth and final piece of gear is, uh, a new one to me and that is the Baby Jogger City Tour two. Stroller. Um, we got this on Black Friday for about $200. Right now it's listed for $300.
You can buy it in many places. I think we got ours through, through Walmart. Um, but I love this stroller as a travel stroller because it folds up into nothing and it fits in the overhead bin. No need for us to gate check it. I, I don't like sitting at the jet bridge and waiting for them to bring the strollers back up.
We just snap it right down into nothing. I'll, I'll demo it in a video as well. Uh, but it, it. Folds down really quick. It unfolds very quick. It fits into this very nice bag. It's only 14 pounds total, 15 pounds if you, uh, count the weight of the plushie and the toys that we have attached to it to keep our daughter happy.
But, um, it is almost in, when Emory is in the stroller, it lies almost completely flat. When it's time for her to nap, it goes almost completely upright. When she's jamming and she wants to see what's going on on the concourse, um, I love this. It, it was a very, very good, uh, purchase that we made before we took her to Finland for the first time, we realized that our big stroller that takes about three minutes to take down and pull apart, uh, was not going to work for us on the long haul over to Finland.
So we bought this thing and we use it all the time. It's really compact and lightweight and, uh, I love the Baby Jogger City Tour two stroller. Any thoughts on strollers?
I don't use strollers in my day-to-day life. Uh, this, this sounds like a great shout. Um, you know, having a stroller that does fold up that small is really incredible To be able to bring on a plane and to your point, not have to worry about it getting damaged or lost when you have to gate check it at the end of the jet bridge, to be able to just bring it on the plane and, you know, stow it with your luggage overhead is really awesome.
Um, I, I just have to point out that it was pretty brave of me to come forward with something baby related because I know all of our coworkers who are way better parents are gonna come at me with all the better travel strollers that they know of and that they love as well. So I'm really putting myself out there.
Uh, Tracy Jackson. Nick, Jared, Erica, please, please go.
Easy on '
em. Yeah, go easy on me. Or, or just lie and tell me that this is a good poll as well. All right, Kyle, your final travel item, your travel gear of choice. What's up?
I get a, I get a couple of things to pick from, but I'm gonna go with what is by far the lamest, but maybe the most important.
This is just a little pill case that is always in my amenity kit.
Okay.
Or in my, in my toiletry kit, that goes in my bag. But it's really nice in part because it costs like $6 on Amazon. But again, it has spots for like everything that I need in order to bring on a trip. So it just kind of folds apart.
It's got 1, 2, 3. Seven, eight different compartments. And again, it has a spot for everything that I need. So there's like some Tylenol and ibuprofen. Good to have both. There's a spot for like some Tums or some antacid. I have horrible seasonal allergies, so there's always a huge stash of, um, allergy medication in here.
There's a spot for melatonin, which is great for beating jet lag or just trying to sleep on the plane a little bit better. So I always have melatonin in here. Other, you know, like, um. Anti-nausea medicine if we're getting on a boat or something like that. And then maybe the best part is there's this little slot in the middle that everything kind of folds over and snaps into that has a spot for an extra pair of contacts.
Oh. Uh, which is really handy. So I always, I don't currently have one. I need to replace it. Um. But I always have a pair of contacts in here because if something, you know, if one of mine rips or tears or I just need to replace 'em, I've got an extra pair of contacts ready to go. Um, yeah, it this costs, you can just search for pill case on Amazon.
There's a million different versions of these. All of them cost basically under $10. But you know, unless, if you have. Very serious medication, um, you know, prescription medication that you may be worried about having a label on so that you can show to immigration authorities. This is my medication. It is prescribed to me.
This is perfect for your collection of over the counter stuff that you wanna bring with you.
Yeah, it's good. Separate your uppers and downers, your high dose edibles.
Hey, let's keep this PG 13, please.
No, that's a, that's a good one too. I there, the funny part about travel gear is that sometimes the lamest little things are the ones that really make the biggest difference.
It is, yeah. That is the perfect example of that. Something that, that you just never have to think about again because it's so good.
Right. I mean, every single time we publish a, like our holiday gift guide or you know. Stocking stuffers for Christmas and the winter holidays. I always include what is still probably my single favorite travel accessory, which is earplugs from a company called Max, MACK apostrophe S, because they are the most comfortable earplugs in the world.
They're so soft and so effective at drowning out noise either on the plane or if you're at an Airbnb or a hotel room and it's extra noisy. I always have like a dozen of these in. In my bag in a compartment somewhere, because you know, if you just need it and you need to plug 'em in and you don't wanna use those hard orange ones that basically every airline gives you, you've got some ready to go.
Yeah. That's also a really, really good one. Okay. Um, to close, we are going to kick it to our friend John Shaw. Better. John, what do you have? Wow.
Hey podcast guys. I don't think I'm doing this assignment right, but this is a really bad travel accessory. It's called the Ostrich Pillow. It's a hundred bucks.
It's super hot. I can't eat in it. I can't drink with it, and it really sucks.
All right, thanks, John. I, I don't think you totally understood what we were getting at here with the assignment.
Not exactly a glowing review of the ostrich pillow.
It's a hundred bucks and it really sucks. As John said, the ostrich pillow was something that we bought in the office a few years ago as we were just testing some of these like random travel items, and John just really took to the ostrich pillow a product that he clearly hates, but he just can't stop thinking about
the, so this, this has made an appearance on another episode of the podcast the first time that we had John on, where he put it on and then made an.
Admiral Akbar reference from Star Wars. And it also did I kid you not a spot on impression of Admiral Akbar. It was amazing. But there's also a photo or a video of him on a plane with his friends flying from MSP to Las Vegas, where he's just got this on and this crowd and this plane full of people and it's just, it's the best thing ever.
The Ostrich pillow. Ostrich pillow is now, I was doing some research, uh, just a. To verify the claim that it's a hundred bucks and it is, it's called the original napping pillow and they have to name it because Ostrich Pillow now has like lots of. Gear. They have other gear that's under this brand of ostrich travel or something.
Um, and they have like a lot more like regular looking neck pillows and things like that. But the original napping pillow is, and will always be the funniest travel accessory. And, and John. John loves it. He can't get enough of it as much as he hates it,
he, he can't, he can't get rid of it. No, it's, it looks like it's suffocating.
There's a hole for your head. You put this big thing that's basically like an oversized hat on, and then there's a hole for your nose in your mouth, and then holes on the top of it where you're supposedly supposed to like put your. Arms in it makes no sense. I don't, whoever at Ostrich Pillow thought that this was a good idea, clearly learned it was not, because that must be the reason why they've branched out into other things.
Yeah. Whoever, whoever, uh, came up with that idea was deep into your pill case, uh, when they came up with it. So only
the downers.
All right. Let's, uh, help a listener 'cause that's all for our gear. I think that's a good list of gear and, um. As always, our coworkers made us look way better on this one. Thank you all for your submissions.
Uh, also have you submissions, uh, podcast@thriftytraveler.com for gear that you swear by. We'd love to see and hear what you guys have for us as well. And at that same email address podcast@thriftytraveler.com. We're also still accepting your travel mistakes stories. I really wanna put together an episode where we go through some of our listeners travel mistakes, 'cause some of them that we've been sent already are really good and, uh, I can't, I'm gonna.
Come up with a grading scale and we're gonna see what we can do. Um, all right. Let's hear from Sean in Connecticut. Okay. Sean says, my wife, the brains of the operation.
We can very much relate Sean.
Yeah. Uh, my wife and I are 100% new at navigating this whole points thing and we are taking a British Isles cruise later this year.
We chose to fly premium economy on Virgin Atlantic. We also chose to have princess. Book the flights. So we're covered in case there are any issues with getting to London from JFK. So we are wondering how we can use our 125,000 ish Capital One Venture points to our advantage seeing we booked our flights through Princess.
Any guidance would be much appreciated. Kyle, we have a. Blank slate here for Sean. How would you spend Sean's 125,000 Capital One Venture Miles?
Oh man, the possibilities are endless. That's a good stash of Capital One Venture Miles. I mean, you could go the easy route that that doesn't mean it's the bad route.
Um, but if there are other things that you want to do, if there are ins you want to book, as you're spending some time in the UK or other travel expenses that you haven't yet paid for virtually any travel expense, you can just charge to a Capital One card, wait a couple of days, and then go back and erase that cost with your Capital One miles.
So if you just wanna reduce the cost of the trip that you're about to take, that's not a bad option. So, if it's, you know, 12,500, um, dollars in no. No, that's wrong. $1,250, much less, but still a good amount of money. You could cover that with those, um, you know, 125,000 capital one miles, if you'd rather put them towards a future trip.
I mean, the first thing that comes to mind for me is flying to Japan. On Japan Airlines. If you book, you know, basically at this point, a full 12 months out. Pretty readily find, uh, Japan Airlines business class seats for 55,000 miles each, uh, each way. Uh, capital One's transfer ratio is a little bit wonky, but if you look now, um, as we're talking about this, before the month of April ends, there's a transfer bonus from Capital One to Japan Airlines, which basically brings it one to one, all of which means you'd be able to cover your flights without spending the full 125,000 miles.
That's a really great option, I think.
Yeah, that's a really good option. I, I love that, Paul. Um, the, I think using your Capital One miles to cover travel expenses. Yeah. Like you said, just easy mode. I mean, whatever you're, you're. You know, tab at the end of your cruise comes to put that on your venture or venture X card, and then you can cover it with those points if you wanna just do it simply like that.
I mean, the, the crazy part about Capital One is just how versatile the, I mean, you could just go to 10 baseball games if you want MLB games for 5,000 points, 5,000 miles per seat, uh, throughout your year. I mean, there are so many ways you can do this. So, um. A really, really good problem to have. Sean, I hope we gave you at least a couple of ideas, but um, having more venture miles is never a bad thing.
Anything else for Sean?
I mean, I would also say, you know, of the many, many, many award deals that we send premium members, I would say 85 plus percent of them can be redeemed using Capital One miles by transferring them to a transfer partner. So if you don't have Japan on your radar for some time next year, you don't have that other next trip that you need to book, just wait for a great deal.
Read through the booking instructions, see where Capital One miles may fit in and put 'em to use to get something on the books for later in 2026 or 2027.
Yeah. Awesome, Sean. Have a great cruise. Uh, we're excited for you. If you want us to answer your question on the podcast or if you have any feedback for us, hit us up at podcast@thriftytraveler.com.
We might feature your question on next week's show. To close, we go on the spot, and it's my turn to put Kyle on the spot. You ready? I'm
sure.
Okay. Kyle, if money or shame were no object, what piece of gear would you want for your travel experience? It could be something that's out of reach financially or that you secretly wish you could pull off without being like a weirdo or an outcast.
What's, what is one thing, one object. If money or shame were no object. That you would like?
I have, I have two answers. I have a real one and and a funny one. I'll start with the funny one. So when we bought that ostrich pillow for John, which he clearly loves and hates so much, it was part of this broader story of just like testing out the goofiest travel accessories.
And I think we bought five, there was a sixth in the mix that we couldn't get budget for, which was a carry-on that doubled as a motorized scooter. And that's always been like. My white whale. I just, I would need video of either myself or somebody on the team just cruising through an airport terminal on this dumb little scooter that doubles as a carryon bag.
So that one I, we're gonna make it happen someday. Yeah. Watch for, watch for video. Thrifty traveler.com. Thrifty Traveler on Instagram. One day you're gonna see Gunner just scooting through MSP on this thing. The the real one is, I just. I've never been able to get myself to do it, in part because A, the cost is so high, and b, it's so ostentatious.
But part of me just always has really wanted like one of those big sturdy, dented ramoa aluminum carry-on bags. Mm-hmm. They're just so cool. That is the thing that I see in airports where to the, to what we started the show with. I wanna be like, Hey man, hey lady. Nice be, they're just, they're really cool to me.
Um. I, I don't know that I'll ever do it, in part because they are, are also in some ways kind of impractical. The bag itself weighs about 10 to 15 pounds, and you know, if you're traveling in some places in Southeast Asia or in Europe, the carry on weight limit is 15 pounds. So there you go, just with your empty bag full of air.
Maybe one day we'll see.
Yeah, that's a good one. I really like that one. Uh, especially the, the riding carry on. I think we need that. That was a funny, that was a funny, uh, story we did, we also reviewed the bev ledge, uh, which is the, the thing you insert into the window that comes with a little cup holder so you can put your beverages, uh, on your cup holder.
There's also a, uh, um, it was like a. Sheath, not a sheath. It's a, a little cover for the tray table so that you don't have to touch the germs of the tray table, and it also gives you another little pocket. I actually reviewed that one and it was, it was not a, not a good product either. I don't even remember the name, so they can't come after us.
It was like a hammock foot rest that strung over the seat back tray table. Um, which also apparently did not work. Not a lot of winners in that bunch of what we tested. I think maybe the Bev Lodge was the highest rated of everything we tried out.
I think it probably was, um, if money or shame were no object, the piece of gear that I would want would be, I want a pair of Healy.
You remember Healy? I
do
the, the, the shoes, like the skate shoes that had, uh, a wheel on the back. So you just lifted your toes up, you get a little speed and you could just glide on the airport. Concourses. Uh, I used to just run amuck through O'Hare with those when I was a middle schooler man. And, and those Healy had a.
Stranglehold on dudes my age in that kind of timeframe. Early aughts, they did, everyone had Healy. It was an arm, a Healy's, arms race really. And uh, we all had 'em. And I used to just be zipping through airports. No carry on. Not a, not a carry in the world, just firing around the airport. And I, I want that back.
I want that freedom back.
Everybody would hate you all. I can picture. Is you with your hees just walking all funny through the airport, and then all of a sudden you turn back to your wife and your small daughter and say, see you at the gate, and then just zoom off.
That's a good place to end it. Thank you so much for listening to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast.
Rate us five stars on your podcast platform of choice and like, and subscribe to the show on YouTube. Send this episode to someone you know who needs a vacation and send this episode to Healy. If they're looking for a new sponsor, we, we would sponsor them. Okay. That's how much I love Heal. Uh, if you have feedback for us, send me a note@podcastattraveler.com.
We'd love to hear from you there. Kyle, tell us about the team.
This episode was produced by your favorite host who needs a pair of Healy like, no man I've ever met Gunner Olson. It was produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas, and edited by Kyle Thomas. Our theme music is by Benjamin Teso. See you next time.
See you.