Category Archives: travelbunny

Bags & Luggage, Luggage, Packing, TeamUltraviolet, Tom Bihn

Organizing my travel stuff day

(I swear this is not a shrine to Tom Bihn 😉 )

Bags (from left to right):

1. Pacsafe Citysafe CS300 GII Anti-Theft Backpack

2. Tom Bihn SideKick and Tom Bihn Daylight Backpack

3. Tom Bihn Co-Pilot

4. Tom Bihn Synapse 25

5. Tom Bihn Aeronaut 30

On end: misc Tom Bihn stuff sacks

Below, right: Tom Bihn Night Flight Travel Duffle sitting on top of sunset orange Lug Puddle Jumper
In an effort to curb my wants for MOAR TRAVEL STUFFS I decided to gather my travel gear together to clear out any unnecessary duplication and be ready for my next trip.

I used a shoe organizer on the side of a portable coat rack to corral travel wallets, travel pill carriers, wet kits (liquid shampoo etc), dry kits (shampoo bars, toothpowder, etc), packable purses or day packs, and journals ready for filling with adventures.

(I don’t have my travel clothes hung up here as I have a good amount of wool based stuff so I keep them in an air locked bin with cedar and lavender to discourage the critters. )

Also, very important to leave space on top of a bin for a cat to crawl in and not wreak total havoc. 🙂

travelbunny

Do you fly Spirit airlines?

They recently changed their personal item size.
For Travel April 4, 2017 & Beyond:

Personal item (e.g., purse, small backpack, etc.): Dimensions must not exceed 18 x 14 x 8 inches (45 x 35 x 20 cm) including handles and wheels.

So a good portion of those underseat wheelies touted as Spirit friendly seem to be out of the running. Though it looks like Boarding Blue is on  top of it! their updated BoardingBlue Spirit Airlines Personal Item Under Seat bag meets the specs (don’t expand it though, it will exceed the measuring box).

Features (from Amazon’s website)

  • size-Zipped-In : 16″x12″x8″ ideal for Spirit, Frontier, Jetblue, America Airlines
  • Multiple pockets for travel accessories, including charger, Ipad, water bottle, ticket, etc
  • Friendly Reminder: Please Do NOT Pack Too Much. Or It may cause the bag oversized.

It’s rare that I actually need a wheelie these days. I tend toward a backpack unless I’m carrying a laptop or changing terminals (flying through DFW or ORD etc. Oh and there was that RIDICULOUS trek through IAH coming back from Uruguay and walked several miles to the customs line and back to my connecting flight. Normally walking isn’t a problem, but after a long sleepless overnight flight I was pre-caffeine and crabby.) 

I still use an American Tourister Atmosphera Tote I got years ago that does fit under the seat and is pretty good for regional jets, but it wouldn’t work if I needed to fly Spirit. Here’s a later version sold at The Mart of Wal…

Non-wheelie options:

Of course you could go with a messenger bag or a backpack:

5 Cities | 16 Inch Carry On Hand Luggage Flight Duffle Bag, 2nd Bag or Underseat, 19L $ – this one specifies it works on Spirit.

Uniqlo | 3 Way Bag $ – I have this bag and I really like it. It’s somewhat deconstructed, and several folks on youtube use it for ultralight travel.  Here’s Packing Lite’s video. 

Mochi Things | Travelus Multipurpose Bag $$$ – I have a similar bag called an “overnight” backpack but I use it for week long jaunts. I also keep it loaded as I have elderly grandmothers and never know when I need to jump on a plane to get back home. Mine was about $30 on NewChic.com.

I always think ultralight packing is always the way to go, but changing bag dimensions was a pretty irritating move on Spirit’s part :/

Anyone flown on Spirit lately? How did you pack? 

travelbunny

Prepping for Paris!

Ever since college, when I studied in Paris for my French degree, I’ve managed to make it to Paris just about every 3 years by hook or by crook. Sometimes that meant eating more ramen than was to my liking and forgoing the things that make life fun, but saving for retirement *and* travel is necessary to me. I just skipped movies and dinners out.

During the aughts I couldn’t maintain the 3 year plan so I went other places like St Martin and Hawaii with friends and mileage points, but couldn’t quite swing Paris. 

And now, FINALLY I am able to get to Paris later this year! (Cross your fingers that the current regime doesn’t blow up the planet before then!) I’m reviewing options for places to stay, organizing passport / visa details, looking around to see if a travel SIM or just an international plan with my wireless provider will do, and generally tweaking my travel wardrobe for optimal comfort while not looking like a hobo in yoga pants.

Alien and Eiffel Tower
Alien and Eiffel Tower!

So excited!

Bags & Luggage, travelbunny

New travel day pack!

Recently I sold my Sea to Summit daypack, which served me well, however it drove me bonkers by not going back into the sleeve nicely. (Truly a personal issue… it’s a great daypack.)

I found another ultralight pack nosing around a drugstore and it passed the “go gently into that good storage case” test. It’s the Lewis N Clark electrolight pack. They also have ultralight compression micro packing cubes and dopp kits which I also tested out and loved. REI  has almost the exact same micro packing cubes in grey if you want to use your dividend there 🙂 

NOTE: to all the Tom Bihn afficionados, the micro packing cubes work perfectly in the Night Flight Travel Duffle center section for packing as well, but, I digress…

The shoulder straps are nicely lined with a bit of a grippy material which helps when you are wearing a Patagonia slippery down jacket. The material isn’t shiny, but has a gloss to it while still feeling a bit velvety. I toss it into my one bag carry set up and can use it as a shopping bag or a plane stuff bag while I’m in the air.

I’m ready to go test this out on a trip now!

Packing, Tom Bihn, travelbunny

Night Flight Travel Duffle & an ultralight trip 

I went home for a visit recently and decided that I just didn’t feel like bringing much stuff at all. (It’s home; I generally end up running around in leggings and a sweater all week. My family isn’t all that dressy anyway 🙂  )

So I grabbed my Tom Bihn Night Flight Travel Duffle and put in the basics:

  • Survival kit (see contents below)
  • iPad and keyboard cover + cables
  • Noise cancelling ear buds
  • Travel cpap + wall plug
  • Some tshirts, socks and undies
  • Miscellaneous stuff (glasses case, 1st aid kit zippy, power bank, gorilla pod, slim power adaptor, etc.)

Here is most of the “stuff” that I took (my iPhone is taking the picture) and most of that went in one of the side pockets.

One of the things that really saves space is my “survival kit”.

It stands up in the corner of the center compartment and takes the place of several other pouches people tend to have. It is a LeSportsac Kevyn Cosmetic Case that has a large zip section and a side pocket. I have several dry toiletries in the big zip compartment, such as JR Ligget shampoo bar, tooth brush, tooth powder, an eyeliner pencil, lip stain, nail nippers, Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Swivel Stick (0.5 Ounce) and I made a tiny deodorant by remelting it into an empty swivel stick container. (Regular travel deodorants are handy but the form factor takes up a lot of room.) The side zip pocket has several short cables for charging my phone and iPad as well as micro USB for my travel batteries. I also keep a low profile power bank in there that stores tidily and lets me charge my phone at least once.

(I have a USB extender cable in my duffle so that I don’t have to worry about using those 3 inch cables in a wall plug 😉 )

This kit stays packed and moves with me from bag to bag. Mighty handy.

So aside from what I wore on the plane, this was the clothing I took and it fit in a Tom Bihn mesh packing cube that went into the same pocket as the little bit of stuff.

It fits under the seat rather nicely.

Not pictured: I do carry a pouch purse (usually the Side Effect) for my phone, wallet, etc.  it’s much easier to get through security with that stuff at hand.  I just got the Sidekick so it will be even easier to travel ultralight now!

travelbunny

Patagonia Lightweight Travel Tote Pack 


Buy on amazon.com

With versatile carrying options as a handheld tote or a hands-free backpack, this pack is suitable for all sorts of casual travel. The Patagonia Lightweight Travel Tote Pack is made from weather resistant ripstop nylon fabric with a polyurethane coating, a silicone finish, and Air Flow mesh shoulder straps that offer all day carrying comfort. The roomy main compartment has a zippered closure and includes a large zippered stash pocket and stretch mesh water bottle pockets. Side compression straps help to secure your load while the empty bag can be stuffed into its own pocket for convenient storage in between uses.

I love this form factor! I have a Sherpani Via pack (sadly discontinued but still going strong) that I use for short trips or just packed into my suitcase on other trips.

No padded shoulder straps, but they are wide & sturdy enough that they don’t cut into your shoulders over the course of the day.

I haven’t looked around to see if this is available elsewhere but if you find something like this, it is very useful!

Patagonia Lightweight Travel Tote Pack (Drifter Grey) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AA59RDK/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_U05Iyb7D4TP04

Sherpani Via Packable Daypack – Women’s (the REI historical listing – they have a “similar items” link to click on their site as well)