5 Recommended, Must-Have Travel Items for 2011

January 17, 2011 by Katie
Filed under Gear & Gadgets, Travel + Wine

2011 is going to be a very busy year here at TravelPlusWine! There’s lots of wine and travel on the itinerary and it’s only mid-January. With travel and wine on the mind mind (as always), plus all the questions we receive about our favorite travel gear… here’s a list of my favorite travel items as we begin the new year:

1. Canon S95

This is, hands down, the best point and shoot camera I have ever owned. After too many frustrating and missed photo opportunities with my last camera, I decided it was time to upgrade to something that would take great pictures and allow me to manually adjust settings as needed.

The Canon S95 has delivered on everything. I’ve been especially pleased with the low light pictures as well as its amazing ability to shoot in macro mode (wine labels!).

2. Amazon Kindle – 3^rd Generation

I put off getting an eReader for the longest time because I never like to buy first generation products. I finally folded and bought the Kindle because I know I’ll be doing lots of traveling this year and want to save space in my bag.

The price also dropped to an affordable $139 which definitely played a part in my purchasing decision. If you’re going to travel a lot, be sure to buy a cover for your kindle.

3. ScotteVest

You can laugh all you want at 18 pockets, but they come in handy! This past fall, I took a trip to Eastern Europe and didn’t carry a purse for most of the trip. Instead, I picked a few key items and hid them in various pockets of my ScotteVest. Ricardo did the same thing with his and we vowed to never leave our ScotteVests at home again!

Buy an extra size bigger if you plan on utilizing the pockets… so, if you’re a small, buy a medium.

4. Moleskine

I might be a gadget-loving blogger, but I can’t leave home without a moleskine. It simply takes me to long to type things into my Android phone. I carry it in my purse or ScotteVest wherever I go because I never know when it’ll come in handy. This is great for list-makers and writers.

Moleskines can also double as a pocket size travel journal.

5. Wine Skins

Each wine lover needs to travel with a couple of these in his or her suitcase because they pack flat and then do a great job protecting your wine for the long trip home. In fact, Wine Skins are so handy, I can’t imagine how I ever traveled without them!