Category: Travel Gear

Finally Finding a Durable Travel Hat -- In a Style that Really Fits

1/24/2020

Gear Review By Kelly McDaniel
I have a long and complicated relationship with the sun.
I'm habitually cold, so I'm naturally drawn to its warmth. But my pale skin must hide from it, otherwise I'm in for another painful sunburn.
Hats have become a necessary travel accessory, but my head causes one teensy little problem -- it's about the size of a grape. Hats typically don't fit me.
When I shop for them, I head straight to the children's section and hope that the selection won't be too glittery or cheap. Because, yes, the hat must be functional and fashionable!
So, when Tenth Street Hats offered me a chance to find my dream hat in exchange for an honest review, I was excited to check out the company's lineup of fashionable styles and colors.
I started browsing the expansive website and immediately found several that looked great. But needing a hat that could travel well, I decided to choose a hat from their "Crushable" category, knowing that would be the most practical.
Even after narrowing my choices to only the crushable hats from the hundreds they sell, I still had numerous material options to choose from -- felt, wool, polyester, raffia -- and in multiple styles including beret, rain hats, fedora, safari and more. I chose the hand-crafted "one size fits all" straw Levanzo hat by Scala. It has an adventurous look with its leather chin cord, but it is also feminine with a wide brim.

Once it arrived, I immediately tried it on. Lo and behold, it was too big on me, which I expected. Of course!
However, with every order, Tenth Street Hats includes a two-pack of sizing tape to fix this very situation. I used both pieces and the hat finally was snug enough to stay put. Next, I wanted to test the crushability factor, something I wasn't sure would work.
I've had straw hats before, and they did not bounce back when folded. Actually, they were ruined the moment they were tugged the wrong way. So, when I carefully folded the hat down, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was about the size of a shirt in my suitcase. Letting it go, it instantly went back to its original size and looked as good as new.

I deemed it ready for my next trip -- a cruise along the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. Knowing there would be days of strolling the ship's decks, spending hours at the beach, and taking walking tours through the towns and villages, this trip would test the Levanzo's durability, crushability and its sun protection.
I loved that it would be pretty darn cute, too.
In preparation for my trip, I read the Tenth Street Hats FAQ page to know how to care for my hat. I found the "How To Wear Your Hat" section extremely helpful as I had never worn a large brim hat before (shoutout to the Halo Style!). The website also gives tips on how to measure your head, what size to choose and fitting tips.

When it came time to pack, I folded the Levanzo twice and tucked it into the mesh pocket in the lid of my carry-on suitcase. I then took two flights, a shuttle bus ride and a tender boat trip before I was able to unpack the hat again. After 14 hours of travel, the hat needed a little time to adjust to its proper shape, but it snapped back as if it had never been folded at all. That's when I knew this hat was a keeper.
When I needed both hands to take pictures at the windy beachfront, I simply tightened the leather cord to my chin and the hat stay put even in strong wind gusts. And if you don't want the cord to hang down at all, just tuck it up inside the hat.

The Levanzo is a beautifully tailored and practical addition to my travel hat collection. Interested in adding a new hat to yours? You can check out the full lineup of Tenth Street travel hats to find some styles that suit you and your travel needs.
The company also offers a 30-day, hassle-free return or exchange policy as well as a one-year, craftsmanship guarantee on all hats. Which means they'll replace your damaged hat for free within the first 12 months.
Now if that's not hat happiness security, I don't know what is.

Thanks for reading and remember to always travel happy!
Kelly

Kelly and husband Ryan are the travel vlogging duo at Watch Us Wander, one of our favorite travel partners who frequently collaborate with In The Loop Travel. Check out their YouTube channel and follow their travel adventures on Twitter (@WatchUsWander) and Instagram (@watchuswander).

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Gear Review: A Sand-Free Beach Towel? I Try the Tesalate Towel.

11/9/2019

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I have been using my Tesalate sand-free beach towel while traveling in the Caribbean. Here, I unfurl it for a day at Great Bay Beach in St. Maarten.

By John Roberts
The soft sands of the beach are wonderful.
Walking along barefoot and swirling it around between your toes.
Spreading out a towel and laying down, as you slip off into a peaceful sleep as you listen to the sounds of the crashing surf of the sea.
Yes, the sand is like a close friend you meet at the beach a few times a year.
But that delightful friend turns into quite the clingy pest, insisting on coming back home with you, whether invited or not.
A great day at the beach can often turn a little frustrating as you battle the sand you track back into your car, clothes and home.
Tesalate has developed a line of beach towels to help minimize that hassle. The company sent me one of their sand-free beach towels and asked that I give it a try and honest review. I go to beaches all the time, so I thought this type of towel could prove to be a perfect addition to my travel gear.
That is, if it really works.
I spent most of this fall on trips to the Caribbean, exploring Belize and Guatemala in Central America, and islands in the Bahamas, as well as San Juan and St. Maarten.
I took along my Tesalate towel to give it a vigorous test in all sorts of sandy environments.
First off: It packs easily and comes in a handy carrying tote that easily stuffs into my bags (ideal for my carry-on only travel style).

One of the best features of the towel: It's so compact.

I also let Colleen pick the design, and she liked the Mahalo. These beach towels are designed in Australia and shipped all over the world. The company offers free shipping and returns for U.S. customers.
The towels measure 63 inches by 31 inches and cost $59. They have dozens of cool designs to choose from, and you'll even find a selection of "towels for two" (63 inches by 63 inches, $99) at Tesalate.com.
My beach towel is an OK fit for me. I'm 6-foot-4, so I would need a much longer towel to fit my whole body onto while stretched out, but my Tesalate towel worked just fine for plopping down on the beach comfortably. All of the photos in this post are from our day at Great Bay Beach in St. Maarten, our favorite place to hang out when we arrive by cruise ship to this amazing island. To see how you can get to Great Bay Beach, check out our video below.

The material is not quite as fluffy as some of the premium beach towels you can find, but you can't have it be super soft and sand-free at the same time, I suppose.
The Tesalate sand-free beach towel scores high on its portability and effectiveness in keeping the sand where it belongs -- at the beach.
The company developed the towel using its exclusive AbsorbLite fabric. The towel is fairly thin, so I thought that while it might resist sand, it certainly would sacrifice the ability to use it to effectively dry off after a plunge in the Caribbean Sea.

After grabbing a bit of sun, I thought I'd really put the sand-free claim to the test.

However, I was pleased by the absorbency as I toweled off on Great Bay Beach in St. Maarten. Tesalate says its towels can hold more than a liter of water. They also are very quick drying and really compact when rolled up.
Also, when I pack for a trip and decide what I really want to place into my valuable luggage space, it helps if an item can serve multiple purposes.
The Tesalate sand-free towel also is great as a yoga mat, and I was glad I had it to spread out on a dewy deck for my early morning routines while sailing over the past month. It also makes an effective towel to use after a workout or a general shammy-type towel to help keep surfaces dry. You can also pin up the towel to create an effective sun shade.
The towel also has a small attached loop for hanging.

A few vigorous shakes, and the towel was as clean and sand-free as when I unpacked it to start my day at the beach.

But is it really sand-free?
Well, that is the bold claim of this towel, after all. In a word: Yes.
I ran the towel through a number of tests, from regular use to overloading the towel with sand, to see whether it could live up to the claims.
A few simple shakes of the towel, and the sand snaps off the surface. There were maybe a few stray grains to knock off after the shake, but the towel emerged from each day at the beach essentially sand-free and ready to tuck away in my bag until I needed it again.
I'm glad to add it to my travel kit, and because I had such a good experience with it, I wanted to share it with you, too, in case you thought it could help you in your adventures.

Thanks for reading,
JR

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Travel Gear Review: The Leroy Rolling Duffel from Solo New York

9/20/2019

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By John Roberts
When you travel as much as I do, you want to do it as efficiently as possible. Luggage plays a key role in this. I insist on keeping things simple, compact and carry-on only.
With size and weight limits for luggage on flights getting smaller and smaller, a flexible bag can prove invaluable.
Solo New York offers a rolling duffel bag style that they sent over for me to review. I have been using traditional rolling suitcases for years but never a duffel bag that has a handle and wheels.
The Leroy Rolling Duffel gave me the chance to see just how this type of luggage performs for a variety of travel scenarios. The bag is spacious and much more stylish than the standard boxy suitcase I typically wheel through the airport.
Side pockets and compartments at each end of the duffel bag make it easy to organize all your travel gear. I use the main space for my clothes and some camera equipment. There is a "shoe bag" embedded in the base compartment of the duffel bag. It smartly keeps your shoes away from your clothes (the bag shares the main space within the duffel, though).
With a pair of loop handles that close with a Velcro connection, I can carry it as a duffel. The luggage also has a push-button telescoping handle that extends so that you can use the rollers located the base to smoothly wheel the suitcase through the airport. Plus, a grip on the top allows you to grab the duffel from its end, making it easy to pick up and stow in an overhead bin on a plane.

What I Like
I have always preferred a duffel bag because it offers a measure of flexibility when it comes to stuffing it into smaller spaces. Each airline offers its own overhead bin configurations, and the smaller airlines that fly within Europe can be especially restrictive when it comes to space. I wasn't going to carry a full duffel bag around during my travels, though.
A rolling duffel, however, lets me have the best of both options. It's a soft-sided piece of luggage that I can conveniently wheel through the airport without putting a strain on my back neck and arms. I also carry a backpack, so I really need my second bag to have wheels.
The Leroy Rolling Duffel from Solo New York also has a mesh pocket within the top closing flap for the main storage compartment. This is a nice addition to help with organizing items. I have been using the bag on multiple trips for two months to give it a good test run before writing about it, and its polyester and molded-plastic construction has proven to be quite durable.
The bag's dimensions measure 12 inches by 12 inches by 22 inches, and it weighs 6 pounds. It's lightweight and offers good space for its size.
It works quite well for short trips like business overnights or weekend getaways, and if you pack efficiently and can do some laundry on the road, you will have no problem using the duffel for long trips, too.

The Limitations
The Leroy Rolling Duffel gets wobbly and unwieldy if you don't keep the wheels on a straight path. You must tow it along smoothly and not change direction too quickly, or the bag will try to spin and fall over. This can be frustrating if you need to pick up the pace to get from gate to gate in speedy manner.
Also, the bag has a tendency to tip over when rested on its end. It can be mildly inconvenient to have to lay it down when you want to let go of the extended handle or walk away from the bag for a moment. However, I have had good luck with the bag standing upright just fine if I pack my shoes in the bottom compartment in a way to create a steady base. (Note: My shoe size is 12, so my footwear might provide a bigger steadying "platform" than most when placed in the bottom of the bag.)

The Details
Solo New York offers the Leroy Rolling Duffel and a wide variety of other attractive travel gear, such as backpacks, tote bags, messenger bags, rolling suitcases and tablet cases, on its website. The Leroy Rolling Duffel is priced at $120.

Thanks for reading,
JR

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Finally Finding a Durable Travel Hat -- In a Style that Really Fits

Gear Review: A Sand-Free Beach Towel? I Try the Tesalate Towel.

Travel Gear Review: The Leroy Rolling Duffel from Solo New York

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