Travel aids you may never have thought about.
Disclaimer: The travel aids below were provided to us for purposes of a review. Opinions are our own and we have no financial arrangement with any of the companies.
We are in mid-test on a few travel aids that are designed to help you breeze through your next trip stress-free, bringing back memories of a journey well made. I will be reviewing each of these aids in detail once we have thoroughly put them to the test, but I am so excited about them that I could not wait to share the list before we leave for our next trip.
A travel aid for peace of mind
Tend sells security cameras and monitors that allow you to keep an eye on things that matter to you while you are away, like pets and your property. We are testing a John Deer Wi-Fi camera. The John Deer branding is kind of cool if you live in the country like we do. The features on the camera are pretty impressive, especially the ease of set up. There were no wires to run and no complicated installation. The iPhone app walked us through the process of connecting the camera to our household Wi-Fi and within minutes we had a security camera that we could mount anywhere within range of our signal.
Typical installation probably would be looking down at your front porch, but we chose to install the camera roughly 200 feet away from the front door, looking back at the building. This gives us a full view of the front of the property, including our driveway. The bonus feature that we really like is that the camera acts as a Wi-Fi range extender if you need one.
The company provides 24 hours of cloud-recorded activity at no charge. We will be checking the cameras frequently on our next trip and will report back with the results. The goal is to give us peace of mind that all is well while we are away, but without the hassle or cost of a security system that exceeds our needs.
Security for your stuff
TrackR is one of those nifty gadgets designed to help you find your misplaced stuff. That’s all well and good when you aren’t flying halfway around the world and would prefer not to become separated from your precious things in the first place. That’s where TrackR distinguishes itself from some of its competitors– it has a separation alarm. Once set, the alarm will sound on the TrackR device and on your phone if the Bluetooth connection is lost.
That means that if you walk more than a few yards away from your backpack in the airport, you will get an alert. #nomoreloststuff! We have tested it at home, but want to put it to the test on the road. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates as we travel with TrackR.
Ultimate Convenience
Luggage Forward makes traveling almost hands-free. Imagine having your bags collected from your front door and delivered directly to your cruise ship. That’s the service we are testing. So far the process has gone smoothly. It was a little weird packing a week before we leave, but the ability to take only a carry-on backpack to the airport should be well worth it. The service was simple to arrange online and I have received two phone calls to verify my details and to ask if I had any questions or concerns about the process.
Special tags were sent the week before the scheduled pickup. I simply placed those tags on the luggage along with the cruise line’s bag tags with our stateroom number. FedEx then arrived to pick up the luggage on the scheduled date and I have been following the progress using the FedEx app. If all goes according to plan, the next time I see our luggage, it will be onboard Viking Star in Venice. Watch for the results on Twitter.
A travel aid for holding onto your memories
LensProtoGo gives you the opportunity to capture memories in a way that you simply cannot with average camera equipment. Do you ever dream of taking travel photos like the pros? It’s hard to justify thousands of dollars of camera equipment when you only use it occasionally but are you really going to trust your bucket-list photos to your iPhone? Or maybe that six-year-old point and shoot camera you usually take on trips? Take the camera that suits the trip. Your once-in-a-lifetime journey deserves professional quality photographic memories and you can rent the equipment you need to make it happen for a fraction of the cost of buying.
The gurus at LensProtoGo have put together a travel kit for us to test: an amazing camera with three lenses, all tucked neatly inside a cushy backpack that fits in the overhead bin. We previously tested an underwater rig from these guys and found the service to be over-the-top, so we can’t wait to tell you more about the travel kit.
The camera even has built-in Wi-Fi that will allow us to post to social media simply by wirelessly connecting a phone to the camera. Watch for the photographic evidence on both mine and Gary‘s Instagrams.
And be sure to come back here for the detailed reviews!
