Tamperseal Travel Essentials Blog - Tips and Trends from your Travel Experts

Kick Back with a Folding Footrest

So I took a personal comfort challenge last week. I decided to see how much the quality of my work and general satisfaction with life would improve if I used the Back Relax Folding Footrest everywhere I sat. You should probably know that I'm a shorter woman (about 5 feet) and I do suffer from an achy lower back.

Since the folding footrest is doctor recommended for people with lower back pain I figured this would be the best choice for the challenge. The actual footrest lifts your feet 4" off the ground and is very lightweight (weighing less than a pound). I liked the fact that it folded flat but was rather skeptical at  the fact that it was just a flat surface, not something angled that I could brace my feet against.

The skepticism melted away the first day I tried it. The small platform kept me from wheeling away from my desk, and actually helped my shoulders relax of all places! I worked faster and went home that day thinking about going out to dinner with friends rather than settling down al fresco with my heating pad.

In the restaurant I had a little bit of trouble. The high top was just a little too high to benefit from the foot rest, and a booth was too close to my friends feet in order to fully enjoy it, so I just folded up the footrest and slid it into my purse.

The rest of the week flew by. I used it while watching television on the couch, and even used it while on my computer at home.

Results? Yes, I would definitely buy this again, and I would also recommend this to a friend or colleague who suffers from discomfort while sitting.

SearchAlert TSA Luggage Lock in Black

It's happened before, you get your luggage back at the baggage claim and the locks have all been cut,  hacked off and properly mangled beyond repair, leaving you out a pair of properly good luggage locks and rooting through your things to make sure nothings been stolen.

With SearchAlert TSA Luggage Locks your days of sawed off luggage locks at the airport are over. This is the first mechanical lock that lets you know your luggage was inspected at the airport, and not just by TSA in America, but HMCE in the United Kingdom as well. And unlike lesser quality locks, these are made with a rugged metal alloy, ensuring durable security.

Here's how it works:

Designed with a security feature which allows TSA security agents (using a secured access device) to open the SearchAlert lock and inspect your luggage without destroying locks. How you can tell is the indicator light at the base of the lock. When the indicator is green, your luggage was not inspected, when it's red, your luggage was hand searched by the TSA.

Delsey Expandable Suiter Trolley

A traveling professional knows how to pack for business trips, he or she knows to pack light, take only the essentials, and use only the best luggage. For the traveling professional TamperSeal.com recommends the Delsey Expandable Suitor Trolley. The everlast polyester fabric and lightweight fiberglass frame offer durability and maneuverability. This bag makes the business professional master of the carry on- it is spacious, and contains clips for holding garments in place, and pockets for shoes and toiletries.

Special features include an overweight indicator that activates when the bag exceeds 50 lbs. It also comes with a tote-a-long clip with adjustable webbing for attaching another bag against the expandable handle. 

Tips for traveling with children this holiday season

The countdown is on until you have to deal with delays, lines and the stress of holiday travel. While your family may be excited about making it to Grandma's this year, you - as a parent - may be dreading traveling with your kids.

Kids have routines, need special attention and the like - throw some travel into the mix and things can get challenging.

We're passing on 10 tips for keeping your little tyke occupied during a flight from deliciousbaby.com.

1. Go on a scavenger hunt through the airplane magazine. On each page, pick one item that your child has to locate. For older children, hand them the magazine and say "can you find a picture of an airplane?"
2. Put some fun pictures onto your digital camera (you're carrying it anyway). Good candidates are pictures of the people and places you are going to visit or pictures of a recent adventure (like the zoo). During the flight, you can relive the fun and tell stories about where/who you're visiting.
3. When the flight attendant delivers drinks, ask for a cup, a couple ice cubes, and a straw. There are endless games with this combination. Ice is fascinating to toddlers in and of itself, and you can teach them to swirl it on the bottom of the cup, or catch it on the straw (airplane ice usually has a hole in the middle). Watch that the ice doesn't end up in their mouth though (choking hazard).
4. Teach yourself some new finger rhymes (e.g. "where is thumbkin") before you go.
5. Get your children playing with the neighbors in front of and behind you before the plane takes off. (Peek-a-boo and kiss-blowing are hard for even the most stoic travelers to resist). Your seat-mates will be a lot more understanding if your children have a difficult time later once they've seen them at their cutest, and you never know what fun entertainment they'll come up with.
6. Extend snack time by challenging your child. "What is the is the smallest bite you can take" or "see if you can eat just one at a time (tricky for little fingers). Pack your snacks in Tupperware & the packaging becomes a toy when the snack is done.
7. For young toddlers, screwing and unscrewing the top on a plastic water bottle is great fun (watch carefully as small tops are a choke hazard). Ask the flight attendant to bring you an empty bottle if you're not carrying one.
8. Learning how to fasten and unfasten an "old fashioned" seatbelt, jacket zipper, and snaps or buttons on their clothing (or a carryon bag) can keep them occupied for a long time
9. Have your toddler help you make up fanciful stories about what you will do on your trip. For young toddlers, they might choose between two options, while older kids will be able to fill in parts of the stories.
10. Three words: Barf bag puppets

We couldn't have a post about traveling with children without tell you about our Airplay Tray Table. It's a must for any parent.

{Fab Find} Pocket IQ Test

If you fly often, you know that many air passengers like to strike up conversations with their seatmates -- whether they're in the mood to chit-chat or not. We think this week's fab find is the solution to the too chatty seatmate conundrum.

When faced with 1,000 questions, we say you invite your seatmate to partake in the Pocket IQ Test. You get an accurate reading in 45 minutes. 

Whether they partake or not, you're sure to come home with an interesting story.

Thanksgiving Travel Preview: Affordable Hotels

Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel holidays of the year, so if you think you're stuck for a place to stay, think again. You can find deals everywhere this season.

Read the hotel rate report from HotWire.com:

Hotwire.com, the discount travel site, last week released its Hotel Rate Report, which highlights the cities that have experienced the most significant rate declines over the year. The study takes into account trends from last year and monthly price variations.

The biggest drop goes to Houston, at 24 percent. The city's top ranking is due in part to the return of normalcy after last year's Hurricane Ike, which uprooted many South Texans, forcing them to seek refuge in hotels and causing rates to spike. Tampa also experienced a 24 percent reduction, with Miami and Fort Lauderdale close on its heels with 21 percent.

"This sun-soaked state continues to offer amazing deals and price drops mainly due to a lower demand for leisure and business travel during the down economy, both a key source of traffic," wrote Clem Bason, president of the Hotwire Group, in an e-mail. "Moreover, the majority of people who travel to Florida cities are Floridians themselves and considering the state was one of the hardest hit by the housing market crash, many inhabitants have likely cut back on traveling drastically. These factors have resulted in tons of hotel rooms that are going unsold, thus lower prices."

With its glut of rooms, Las Vegas was no surprise, but Austin made an unexpected appearance, as did San Diego and Oahu. Good vacation destinations made even more attractive by inexpensive lodging.

Free Wi-Fi wars help travelers win

We reposted an article from the Palm Beach Post yesterday, which said Google would be providing free Wi-Fi at 47 airports nationwide. Well, apparently the competition is intensifying among Google, Yahoo!, eBay and Microsoft.

Read the article by the Associated Press here.

Google to provide free Wi-Fi at Palm Beach International Airport

According to the Palm Beach Post, holiday gifts are coming early this season as Google announced it started offering free Wi-Fi in 47 airports across the country.

The company will pay the wireless costs for these airports through Jan. 15. It's also currently offering free Wi-Fi to all domestic Virgin America flights until that time.

The idea, according to a statement from the company, is to offer a gift to travelers who may have to spend considerable time in an airport this busy holiday season.

It's also a way for Google Inc. to get free advertising.

According to PBIA spokeswoman Cassandra Davis, Google will be getting an advertisement on the airport's Wi-Fi splash page — the screen that appears when users try to access the Internet from the airport — in exchange for footing the Wi-Fi bill.

PBIA already offers free wireless Internet to travelers in its airport.

"They're basically using this as a way to sell their name and advertise their name out there," said Michael Simmons, PBIA's deputy director of finance, "and we make a little money, so it's definitely a win-win."

Simmons said that Google is giving the airport about $20,000 over the three-month period. He said it is the first time someone has advertised on the airport's splash page.

Both he and Davis noted that the airport will continue to offer free Wi-Fi after Google's promotion is over in January.

Other airports that Google is offering free Wi-Fi do not routinely offer free Internet; an operator at Miami International Airport said that after the Google promotion is over, travelers will again have to pay for Internet access in the terminals.

Google is just the latest company to offer a free Wi-Fi promotion in recent months. Yahoo is offering free Wi-Fi for a year to users in Times Square in New York. That promotion also began today.

Meanwhile, eBay will be offering free Wi-Fi on more than 250 domestic Delta flights over Thanksgiving week, Nov. 24-30. And car maker Lexus recently completed a promotion for its new 2010 Lexus LS in which it gave a free week of Internet on American Airlines flights.

Microsoft and mobile-advertising firm Jiwire also started a free Wi-Fi promotion in airports and hotels around the country, but it has a caveat: you must use Microsoft's Bing search engine to do at least one search in order to get the free Internet.

The decision to offer free Wi-Fi in airports during the holidays appears to be a smart one, since travel tends to go up during that season. PBIA's Davis said that about 500 travelers connected to the airport's Wi-Fi on an average day, but that "in the past, holiday season has meant more people in an airport and more users getting online."

Manage travel plans with AutoPilot iPhone app from USA Today

Want to check in for your flight and check your flight's status all from your iPhone? AutoPilot from USA TODAY says it has everything the seasoned traveler would desire.

Here are the AutoPilot details:

a check-in reminder for your flight
- flight details including on-time status and departure and arrival gates
- current weather conditions at your departure and destination locations
- the ability to email your flight itinerary
- a selection of USA TODAY articles and blogs
- Flickr photos of your destination

Flight Tracker
- Look up flights quickly by flight number, airport or route.
- Review details on individual flights including on-time status and departure and arrival gates.
- View live maps of domestic flights currently en route, including speed, altitude, and estimated arrival time.
- Add any flight to a new or existing trip in AutoPilot.

Airport Delays
- Review a map of delays at major U.S. airports.
- View detailed delay information including delay time and reason.

Travel Directory
- Browse or search an extensive directory of major airlines, hotels, car rental services and more.
- Review valuable phone numbers and websites for each entry.

Weather
- Review live weather conditions, up-to-the minute radar and the five day forecast and live radar at any U.S. location.
- Departure and destinations from AutoPilot trips are automatically added by airport, including delay information for each.
- Review national weather maps including Doppler radar, temperature and precipitation forecasts.

Destination Galleries
- Browse through Flickr photographs taken at your destinations.
- View information about each photo and a map of where it was taken.
- Share a link to the photo via email.

Articles & Experts
- Browse through USA TODAY travel articles including our Destinations stories and 10 Great lists.
- Read updates from any of our travel blogs and columnists, including Today in the Sky, Cruise Log, Hotel Check-In, Business Traveler, Traveler’s Aide, and At The Airport.
- Share any of the stories via email, text message, Twitter, or Facebook.

Do you use AutoPilot? Love it? Hate it? Write your review.

How to travel with holiday gifts

Not sure if you can bring Grandma's famous fruitcake on the plane? Let us help you. Check out this list of items from the TSA.

Put these items in your checked bag, ship them ahead or leave them at home.

• Cranberry sauce
• Cologne
• Creamy dips and spreads
  (cheeses, peanut butter, etc.)
• Gift baskets with food items
  (salsa, jams and salad dressings)
• Gravy
• Jams
• Jellies
• Lotions
• Maple syrup
• Oils and vinegars
• Perfume
• Salad dressing
• Salsa
• Sauces
• Snowglobes
• Soups
• Wine, liquor and beer

Looks like the fruitcake makes it. Please remember that cakes and pies may be subject to additional screening.