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

Finding the Right Children's Luggage

Piling your children’s belongings on top of your own in your suitcase might have worked when your child was a toddler, but as your child gets older, it’s much easier to purchase luggage for your children than to try to squeeze clothes, toys and toiletries in with your own things. On top of that, allowing them to be at least somewhat responsible for packing and carrying (or rather, pulling) their own bags is a good way to make them feel important and teach them to be a little more independent and responsible.

Children’s luggage no longer consists of the basic black or blue luggage you may have had as a child, either. Today, children’s luggage has become a toy in and among itself. Brightly colored and decorated with animals, fairies, cars, or any number of their favorite television characters, the luggage becomes a source of entertainment during the journey and something your child will be proud to be responsible for.

Make sure that, in addition to selecting luggage that is fun and brightly colored, you also look for quality pieces. Rolling luggage is vital, or else you will quickly find yourself carrying your child’s luggage in addition to your own. Hard sided luggage is also ideal, since the luggage may have to withstand a high level of wear and tear as your child navigates the airport terminal.

To take a look at our brightly color children’s luggage or other children’s travel accessories, visit us online at TamperSeal.com.

Visit Our Nation's Parks During MLK Weekend

Looking for an affordable vacation to take during the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend? While it is cold outside, consider checkint out some of our national parks. More than 100 national parks, including Yellowstone, Yosemite, Rocky Mountain and Acadia are waiving admission during the upcoming weekend.

This is not the only time of year you can find admission to parks free. Other days include Public Lands Day on September 29, 2012, and Veterans Day weekend, November 10-12, 2012.

Keep in mind that there are additional fees for anyone camping or taking tours. Still, if you’re close enough to make the drive, visiting national parks can be a great way to spend the holiday weekend. For a full list of parks, visit the National Park Service website.

Looking for more travel tips or in need of a backpack for your upcoming hike? Visit us online at TamperSeal.com.

Avoid Overweight Luggage Fees

If you are a road warrior who is in and out of airports on a regular basis, chances are you have encountered problems with your luggage on at least one occasion. If you haven’t you are one of the lucky ones. Aside from delayed or lost luggage, one of the most common, yet easily corrected problems people encounter is with excessive weight.

2011 is looked back upon as the “year of the fee.” Last February, US Airways hiked its fees from $50 to $90 and from $100 to $175 for bags weighing 70 pounds of heavier. Continental charges $400 on overseas flights for a bag weighing 70-100 pounds. United Airlines charges $400 for bags weighing 71-99.9 pounds.

However, in spite of the extensive fees being imposed by airlines, there is an easy way to save money and face when you leave home with your luggage: a luggage scale.

Small and compact enough to slip easily into your luggage or carry-on without adding any significant additional weight, luggage scales only have to save you from an overweight baggage fee one time to pay for themselves many times over.

Coming in a variety of styles and designed for everyone from the most practical to the most stylish, a luggage scale will be one of the best travel investments you ever make. For more information or to select the right luggage scale to meet your needs and personality, visit us at TamperSeal.com.

Innovation Meets Safety in Stainless Steel Wallets

Wallets today have moved far beyond the boring black or brown leather wallets that have always been popular. Designers have created wallets with genuine flair. However, one designer that has become a true innovator in the wallet market is Stewart/Stand.

Stewart/Stand is a Brooklyn-based design company that has become famous for their simple and innovative designs. The goal of company founders Paul and Theo Stewart-Stand was to develop products that were not only innovative but also compact and sustainable.

This theme was realized in their use of stainless steel mesh to create wallets. Lightweight, tough and silky smooth, these wallets are large enough to hold cash and cards while still compact enough to fit easily into your front pocket. The stainless steel fabric also protects sensitive personal information against electronic pickpocketing.

The stainless steel men’s wallets designed by Stewart/Stand combine style and safety in one beautifully compact product.

For more information or to purchase a stainless steel wallet, visit us online at TamperSeal.com.

10 Tips for Smoother Travel

Every time you go on a trip there are countless decisions that must be made, from the larger decisions about where to go and what to see, to smaller ones like what to pack. However, these little decisions can have a substantial impact on your overall trip and affect whether or not it runs smoothly. Check out these 10 tips from Independent Traveler to help your next trip run smoothly.

1. Park your car nose out. It may sound like an odd suggestion, but if you return from your trip to find a battery dead or your car vandalized, you will be glad you parked with the nose outwards to allow for easier access to the battery or, if necessary, easy hook-up to the tow truck.
2. Allow time for parking. You’ve heard this a million times, but try to allow extra time to park in the economy lots. They are significantly lower-priced than garage parking by the airport and are the best place if you’re trying to be economical. Also, during peak travel seasons, the nearby parking lots may fill to max capacity, forcing you to move to the more distant lots. Be prepared to allow plenty of time in the event this happens.
3. Pack essentials in your carry-on. This is something most of us have heard many times. We suggest packing your carry-on luggage with a spare set of clothing and basic toiletries so you won’t have to run out and shop for those items in the event your luggage is delayed. Also, make sure you have any medications you might need during your trip.
4. Know your hotel information. Before leaving home, print out the name, address and phone number for your hotel and program the hotel’s phone number in your phone.
5. Bring along your old currency. If you travel much, it’s easy to find yourself with a lot of money from different countries after each trip, currency that can accumulate over time. During your next trip abroad, take your old currency with you and when you are getting local currency you can exchange the old currency at the same time. Who knows how much money you’ll have accumulated!
6. Save your boarding pass. While most of us toss our boarding passes as soon as we disembark the plane, you might want to consider holding on it. It can serve as proof of travel if the airline fails to give you the proper miles for your frequent flier program and can also be useful for tax purposes if you’re self-employed and flying for business.
7. Skycaps: when to use and when to skip. If you see that the lines are long and your time is tight to make your flight, use the skycaps, tip them well and head straight for your gate. If you have plenty of time to wait in line or there are no lines, save yourself the money on the skycap. You’ll get your seat assignment and be able to make any special requests.
8. Get your seat assignments ASAP. It’s best to check in online before you head to the airport to avoid the risk of losing your seat to someone else and possibly not end up on the flight at all if it’s overly crowded.
9. Mark your bags. How many black bags have you seen coming around the baggage carousel which look almost exactly like yours? Hundreds? Use a colorful ribbon, patch, or large sticker on your bags to set it apart from the rest.
10. Remember your flight number. Again, this may seem obvious, but it can make your life indescribably easier if you are in a foreign airport.

Attending the 2012 Olympic Games

With the holidays officially behind us and people looking forward to the year ahead, many are thinking ahead as far as July and August, determining whether they want to attend the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.

Nine cities submitted a bid back in July of 2003, cities including Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Moscow, New York City, Paris and Rio de Janeiro. Two years later, on July 6, 2005, it was officially announced that London had been selected as the city to host the Olympic Games, the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games on three occasions, having previously been the host city in 1908 and 1948.

If you are thinking of going, now is definitely the time to be booking your airfare. You can expect high rates on airfare and hotel rooms around the time of the Games. However, there are ways to get around these problems and cut cost a bit:

Stay in Paris.

With easy access in and out of London on the train you can easily make a day trip of it to spend time in London for a day and experience the Olympic Games while avoiding the escalated prices for the entirety of your trip.

If you do want to stay in London during the trip, start looking for hotel rooms immediately. It’s important to understand the most rooms at this point will be blocked – blocked, not booked. Many rooms will be blocked off by sponsors who do plan to rent those rooms out at a later date. Contact the hotels and establish who is controlling the blocks of hotel rooms. Reach out to those sponsors and ask them to let you know when those rooms are opened up, which they will eventually, if they haven’t already.

The same applies with tickets, as many will be blocked but not actually booked. Find out who is controlling the tickets and to be contacted when they are released. You can also visit www.London2012.com to try to acquire tickets.

For more travel tickets or to pick up some new carry-on luggage for your trip abroad, visit us at TamperSeal.com.

5 Unusual Items for your Bucket List

Are you looking for things to do in 2012? Perhaps thinking of your list of New Year’s resolutions or places you want to add to your bucket list? You may have the usual list of items on your bucket list, but consider adding some more unusual items to try to check off this year. Here are five ideas for unusual items to add to your bucket list.

1. See the Northern Lights. The Northern Lights are expected to be brighter in 2012 than they have been in the last 50 years as a result of changes in the sun’s magnetic field. Seeing the beautiful Aurora Borealis glowing this brightly may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and is not something you will want to miss in 2012.
2. See exotic animals. I plan to visit the Falkland Islands at the end of the year and visit penguins. Make plans to go somewhere that you will be able to spot wild animals in their natural habitat!
3. Experience the Jungle Book. Have you ever wished you, too, could have experienced The Jungle Book with Mowgli as a child? You can get close to it when you satisfy your inner child by staying in a treehouse or jungle hotel.
4. Try an unusual hotel. All sorts of hotels are springing up around the country, from ones that used to be prisons, to monasteries and castles, to whiskey warehouses. You may find
5. Backpacking. If you have plans to go trek across Europe with nothing but your backpack, try a more unique hostel that guarantees a fun, unique experience.

For more travel tips, visit us at TamperSeal.com.

Travel Predictions for 2012

It’s officially a new year and if 2011 wasn’t good to you, now is the perfect opportunity to shake yourself off and start fresh. Many of us, myself certainly included, have already made our travel goals for the year. Currently I have a trip planned to visit New York, Missouri, and to cruise around Cape Horn next Christmas.

Also exciting at the beginning of the year is hearing what new travel predictions are being made for the year (assuming the world doesn’t come to an end).

This year Americans are expected to travel further from home than in 2011 and of the top travel destinations, 11 are in Europe, Asia and Australia. This is a slight increase from 2011, where 9 of the top 20 travel destinations were in Europe.

The up and coming destination of choice for 2012 is Croatia, with Vietnam being the choice for Asia and Panama the destination of choice in Central and South America.

Americans are expected to be spending more on travel this year and most are expected to plan ahead by at least eight weeks or more.

Where are you planning on traveling to this year? I would love to hear from you!

To make travel easier this year, wherever you fly to, try a checkpoint friendly laptop bag and save yourself the hassle of taking your laptop out as you pass through airport security.

Feature Friday: Wine Travel Case

Today’s Feature Friday product is an essential item for anyone who loves their wine, making it an appropriate product the day before New Year’s Eve: the wine travel case. While it’s too late to order this product in time for New Year’s, if you find yourself frequently sampling new wine on vacations or stopping at vineyards, you will find yourself using the wine travel case all year round.

The travel case is large enough to hold two large bottles of wine and features a leak-proof slip so you never have to worry about your bottle bursting or shattering during travel.

Not only is the wine travel case perfect for longer trips across the country or overseas, it is also the ideal item to bring along on picnics, house-warming parties and holiday gatherings. This case is perfect for any occasion in which you have to take a bottle of wine outside the home, where it might break, staining your clothing, upholstery or luggage.

For more travel products or to purchase the wine travel case to keep your favorite vintage safe when you travel in 2012, visit us at TamperSeal.com.

TSA Luggage Locks Versus the Regular Luggage Lock

There is no denying that locking your luggage when you leave it airport security at check-in goes a long way toward providing that much-needed peace of mind. Unfortunately, if your baggage is lost or becomes subjected to a random security check, a regular luggage lock will have to be cut off by airport personnel, adding the risk of your bag being damaged in the process, damage for which the airport is not responsible.

If you are using TSA-approved luggage locks, TSA officers will recognize the insignia on the lock and can easily open your bag with universal keys. TSA locks can be purchased inexpensively and will give you the peace of mind you need, without any of the risk.

In addition to keeping your bag locked safely, however, a TSA lock will let you know if your bag has been opened, by TSA personnel or otherwise. Not only does this reduce the likelihood that something will be removed from your bag while it is being searched, it also provides you with an opportunity to examine the contents of your bag while you are at the airport and can submit a more valid claim for any losses.

For more travel information or to purchase a TSA approved lock, visit us at TamperSeal.com.