The Ironic Mullet :: Lee Ann Westover

The Tiny Guide's Favorite Travel Accoutrements

          <---------------Hey Look! I worked on my categories so you can find posts more easily!

I also added a google search..JUST FER YOU! ------------->

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I am heading to Rome on Thursday! YAYAY! (...ahem...excuse me...)

I thought I would take a moment to share The Tiny Guide's Favorite Travel Accoutrements: Those precious items without which I don't leave home. Usually I am a proponent of carrying as little as possible, but these luxury items will make the getting there much easier, which in turn makes the being there that much more fun. If you forgot, I travel so much because (#1) I like it, and (#2) I am in a touring band - The Lascivious Biddies

#1) MY FÖM PILLOW
I have a nasty habit of shopping at Brookstone when I am waiting in airports. They are not the cheapest place to buy anything, but boy howdy have they done my right. On any flight or drive longer than 2.5 hours, I would rather leave home bras and socks than travel without my FÖM (beep beep beep! unnecessary umlaut alert!!!). Brookstone now sells similar pillows under the brand name n.a.p. (beep beep beeeeep! clever anagram alert!!). These suckers are not to be cut open around babies, as they are filled with millyuns of micro beads made out of polystyrene. Not only do they cradle your petite tête as you sleep, but they are fun to mush if you are a nervous flyer. This lil guys i number one for a REASON. Saskia, my bandmate, coveted it so bad that she bought one for herself, and she travels even more that I do!

#2) MY BROOKSTONE FLEECE EYEMASK
Remember the Brookstone problem? This eye mask comes with earplugs and a lil' rubber carrying case that I stuff into my FÖM carrying case. The plush fleece actually blocks out light and holds your lil' eyeballs closed in total, non-itchy comfort! The elastic band that holds it on is adjustable, for minimum plane-hair. I got one of these for my grandmother, as she had to share a room for a few weeks with a lil ol' late-night TV addict.

#3) A "PASHMINA"
<--------------Don't I look pretty?
They are big, they are soft, they are warm. They come in pretty colors! They can be a blankie or a fabulous fashion accessory. I have a big gray one I use to cover my head when I sleep (so no one can see me drool) and wrap around my shoulders if I am awake and enjoying a late-night airplane screening of  "Little Indian, Big City" or "Aquamarine." Mine is nice and made of cashmere (worth the investment, ladies), but I also have alternate "pashminas" that I bought on the corner for $5. Also lives stuffed into my FÖM case.

#4) BENADRYL
Kills allergies, knocks me out on a long flight. Also, stuffed into my FÖM case. Available, like, everywhere.

#5) MACK'S® SAFESOUND® SOFT FOAM EARPLUGS
They sell these at my local Duane Reade. Seeing as I travel with a gaggle of girls, often in a bag, I feel free to buy in multiples. These big blue squishies are very comfortable, and shockingly effective. They block up to 32 decibels of snoring, clanking, engine roars, burping, yapping and wailing. Yep, stuffed into FÖM case. (I think I just like typing that umlaut.)

(I NEVER HAVE A NUMBER 6! I am feeling craaaaaaaazy today.)

#6) FULLY STOCKED VIDEO iPOD (and Handbrake)
When waiting for the subway, delayed at the terminal, imprisoned in the barf seat* of the van or stuck on the tarmac, there is nothing better on earth than to watch Hot Fuzz or The Starter Wife. I have a pretty equal spread of shows downloaded from the iTunes Music Store ("Battlestar Galactica," "The Riches," BBCs "The Posh Nosh," "FAT ACTRESS"**) and movies I ripped from DVDs that I own ("American Splendor," "Harold and Maude," "Children of Men"). These are all examples of the screen-bits that I love watching over and over and over again, so I don't always have to have something fresh. The genius freeware HANDBRAKE will convert your DVDs for your ipod in one step. Incidentally, iSquint will do it for cell phone videos and other misc junk...

(WOWOWWW Look at me go!)

#7) AVEENO LOTION WITH COLLOIDAL OATMEAL
So you don't git all crusty in the dry air of a plane. (They have little tiny bottles in the sample section that I refill over and over) ChickAdvisor likes it too.

PS:
Voilà! THE POSH NOSH!!!

*Every minivan has a barf seat. It's usually behind the driver, and next to some piece of equipment. Generally, the air conditioning won't reach it effectively and there is a source of heat under the floor. Makes you barf- hence the clever name.

** The Best EVARRRRrrrrrrrrrrrr

Finding the right hotel in a place you have never been

LISTENING TO: "Rufus! Rufus! Rufus! does Judy! Judy! Judy!" Buy it below...

I'll say right out, that you can never completely control the outcome of your planning. I always have 3 travel guides, the entire interweb and a slew of friends involved when investigating for a trip, but even so, I have taken a few wrong turns. For some, that's even part of the fun. You plan, plan, plan...and at the end of the day, you still get surprised. It's a foreign land after all!

<--The view from our hotel in Venice

I swear, I enjoy the planning as much as the trip itself. I love to sit and dream over all the possibilities...scribbling over maps and flipping through photos. Appropriately enough, I have developed a pretty good way to find the right place to me.

1) Start with the guides. I like budget hotels, not hostels. I also prefer a kooky, out-of-the-way neighborhood over the hubub of the area around a train station or historic town center. When I go to the hotel at night, I will want to have a nice walk there, and enjoy sitting around watching incomprehensible TV programming while I stuff my face with prosciutto, etc.

Our room at the Waterfall Lodge in Ireland-->

2) Check Tripadvisor.com. Just enter your hotel name in the search box, select it from the resulting list, and scroll down to read visitor reviews.

Trip Advisor is not foolproof, as some semi-savvy hotel owners will log on and say things like "Oh goodness my! Hotel la Cucaracha es most best place nice stay in all Oaxaca. Very good to value!" You can usually pick those out, though. Then you get the folks who find worn bed coverings a deal-breaker, even if the place is cozy and clean. Again, I couldn't care less. "Can you imagine!? They didn't even have turn down service!!!!!"

3) Check Flickr.com . God bless you people who post labeled pictures of the places you stay! If a hotel publishes photos of their rooms from 1988 on their official site, it may be a far cry from what you'll actually get when you arrive. Just pop over to Flickr, type in your hotel name (and maybe city) into the search box and see what comes up. You'll often get a better perspective on what the place looks like when the bed is unmade and there are cookie wrappers and empty wine bottles strewn on the floor - how I would likely experience it.

So...if before you make the plunge and fax your credit cart number to the gal at the front desk, you follow my three simple, yet travel-fantasy-inducing and potentially time-sucking steps, you will likely not have any nasty surprises. Lemmee know how it goes!

I've been into numbered or lettered lists lately. Have you noticed?