Travel/Style

Whilst traveling to Manchester from London for a long weekend on a cheap Bus ticket, my ipod dies on me leaving me musicless. We must be at least another couple hours from the final destination and to make matters worse, I already finished reading the trashy magazine I brought for the journey. Taking out my earphones, the feeling of dread quickly turns to one of glee as I start to over hear the most juicy x-rated conversations of my life.

“So he starts to run his hand up my leg and whispers in my ear ‘I love the patterns on your stockings, they look like little ladders.’ and so I said “They aint ladders baby, they’re stairways to heaven.”

I thrust my hand into my backpack and scramble around for two things, a pen and a moleskin journal. Small enough to fit in most handbags and backpacks, I never leave home without it. Luckily they come in packs of three too, so you can take them all with you, and keep one for doodles and sketches, one for writing profound travel notes… and the third? Thats for writing down juicy conversations, pet.

 Moleskine Cahier  Pocket Plain Journal Notebook (Set of 3) @ $7.50

After twenty minutes of walking, we arrived sweating at the Vatican City wearing our standard sleeveless top and jeans combos. We size up the line of the queue to enter the church with disbelief…

When in Rome…” I say, for the millionth time since arriving in Rome.
“Can you get away with saying that in the Vatican?” Bec replies. I choose not to answer

The line crawls for five minutes before we get to a sign. Women aren’t allowed to wear sleeveless tops or skirts above their knees.

Sounds familiar? It’s something you could come across anywhere in the world, be it at a church, temple, shrine, even just venturing through a city. Some places you need to cover up, be it out of respect for the culture, unexpected temperature drop …or just to get people to stop eye balling you.

This is when the scarf comes in. A rectangular piece of lightweight material that you can fit in your handbag will become a travelling essential time and time again. As I waited in that line for over an hour, I saw many a woman – from teenagers to grandmas turned away for showing too much flesh and thanked my lucky stars that I’d figured out the scarf trick.

They don’t take up much space, nor do they weigh much. As long as it’s big enough to cover your shoulders and any cleavage you may or may not be showing, you’ll get away with doing all the touristy things you need when in a city that might not share your fashion sense. A travel accessory must-have.

Pictured: Flirt For ASOS Heart Wrap Scarf £10

Fancy Ipod covers

The ipod has become the travellers best friend. MyGloves stunning range of printed leather cases for ipods, mobiles, cameras, laptops and more will be sure to bring a smile to any travellers face.

Travel Journal

A travel journal can be anything from a beautiful leather bound book with recycled paper, to a slick notepad to a .. well.. travel journal. Paper is always necessary when your travelling and a great gift. Why? every time they pull it out of their bag no matter what city they’re in, they’ll be thinking of you. Aaawwwww..

Feet Treat

Travelling involves walking, walking involves feet, hence something for the feet is always good. Be it a pair of super thick thermal socks for someone venturing to colder climates, or a pair of Birkenstock sandels for the sun seeking traveller, having comfortable feet makes the world of difference to the traveller.

Stunning Luggage

Whether you’re backpacking in economy or holidaying in business class, it’s always nice to have one nice peice of luggage, be it your main suitcase or something nice to carry on. Check out Samsonites black label luggage. Beautifully made, the range features luggage designed by Alexander McQueen in glorious patterns and colours.

Travel Essentials

Get creative and make your favourite traveller a collection of essential travelling goodies, all inside a lovely (and useful) zip up bag they can use for cosmetics after. Some ideas on what to fill it with:

• Compact mirror
• Sewing kit
• Travel alarm clock
• Nail polish remover pads
• Sachets of face masks & small pampering products

The list could go on and on, but I’ve got my christmas shopping to do.. So best of luck - and Happy Holidays!

Need a mini sewing kit to take away with you? How ’bout making your own from a sexy matchbox? I saw this real simple contraption on… umm… Real Simple site and thought it was a small stroke of genius.

Just take your standard match box, or the slimline type given away by the more fashionable type bars, add a couple of needles, thread, safety pins and buttons and hey presto - instant travel sewing kit.

Definitely something I’ll be trying next time I travel!

With different rules at every international airport, it’s really not worth the risk of losing all your toiletries on board. For those of you that can’t live without a little toiletries TLC on board, here’s how to safely and legally take toiletries on-board, no matter what your budget.

Splurge

This carry-on bottle set’s see through bag makes it super easy for you to show it at security check points and will also protect your bag from leaks. The bottles are all under the specified 100ml size, which means you shouldn’t have a problem. Add that to the fact the bottles are plastic and therefore lightweight, and you’ll be skipping through the checkpoints singing showtunes.

Spend

If you want to DIY your in flight toiletries kit, your local Superdrug, Boots or other large pharmacy should also sell see through plastic travel containers, and you can always use a snap lock bag to hold them.
Save

Save the plastic containers that hostels usually put shampoo and shower gel in. You can easily clean the bottles and put your creams and other inflight essentials in the bottles and keep them in a snap lock bag. Viola! No money spent means extra money for holiday ice creams (the best kind of ice cream).