Traveling is fun, but it's also an industry. There's a bunch of cool, well-engineered gear out there designed to make your life easier. There's also a bunch of unnecessary stuff you can buy, only to find it's weighing you down. Nine times out of ten, traveling lighter and simpler is the easiest way to go. Think twice about bringing these accessories along.
- Fanny Pack
Not only is this an eyesore, it's also painfully easy to steal, and it immediately marks you as an American if you travel overseas. Yes, it's more convenient than a purse. Yes, it's embarrassing that they design dresses without pockets. But still—freeing up your hands isn't worth the price you pay in dignity. - Luggage scale
Why would anyone need this? If you're at home, weighing your bag before you leave for your trip, just use your regular scale. If you're planning for your return trip and bought 30 bottles of wine in Italy, it's probably too late to worry about how heavy your bag is. You already bought 30 bottles of wine. There's nowhere else to put it, and weighing the bag isn't going to help you now. - Just Married Luggage Tag Set
This is cute, except that in a year or so, you won't be "just married" anymore. You could've put that $12 towards an All-Clad pan or something that you'll use more often than just on your honeymoon. Maybe this is a statement about how you always want to feel that newlywed glow. In that case, it's actually pretty cute. Continue. - TSA Lock
The idea behind these locks is that travelers can open them using the combination, and a TSA agent can open them with a special key. But why lock your luggage at all? If it's a carry-on, it can't be out of your sight in the airport anyway, or you'll be tackled for planting a suspicious package. If it's a checked bag, odds are the person stealing from you will be the TSA agent. - RFID-Blocking Passport Holder
Really? This is where you're worried about leaking personal information? You're probably carrying a smartphone which pinpoints your location using Wi-Fi and GPS signals. Go ahead, though. Block the RFID chip in your passport. Way to stay undercover, buddy. - Bag Bungee
The idea is simple enough. It's a little elastic strap to lash one piece of luggage to the handle of another piece of luggage. But be honest—how much of your travel time are you going to spend carrying two pieces of luggage? Now, think about how much time you'll be spending trying to find a place to put that thing, wrestling to untangle it, and struggling to snap it into place all so you can reach your destination and start to unstrap everything again. - Tray Table Bags
Any time you think you save by using a tray table bag will probably be offset by the number of times you will panic because you can't remember which carry-on bag your passport and money are in. With the increasing cost of fees that airlines are charging, is another bag really what you want? - Packing Cubes
Lots of travel products say they'll help you "save space." You know what helps you save space? The "fold and roll" method of packing your suitcase. Filling your luggage with extraneous nylon garbage is the opposite of saving space. - A Pre-Made Checklist
Having a paper checklist is super-handy if you're disorganized, and it might actually help you remember things to physically write them down. But once you have, please do yourself a favor and transfer it to you phone. You don't need to keep track of paper, and you don't want to feel like a befuddled middle-schooler on his first year of summer camp. Which you will. - Luggage Rack
Find a hotel room anywhere in the country that doesn't have a luggage rack already. If you manage to find one, then move on to step two, which is explain how exactly this helps you. If you're the kind of person who wants things orderly, then you're the kind of person who unpacks into the hotel dresser once you get there. If you're not the tidiest, then you're the kind of person who doesn't mind bending over for five seconds to grab a clean pair of pants. There might be some people who legitimately find a luggage rack helpful for accessibility reasons, and that's completely understandable. Aside from that, there's no reason to pay $20 to $30 for the luxury of lugging this thing around everywhere.
