You are with a group of friends hiking in the tropics, or fishing in a swamp, or doing pretty much anything in the state of Floria, and at the end of your day you discover that some members of your group are covered with mosquito bites while others have none.
Sound familiar? That bite disparity is not a product of your imagination and it’s not the result of luck. Mosquitoes genuinely prefer some people over others. Here’s a look at the types of people most at risk — and ways anyone can help prevent themselves from being bitten:
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If you had to spend an entire vacation wearing no other footwear besides a pair of flip-flops which model would you want to take?
Spot Cool Stuff has been busy lately researching this exact question. We’ve been testing more than two dozen pairs of flip-flops across several categories. But there’s one model we are already certain will make our final cut: the Sazzi Decimal Sandal.
One needn’t look at a Sazzi Decimal for more an instant to spot its two most pronounced features: the four toe posts and the footbed with individual toe cutouts.
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Spot Cool Stuff is sometimes asked for advice on what camera lenses to bring on a trip. The short answer is: It depends†. Different camera types, different travel styles and different destinations require different lenses.
If you are going on a nature trek to somewhere with rolling hills and sweeping vistas, for example, a medium telephoto might make an outstanding choice. Want proof? Look no further than the photography of Marcin Sobas. In particular, we love his shots of the countryside in Tuscany and the Moravia region of the Czech Republic.
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Not many articles of clothing come with instructions on how to wear it. And even fewer come with instructions on how to wear it that you’d actually want to read. In fact, we can only think of one: The Scottevest Travel Vest.
Simply putting on the Travel Vest doesn’t require reading the instructions, of course. And you’ll probably be able to find all of the Travel Vest’s pockets, if you have enough time and patience to hunt them all down. But knowing what each pocket is designed for so you can make optimal use of them — until you do that you can’t realize just how cool a piece of travel clothing the Scottevest Travel Vest is.
So let’s delve into that by checking out the vest’s pocket maps:
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Spot Cool Stuff never checks our luggage if we can avoid doing so. Like most frequent fliers, we travel with a wheeled bag that will fit through the airport security x-ray and into an airplane’s overhead compartment. Unlike most frequent fliers, we also run a travel review blog and are fanatical about travel gear. So we’ve spent a lot of time researching the best wheeled carry-on bags. A lot of time. From conception, through research and writing, this post has been 11 months in the making.
Why so long? Partly because the market is flooded with rollaboard luggage options. But mostly because no single wheeled carry-on stood out to us as better than all the others — as with so many products, the “best” option depends on what an individual consumer is looking for.
Given that, we focused on the best wheeled carry-on bag in five different categories. Factors we considered in making our selection included build quality, value for the price, looks, weight, cargo capacity (while staying under the 22-inch maximum height requirements that many airlines set for carry-on luggage) and bag features.
Read on. Or click on the category that appeals to you most:
Best Organizational System Wheeled Carry-On
Best Compression (and Expandable) Wheeled Carry-On
Best Hard Side Wheeled Carry-On
Best Lightweight Wheeled Carry-On
Best Wheeled Carry-On For Laptops
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Travel is one of the best gifts an adult can bestow upon a child. Unfortunately, as gifts go, travel is expensive. And time consuming. And involves potentially painful car and/or plane trips. Which is why travel-themed games are so great — they can introduce kids to an aspect of travel in as little as 30 minutes, without leaving the house, packing a bag or applying for a passport. Games can help also prepare kids for real-life trips by providing knowledge and building excitement.
With that in mind, here’s a review of our three favorite travel-themed great board games. As with all games and toys reviewed on this website, each of these three games are ones that adults can enjoy playing too.
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The cup holder might be the greatest innovation in automobile design since the steering wheel. Not only can the cup holder power you through a late night caffeinated drive, it can also power a smartphone, a laptop and a coffee maker — all at the same time! At least it can when your cup holder is holding a PowerLine PowerCup Inverter.
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Many expert travelers — and those who fancy themselves as such — exalt the virtues of packing light. Yet few expert travelers — or those who fancy themselves as such — seem to care much about having a light pack. To Spot Cool Stuff, this is inexplicable. Your primary piece of luggage might be the heaviest single item you bring on your trip!
For the last few weeks we’ve been working on a review of the best wheeled carry-on luggage. That will publish later this year. But we couldn’t wait until then to write about one of the bags we’ve been trying out, the Osprey Ozone. That’s because, in addition to having several fine attributes, the Ozone has one superlative one: it is super lightweight.
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