What do a diamond and a shot of espresso have in common?
That’s no meant to be a bad joke. It’s a serious question. And the answer is: Both can only be made under pressure.
In the case of the shot of espresso the pressure is required to push hot water through densely packed ground coffee beans. Typically this requirement for pressurizing water has meant that effective espresso makers were relatively loud and large electric devices.
The Handpresso Wild, however, is not a typical espresso maker.
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Want to reduce the environmental impact of your next trip? Bring your own water bottle. Particularly if you are traveling to a tropical destination where you’d otherwise buy (and then later throw out) plastic water bottles.
Thailand alone is littered with up to a billion (with a B!) plastic water bottles according to some estimates. And water bottles are also an issue in the developed world. In the Washington DC area 1 in 5 single-use plastic water bottles sold end up in a public waterway. In London single-use water bottles became such a problem that their sales were banned.
In the face of that you wouldn’t think that you could make much difference. But let’s say you and a partner go on a two week tropical trip and each drink three bottles of water per day. If you each bring your own reusable water bottles that alone will prevent 84 disposable ones from clogging land fills or being strewn across the landscape. That’s enough water bottles that, were they placed end to end, would be higher than an eight story building!
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With a new year comes a new selection of travel deals. And a difficult choice: take to the snow of the mountains or escape to the warm waters of a tropical beach? Fortunately, we’ve found discount deals for both options.
To stay updated on our travel bargain finds you can . . .
• go directly to our travel hot deals page;
• or, get a Kindle subscription to our travel blog;
• or, perhaps best of all, subscribe to our RSS feed and get all of our travel posts delivered directly to your email inbox or to your RSS aggregator;
or—why not?—act on all three of those options.
Please note that all of the offers below are for a limited time. Happy high-value travel!
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What you bring on a trip can effect a travel experience almost as much as where you go. So over this past year Spot Cool Stuff has reviewed all manner of travel gear and gadgets from cameras to luggage to clothing. A look back on our favorite travel product review posts from the last 365 days:
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Shopping for a traveler you really can’t stand? You should click on over to our collection of the worst travel gear. For everyone else—those of you hoping to, you know, find a present that will make a traveler happy—we offer you these 10 suggestions, a cross section of products that will appeal to a variety of travelers from geeks to frequent fliers to travlelers of the armchair variety. If none of these are appealing, you can always purchase some one gallon zip lock bags to help them get through security!
And remember—there’s no reason you can’t give any of these items to yourself too.
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The qualities that make for a superlative travel camera are all those that make for a superlative camera in general. Plus, the joy of travel photography is improved by a camera that’s small, light and has a longer battery life. Plus, a camera must be well built and, preferably, weatherized to withstand frequent travel. Plus, some cameras have features especially geared towards travelers such as self cleaning sensors and optional GPS devices that will record the exact location on the planet a particular photograph was taken. Whew!
Spot Cool Stuff considered all those factors when determining the best travel cameras and then divided our selections into these categories:
SLR Cameras:
Point-and-Shoot Cameras:
Click on the category that most interests you. Or, continue reading . . .
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November marks the start of the high season for many of the world’s warm weather destinations. Travel to places like Thailand, Turkey and the Caribbean starts to get expensive. Meanwhile, the ski season in Europe and North America prepares to get into high gear. Fortunately, there are good travel deals and discounts to be found. Here’s a selection of a few of our favorites.
As always, you can stay updated on our latest travel deal posts by . . .
• going directly to our travel hot deals page;
• or, getting a Kindle subscription to our travel blog;
• or, perhaps best of all, subscribing to our RSS feed and getting all of our travel posts delivered directly to your email inbox or to your RSS aggregator;
or—why not?—act on all three of those options.
Please note that most of the offers below are for a limited time. And with that, here’s to happy, high-value travel!
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You may have heard the term flashpacking, the act of traveling in the spirit of a backpacker but with the budget of one more monied. Well, from the Netherlands comes what might be the ultimate in flashcamping—a portable, wood-burning spa.
The Dutchtub is a personal hot-springs-to-go. If you have a tub-sized patch of flat ground, wood and 200 gallons (750 liters) worth of water or snow you can have your own spa virtually anywhere.
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