Holiday Sunglasses: Buy cheap or buy quality?

Fay    ash, Travel Gear     adventure travel gear, Holiday Sunglasses, Oakley Sunglasses, Ray Ban, sunglasses, Sunglasses Shop, Travel

Plastic or metal, fairly lightweight, can make you look cool – or naff – are coveted as fashion items and can range in price from pennies to hundreds of pounds. To what do we refer?

Super models cost, so is cheaper better? Pic:Flickr/ planetc1

Why, holiday sunglasses of course. The one fashion accessory we all own.

Whether your style is Jacky O’, John Lennon, retro-winged, sporty Oakley’s, traditional wayfarers or Top Gun aviators, the choice is vast.

So, pay good money to help protect your eyes or buy cheap ones to match your outfit? And if on holiday you always lose them, is it still worth splashing out at the sunglasses shop? Read on before you decide.

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SIGG Active Top Reviewed

Mark Pawlak    ash, Travel Gear     Adventure gear, adventure sports gear, Drinking bottles, SIGG, Travel, travel gear

Ever take mineral water with you when walking or trekking? I do all the time. Mix it with apple juice, add a dash of salt and you’ve the cheapest energy drink ever! With this in mind SIGG has devised the Active Top and I’ve reviewed to see if it can handle the fizz.

SIGG Active Top fights the fizz

SIGG, if you didn’t know, make the aluminium bottles favoured by explorers. Easily identified by their ‘loop’ cap and high-shouldered shape, they are seen in the sleds on polar expeditions as well as found in the side pouches of many a weekend wanderer.

But putting any fizzy drink into a drink’s bottle always creates the same problem: the fizz. So let’s see what the company has done with the Active Top.

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Adventure Travel and using Visa Agencies

Mark Pawlak    ash     adventure holidays, Adventure Travel, passports, Travel, Visa

You’re increasingly likely to come across visa agencies if you love adventure travel and book trips off the beaten track. But what are they good for? why might you need a visa anyway? and which countries are likely to insist you have one?

Visas: the further you travel, the more you need them Pic: Flickr/ Dr Aek Muldoonr

A visa is simply permission for you to enter a foreign country, often with rules and restrictions as part of the deal.

Countries grant visas for several reasons, but commonly so they can monitor immigration. As a traveller, it takes some effort to decipher the bureaucracy around applying, and this why you’ll find number of agencies prepared to work on your behalf to help you get in.

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Top 10 travel apps for iPhone, iPad and smartphones

Dion Wick    ash, Top 10s, Travel Gear     Adventure Travel, iPad, National Geographic, Technology, Travel, Travel apps, travel gear, travel technology, trekking

When travelling, technology is sometimes a lifesaver. And now with web enabled phones, it’s really easy to get travel apps for your iPhone, iPad or smartphone that help point you in the right direction. Some work like modern day maps, others just show you where to find great food.

Travel Apps: there's one for every journey. Image: Flickr/John.Karakatsanis

Travellers are increasingly looking to pick up languages skills and destination advice long before they’ve packed their bags. And there are travel apps for these too.

There’s even an app that turns your phone into a flashlight. And if you like to write as you roll, we’ve sourced a travel app that lets you upload your own destination reviews.

If you are already using an app not featured, let us know and we’ll check it out and add it to our list.

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5 reasons why you need travel, not Christmas

Mark Pawlak    ash     camping, kitesurfing, Kitesurfing Egypt, New Zealand, RTW, Spain, Travel, trekking, Walking, Xmas

If you’ve a travelling gene, every holiday is a chance to get away and Christmas is no exception. Now, if you’re living in the UK or northern Europe, it’s likely you’ve been waiting all year for that skiing or snowboarding holiday.

Can you spot Santa?

But, if you’ve needed thawing out since October and are dreaming of feeling the sun on your neck, you’ll be teasing yourself with trekking somewhere warm – or just going ‘random’ and rocking up at departures with half-baked plan and a dream…

So, here are 5 reasons why you need travel, not Christmas.

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How Howard Marks trekked Pakistan and didn’t get a deal…

Mark Pawlak    trekkingholidays     Adventure Travel, Howard Marks, pakistan, Travel, trekking

There was a time when trekking holidays for Howard Marks were  more about sorting out supply lines and delivery dates than developing a deeper cultural understanding of the countries and peoples he ‘dealt’ with.

Howard Marks

Well, several years on, he travelled to Pakistan with an independent tour operator known for its pioneering adventures and got a new perspective.

If you’ve never read Mr Nice or spotted Howard on the stand-up circuit, you’ve missed out: his face and anecdotes are evidence of several lives lived! And while for many years he was on the wrong side of the tracks, he’s a captivating speaker, with a genuine love for the undiscovered.

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Travel Laptops and Data Storage: How to keep those files safe.

Mark Pawlak    ash, Travel Gear     Apple, cloud computing, data storage, iCloud, Overlanding, portable hard drive, RTW, Travel, travel laptops, travel technology, trekking, USB stick

Having a problem at home with your computer is frustrating, but having one on the road is truly troubling. Where did those files go? Which version am I looking at? And worse of all, where the hell is my backup? Having one of the best travel laptops of 2011 won’t help you, and taking a tablet on your travels is no protection against a virus.

Here’s three ways to keep your files save when travelling.

Backup on-line

iCloud, the cloud solution from Apple

Travelling with a cloud over your head need not be a bad thing… If you’ve still to get to grips with the concept of cloud computing, then here’s where the penny might drop. The cloud is online space. It’s a place where software can be hosted which ‘is in the cloud’, but more importantly it’s where your data can live. Google Docs works well, we love Dropbox (looks like any other folder on your computer) and there’s iCloud from the ever clever Apple people, to name just a few.

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