Pick a Card…Any Card
Want to get to know the quiet side streets of Paris or a picturesque stroll along the Seine? Hate the idea of taking a walking tour with strangers and wandering off because your not interested in part of the itinerary? Then you will love these cards! City Walks: Paris is a deck of 50 cards, each with a different walking adventure. The front of the cards have a detailed map and walk route, the back has a list of all things you will encounter on your walk….from museums, shops, cafes and secret historic landmarks. Each card covers a different area of the city. Pick a card or two are explore your heart out..without lugging around a heavy book! These cards are available in Paris, London, Rome, Amsterdam, Vancouver, Boston, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York and San Francisco. They retail for about $15 and are available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Moleskine to the Rescue
I am sure you have all seen or used a Moleskine at one time or another. Personally, I love them. Once again, they have come out with something I just can’t live without. It is a Moleskine City Notebook. Basically, you can create your own personal guidebook. It’s a compact moleskine with plenty of blank pages(some are removable), a small pocket in the back for collecting business cards, tabbed blank sections for restaurants, favorite shopping spots, a street index, transparent sticky notes, bookmark ribbons…and it even has zone maps and a fold out metro map of the city in the middle of the book. Retail is $17. To take a peek inside, get a complete list of the cities available or to purchase, visit the Moleskine website. I’ll be making good use of the Paris notebook for my upcoming trip.
Show me the Money
With the dollar getting weaker and the Euro getting stronger, it gets increasingly hard to plan how much you will need for a trip to Europe. I rely on the xe.com for all my currency conversions. They give you so many options, it’s not even funny. And they update their rates every minute…can’t get more accurate than that!
Just in Case
Have you found yourself in the hotel room, packing for the return trip home…only to find that your suitcase zipper ain’t gonna make it? All of your new purchases are taking up much more room in the suitcase than you thought, huh? Maybe you have been in the check in line at the airport and your luggage is overweight. What’s a girl to do? Well, don’t worry. Tumi has come out with the Just in Case Tote * love the name* for just such occasions. The lightweight case folds square and flat, and even snaps down in the folded position to take up next to no room in your luggage. When opened it is a sturdy, high quality nylon spacious tote that can take all of your suitcase overflow. It also has a really cool sleeve sewn on the back, that ingeniously slips over the telescoping handle of your wheeled luggage, making it effortless to carry roll around. It will set you back $50, but it’s a Tumi, which is a great product and comes with a warranty. A must have for me.
What are some of your favorite travel items?
Photos courtesy of Chronicle Books, Moleskine and Tumi, respectively
