This week's tip has to do with traveling--(which I'm sure many of us will be doing in the next week or so).

Next time, before you fly or before you book check in at Seatguru.com before you leave. Detailed maps of the most commonly flown airplanes provide the lowdown on the best and worst seats on board. Down to the tray table in seat 1E on jetBlue's A320 Airbus or the legroom on seat 19F on Delta's Boeing 757 200. Those not obsessive enough to click their way through 594 seats can select according to color-coded rankings: Very Good Seat, Be Aware, and the dreaded Bad Seat.

Here are some cool travel accessories I've found:

1) Don't cram the itinerary, restaurant and shopping lists, receipts, and Post-Its into your wallet. Organize them in a cheap document case (which also fits a passport).

2) Swaddle yourself in double-duty covers. For planes, trains, and automobiles: a pillow that doubles as a blanket.

3) A sleep mask is a wearable do-not-disturb sign. May as well hang a pretty one.

4) You'll never fit all your shoppings into the suitcase you brought. Come prepared. LeSportsacs fold down smaller than a sweater and expand to hold several dozen new ones.

5) What to bring in order of descending size: The rolly-bag conundrum: brilliant for dashing through airports, embarrassingly ugly at baggage claim. Not so with Samsonite's Black Label collection. It's as functional (nothing will rip it) as it is fashionable (its patterns resemble an elegant men's suit).

Posted by Lawren at December 22, 2003 10:04 AM

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