7 Novelty Travel Items You May Want to Buy and Bring

Image courtesy of digitalart / freedigitalphotos.net

Sure, you hop from one travel-related blog to another to find useful information or insights on travel essentials. But it surely wouldn’t be a big waste of time going over novelty items you can buy for your trip. You might even find them useful for your specific needs.

Take a look at some of the most humorously interesting novelty travel items you can actually buy. You might be surprised to realize that you actually need one of them.

1.  Novelty Luggage Scales

Luggage weight limits for airlines are a staple among the many concerns you need to consider in your travel. It would be greatly convenient to have a device that can tell you the actual weight of your luggage. This is why luggage scales have been created – but they don’t have to look generic and unattractive. They can come with pleasing designs and be fixed to your favorite luggage’s handle so you can always have the means to determine your luggage weight anytime, anywhere.

By Lifedics (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

2. Privacy Protection Stickers

The x-ray scanners at airports are not something you can easily dismiss as harmless. They can show your naked body in all its perfection or unflattering appearance. Thanks to “Flying Pasties” you can try covering your private parts. Created by a Las Vegas based company, “Flying Pasties” are specially designed small rubber stickers that can be attached inside or on top of undergarments to conceal the genitals or the breasts in women.

Basically, what these stickers do is to prevent x-rays from reflecting back anything that would produce images of the genitals, no matter how blurry they may be. The seller of the product, however, advise buyers to remove the “pasties” if they are questioned by airport authorities. Hence, it is recommended wearing them on top of your underwear, not inside.

3. Fancy Airline Seat Cover

So you want to sit on something you will truly feel comfortable? Then you might want to buy a custom airline seat cover for yourself. Just be ready to pay for the added luggage weight.  You can buy an airplane seat cover that comes with LED lights, an mp3 player, and a material designed to resist germs or the accumulation of microbes.

This might sound incredible but the couple responsible for introducing this fancy seat cover was already able to sell around 5,000 of these seat covers since late 2005. The average price is $25. It is primarily marketed as a product for those who don’t want to contract diseases or germs from airline seats.

By NinjaSnipr [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

4. Travel Phrasebook Shirts

There are many versions of these shirts. There’s nothing special about them except for their supposedly functional prints. These shirts feature prints that can be used to communicate with locals who may not be able to speak English or other languages comprehensible to the wearer. Wearers can simply point to a certain icon or illustration printed on the shirt so they won’t be having a hard time visualizing the things they are trying to say.

5. Wi-Fi Sensing Shirts

These shirts have been around for several years now. Of course, they are nonessential travel wear but they’re great to have especially when going places for adventure and to meet new people. They attract attention and are somewhat useful as they help other tourists who may also be looking for Wi-Fi signals.

Of course, they come with batteries so they are heavier than typical shirts and they require special care when it comes to cleaning or washing.

6. USB-Powered AC Shirts

For those who are heading to someplace warm or hot, air-conditioned shirts could be worth buying. Well, they don’t really come with mechanisms similar to what air-conditioners have to enable the cooling process. They are simply shirts with small fans that can be connected to DC power sources that provide 5V of power. They can be powered through a laptop’s USB ports or using small power banks intended to serve as backup batteries for  gadgets.

7. “Skid-Marked” Underwear with Pockets to Hold Money or Small Valuables

Well, this product sounds gross but it actually isn’t. It also looks gross but it actually isn’t. These are simulations of dirty underwear that have pockets to hold emergency money or small valuables. Because of the way they look, muggers or thieves are unlikely to inspect them. The idea behind this product may seem disgusting but it works almost all of the time.

By Underwear Guy at en.wikipedia. (Transferred from en.wikipedia by Jacklee.) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

It certainly wouldn’t hurt trying one of these novelty travel items. Some of them actually make a lot of sense. They may be uncommon and laughable for some but they offer something you may find useful. They are nonessential travel gear but they could be worth buying and bringing in your trips.