A Traveling Gadget for Every Situation

Travelers embarking on a trip seemingly have two major concerns:

--Losing their money, traveler’s checks or passport to a thief.

--Finding clean public restrooms.

This conclusion is far from scientific, but it does have some basis in fact. Personal safety and hygiene items, it seems, are far and away the biggest sellers among a wide variety of unusual travel accessories offered by Magellan’s, a new California mail-order firm specializing in travel goods. Magellan’s is one of several direct-mail suppliers of hard-to-find specialty products for travelers.

The world beyond home can be an uncomfortable and sometimes frightening place. Most travelers, if they are honest, will admit to some apprehension before they leave on a trip. Will my wallet or purse be stolen? Can I drink the water? What if nobody speaks English? Can I plug in my hair dryer? Will the socks I wash out at night be dry enough to pack the next morning? Most of these worries can be put to rest with the help of one or more special accessories designed for today’s traveling public.

Many of the new products being marketed can be very useful. Unfortunately, they aren’t always easy to find. You may be able to buy some travel items in department stores, bookstores and luggage shops, but chances are that the scope of the inventory will be narrow.

Several U.S. mail-order firms have moved to fill the gap by printing regularly updated catalogues featuring a broad range of travel-related merchandise. All say that travelers are eager for such items and that business is very good. Other firms market one or two unusual travel accessories that they produce themselves.

Among those offered: foreign currency calculators, pocket translators and other electronic gadgets. Overnight toiletry kits. Electrical adapters and converters. First-aid kits. Inflatable neck pillows for long flights. Hidden pockets and money belts to conceal valuables. Travel irons, steamers, instant tea-makers, shoe-gloss packets and similar valet items. A non-medicinal remedy for seasickness.

Among the several accessory suppliers, Magellan’s offers a 31-page catalogue listing dozens of items, each accompanied by a photograph and brief description.

The firm’s most popular item is Le Funelle (the funnel), a product designed for women as the answer to unsanitary toilets around the world. A box of 10 individually wrapped, pocket-size packets, each containing one funnel, sells for $4.99.

Magellan’s second-biggest seller is the “hidden pocket,” a small nylon money pouch with a zipper. You slip your belt through a loop on the pouch and then tuck the pouch inside pants, slacks or skirts. It sells for $7.95.

Perhaps the least-glamorous product is an ordinary rubber sink stopper. It’s an item that you expect hotels to provide, but not all do. A stopper billed as fitting all sinks sells for $1.85.

For a free catalogue: Magellan’s, Box 5485-P, Santa Barbara, Calif. 93150-5485, or call toll-free (800) 962-4943.

Another new firm, Before You Go, introduced its first 25-page catalogue last June. The firm offers a wide array of merchandise, but its biggest seller is an inflatable neck pillow designed to support your head and neck on long flights or train rides. Frequent travelers swear that such pillows make the difference between a tolerable overnight and an uncomfortable one. For a catalogue: Before You Go, Dept. M, P.O. Box 931796, Hollywood 90093-1796, (213) 624-1199.

Traveler’s Checklist, which has been in the travel accessory business since 1969, offers a limited catalogue (really a brochure) of about 40 tried-and-true travel items. They include a luggage caddy ($22), mini-travel iron ($26.95), money belt ($10), dental emergency kit ($21.95) and “deluxe” laundry kit ($8.50). All are photographed and contain a brief description.

A product just added to the catalogue is the AcuBand, a wrist strap designed to apply the principles of acupuncture to prevent motion- or seasickness. Worn like a wristwatch, the strap has a small button that is tightened on an acupressure point in the wrist.

Because no drugs are involved, there are no drowsiness or side effects. Mike Silverman of Traveler’s Checklist says AcuBand is effective about 85% of the time. A set of two bands is $14.95.

The catalogue is available for 50 cents from Traveler’s Checklist, Cornwall Bridge Road, Sharon, Conn. 06069, (203) 364-0144.

A new owner has revitalized Travel Mini Pack, a small mail-order company specializing (but not limited to) personal grooming and first-aid products in small sizes that are easily packed. A big seller has been the “mini packs” filled with such products--a different one for men, women, boys, girls and babies.

If you are sending a son off to camp, for example, the boy’s mini pack contains talc, shampoo, soap, travel toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, cotton swabs, wash-ups, bandage packet, mousse, hairbrush and comb. It sells for $12.95.

The 10-page catalogue lists dozens of items, many of them photographed. For a catalogue: Travel Mini Pack, P.O. Box 571, Stony Point, N.Y. 10980, (914) 429-8281.

Travel Science has developed a series of shirt pocket-size foreign language aids. They are aimed at travelers who want to be able to speak a few words in another language but don’t want to deal with a full-fledged phrase book.

The lead item is the World Language Pocket Pac. It contains seven language phrase cards of 30 to 35 words in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. In addition, three other cards contain six basic phrases (“hello,” “thank you” and so on) in other languages, including Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Russian and Serbo-Croatian. In a plastic pouch, the packet sells for $4.

For a catalogue: Travel Science, 812 Charleston N.E., Suite 6, Albuquerque, N.M. 87110, (505) 265-9619.

Traveling Healthy, a newsletter featuring items about travel medicine, recently spotlighted Safeco America’s several AIDS prevention kits. Generally, they are marketed to corporations and government agencies to be distributed to employees, but three of the kits can be bought directly from the firm.

The kits provide basic medical supplies to be used for illness or injury in a part of the world where medical standards may be suspect. AIDS can be transmitted by used needles that have not been sterilized. The wallet pack ($16) contains two syringes and needles, adhesives and antiseptics. A prevention pack at $35 and a traveler’s pack at $117 contain larger quantities of these items and a few other supplies. For information: Safeco America, 34300 Lakeland Blvd., Eastlake, Ohio 44095, toll-free (800) 551-1800.

The International Assn. of Medical Assistance to Travelers, a nonprofit organization, works in part to alert travelers to the dangers of malaria in Africa, Asia and South America.

For the project, the group has developed a portable, free-standing mosquito net to be used in hotel rooms. Called La Mosquette, the device--with frame and netting--weighs five pounds and fits in a suitcase when disassembled. It is being sold “at cost” for $75, plus $8 in handling costs for U.S. shipment. For information: IAMAT, 417 Center St., Lewiston, N.Y. 14092, (716) 754-4883.

On the market this month are two hand-held electronic translators, which Selectronics has developed in cooperation with Berlitz Phrase Books and Dictionaries. The devices--slightly larger than a credit card--have a keyboard into which you type a phrase that you want translated. The phrase appears on a mini-screen.

The Berlitz Interpreter is a five-language translator--English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. It contains 12,500 words and 300 phrases in each language, and sells for $99.95. The Berlitz EuroTraveler translates 1,100 phrases in 10 languages--the five in the Interpreter plus Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and Portuguese. It sells for $149.95.

For information on where to find the translators, contact Selectronics toll-free at (800) 828-6293.