Travelling with the Travel Pillow with a Hole.
In my last blog we saw how useful and portable the Original P.W.A.H can be in a camping setting. We also saw that it can occasionally be sunny in the United Kingdom.
While the Original Pillow with a Hole is perfectly portable when you have a car to take it around, there are times when you’re travelling further afield and require something a little smaller, something that bit more portable. That is where the Travel P.W.A.H comes in.
Designed to fit inside a small backpack or carry-on luggage, our travel version has the exact same size hole as its bigger brother but is smaller in every other way. We have tested it extensively and while there is of course a trade off when reducing the size, we have found that it is still eminently comfortable.
To battle test it, I recently took it with me to a conference in Japan. This involved six plane journeys, some very bizarre hotels and no small amount of inconvenience. Yet, throughout the trip, I was able to keep the Travel P.W.A.H in nothing larger than a 15 litre ‘day sack.’ This was great for me because even on a long trip such as this one, I really only like to take two backpacks with me. A small 15 litre day sack and a larger, 40 litre travel backpack – both of which I can take on as hand luggage thereby keeping all my belongings with me and avoiding unnecessary queues for baggage check-in and claim. It does make me look like an overloaded tortoise, but I made my choice.
Having the Travel P.W.A.H with me was great on the airplane because I could use either against the window if I had a window seat or right in front of me if I had an isle seat. If I had a seat in the middle I’d try to strangle myself with it but alas the hole simply isn’t big enough.
During take-off you’re told to stow your baggage, which I did, but I was able to put the pillow underneath the seat in front of me for convenience. It should be mentioned that this particular pillow, unlike the Original P.W.A.H, comes with a canvass drawstring bag to keep it protected while on the move. So when you throw it under the seat in front of you, you don’t need to worry about the condition in which it will return. While I’m on the subject of accessories for the Travel, lovely soft pillowcases are available, should you require one.
Having the Travel P.W.A.H with me on the flight was a tremendous boon, but I wasn’t really able to use it to protect my ear since the seating on an airplane isn’t really conducive to it, although I was able to use it like that a little bit when I was against the window. Mind you, I’ve never been able to get comfortable or sleep on an airplane, although the free wine does help somewhat.
Where the pillow really paid dividends was in the various hotels I stayed in. After safely and easily getting it there I was able to pop it onto of the hotel pillows and I was away.
In summary; the Travel Pillow with a Hole is easily transported, durable, comfortable and works just as well at relieving pressure on the ear as its larger brother. So if you find yourself going away on holiday, you could certainly do worse than buying one.
One final thing; if you’re ever in Tokyo, you should sleep in one of the ‘capsule hotels’. A very unique and very odd experience. You won’t sleep particularly well, but you’ll collect a few funny memories.
