My Love Affair With Dorky Luggage
PBS travel writer and presenter Rick Steves is a lot of things. A good writer, an intelligent and passionate traveller and someone who successfully preaches to Americans that there’s a world out there (OK, Europe) that is worth not just travelling to, but really seeing and experiencing. But, no matter his qualities, I’m happy to consider him the friendly old uncle of travel writing, encouraging the emptynesters to get out there and explore. But my guilty secret is I lust after his bags. Particularly his convertible carry-on and his daypack – all sorts of cool features, the best of all of which is they’re durable but damn light. But they’re so lacking in badass cred that they ought to come with a pair of slippers and a bus pass. But the design! The practicality! However, they don’t appear to be available anywhere in Australia and Amazon, fortunately my own self image, won’t ship them to Australia.
Today The Geeky Traveller caught my eye with the Kiva Keychain Backpack, made by the same company as Rick Steves line.
The Kiva Key Chain Pakc is a 120 gram nylon backpack (around 40 cms x 30 x 7) that collapses into a keychain pouch roughly 10cms x 6 x 3. A great idea for a daypack or extra capacity for things picked up along the way, even if the few Amazon reviews seem to (predictably) warn that it won’t carry a whole hell of a lot of weight. Like the Rick Steves bags, Amazon will only ship to US addresses. Saved from my own unconcious yearning for naff baggage again.
All in all, I reckon Kiva are a company that deserve a more active, better, or just bigger, Australian distributor.
4 responses so far ↓
Zorfling // 22 May, 2008 at 9:56 pm |
Hey,
Thought it might be of interest to point out the many parcel forwarding services available for this very purpose.
A quick google search for “us address forward” yielded a number of results.
One such is Access USA – http://www.myus.com/
They give you your own us address and then forward it on to your Aussie (or in fact it seems just about any) address.
I haven’t used these myself though, so check them out and see which has the best prices.
Anyway, love the blog, keep up the good work
Hermione // 18 November, 2008 at 2:58 pm |
It’s so annoying when companies don’t deliver to Australia. Bongo International is another mail forwarding company with really good prices, they give you a personal US postal address for a one off fee of just $5 and or for $15 a month they will actually consolidate all your shopping for you and send everything over to you address here! It’s super easy to use too, just go to http://www.BongoInternational.com.au for more information. Good luck!
Tina // 28 August, 2009 at 4:36 pm |
FYI, the Rick Steves shop now ships internationally, and the rate’s aren’t TOO horribly cutthroat. For $100.
Tina // 28 August, 2009 at 4:48 pm |
Your comments don’t like my pointy brackets! I was saying, for purchases under $100, the shipping is $28. So you can get the Rick Steves convertible for total $127 USD = ~$155 AUD.