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12 Travel Items You Never Need to Spend a Fortune on—and the Budget-friendly Hacks That Do the Trick Instead
From the best eye mask for travel to the best neck pillow, every item on this list is under $40. This mix of accessories can be used in-flight, on a train or bus, and even long after you've arrived at your destination. So, make sure you put all of these Amazon budget travel hacks into your carry-on travel backpack the next time you head out.
If you want to avoid a stiff neck during long flights, train rides, or road trips, a neck pillow is a must. One of the best travel neck pillows is this Napfun option, which is unique because it's designed with a flat back that helps keep your head in a more neutral position while you're sleeping. Round necks tend to push your head forward and can lead to neck strain for some. Its memory foam fill also feels cloud-like for ultimate comfort.
It may feel more convenient to buy travel-sized versions of your go-to toiletries every time you're going on a trip, but it's worth it to spend a few minutes putting the products you already have into these travel bottles instead. Not only will you save a few dollars, but you don't have to worry about whether what you bought is TSA-compliant. Plus, these bottles are color-coded to make it easy to find what you need quickly. The set comes with four bottles, four jars, two spray bottles, scoopers, a funnel, a brush, labels, and a bag.
Dubbed our best weighted sleep mask, we love that the Barmy mask applies light pressure to specific points on your face to help you relax. That's in addition to blocking a fair amount of light. The mask is cozy-soft against the skin, and cooling, too, so your eye area won't feel too hot as you sleep or decompress.
Sure, you could use the plane's outlet, but why do all that bending and maneuvering around when it's probably easier to use this sleek and slim power bank? It's designed with four different cables, making it a workhorse for charging all your electronics, no matter what kind of cable they require to juice up. It's probably a good idea to keep the portable charger in your purse during your travels, so that you're not stuck trying to find the nearest outlet while out sightseeing.
After I got stuck watching a movie with subtitles because I refused to buy the airplane-offered headphones I'd likely only use once, I never travel without a Bluetooth audio transmitter. The Twelve South AirFly Bluetooth Audio Transmitter plugs into the plane's headphone jack to allow you to wirelessly connect to your AirPods, Beats Studio Buds, or other compatible headphones. It can handle 20 hours of audio on a single charge, and it's also smaller than your palm, making it easy to travel with.
It can be easy to experience restless legs on a flight, especially if you're sitting in economy. This foot hammock is a fun and relaxing way to kick up your feet when a quick walk to the bathroom to get your legs going just won't cut it. You can hang the hammock from the tray table in front of you and adjust it to one of three lengths to make it the perfect height for your legs, so even children can use it.
Whether you don't want to hear the conversation your neighbors are having or need complete quiet to fall into a deep sleep on your next red-eye, Loop's Quiet 2 Ear Plugs can block out noise without making your ears feel uncomfortable, which is why we named them our favorite earplugs of 30 pairs we tested. They're made with flexible silicone that molds to your ear shape, so you never feel like you have to force them in. It also helps that they're much more stylish than your average earbuds, which makes them fun to use.
There's no better way to remember to keep hydrated than by keeping a water bottle on hand, but they can be a little annoying to carry around. Vapur's collapsible bottle (the most durable on our best collapsible water bottles list!) is incredibly light and easy to carry. When not in use, it can also fold down to barely take up any space in your luggage. Another hack: This is perfect for feeding water to your furry travel companions, too.
If you want to give your overstuffed suitcase some help staying shut, a luggage strap can help it keep closed and secure. This Samsonite one even comes with a TSA-approved travel lock to prevent anyone from tampering with your belongings. You can also use a luggage strap to attach multiple items, like a duffel to your rolling suitcase if it doesn't have a trolley sleeve.
This phone mount can attach to almost anything—an airplane tray table, your luggage handle, a desk, and more. It's the perfect accessory for watching something on your phone on the go since it can fold down to be just about palm-sized. When open, it uses a clamp to keep secure to whatever it's attached to, too. The mount rotates 360 degrees, so you can always achieve the perfect viewing angle.
It may be nearly impossible to survive those early-morning flights without coffee, but you can make sure you don't accidentally spill it all over your luggage again. This cup caddy attaches to the handle of your rolling suitcase to hold up to two drinks. It also has an extra pocket where you can store your phone or other small essentials to keep your hands free for those other important tasks, like holding a child's hand.
If you're traveling abroad for the first time, you'll soon discover that many places don't use the outlets we're used to here in the U.S. Packing a universal travel adapter will ensure that you can keep all your gear charged no matter what outlet you encounter. We named it our best travel adapter converter because it can charge six devices at the same time, and it's ready to use in more than 150 countries.
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The Macau Air Transport Company, a now-defunct branch of Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific flagship airline, operated two of these Catalina 'flying boats.' As Macao didn't have an airport or land cleared for a runway, the planes could take off from its coastal waters. Flying became a popular option for businessmen going between the two cities, especially those who were bringing in items like gold, since Macao was the only open gold market in East Asia at the time. But then, on July 16, 1948, Miss Macao failed to arrive at Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport. Officials in Hong Kong quickly sounded the alarm, and local police began searching the waters between the two cities. The only survivor, a 24-year-old Chinese rice farmer named Wong Yu, was rescued by a fisherman and taken to the hospital in Macao. According to multiple news reports at the time, one of Wong's legs was broken, and he was wearing a life jacket he'd managed to grab as the plane descended. Although Wong claimed to be an ordinary passenger and explained that the plane had exploded in midair, inconsistencies in his story and his questionable behavior — including trying to escape from the hospital — led authorities and the press to a different explanation: The Miss Macao crashed into the sea while being taken over by 'air pirates,' an incident that the China Mail, a Hong Kong English-language newspaper, called 'unparalleled in the history of aviation.' On the day it last took off, Miss Macao had two pilots in the cockpit: American captain Dale Cramer and Australian first officer Ken McDuff, both former military airmen. In total, there were 27 people on board: along with 24 passengers, there was a single flight attendant, Delca da Costa, a Portuguese national from Macao who was also McDuff's girlfriend. Four of the passengers, though, had no intention of going to Hong Kong. In a confession, Wong said that he and three fellow would-be thieves had sold everything they owned to buy the tickets, figuring that the proceeds from the crime would be worth it. As historian Luis Andrade de Sa explains in his book 'Aviation in Macau: One Hundred Years of Adventure,' shortly after the plane took off from Macao, the four hijackers quickly sprang into action, with one storming into the cockpit and demanding that the pilots surrender control of the aircraft. According to multiple historical accounts, the lead hijacker, Chiu Tok, had taken flying lessons in Manila and planned to take over captaining the plane once the pilots were subdued. However, he hadn't anticipated that Cramer would refuse to let go of the controls, nor that there would be resistance in the main cabin. As one passenger tussled with a hijacker, a gun went off. McDuff swung at Chiu Tok with an iron bar. The hijackers shot both pilots, and Cramer's body landed on the plane's joystick control, sending the aircraft plummeting into the South China Sea. An August 1948 article in Time magazine described the scene in colorful language, writing that the four hijackers 'looked hungrily' at the rich passengers they were targeting. Wong was picked up by a local boat and treated for his injuries. His story about surviving a midair explosion was quickly disproven when pieces of Miss Macao's wreckage were recovered, punctured by bullet holes. Getting the true account of events out of Wong wouldn't be easy. He was in poor physical and mental health, so police were reluctant to use harsh interrogation. Instead, they came up with an unorthodox plan: they filled the hospital with sleeper agents. Dozens of Chinese-speaking undercover police officers posing as patients were tasked with befriending Wong, and they eventually got him to admit what really happened on board Miss Macao. He confessed that the plan had been for the hijackers to seize control of the plane and redirect it to a town in Guangdong province in southern China, where the passengers and crew would be robbed of their valuables and then held for ransom. No one was supposed to die. The hijacking of the Miss Macao was so novel that no one had ever applied the word 'hijacking' to such a situation — press at the time called it 'air piracy.' The concept of scanning passengers with a metal detector before they boarded a plane was still decades away. Only the most cursory of security checks were carried out, with some items of luggage opened and searched. The hijackers had prepared for that — they'd tied their guns to their legs with black string, and the China Mail newspaper reported at the time that one had hidden bullets in the hollowed-out sole of his shoe. Although Wong eventually told the full story of what happened on board Miss Macao, there was confusion over how to prosecute him — and who would do it. Portuguese authorities in Macao said that because the plane was owned by a British company, Wong's trial would need to take place in Hong Kong. But because the hijackers were all Chinese, British officials in Hong Kong said the case was not in their jurisdiction either. Finally, in 1951, Wong was deported from Macao to mainland China, where he died not long after, at the age of 27. He never stood trial for robbery, murder or piracy. As for the two former colonial cities, their own air travel industries blossomed in the decades to come. Hong Kong became one of the world's biggest air hubs as its economy grew in the late 20th century. The city became a financial capital and the gateway to mainland China. It outgrew Kai Tak Airport, which closed in 1998 and was replaced with the larger Hong Kong International, which is consistently ranked among the best airports in the world. Meanwhile, Macao International Airport opened in 1995. These days, the airport has a small exhibit about important aviation stories that happened there — including the hijacking of the Miss Macao. The story of the Hong Kong-Macao hijacking quickly fell out of newspapers. Many people in the nascent commercial aviation industry saw it as a terrible one-off and didn't believe that plane hijacking — or skyjacking as it was called at the peak of its popularity — would become commonplace. There was also a fear that too much coverage of the story would scare off would-be flyers. When the United States established the Federal Aviation Administration in 1958 to regulate air travel, the legislation made no mention of preventing skyjacking, a sign that it was still not seen as a significant issue. 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