This backpack, emblazoned with the Girl With A Pearl Earring wearing a mask, is sure to raise a smile
For some companies, the pandemic has been an opportunity to show how innovative they are.
Here we reveal 12 items essential for pandemic-friendly travel, including a small silicone tip for operating public touch screens like those at cash machines, stations and airports and a sterilising box that can disinfect phones, glasses, cash or pens when you are on the go.
Artistic licence
Girl With A Pearl Earring (and mask) backpack, £39.04
A perfectly useable backpack for any travels — but the facemask-wearing version of Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s painting Girl With A Pearl Earring will turn heads and raise a smile.
Breath of fresh air
AVICHE necklace wearable mini personal air purifier with USB, £29.99
The idea is you charge this little pendant (using the USB slot) and wear it around your neck. Makers claim the device creates a 3ft-wide bubble of ‘purified air’ to keep viruses at bay.
One reviewer said they always wear one because ‘it’s reassuring’ and battery life is enough for any long-haul flight. The science of its anti-virus powers is sketchy but it definitely clears smelly and smoky air.
Stop the spread
Tru Eco disposable wooden cutlery set, £6.99
The Tru Eco disposable wooden cutlery set contains 150 birch wood knives, forks and spoons
For those who don’t trust that the hotel cutlery is virus-free, or don’t want inadvertently to pass any infection to restaurant staff, this lightweight, wooden cutlery set is designed to be used once and thrown away afterwards. The pack contains 150 birch wood knives, forks and spoons to take on your travels.
Packed full of humour
F.L.OPOPO cloth carrier bag, £11.18
It takes a certain type of traveller to appear with a bright red bag emblazoned with ‘2020 Covid-19 Survivor’ and a picture of a toilet roll. There’s nothing else virus-related about this foil-lined, zipped and pocketed cloth carrier. A sense of humour is required.
Back up
Sggual backpack, £18.99
Another backpack that has no particular attributes to make it hygienic or safe, but perhaps its tasteless design — images of coronavirus particles — will keep people socially distanced.
Throw in the towel
Babydo beach towel, £21.49
The Babydo beach towel, which comes in acid yellow, should create a social distance around you
However crowded the beach, you wouldn’t lose this extra-large towel. If the acid yellow and What Virus? slogan weren’t enough, the picture of someone in a gas mask should create a social distance all around you. And who would dare move this from your poolside sun-lounger?
Bottle it
Fast Pro bottles (ten-pack) for hand sanitiser, £8.99
A travel pack of ten squeezable bottles that travellers can fill with hand sanitiser, then attach upside down to key rings or belts. You can have instant disinfected hands wherever you go.
Mask protector
Wateralone mask case, £1.39
This lightweight case keeps your mask clean when not being worn. The pocket-sized box made of hygienic plastic clips tightly shut to form a waterproof, dust-proof seal. It comes in white or pastel blue, pink or green.
Get a handle on it
Fredor door opener, £3.99
This small zinc device can be used to open doors and the silicone tip can operate public touch screens such as those at cash machines, stations and airports
Attach this small zinc device to your key fob with the supplied ring and then wherever you go you can open doors, which are a high-touch area, without risking infection. There is also a small silicone tip for operating public touch screens such as those at cash machines, stations and airports.
Note that the ‘hygiene hook’ is excellent for doors with angular handles — but useless if they are round.
Light years ahead
Crown LED portable disinfection lamp, £43.95
A small light (it’s just five inches long) that claims to remove ‘up to 99.9 per cent’ of viruses. Simply shine it at any worrying surfaces for 30 seconds. It claims to work on everything from steering wheels to TV remote controls in hotels.
Picture perfect
Cities Of Silence book, £12
The Cities Of Silence book, which includes powerful images of London and New York
A glossy hardback of extraordinary photos telling the story of travel in 2020.
Among the powerful images you will see the London Eye at a standstill and New York’s Brooklyn Bridge looking abandoned.
Germ killer
Cahot portable UV light steriliser box, £34.99
Disinfect phones, glasses, cash or pens when you are on the go by putting them in this steriliser box. Close the magnetic lid and eight internal ultraviolet lights destroy germs in three minutes.
The USB-powered device does not specifically claim to protect against Covid but against ‘illness-causing hazards’.
Oddly, it can also wirelessly charge phones.
- All products available on Amazon.