Travel Gear Review: The Collapsible Travel Tray

Is the Magellan's Travel Tray a good buy?

After about a week of squabbling over who had the passkey and where the wedding rings were – I knew we needed a better system.

Collapsible Tray

I've been a huge fan of Magellan’s travel supplies for more than a decade – although it’s only in the past two years that I began ordering from them. I would look through their catalog again and again, in love with the nifty products that not only appealed to my love of travel, but also my affection for organization and mini versions of everyday items.

And for years, I would look at one particular item – the collapsible canvas travel tray – and scoff. Who on earth would spend perfectly good money on little more than some fabric and snaps? It doesn't take a genius to unpack in a hotel room.

And then I went on a bit of a road trip to the east coast of Canada.

A different hotel, campsite, B&B every night  And our stuff was a mess! We could never find hotel keys, keep track of spare change and tips for housekeeping, and maintain any semblance of organization with important papers.

After about a week of squabbling over who had the passkey and where the wedding rings were – I knew we needed a better system.

So I ordered the travel tray and haven’t looked back. And it was an amazing asset to last summer’s two week road trip through the American southwest, where the longest we stayed in any spot was 3 nights, and we changed accommodations an average of every day and a half. The tray lays flat on the outside of my suitcase; it’s the first thing pulled out upon check in, and all critical papers, keys, jewels, money, and passports are kept together. Checkouts become much speedier, as not only are things better organized, but I now only need to check the room 2-3 times instead of my usual 10!

Disorganization causes stress and costs valuable time – and even money. This stresses me out enough in everyday life, let along when I’m on the road – that’s why I go on vacation in the first place! I’m happy to be a devotee of the (admittedly a bit lame) travel tray!

You can go online and order the tray from Magellan's here.


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