The Carey Adventures

Wait a second.  A Healthy Family Travel Tip about carabinners?

I know, I know, it doesn’t really seem healthy does it?  But I’m going to stretch this one because, over the course of the last year, I have found the true utility and helpfulness that is the modern carabineer.

For those who don’t know what a carabineer is, take a look at the photo at right.  It is the clipy thing holding the water bottle to the seat.  And this is where carabineers first came into usefulness for me.  Space is a bit limited on airlines and the simple act of clipping this carabineers on to the bottle and the seat made my water bottle not only easier to remember and get to (see the first Healthy Family Travel Tip on drinking lots of water) but it also freed up space.  Plus, the bottle wasn’t rolling all over the place any more.  Ahhhh….

Carabineers have many other uses while traveling.  Holding straps together, clipping clotheslines to various items in hotels, clipping dog leaches around trees and keeping baggage locks handy are just a few.  They can keep many items close at hand and entertain children for quite a while.  Plus, with the likes of water bottles on airlines, they keep the bottle off the ground which may or may not trasnlate to a cleaner trip.  On any flight over two hours you should be drinking plenty of water which means handling the bottle over and over.

So give them a try.  Small, medium, big….it doesn’t really matter.  But I’m sure once you start using them, you’ll wonder like I do how you ever go along without them.