People mock my travel alarm. I’ve been burnt by so many other “wake up” devices, though:
- Wake-up calls; I’m the one who gets them an hour early, late, or not at all.
- Hotel alarm clocks; Some of them require an advanced degree and a Nobel prize to set them correctly
- Blackberry; Yes, there’s an alarm feature… but it only seems to work about 9/10 times.
- Watch alarms; My arm always winds up under a pillow, which snuffs out the beeping sound from my chronograph.
A travel alarm clock is of singular purpose. It has one function in life, and that function is very important to people who travel across time zones. My fascination with alarm clocks goes back to my childhood when my mother gave me my first clock/radio for Christmas. Of course, I peeked at the package and she exchanged it for a cheaper model as punishment… So I’ve been on the hunt for a REALLY nice one ever since!
I like this one, it’s cute!
It’s even “green!” I’m of the belief that “green” things should be practical. While I appreciate that they can run a cell phone from an 18” square solar panel, I really don’t want to carry a Frisbee sized disk around outside all day, just so I can use my phone. This travel alarm is as practical as they get, the darned thing runs on salt water, how cool is that? Get yours at BedolWhatsNext.com.
The clock I have now is awesome. The alarm is loud, and it varies its rhythm so there’s no getting used to it and falling back to sleep. It has a nice back-light feature too, if you roll over in the middle of the night and just touch the top of it, it will light up for three seconds so you can see what time it is without having a bright red or blue “clock beacon” that constantly lights up your room at night. Best of all, it folds up into a nice, compact case that gives the TSA people fits because it's a metal disk with a timing device in it! I never get tired of watching them examine it like a monkey with a new banana! You can get one at StanleyLondon.com.
Here’s a tip for you folks that like to use the hotel alarm, but don’t like the bright beacon-like display that illuminates the room… If you slide a knee-high sized panty hose stocking over the clock, it will mute the bright display down to a more subtle presentation that you can still read in the middle of the night without it lighting up the room..
EXTRA: If you have questions for Ken regarding business travel, hotels, airplanes, etc, please call 1-877-49-EXPERT. Your questions will be recorded and Ken will answer the best ones in his Ask the Expert podcast show.
