The Travel Wallet
In all our years of traveling one of my pet hates was the juggling of my travel documents – passport, boarding pass, anything that refers to where I’m going, etc. It took until a recent trip where one of my travel buddies pulled out what, at first glance, looked like the guiness world record for Costanza wallets, for me to realise there was answers out there.
The wallet I’m referring to is from Rip Curl, not widely known for their ‘carry’ category. Called the Globe Trotter, this wallet is hands down the best travel wallet I’ve come across. I’ll give you three quick reasons why: 1/ Fits in my back pocket. 2/My passport is snug in it. 3/No damage to boarding passes and it holds most documents with relative ease.
To explain it further we’ve broken it down into four major areas that we think all travel wallets need to excel at:
1/ Access:
A travel wallet needs to have quick access – there’s nothing worse than trying to juggle documents while dealing with the person at the counter who is trying to charge excess and sit you next to the first dropout from The Biggest Loser. Something that can give you quick access to your documents, particularly your boarding pass and passport.
This can also then be stretched out to needing to access money (visas, food, etc) or frequent flyer (or the such) cards quickly.
2/ Mobility:
This was a huge thing with the Rip Curl wallet. The wallet is designed to fit into the back pocket of most pairs of jeans. This is huge. When you see people fumbling around with huge portfolio travel wallets (which also invite theft/muggings), you feel like the king when this Rip Curl one fits snuggly into your back pocket. It’s an easy decision to know which you would want.
3/ Storage:
Always a topic of discussion with wallets, storage isn’t so much a worry with the Globe Trotter. With the generous size, there is plenty of space to throw things. The brilliance here is the dimensions again. Fitting your cards perfectly is a no brainer, but a pocket that fits your passport perfectly? Yes please. Along with that there is multiple sections for notes, boarding passes even a sim card slot for when you’re juggling international phone carriers.
4/ Looks:
Of course, like anything, you want to look as good as possible. Otherwise you’d be rolling around in an oversized one piece tracksuit… The Rip Curl Globe Trotter is constructed from genuine leather and wouldn’t look out of place in the First Class Lounge at Qantas Club. You definitely want to be sporting a wallet that looks good, both now and in years to come.
PS -> Bonus? Yep, the wallet came with a little micro pen that slides in the fold of the wallet. Stops you having to ask the creepy dude next to you for their pen.
Let us know what you use for your travel wallets? It would be great to do some comparing…
Looks great! Where abouts can I order one of these?
Haha, we just spoke to the Rip Curl guys, and discovered that they produce these every second year or so, with spells between of not producing them… So either check ebay, some surf shops with older inventory, or hang out till the next update.
By the way, sorry to dangle this carrot. I think Leather was just stoked on his so much he had to write about it. Tumi have something similar (but IMHO not as good), which does not deal as well with tickets: http://www.tumi.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4063066&prodFindSrc=paramNav
The following three links are photos of some quick shots and setups of my “travel pouch”. First obtained this at 18 years of age when it was issued to me in the Air Force for our various travel needs and has kept up with me for almost ten years now. A bit on the geek side as I mentioned in my set description from flickr, but it does the job. Again, aesthetics is not its strong suit just to remind you.
1. http://flic.kr/p/8vcjUr
2. http://flic.kr/p/8vcj7i
3. http://flic.kr/p/8vfjNq
Hey Edward,
Thanks for the images, your pouch def looks like it’s see quite a lot of places. Pretty crazy to think that it’s held up over ten years of travel and the fact that you can carry a phone in it is a pretty good bonus – cant imagine that fitting in the one above haha…
Lincoln
The Ripcurl website does not list this as a product; or at least I can’t find it. The wallet itself looks very useful and certainly better sized than my current travel holdall.
Can anyone provide a link to where this may be purchased?
…mal
Mal,
we’ve just written a reply to a similar request… check above now.
And then let me go back to the Rip Curl guys and see if they can track a few down…
What about the Güs Passport folio? Don’t own it myself but plan on to in the near future.
http://www.gusstyle.com/passportfolio.html
Zouav
Thanks for the link! The Güs is a little more upmarket then my current one above but it is great looking wallet for travel, I’m really loving the compact nature of it.
If you do get one, be sure to let us know how it performs!
Lincoln
The major difference with the Gus and Rip Curl wallet is that the Gus will not take your tickets or boarding passes the way the Rip Curl wallet will.
Other than that, it looks pretty good from the pictures.
I began searching for a passport/ travel wallet and think this may be the Holy Grail. Of course I can’t find one anywhere! Please let me (and shortly thereafter everyone else) know if you find a source for this great wallet!
Rob
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Great wallet shame about the fact its Rip Curl, as a business travellor and not a teenager with a flat brimmed hat, skinny jeans and t-shirt – I would love one of these wallets but never in my right mind get one because of the tacky colours, stitching and brand association.
Hmmmmm if Bellroy wallets started to expand their range a little to include something that accomodates a passport and the business travellor that would be great.
Haha, thanks Daniel. We’ll suggest it to the Bellroy guys
the bellroy guys must have listened as the new Travel wallet is a beatiful copy of this!
def going to buy the bellroy one!
haha. funny you mention that Rahoul. The designers behind the above Rip Curl travel wallet are the same guys who designed the Bellroy Travel Wallet (and all the Bellroy wallets actually) . But don’t worry, we spoke with Rip Curl first and got permission to advance the design to what you see today.
ok that is pretty awesome. I LOVE this wallet and have been looking for something like it for ages.
The Bellroy one answers my prayers in spades.
The Bellroy Travel wallet certainly looks great. Too bad it doesn’t come in black. Any chance of expanding the colour range?
…mal
Mal,
we’ve spoken to the Bellroy guys, and they say there should be a black in the coming months.
However they also say that the cocoa pull-up leather is lots more fun
Look great! I need like this one but with… chain:) Somebody knows where I can find it?)