(if you want to see all the features and how many cards and cash it can hold, please watch the video)
It is time to get back into traveling. Do you really need a passport wallet? Bellroy calls their offerings the Travel Folio and Travel Wallet.
The Travel Folio comes in a typical Bellroy pack with a little tag on the bottom, and inside is a single wallet to look at. We have it in the caramel color, but it also comes in obsidian, which is really black, and ocean. Since this is a folio, it has a zipper opening and it has a few pieces of propaganda, example passport, and it comes with an extra refill for the pen, which is a twist micro pen that I kind of like. Pens are required as part of any kind of passport wealth you get. Bellroy is always very good at giving some instructions on how your wallets work. They use different zippers with actually a higher grade than YKK on some of their products. The zipper is fairly large and is not meant to go into your back pocket for sure. This Folio provides various different pockets and feels really good, but of course, we are always dealing with normal type sewing with Bellroy, which is just on the edge of not acceptable, but they tend to make it okay considering the reinforcements that we get in certain areas that will have a lot of wear and tear. You might remember the Bellroy Passport Sleeve, which I thought was brilliant and wish it was still available.
The Travel Wallet comes with the pen as well, which was slightly hard to get out. I also got this in the caramel color, and I chose these colors rather than dark ones so you guys can have a better view of these wallets. This one acts more like a bifold wallet, and actually has a lot of characteristics of the Bellroy Hide and Seek wallet , which is something implemented in a lot of Bellroy products. The wallet’s construction is rolled and has butted sewing together. As mentioned, the sewing is okay and does take care of stress points where you would expect most of the wear and tear. Bellroy offers a three-year warranty against defects or workmanship when under normal use. It is crazy that, with all the technology we have in the world, at least industrialized nations cannot get this into your phone yet.
These are both designed in Australia and made in India. It always rubs me the wrong way as Bellroy never prints in their packaging where their products are made. They always print them in some obscure place in the product itself. Bellroy leathers are premium and I keep looking for full-grain vegetable-tanned or any other rating of the leather but cannot find it anywhere. Bellroy seems to be a wee bit more concerned about the process of making the leather, the fact they use the leather working group, gold-rated tanners, et cetera, than the final quality of leather, which seems to be a lot of hand-waving to me. The price for the travel Folio is $159 and the travel wallet is $139.
As you travel, you will likely carry these in some sort of sling pouch, backpack, or coat pocket, therefore, the size needs to only be reasonable. It does not have to be something you put in your front or rear pocket. Every passport wallet should provide a pen, that is the biggest issue, if you do not have one, then I suggest you get one to include because that is what you use on every international flight.
So should you use a passport wallet or a travel wallet?
As with most things, it depends, but here is my gauge, if you are concerned about protecting your passport from wear and tear, get a simple sleeve that hopefully can accommodate a small pen. If you tend to want to organize your travel all into one place, then determine how much you want to pull together and size your travel wallet accordingly.
Travel companies, and especially wallet companies, romanticize putting everything into a single wallet, but I would really caution against that due to theft. Although the potential of theft largely depends on where you go, you should be sorting out your critical items like passports or copies of your passports from credit cards, cash, other IDs, et cetera, into separate physical places. Keeping them all in one place is a risk that I just do not frankly take.
The final score for the Travel Folio is four for quality, two for price because it is really expensive in my mind, features are good and score a four, usability scores four, and perception scores four, which gives the Travel Folio a final score of 3.6 out 5.
The Travel Wallet scores four for quality, two for the price, it is still expensive on this end, features score a four because it has quite a few things and you can match this up with a hide and seek. Usability scores a three because I believe it is just not as easy to use, it is just a one big honking wallet. With four for perception, the Travel Wallet gets a final score of 3.4 out of 5.
|
|
|
Description: For peace of mind zipped up with your travel essentials. This compact travel folio holds two passports, eight cards and cash hidden in the back. |
Description: Fit your travel documents in your pocket. The Travel Wallet organizes your passport, cash, 10 cards and a Micro Pen into a premium leather bifold. |
For peace of mind zipped up with your travel essentials. This compact travel folio holds two passports, eight cards and cash hidden in the back.
Fit your travel documents in your pocket. The Travel Wallet organizes your passport, cash, 10 cards and a Micro Pen into a premium leather bifold.
