I'm constantly on the lookout for innovative, offbeat travel gear and gadgets.

Previously I've checked out fun carry-ons like the scooter suitcase, Ostrich Pillow, jetlag-fighting glasses, a suitcase you wear like a jacket, and Knee Defender clamps that prevent the jet passenger sitting in front of you from slamming their seat back into your knees.

Today I found this simple, comfy-looking Travel HoodiePillow.

Soulful hipster not included      Photo: Travel HoodiePillow

It looks like it was inspired by the Hijab that many Muslim women use to cover their heads.

According to the Travel HoodiePillow website, this headwear is made from "premium sweatshirt material," and has adjustable drawstrings "to block out the world around you." The pillow also deflates so you can fold it up neatly. Apparently this neck-saving, eye-sheltering, hand-washable product is ideal for "reading, watching TV, studying, listening to music, napping and sleeping."  

I have to respect a company that considers napping and sleeping to be separate actitivies, by the way. 

Are you addicted to sleeping on strangers' shoulders?

Then get the new EZ Sleep™ Travel Pillow to make airplane sleeping a breeze.

It's basically an inflatable wedge that isolates you from the passenger sitting beside you...so you can finally enjoy a private public sleep!

It's much like a giant border wall that some Americans want to build to prevent some Mexicans from sneaking into the USA. The only differences are:

1) To secure your EZ Sleep™ Travel Pillow, you strap it to your armrest. Which you can't do with a big, cross-continental border wall (yet).

2) Mexicans might like the EZ Sleep™ Travel Pillow

The EZ Sleep™ Travel Pillow's website touts their product as the "world's most effective travel pillow" and promises "the best sleep you'll ever have on a plane."

Your passport's about to turn into a 007 gadget. Whether you want it to or not.

Passport Canada's slick new digital ePassport looks just like a normal passport. Except it contains an embedded, electronic 'biometric chip' with personal details like your full name, gender, date of birth, where you were born, and a digital picture of your unsmiling, superspy face.

Oh, and this is Canada we're talking about, so your ePassport pages will feature images of an Inukshuk holding a giant feather, Niagara Falls, Samuel de Champlain (The Father of New France), Sir John A. Macdonald looking sober and profound, The Last Spike, a sailboat about to crash into Newfoundland, a train passing oil derricks in a bleak and humanless land (you're welcome, Prairies), and children playing hockey and football instead of studying math and sciences like kids in other countries that are totally kicking our economic butt.

If you're wondering 'Why design a new passport when my last one works perfectly fine?', then Passport Canada's FAQ has your answer: "The addition of the electronic chip to the Canadian passport will increase security, provide greater protection against tampering and reduce the risk of fraud."

Passport Canada promises that their ePassport will not contain a GPS tracking device (so you'll have to escape from Blofeld's volcano fortress all by yourself), and will not contain "biometric information such as an iris scan or fingerprints" which of course means they're totally planning to add your iris scans and fingerprints once they figure out how to add your iris scans and fingerprints without sparking a slew of riots.

I love this odd new travel headgear.

It's called the Ostrich Pillow and it's designed to give you a delicious nap at the drop of a hat.

Here's how it works:

Pull the Ostrich Pillow onto your head and over your eyes. It's like a glory hole for your face.

Ostrich Pillow is padded inside & out to help you sleep comfortably. So let your neck muscles go slack and allow your head to flop against your train window, the bus passenger sitting next to you, or the shaking window on your nose-diving plane.

Don't worry, you breathe through a small round face hole. Yep, you'll sleep like a baby ostrich while your padded headgear cushions your skull. It's like the helmets worn by narcoleptics, deep sea divers, and some people with mental and motor challenges.

Got nothing to hide?

Sprayground, a NYC apparel and bag company, has already unleashed a see-through 'Stacked Bullets' weekender duffel bag and their gangster-inspired tote bag, a.k.a. Money Stacks duffel.

Now Sprayground has unveiled their latest challenge to airport security experts.

It's called the Exposed X-ray Vision Backpack and it seems to bare all for everyone to inspect your loot.

I love this bag. And so will airport X-ray guards when you try to sneak it through their scanners.

Almost camping season! Need to replace your tent that the bear/Sasquatch destroyed last summer?

Get this Cocoon Tree tent, and you can hang above the beast and tease it from on high.

The Cocoon Tree tent is a bubble-shaped tent that you hang from trees using 12 suspension cords. It's sort of like the Tree Tent (which means it could become a piñata for bears and hillbillies swinging shovels) except Cocoon Tent is spherical and white.

Want a fun way to protect your suitcase? Force it to wear a skin-tight body sleeve.

A Dutch company, SUITSUIT, sells bright and fun suitcase covers that'll make your bag stand out on the baggage carousel. It looks like a 3D sticker or custom air-brushed paint job. But the cover is actually highly-flexible fabric that stretches tight around your suitcase like a onesie on an absurdly fat baby, or a sweater vest around a bloated, hungover hipster.

SUITSUITCOVERS fit most rolling suitcases (2 or 4 wheels) between 68 and 82 centimeters in height, and come in dozens of eye-popping designs. My five favourites:

#1) Boombox

When I'm not travelling, I dream of exotic beaches, markets, and rail tours where I'm fighting bad guys on top of the train.

To help my travel dreams flow each night, I fill our apartment with inspiring, travel-themed art.

Last week I learned how to build these fantastic DIY Vintage Suitcase Shelves. This week I've stumbled across these vivid wall posters inspired by vintage luggage tags.

A London-based illustator and graphic artist, Neil Stevens, has designed a series of wall prints inspired by classic airport baggage tags. I emailed Stevens to ask him how he came up with this concept.

"I was converting my loft into a studio space when I cleared out a lot of old luggage labels and straight away was transported back to those destinations," wrote Stevens.

"I immediately went to the sketch pad to draw a few out, and then researched vintage 1950's and '60s tags and made the decision there and then to just create as many as I could in one afternoon."

To date, he's created baggage tag posters for airports in New York City, JFK, Paris, London, Istanbul, Montreal, Barcelona, and Venice.

Nothing brings joy to my heart like seeing my kids haul their own luggage.

This isn't some kind of Oliver Twist-inspired predilection. For several years now, road trips have meant jamming the family SUV with portable high chairs, tiny skates, stuffed animals and, yes, an actual toy kitchen sink, and then having to unpack it all when we reach our destination. My wife Angela and I could easily have been mistaken for Himilayan sherpas when taking a flight with the brood, what with the diaper bags and suitcase overflow hanging from our beleaguered extremities.

But now, finally, my two daughters, aged 3 and 6, are pulling their own weight -- literally. And it's all thanks to a pair of adorable rolling suitcases (pictured at left) that they actually want to lug.

The owl- and bee-themed Skip Hop luggage they received from a globetrotting aunt at Christmas has gone over like gangbusters. Heck, they pulled Lego bricks and stray cats around the house until we took an out-of-town trip a couple weekends back. And then, oh, the joy that filled my heart as they, not I, rolled an inordinate quantity of stuffed animals, crayons and Play-Doh into our hotel room.

The only disappointment I felt was that I hadn't thought of acquiring some child-friendly luggage sooner. There's plenty out there; U.K.-based LittleLife, for example, offers a pretty cool trio of animal-themed "Wheelie Duffles" -- the bee is pictured at left -- that will hold almost twice as much Lego as the Skip Hop options. 

That said, it turns out these rolling suitcases are pretty tame when compared with, say, most of what Trunki makes.

TRAVELLER RULE #44:

"Avoid roaming fees, for they are the work of the devil/Mafia/Yakuza."

Ever felt that bitter rage when you discover a surprise roaming charge on your phone bill? These harsh charges are punitively expensive. And even worse, they don't appear until a month after your travel tan and happy holiday memories have faded away. That's cold.

But now there's a solution, thanks to an innovative travel accessory called the SIMPLcase. It's a minimalist iPhone case that's discreetly stashes up to 3 extra SIM cards.

Basically it's the iPhone case for globetrotting SIM switchers like 007, Dancing Matt, Waldo, and Lara Croft the Tomb Raider.