Handy, fun items to make traveling easier

This time of year there are a myriad reasons for you to be heading out of town — football games and homecoming, visiting your kids at college, out-of-town business conferences and meetings. It’s always great to arrive at your destination, but getting there can sometimes be a trial. Business or pleasure, your trips will improve with these travel accessories.

Sense of humor

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The Kids Car Organizer XL is the ideal solution for holding your young one’s favorite books, games, toys and snacks.

Photos: Great travel accessory ideas

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Crowded airports and train stations, security checks, delays and cancellations are all part of traveling these days. These New Yorker luggage tags may not make the trains run on time, but they can help you keep your sense of humor intact. The 16 cartoons make light of the miseries of travel, from traveling with children to sea monsters … wait, maybe that one’s just for fun. Their bright and colorful tag — in green, pink or blue and just the right size for a business card — makes your bag easy to find … if the chuckles of your fellow travelers haven’t already clued you in.

What: New Yorker luggage tags, $4.

Where: www.liebers.com

Where’s my bag?

Neither airlines nor railways are perfect, and sometimes you discover that your luggage has gone ahead of you or has been piled with hundreds of other bags. Or sometimes you just can’t seem to spot yours among the other 100 black bags on the carousel. Not a problem with Luggage Locator Basic and Luggage Locator Pro, a small device that allows you to find your bags in seconds with the push of a button. They consist of a small receiver that you attach to your bag and a remote control small enough to go on your key chain. Push the remote’s button and you send a unique signal to the receiver, and the series of beeps and flashes helps you locate your luggage from as far away as 60 feet. And if you’re traveling as a group, with Luggage Locator Pro, you can program multiple receivers to work with the same remote so you can locate several bags at once.

What: Luggage Locator, $19.85; Luggage Locator Pro, $29.99 (additional receiver, $14.99).

Where: Macy’s, JC Penney and Atlanta Mori Luggage stores. Online at Ebags.com, EdwardsLuggage, LuggageandLeather.com, TravelSmith.com (Luggage Locator Pro), and Magellans.com (Luggage Locator).

Care package

Some people prefer road trips to air and train travel. While it’s always fun to introduce your children to new places and people, the “Are we there yet?” lament can get a little old after a few hours on the interstate. You can pull out the old DVD and turn on SpongeBob or pack this Kids Car Organizer XL with your young ones’ favorite books, games, toys and snacks, and they can pick their own activity. There’s also a reinforced lid for a fun play space (anyone remember checkers?), and it sports easily accessible side pockets for wipes, water bottles, you name it. (Great for pets, too!)

What: Kids Car Organizer XL, $34.99.

Where: Ebags.com, Familytravelgear.com, Target.com, Thebusywoman.com

Fun for kids

If you’re traveling with children, it can be lots of fun for your kids — if you’re prepared. That’s where Rand McNally’s Backseat Books series comes in. The series includes titles such as “Best Travel Activity Book Ever,” “Rand McNally Kids’ Road Atlas,” “Are We There Yet?” and more. From cool travel games to mini mysteries, these colorful books are great ways for kids to learn and play on the road.

What: Rand McNally Backseat Books, $3.95 each.

Where: Bookstores and at randmcnally.com

Map of your dreams

Who hasn’t struggled to refold a map, finally settling for a reasonable facsimile of its original configuration? Well, struggle no more! Rand McNally’s fabMAP is a dream come true. It’s not only waterproof, tear-proof and requires no – yes, that’s right – no folding, but its fabric is also good for cleaning eyeglasses. Although they aren’t available in every existing map, Rand McNally has chosen some of the most popular tourist destinations in the U.S., including New Orleans’ French Quarter, Boston, the Washington Mall, New York City’s theater district, and even some college towns. Can Bulldogs Country be far behind?

What: fabMAP, $5.95

Where: online at randmcnally.com