With the weather getting milder by the day, many of us will be busily planning the days out, road trips, staycations and overseas holidays that we’ve had to scale back on in previous months. Lifting Covid restrictions mean that for the first time in a long time, the whole world is back on the menu, and if you’re anything like us, you’ll be eager to make up for lost time!
Following our recent return from a long overdue trip to the US, we understand the importance of carrying the right travel accessories. These essentials not only help create a home away from home wherever you travel to, but they also make the journeys there, back, and throughout more comfortable.
When choosing your perfect travel companion, merino wool should be your go-to fibre, here’s why…
It’s breathable
Travelling lighter is so much easier with a merino wool blanket or shawl in tow. Traditionally, wool has a bad rep for being too bulky for travel but thanks to merino wool’s lightweight nature, the tide is thankfully changing.
Merino wool is the perfect companion for that dash to the airport, those great hikes on home turf, or an island-hopping adventure.
Regardless of the climate of your final destination, merino wool is the versatile woolly wonder you need in your hand luggage. Its breathability is renowned, with its relatively porous construction and thin fibres delivering coverage that keeps you warm when it’s cold, and cool when it’s hot and humid.
It’s odour resistant
The porous nature of merino wool fibres makes it odour resistant too. It effectively absorbs odours, trapping and neutralising the bacteria that causes any whiffy smells to keep you fresh and clean with minimal maintenance whilst on the road. This means there’s one less thing to worry about cleaning when you’re on your travels.
The superb odour resistance of merino wool does rely on good care. Whilst merino wool doesn’t need washing as often as other materials, it does require routine maintenance to keep it looking good, feeling great and smelling even better.
Read more about the simple steps you can use to take care of your wool blankets here.
It doesn’t stain or crease easily
As you can see from our wool care tips, it doesn’t take much to keep your merino wool blankets and shawls looking the part. But if an accident does happen – whether that’s a coffee spillage or contact with something a little stronger like wine – merino wool’s natural stain resistance makes cleaning up rather straightforward.
Stains aren’t the only wool faux pas that’s easy to remedy. Merino wool is also less susceptible to creasing. In fact, no matter how tightly you roll, fold or squash your merino wool blanket into that suitcase, fibres will bounce right back to ensure a fresh, crease-free look every time.
It offers great UV protection
The UV protective qualities of wool, in general, aren’t very well known, but they’re impressive nonetheless. As the International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO) explains, merino wool is the best UV light barrier in the business:
“Wool absorbs radiation throughout the UV spectrum while cotton, nylon, acrylic and silk are very poor absorbers of UV, absorbing only limited wavelengths of the ultraviolet range. A 2001 study of the UV protection abilities of 236 different fabrics found that more than half of the test fibres fell short of the European standard for UV protection. Merino wool was one of the fabrics that passed all of the tests conducted during the study…”
It’s oh so cosy
We can’t offer a rundown of the reasons to wear merino wool for travel without mentioning one very obvious benefit. Merino wool is made to be touched, providing a sumptuous and truly unbeatable softness that you just don’t get with other fibres.
There’s no better way to snuggle up after a long day of sightseeing or wrap yourself in warmth on a chaotic plane journey than our merino wool blankets.
