After three days in Coorg, I came back with a slightly different view of what makes a short holiday comfortable. It was not another app, a carefully planned itinerary or a suitcase full of things I might need. It was three very simple additions to my travel kit. Good walking shoes, a foldable umbrella and a hair serum. None of these sounds particularly exciting. But during a monsoon trip to Coorg, all three truly changed my perspective on what to focus on carrying when I travel.
I had already planned to test them properly during the trip, and Coorg gave me plenty of opportunity to do exactly that. The property itself involved a fair amount of walking. There were coffee plantation paths, open spaces and plenty of reasons to keep moving around instead of simply staying in the room. Add the travel days and walking around Coorg, and my feet had a fairly busy three days. I did not spend the evenings thinking about my feet. That is my actual test for travel shoes. I do not need to come back and announce that my shoes changed my life. I just want to reach my room after a long day and not feel like my feet are asking for a formal complaint. I wore them through my Bhopal to Bengaluru to Mangaluru route and then on to Virajpet, including the monsoon weather and walking around the property.
For my Coorg trip , I wore the New Balance ABZORB 2000. The ABZORB 2000 managed that for me. Because three days of travel gave me enough real use to judge them properly, i also wrote a full Tried and Tested review after the trip,.
If it does not, I have lost almost nothing by carrying it. I usually carry an umbrella only when I think I will need one. Coorg has convinced me that this is the wrong approach. Hilly areas have weather that can change quickly, and during my stay, having a small foldable umbrella with me made getting around much easier. It was useful outside the property, but also surprisingly handy within it. At a large resort, you may have a room at one end, the restaurant somewhere else and an activity or coffee plantation walk in another direction. You do not always want to wait for the rain to stop before going for breakfast or heading to an activity. And I really do not want to carry a huge umbrella around on holiday. A compact foldable one takes up very little room in the day bag and can stay there all day. If the rain arrives, I have it. This is one of those boring travel purchases that suddenly becomes very useful when you actually need it. My Coorg packing list now has a simple directive; if I am visiting the hills during the rainy season, the umbrella goes into the bag before I leave the room. My routine was extremely simple. I washed my hair, applied the serum while it was still damp and then let it set. That was pretty much it. The difference was noticeable. My hair looked smoother, there was less frizz, and I did not spend the rest of the day trying to fix it every time I caught my reflection. I also liked that it did not turn my hair care routine into another task on the holiday. I am all for carrying products that actually earn their place in the toiletry bag. For a monsoon holiday, a good serum is one of those small things that can make getting ready much less annoying. Looking back at my three days in Coorg, these were probably the least glamorous things I packed and some of the most useful. The foldable umbrella meant I could get around without checking the sky every five minutes. And the Bare Anatomy Ultra Smoothing Serum kept my hair reasonably civilised in the humidity. None of them made the holiday more complicated. They did the opposite. Here’s what to know about the Grand Train Tour
The New Balance ABZORB 2000 kept my feet comfortable through long walks. Destination Buzz: Planning a Switzerland train holiday in 2026? Because i might suddenly decide to recreate a salon routine in a hotel bathroom, i am less interested in taking five different bottles.
