Review: GoLite Paparoa Long Sleeve Travel Shirt
Most vagabonds seem to travel in t-shirts, but there are times you might want something a bit nicer — perhaps for a job interview overseas, or when you splash out for nice meal with that special someone you just met.
Nice clothes also make it really easy to wander into five-star hotels and use the pool for a day when you get tired of the sweltering heat in your $5/night hostel.
It’s true you can almost always find some nice (and usually cheap) clothing on the road, but sometimes it’s worth it to bring your own — you just never know what sort of bizarre fashion statement you’ll be forced to make shopping the back alleys of Bangkok.
So, if you’re looking for something that can handle the rigors of traveling and look good in a nice restaurant, GoLite has given us one of it’s “travel” shirts to test out.
The company recently sent me its Paparoa long sleeve travel shirt, which, while it won’t be enough for La Tour d’Argent (which most of us can’t afford anyway), does a nice job of straddling the divide between travel wear and something, well, nicer.
Although its made of 100% polyester, fear not, you won’t look like you just stepped out of 1970s disco. The cut is close to, though a bit looser than, a traditional men’s (or women’s) dress shirt.
Among the travel-friendly features — aside from quick drying, wrinkle free polyester — include extras like a zippered chest pocket and UPF-50 sun protection. The shirt has sturdy snaps down the front and on the cuffs and weighs in at just 8.8 ounces. And it really is wrinkle free. I shoved the demo at the bottom of the GoLite TraveLite pack I reviewed last month for several weeks and pulled it out without a wrinkle to be found.
The chief advantage of the Paparoa over something you buy on the road is of course, that you can wear the Paparoa in just about any situation — long sweaty bus rides, sleeves rolled up on the beach or a night on the town — whereas a real dress shirt might look a tad bit out of place at times.
The Paparoa retails for $70, but as always, we’ve got one to give away. Just post a comment with your most awkward travel attire story and I’ll pick a winner at random. Note that the test model is a men’s large, in the shale blue color (see GoLite for more details and sizing info).
August 11th, 2010 at 7:46 am
Very nice. I am also going to yr this shirt for my cool traving
August 11th, 2010 at 9:56 am
A friend once bet me that I would not have the stones to walk along the beach in his Speedo (one size too small). I did and it was clear to everyone that I was a paragon of anatomical correctness. Funny, right? Well, not if you are walking along Cox Bazaar in Bangladesh on the Bay of Bengal. In more traditionally Muslim countries even the men wear shirts in the water. Oops. I know better than to do something that culturally insensitive but for some reason I temporarily lost my ability to reason. To say people were horrified would be an understatement of biblical proportions. I was literally chased off the beach. We decided it was best not to stick around.
August 12th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
I had been backpacking through Colombia traveling on hot, dusty, overcrowded chicken buses for weeks. Decided to stay in one town for a few days and see if I could get my laundry washed by the hotel staff where I was staying. I had been wearing my second “least offensive” pair of jeans and t-shirt for several days by this time. The hotel staff took my dirty clothes and told me I would get back clean laundry “manana” after explaining that I needed them as soon as possible. After 8 mananas of heading to the front desk to ask about my laundry I looked outside and saw the maid down at the river beating my blue jeans on a rock. I was never so happy to get my now “stone washed jeans” back the following day and was once again able to climb on the next chicken bus out of town!
August 13th, 2010 at 1:01 am
Last summer some friends and I visited an island off the coast of Brazil south of Rio. On the car ride there we stopped at a roadside cafe for lunch and on my ham sandwich came a pineapple wedge and an entire side cut of onion, I mean like a whole cross cut of an onion. I’m thinking its the local way so I ate the whole thing, thinking little of it.
On the island the next afternoon my two buddies and I went hiking to a beach. For some reason I wore my only button up shirt that day. Because of the narrow trails we swapped out lead, middle, and last in our little formation. About an hour in we’re sweating and exhausted. One of my buddies starts looking off the trail and swears there’s wild onions in these woods because occasionally there’s this strong smell of onions, but only while we’re moving. Eventually we notice its ONLY when I was in the lead and all of the sudden they bust out laughing and realize after that lunch that my sweat and my only good shirt were wreaking of onions. And I don’t mean body odor, I mean strait, cut, onions.
Needless to say I made sure I took about 3 good showers when we got back to the hostel, and paid a local laundry shop to clean the clothes. But some how, I just don’t wear that shirt much anymore. And the rest of the trip, one of us would randomly say, “onions!” and we’d all crack up again.