Four hand held fans representing a variety of colors.

One of our favorite travel purchases of the last year were several handheld fans. We bought them for our 100-day Adventure, figuring we might want them during our 24-day overlanding safari through Africa.

And boy did they come in handy—they were perhaps the best purchases we made for the trip. We used them constantly, not just in our overlanding truck (which lacked both AC and fans, even in 90+ degree humid weather), but also just for general air movement in tented camps and hotel rooms (even in fancy destinations like Singapore or Dubai).

Jen’s of the age that involves hot flashes (she old), and so they’ve also come in handy since our trip, for those random moments when things suddently get hot. We now bring at least a couple on every trip we take—whether for our tent or a hotel room—and I assume they’ll earn a weekly spot in our stadium bag at upcoming ASU football games.

I bought four different colors (and two sizes), mostly as a way to differentiate which ones might need to be charged. They’re all shaped like bears, so each become a different kind of bear: a brown bear, a black bear, a polar bear, and—because of its mint color—an Irish bear.

Anyway, we tried a whole slew of personal fans, from the handheld variety to the hanging neck variety, and returned everything else. These bears were the best ones, and by a wide margin, and also among the least expensive. Here’s the link to the larger and smaller varieties on Amazon, in case you’re interested.