If you’re on a flight – especially one where you don’t have a lie-flat or even a near lie-flat seat – having a good travel pillow can make a big difference.

Over the years, I’ve tended to gravitate towards memory foam travel pillows. My Tempur-Pedic was a favorite until I lost it somewhere at DFW a few years ago. Sadness.

A replacement would’ve set me back $79 so I decided to go with something cheaper.

I tried a Buc-ee’s neck pillow for a while, but after being used to the stiffness of the Tempurpedic memory foam pillow, it was way too soft. I gave that one to my husband, Joe.

Then I looked on Amazon and found an adjustable memory foam pillow that got a lot of good reviews for being supportive enough.

I had been using the adjustable one for a few years, but kept seeing ads and reviews for the trtl travel pillow.

About trtl travel pillows

trtl (http://trtltravel.com) is a fleece wrap with an inner plastic neck brace support. They say it’s more comfortable and supportive than traditional neck pillows. From trtl:

Made from soft, skin-friendly fleece fabric, it provides cozy neck support in a compact, travel-size design. The perfect neck pillow for car rides, trains, flights, and all your travel adventures.

Reviews & Price

Over the years, trtl travel pillows have been reviewed by some of the top-of-the-list news outlets out there:

• The New York Times – “The single greatest pieces of travel gear I’ve ever owned”
• Lonely Planet – “Makes the middle seat feel like first class”
• BuzzFeed – “I’ve never truly slept better on a plane”
• The Strategist – “Its design is unique to anything else”
• Business Insider – “Don’t know how I ever flew without it”

Of course, I always take gushing reviews with a grain of salt. I figure they may or may not have been compensated for their review (and if nothing else, they probably got to keep their trtl. When we were asked to review the Bento bag years ago, we got to keep it when we were done writing our opinions about it – Joe loves it and has been using it ever since). The only way we could really know what it was like, and if worked well for us, was to bite the bullet and buy one.

As I said, I had been looking at trtl for a while, but the price was always a factor. A regular, original trtl cost $65 (+/- $5 or so) on Amazon, which I thought was a lot for an item when (A) there was no guarantee I’d like it and (B) it had a return policy that’s not very user friendly:

You can return your order within 100 days of purchase. To be eligible for a return, your item must be unused and in the same condition that you received it. It must also be in the original packaging.

So essentially, once you take the trtl out of its original packaging (which you’d have to do, to be able to use it) and use it, you can’t return it anymore. So yeah, at around $65 and essentially non-returnable once opened, I was understandably hesitant.

But as I was looking at trtl’s website yet again, I found an interesting offer I had never noticed before. They sold trtls in “bundles,” one of which was an original trtl, plus a trtl junior (kid sized) for $65.99. The two would have cost $109.98 if purchased separately at full price.

For those of you who haven’t been reading Your Mileage May Vary for a whole, heads up that although Joe is about 6′ tall, I’m most definitely not. I was born with a growth disorder and am about 4’6″ tall – roughly the height of a 9 or 10-year-old. So honestly, I was pretty sure a trtl junior, which was marketed to fit kids age 8+, as well as petite adults, would work just fine for me.

After Joe and I talked it over, I bought the bundle.

Our review

Note: We were not compensated for this review; trtl didn’t even know we were doing it (they still don’t, unless they wind up reading this LOL). It was something we wanted to try out and we spent our own money to purchase.

Arrival & packaging

The package arrived about a week after I placed the order. Postage was free, and they used USPS, which is notoriously slow nowadays, so I can’t complain about how long delivery took.

This is what the package contained, once removed from their respective plastic bag packaging.

You may notice that the adult sized trtl comes with a bag (hard to see in the pic but it has a double-folded velcro closure, as well as a carabiner so you can attach it to your backpack, luggage, etc.) and the trtl junior does not. I made them aware that the kids’ version really should come with a carrier as well, to keep it clean and make it easier to carry. Frankly, I think it’s ridiculous that it doesn’t automatically come with one.

To get a better idea of how the trtl worked, we both practiced trying them on; it was simple enough to figure out, although they also have a brief tutorial online.

Coincidentally, we were flying to Aruba late in the week that we received our trtls, so we got to do some real-life testing almost immediately.

The good

It’s smaller and lighter in weight than a neck pillow
trtl advertised that their products are smaller than a typical neck pillow and they were right. Here’s a picture of the trtl junior, a regular trtl (in its carrying case), my adjustable neck pillow that I’ve been using, and Joe’s travel pillow.
The smaller size definitely made them easier to store and carry.

They’re easy to put on and take off
Between the online tutorial and practicing putting it on, taking it off, and adjusting it, maybe 3-4 times in the days before our flight, it was easy to use. No learning curve; once you know how to use it, you know.

The important part – the sleep factor

Full disclosure – I was sleep-deprived on that flight to Aruba. I had gotten about 6 hours of sleep for the previous 2 or 3 nights and probably could have slept standing up, if I wanted to.

That being said, I put the trtl junior on as soon as the flight attendants were finished with their safety briefing, and was asleep not long after takeoff.

I woke up about 2 hours later, which shows the trtl certainly didn’t impede my sleep one bit, LOL. Anyway, my neck wasn’t stiff, and it didn’t hurt like it sometimes does after sleeping for an extended period of time with my adjustable neck pillow. And I noticed, before I fell asleep, that there was little-to-no way my head would start “bobbing” in my sleep, because the trtl prevents that sort of movement.

Joe tried his trtl on the same trip. He slept for about an hour, which is pretty much typical for him on a plane (I can sleep anywhere; he, not so much). He said it was comfortable.

We were both concerned about the “wrap around your neck” aspect of the trtl. Happily, it wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t too warm and it didn’t feel like we were choking. In fact, Joe said it was comforting; sort of like having your blanket tucked around your neck.

The bad

Joe had nothing bad to say about his trtl. I noticed 2 negatives:

• I have pierced ears and because of the position of your head and neck when using it, the back of my earring kept digging into behind my ear, until I found “the perfect position.”

I sing in a local choir and had a show coming up (that’s why our Aruba trip was an oddball Thursday through Sunday – I had rehearsals on Mondays and Wednesdays). And I did rehearse while we were away.

Anyway, I didn’t want to risk picking up anybody’s cooties and risk missing rehearsals because I was sick, so I wore a KN95 mask on the flights to Aruba and back home. The trtl did get in the way of the positioning of the mask; it was never as good a seal as it would have been without the trtl.

Although the earring problem could be an issue for anyone with pierced ears, the mask issue would only be a problem for the comparatively few people who choose to wear a mask while flying. But I still wanted to mention it.

The ugly

What can I say? As functional as the trtl is, it’s not super attractive.

But when you figure you’re sleeping, you won’t see how you look while you’re wearing it (and you also won’t see what looks other people are giving you, be it, “OOOOH! They got a trtl!” vs. “OMG that thing looks ridiculous.” 😉

Final Thoughts

Overall, yeah, the trtl worked well for us.

• I found a decent price
• It arrived relatively quickly
• Their customer service was VERY quick
• It was easy to learn how to put on and take off
• It’s smaller than every other travel pillow we’ve used
• Both the regular trtl and the trtl junior allowed upwards of 2 hours of sleep (and probably more; that’s just when I happened to wake up)

Its only drawbacks:

• Their return policy is pretty crappy; if you try it and don’t like it, too bad.
• The trtl junior doesn’t come with a carrying bag to keep it clean and make it easy to hang off a backpack, luggage, etc.
• If you’re wearing an earring on the side you’ve put the trtl, you have to manipulate its positioning until it doesn’t squash your earring back into the area behind your ear.
• It interferes with the proper positioning of face masks.
• It won’t win any beauty contests.

Drawbacks notwithstanding, overall, we give it 2 thumbs up.

PC: All photos via trtl.com, unless otherwise credited

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