REVIEW: Beach Bag Plus

Life's a beach...

As the weather heats up you're all probably selecting which beach to descend upon. But what a faff, eh? All that sand and water, all the food, drink and valuable gadgets you have to lug to the beach with you. And loungers; how hard and uncomfortable are they? And don't even get us started about keeping it all safe while you're three miles off the coast being carried away by the current.

Fortunately there is a product to help these beach-related troubles crumble away like a sand castle under a toddler's foot: the Beach Bag Plus.

We've reviewed bags before, ones that are great at storing gadgets and laptops, but never one so completely packed with features as the Beach Bag Plus. What it is, is a big red bag - but one that zips apart and unfolds to be as long as the average human. Inside there you will find the two inflatable cushions, one big, one small. Once filled full of your lungs' finest carbon dioxide, the largest forms the perfect inflatable mattress while the smallest becomes a lovely head cushion.

Laying all this onto a sun lounger by the pool or beach creates the perfect place to stretch out and soak up a tan (if you're anywhere else but England). So first and foremost the Beach Bag Plus is giving you a portable, inflatable cushion to create comfort where comfort is not.

One note about that 'blow-up' mattress; the Beach Bag Plus does not use conventional hard plastic nozzles (those you might find on your beach ball, rubber ring, sex doll etc), but instead an innovative foldable tube, the 'EEZZIFLATE' valve, which allows far more air to get in (and, when deflating, out) of the mattress, speeding the whole process up. Also, as there are no hard elements as with conventional nozzles, this new tube valve packs up completely flat.

Anyway, while out sunning yourself by the pool or beach, the Beach Bag Plus has a few other tricks up its foldable sleeves. You'll find hang-down zip pockets to keep your stuff safe and sand free, one of which features a handy hole to run headphones through, therefore helping to keep your phone or mp3 player dry and safe. There are also hidden pockets that slide under the mattress for precious items like cash and credit cards, meaning you should be okay to leave the folded bag on the lounger while you take a dip. Watch out for sharks.

Here's where it gets really clever. Obviously all folded up and packed away the Beach Bag Plus is a great bag with a surprising amount of room left over inside. However, and this will be of particular interest to those of us heading to the beach on a scorcher of a day, it can also act as a cool bag. Simply inflate the mattress only very slightly (enough, we found, to make it slightly puffy), wrap it back up in the red outer bag casing, and you have yourself a perfect cooler compartment. Seriously, just a tiny amount of air in the mattress produces a void good enough to insulate against the heat of a sunny day, keeping your cold drinks and icy what-nots cool for hours. Very nice touch, that.

So an innovative product indeed, combining storage bag, inflatable mattress and cool bag - everything you need for a trip to the beach. We've heard that the Beach Bag Plus has already made waves within the gadget community, being of personal interest to Gadget Show presenter Jason Bradbury. More than any other feature we have to say that the EEZZIFLATE valve is extremely impressive and one of those "why didn't I think of that" sort of inventions.

We urge you to check it out this summer.

£ 49

Visit www.beachbagplus.com