BestTravelUmbrella is a small editorial site about umbrellas: compact ones for travel, big ones for the beach and the patio, and the rain gear that goes with them. Guides are written by the BestTravelUmbrella Editorial Team.
What we do, and what we don't
We don't test umbrellas. We don't run wind tunnels or take umbrellas out in storms, and we don't pretend to. An earlier version of this site presented a named reviewer who had supposedly tried dozens of umbrellas in real storms. That person and those trials weren't real, and both have been removed.
What we do is narrower. For each guide we decide what matters for that situation (fitting a purse, surviving coastal wind, shading a table) and compare umbrellas on the design features that decide it: vented canopies, rib material, folded length, how the umbrella opens and closes, and what the warranty covers.
How a guide is made
- Start from the situation. A guide begins with one problem a reader has, such as a purse with no room, a windy boardwalk or a flight with a carry-on, and names what decides it.
- Shortlist umbrellas built for it. We look for design features that answer the problem: folded length, vented or double canopies, rib material, how it opens and closes.
- Read the maker's own page. Specs go on a product card only when the manufacturer publishes them, with the page linked and the date we read it. No maker page means no specs on the card.
- Check what we link to. Every product link is checked against the product it names, and every product photo is looked at for badges or numbers we can't confirm before it's shown.
Where the specs come from
A wind rating, weight, size, UV rating or warranty appears on this site only if we read it on the manufacturer's own website. Each product card shows those specs with a link to the page and the date we read it.
We don't copy specs from store listings. Many umbrellas are sold by brands without a website of their own, and for those we state no specs at all, even when a listing is full of numbers. When a maker's own pages disagree with each other, we don't publish either figure.
We also don't publish customer ratings, review counts or prices. Prices change daily, and the store shows the current one.
How we make money
Links to Amazon on this site are affiliate links, marked "(paid link)". If you buy through one, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. A few pages also mention Amazon Prime or Audible trials, which pay us a fixed amount when someone signs up. Details are on the affiliate disclosure page.
Corrections
If a spec on this site doesn't match the maker's page, or a product link goes to the wrong umbrella, please tell us at hello@besttravelumbrella.com. We fix it and update the date on the page.