Are you looking for a travel buddy? Better if he’s not a complainer, doesn’t cost extras and puts a smile on everybody’s face who’s looking at you taking pictures of him!
Soft toys and plushies are the perfect companions for those who love travelling and are keeping the child within them alive!
On social media you can find all kind of travel plushies: super cute soft toys, fluffy key-holders with puppet shapes, dolls, plastic animals, lucky charms toys… They are all good, as far as they are the first thing you put in your luggage. Even better if they fit in a pocket!
You find them with hashtags such as #travelMascot #PlushiesOnInstagram #travelingToys and #plushieAdventures.
Let’s see the most interesting ones, starting with my own travel buddy, a green alien who has been with me already a dozen years!
Gianni L’Ottimista
Landed on Instagram in 2019, but present on other social for more than a decade, Gianni L’Ottimista is a smiley green alien (#greenalien). He stole my heart from a window shop in Milan. I saw him, I walked on, I came back, I looked at him a little longer, I went in and took him with me. “Is it a present?”. No, no, he’s for me.
Gianni has been in Belgium, Cyprus,Philippines, France, Germany, Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mozambique, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Spain, Emirates, Switzerland, Tanzania and Uganda.
Sometimes he goes around with two little Spanish leopards, Rodolfito e Rosita. Aren’t they the cutest?
Rodrigo, the pink plastic flamingo
Rodrigo, the plastic flamingo
Rodrigo the Flamingo is basically the reason I opened Gianni’s IG account. I’ve found him on Sharon’s (his South African human’s buddy) travel blog and I started following him around. She travels a lot and so does him. If he can be a star, so does Gianni.
I must say his plastic figure has lost a lot of colour due to ageing. But then sometimes he’s back again really pick. Besides the fact that Sharon often posts old pictures, I have the vague suspicious there’s more than one Rodrigo, or at the very least he has multiple personalities. But don’t ask him, it’s not polite.
Check him out, he’s good fun!
Bakera 3916, the flying chicks
I’ve recently discovered this profile and I agree with the other 16 thousands followers: these rounded chicks (not birds neither ducks) are wonderful! I obviously don’t understand a thing of what they say, since they speak Japanese only, but these travelling plushies are adorable.
The owner calls them kiiroitori, which a quick search in internet revels it means “yellow bird”. To be precise, they come from an animation movie.
I particularly love their picture style: they have wings, so these Kiiroitori often fly! Genius
Fred the Mammoth
Fred is an experienced traveller. I’ve been following him for a while and he’s been everywhere! He visited most Europe, he arrived in Singapore, in the States, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Galapagos, Egypt… I think he might still miss Arctic and Antarctica, but I wouldn’t bet on it!
He loves posing in front of famous landmarks and he’s the perfect for a travelling mascot: he fits in a pocket and he is really photogenic!
Beaker’s journeys, the lab assistant
Some plushies don’t simply love travelling, they love meeting people while doing it. Beaker can show you places, but most of all he’s going to introduce you and his human colleague to those he encounter on the road. His face looks always a little perplex, but it seems no one is bothered by it!
Beaker usually wears a greenish lab vest, but he also enjoy to dress up to better fit in the local culture. In this period, for instance, he’s travelling around Africa with a very colourful shirt of a clearly African-made textile.
Mc Cluckins, the rubber chicken
I don’t mean to offend him, but I believe that Mc Cluckins was supposed to be a toy for dogs. But the past of these plushies doesn’t matter, what is important is that they are now out there travelling as they love doing!
This chicken lived in Great Britain and he prefers outdoor activities like hiking. He even reached the K2!
Lumpina, the lady elephant
Between all the male solo-travelling soft toys, I have to name at least one lady. Here is Lumpina, a cute elephant with German origins (I think) in love with Australia. Sadly she only speaks German and I don’t really understand her much, but her pictures are really cute!
She enjoys nature more than big cities, and you´ll find her often near the waters. She’s currently touring the world with her human friends.
Trevor, the plastic duck
Trevor is a small pick duck, with a heart on her chest. Can you be cuter than this, when you’re made out of plastic?
He loves art as much as travelling and good food (and alcoholic drinks) His pictures are often quite peculiar and a bit artistic. He’s so tiny, he might be difficult to spot!
Wayne, the big wombat
Until you see him in the right context, you don’t realize how big Wayne is. Compared to most travelling soft toys, he’s huge! Most of the travel buddies I’ve been talking about in this page fit more or less in a pocket or at least in a bag. Wayne could easily need a plane seat for himself!
Maybe his travelling history started as a bet, but it’s now too late to change plans: his 5000 followers want to see this big wombat take his seat and tour the world!
Glen and Glenda
These two fluffy Scots, a cow and a bull, are outdoor lovers. You see them around lakes, hills, old castles and mountains. Snow doesn’t scare them off and they travel with a great landscape photographer.
In the past, sometimes Glen and Glenda Coo were travelling solo, but these plushies are now always together. Lately they’ve been a little less active on Instagram than before. But that’s fine, because they have a good excuse that you can figure out by yourself looking at their photo gallery: they have a new travel buddy, and he’s not a plushie!
If you own or know other travelling soft toys that deserve to be in this (or a next) list of travel buddies, tell me about them in the comments!
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