14 January 2016

Filofax Bromley Travel Wallet

I do quite a bit of long distance travelling these days and not always by road, in fact I prefer to go by public transport were possible, it tends to be less tiring than driving. So for these trips I have a need for some form of wallet to carry my travel documents and tickets and cards etc.

I have been using a variety of wallets but none of them seemed to be 'the one' if you know what I mean, OK but not quite what I need.

Quite often I have used a Smith and Canova travel wallet which I reviewed a few months ago on Travellers Notebook Times. As you will see I even made a notebook to fit it, although the size was not strictly a standard size!

I was aware of the existence of Filofax Travel Wallets having seen them in the shop in Conduit Street when it was still open and in the catalogues too. But for what ever reason I didn't buy one at the time, and I should have, hindsight being a marvellous thing.

Fast forward to just before Christmas and one of our readers shared a photo of a Bromley Travel Wallet on the Facebook Group, naturally I asked him where he had got it from and 'do they have any more'... They were for sale in TK Maxx (TJ Maxx in the USA) and his local store didn't have any more. So I placed a Wanted advert on our own Adspot page, just on the off chance that someone might have one they were no longer using.

I was extremely surprised and excited when another reader in UK emailed me and asked me if I was still looking for one... YES!!!!  Oh good because I bought one for you just in case you still wanted one... This was a dream almost, but a pleasant one! We have some wonderful people in our community.

Anyway we sorted out payment and delivery address and the cost of postage etc and I patiently waited for the parcel to arrive.


Closed like this the wallet measures approximately 225mm x 115 mm


The bar code on the box shows the price in US Dollars, and the bar code is for the US as well. So I'm wondering if some of these were returned from the USA when they moved their warehouse a year or so ago.


Undoing the clasp and opening it up reveals the detailed internal design. On the left hand side we have a pen loop, two coin pockets and various different height pockets, one the correct height for your passport.

On the right hand side there is a folding section in this there are 8 credit card slots and at the top a full height slot which could be used for a boarding pass or similar.


Opening the flap section reveals two further full height vertical slot pockets. and a plain section in the middle with a tab.


If you lift the tab it has two press studs holding it down.. they are spaced 51 mm (2 inches apart)


And a few sheets of Filofax Personal size paper fits perfectly in to this section. The middle section has some form of stiffener under the leather so it is a very good writing surface.


Close the tab and the pages are neatly held in place. You could have your travel schedule in here, notes, phone number of the taxi firm or your contact people or anything, all to hand in your jacket pocket. There is yet another slot pocket behind the middle Filofax page section in which you could store spare pages or similar.


On the back of the wallet there are three more differing height pockets so you could have tickets to hand without opening the wallet.


It is quite large in size, larger than I would use on a regular daily basis, but perfect for travelling.


And here it is with my Filofax Personal size Eton (the linked post is about the pocket size, the photo is of my personal size), I think they go very well together and the leather quality and design is very similar too.


I booked my train tickets for the Gillio meet up in March yesterday, so I will be using this for sure then.

Finally a big thank you to Fiona for spotting this treasure.

3 comments:

  1. I use my Holborn Slimline when away from home, but - like you - have never found the perfect travel wallet. I would be interested in your view on how it compares with the much more recent The Journey model.

    ps: it's TK Maxx in the UK and TJ Maxx in the USA.

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  2. Another one has appeared on Ebay. Not my listing

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Filofax-Bromley-Deluxe-Smooth-Black-Leather-Travel-Wallet-BNIB-/272122562409?hash=item3f5bc4c769:g:rdwAAOSw5dNWsMMm

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  3. Woahhh!Perfect for travel indeed!

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