This may seem like a strange concern, but I have a bad neck (disks) and I'm also allergic to feathers and goose down. Can you tell me if I should actually pack a pillow in order to avoid very bad pillows in the hotels......and are there feather or down comforters or pillows very often? Thanks! julie

well, my father is in the same boat as you and we got him tempur-pedic stuff. at home, he has the full bed and pillow. and when traveling get the tempur-pedic travel pillow, which is fairly small and easily packable. this stuff is incredible in terms of comfort. brookstone has a great selection.

I too am allergic to feathers. I have packed an inflatable pillow that I purchased in the camping department of a sporting goods store. In a jam, I've used a sweat suit inside of a pillowcase. Sadly, that won't help your neck problem.

I did find that the more expensive hotels have had synthetic pillows.

Have you thought about e-mailing the hotel to inquire if they have options for you?

I'm just curious. Do the pillow protectors that are supposed help allergy sufferers help?
I would love to make my guest room as comfortable as possible. (But of course with a house full of pets it may be a pipe dream)

I like lots of pillows and was miserable on my first visit to Europe. So, on my last trip I packed two high thread count pillowcases and stuffed them with stuff. For one, I used the extra blanket in the room. The best one was stuffed with my cushy jacket I took to Paris last May. During the day, a warm jacket. At night, my pillow!

Glad I had them. I didn't like that long round (hard) bolster pillow in Paris!

I bring a small pillow with me. It helps a lot with my disc/bone spur problems. We often saw feather pillows and comforters in Germany and France, but not in Italy.

The Brookstone "FOM" neckpillows are incredibly light and soft. They are wonderful.

In many of the better hotels, if you explain to them that you want a pillow with synthetic fill, they carry those for guests just like you!

I too have an allergy to feathers - which are even more common as pillow filling and for duvets than they are becoming here - esp in the alpine regions. I have never had any trouble having the hotel simply switch to pillows/blankets made of other things for my room.

Generally you have to ask for "plastic" pillows - and blankets instead of duvet. Even maids who speak no english seem to be used to these requests and understand what you want right away.

One caveat - I stay only in fairly large hotels. If you are going to do B&Bs or very small places they might just not have any alternates available. In that case I would enquire when you make resies.

Yes, the pillow protectors/encasements really do help with allergies. Also, for your home, or for your guest room, L84SKY, the mattress encasements make a big difference. Just be sure to get the densest thread count possible.

Thanks maryfalin.

What a clever bunch you are! Thanks so much for the pillow advice. I esp like the one about stuffing high thread count encasements with other things. But I'm going to check on the Brookstone travel pillow as well. That may be useful on the flight and many train trips as well. Thank you! Julie

Hi corrigik, Same pillow problem here but I have a way to cope. Several trips ago, I brought with me 1/2 a pillow. Bought a cheap fiberfill pillow at a dollar store. It was soft enough to be comfortable. Cut it in half the short way, sewed the edges up. (How much of the pillow do you really use?) I flatten it in the zip air tight bags, flattening it out.Its not much thicker than a magazine and travels right in the suitcase. If I leave it someplace, the second half, now at home, goes on the next trip. Good luck, yy4me

My dad also has disc problems, and he travels with his beloved tempurpedic pillow.

Funny story/ tip: At a motel somewhere in the US, he accidentally left it on the bed and checked out. A few miles down the road, he remembered and did a u-turn. The motel was nice enough to let my mom go into the laundry room to search through a massive mountain of bedding to find it, which she did. (Apparently they are expensive and my dad cannot live without it. His arthritis prevents him from wading in laundry!)

Now, she always puts a bright, tacky pillow case on the pillow so that it jumps out at you from the usual white sheets in hotels as a method of ensuring that she never goes diving in strangers' dirty linens again!

It's very common to find down bedding in German gasthauses, b&b's, hotels, etc.

Synthetic pillows are usual in most hotels we've stayed at, but on the few occasions that there have been feather pillows,
I've never had any problem getting the hotel staff to change them promptly. A phrase book will give you enough vocabulary to say "I am allergic to feathers. May I have a pillow with no feathers"!

Because we're using reward points in so many hotels (some are larger chains) I assume most pillows will be foam and not an issue. But like someone else said - I like lots of them, so the stuffing and extra cases will be good. %%%%Do I need to worry about packing a hairdryer?

If I were in your situation, I'd definitely pack your own small travel pillow. Like you said good for the plane, train, and hotels. I'm guessing it could really make a difference in your overall comfort on the trip.

Hey guys, for those airlines that still can afford those little airline pillows...I have a high thread count pillow in my carry-on so I can have a clean pillow against my face (rather than someone else's cooties!

I also do the the same thing as BlueSwimmer's mom - I make sure my pillow cases are a different color than the hotel pillows. I can't tell you how nice it is to come in to a hotel room and see "your pillow" on the bed. (Usually a Ralph Lauren floral from the outlet store). I always travel with a candle so when I'm in a hotel I have a little bit of home with me. (Can you tell I travel WAY too much on business?!?!?)

We stayed in B&B's in Ireland and 2* in Paris and there weren't a lot of pillow options in either. But, I don't want to use Hilton points when I'm in Europe.

I take my Halofill (sp?) neck-roll pillow along, together with a second case for it. Works fine on the plane and in hotel rooms. One source for the pillows is thecompanystore.com.