Sunglasses are a vital companion to fence your eyes from dust and sunlight that you should pack every time during travel. If you are planning to visit sunny locations or somewhere near the equator, you should be aware that intense level of UV rays may cause damage to your eyes. Thus sunglasses are also an indispensable accessory for travel, and you can not leave home without carrying them during your trip. Sunglasses for travel must have beneficial features that make you comfortable and keep your eyes safe from harsh conditions. The concern now is how to choose the best sunglasses that do not eat your travel budget but making your adventure safe and enjoyable? Let’s find out what kind of affordable shades are up to the task and guide to picking the best sunglasses for traveling.

How to pick up the best travel sunglasses?     

Before hitting the road, sunglasses must be one of the most indispensable items to protect your eyes from UV rays and glare. Besides selecting glass styles that suit your personality and travel clothes you are planning to pack, it’s advisable to consider the one that has full protection from radiation or polarized lenses built-in to combat reflective glare. So how to select the best sunglasses for traveling, whether buying online or local sunglass stores, so that your adventure will be as comfortable and safe as possible? Let’s read on!

UV Protection Index

UV rays are known as the electromagnetic spectrum that is dangerous to sensitive parts of the body like skin and the eyes. When overexposed to solar radiation in a short time, your vision may temporarily get lost since the front of your eyes may suffer from sunburn. This problem usually happens in open water or flat places from which reflective light known as glare strikes your sensitive eyes.

Many studies have proven that frequent exposure to UV rays is associated with many eye-related issues in the long-term, including cataracts. With prolonged exposure to the sun or reflecting glare from the beach during your trip can lead to vision problems. Your eyelid will get sunburn and become cloudy because eyelid damage is cumulative through the years. Furthermore, more precautions should be taken care of when traveling in high altitude places since the UV level seems to intensify in those areas.

Hence, it would be best eye protection for traveling if sunglasses can block higher 99% UV rays. If you plan to travel to regions, just follow the criteria in that area is a great idea for your reference.

The European standard has three levels: Level 0 means that it is not able to block UV rays, level 2 is medium, level 3 blocks UV rays completely.

American standard: Allow the UVB rays passing through the glasses are less than 1%, UVA rays passing through the glasses must not exceed 0.5 times compared to visible light.

Australian standards: there are five levels from 0 to 4, based on resisting UV rays from low to high.

Take A Large Coverage Glass

If you ever notice, you will find that many celebrities like the Kardashians usually wear oversized sunglasses. There are many reasons why they wear large lens sunglasses. Besides helping them hide under-eye bags from the “hawk eyes” of the paparazzi, the big sunglasses also play an important role in preventing the eyes from getting any wrinkles.

Indeed, the larger surface that sunglasses cover, the more protection the skin around your eyes will get. Moreover, large lenses play an important role in blocking extra UV rays from the side. That means you will be less likely to frown and squint, resulting in fewer potential frown lines.

Choose Your Favorite Styles

You always want to look gorgeous and fabulous even with the sunglasses on. Choosing the right  sunglasses to suit for your face shape and personality is a step further to complete your fashion look.

Round face

Sunglasses with angular features like rectangle, square, and cat-eye styles are perfectly suitable for your round shape. They will add more dimensions and illusion to make you get more angular features to balance with your circular shape.

Oval face

If you have an oval face, you are quite lucky as there are many sunglass styles available for you. Though, aviator and square style are always working best for oval face shapes.

Square face

Try sunglass styles that have rounded and curved frames to balance with your angular features. Round, oval, or aviator sunglasses will give you a soft look.

Heart face

The heart-shaped face appears like an upside-down triangle and has a slimmer chin. The best styles that balance large foreheads are cat-eye, rectangle, and aviator sunglasses. These shades also help to make the delicate chin appear larger.

Pick Polarized Lenses

To fully enjoy beautiful nature quotes without being bothered by annoying glare, the polarized feature is indispensable in your travel glasses. Polarized lenses can eliminate the reflective light known as glare from water or flat surfaces. The glare not only causes eyestrain and headache but also reduce your visual clarity.

Lightweight, comfort, low-cost, and polarized lenses are important factors to consider in choosing sunglasses for travel.

Open water is a high reflective place where glare is present the most. Thus most activities like boating trips and beach sightseeing will have great benefits by wearing polarized sunglasses. Imagine you are on a road trip along the west coast to enjoy stunning ocean views, beach landscape, and you realize that your glasses are not polarized. By wearing regular shades, the reflected light from the beach may cause eye strain, blurred vision. As a natural response, you have to have to squint your eyes in order to see better.

On the contrary, polarized sunglasses offer a better visual experience and comfort. The glass wearers or travelers will no longer suffer visual discomfort from glare and experience a clear and sharp vision when enjoy viewing beautiful beaches or natural wonders.

Due to the efficient manufacturing process, today polarized sunglasses do not cost much as you imagine and become popular for everyone in daily outdoor activities.

Affordable

Sunglasses are an item that is easy to lose during traveling. It’s not a good idea to invest a lot of money in designer sunglasses and you end up losing them from the airplane, hotel, or restaurant. It could be stressful if you are on a road trip and need sunglasses for sightseeing. By choosing quality cheap shades for traveling, you can save a lot of money and even carry many pairs with different styles for wearing every situation. In case you lose one, it does not bother your pleasure trip since the back-up ones keep you enjoy the exciting trips.