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What's New, What's Hot is Travel Weekly's look at useful and fun travel gadgets, edited by Joe Rosen. First up, Dock and Bay Beach Towels, with its unique microfiber blend that makes these towels soft to the touch, extremely absorbent, sand-resistant and three times quicker to dry than an equivalent cotton towel. Compact and light weight, the towels are travel ready: fold it up and it is no bigger than a hard-cover novel. They also come with an elastic hook to hang it out to dry to its own carry pouch.

Let the towel wars begin. Tesalate Beach Towels beach towels, which measure 63 by 31 inches, come in a variety of colors and striking designs. Fast-drying, light weight and staying virtually sand free, the products are super absorbent: According to the manufacturer, a Tesalate beach towel can absorb up to 34 ounces of water. As for being travel friendly, the towel can be rolled up and fit in an accompanying compact bag.

Although you can use it as an overnighter, this tote by any other name works and looks great as a classy beach bag, what with its Ethiopian premium leather accents and heavy-duty canvas body. The Rincon Backpack's spacious, unlined interior compartment is roomy enough to handle a beach blanket or two. Exterior straps make it easy to carry and an interior Swiss-made Riri zipper pocket provides a degree of security.

Presumably it takes a full-scale laboratory to come up with what Alchemi immodestly describes as the ''ultimate sun-protecting line of hats.'' Among them is the River Hat, which like all of the brand's hats, boasts radiant barrier technology that blocks 99.8 percent of skin-damaging UV rays and reflects as much as 80 percent of the sun's heat waves. The hat also has a moisture-wicking sweatband and expansive ventilation to aid in helping cool heads prevail as well as an asymmetrical, shapeable brim, adjustable sizing and chin strap.

Despite its khaki camouflage print garb and ballistics-grade nylon exterior construction, this soft-shell carryon from Eastpak is very much at peace with the idea of overnight travel. The Tranverz Small Suitcase, which can be carried (it has padded side and top handles) or easily maneuvered on its two-wheeled base, features a zip-fastened front pocket, adjustable clip-fastened compression straps, internal zippered pockets and a double zip-around closure with a TSA-friendly combination-lock fastening.

This boon to travelers can be worn hidden under your clothing or externally as a discouraging-to-thieves fanny pack. Made of waterproof, machine-washable repo-stock nylon, the Alpha Keeper Money Belt has an adjustable elastic waist band with a snap clip that can extend to 47 inches when unfurled. Its virtues include a large secret pack on its back side, two front pockets, six identity-protecting RFID-blocking sleeves for shielding credit cards and one RFID-blocking sleeve that can hold and protect as many as three passports.