Which travel pillow gets the high score? I found out at the amusement arcade

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Testing a travel pillow’s comfort and fit is easy. Hop on a train. Wear the pillow. Sink snugly into the cushioning and make notes between naps.

The tricky part is testing the supportiveness of a pillow in bumpy motion. You never know when you’re going to encounter rickety transport or a driver who woke up on the wrong side of bed. I needed a reliable way to simulate these occasional challenges.

Naturally, my first instinct was to test the travel pillows on a rollercoaster – but the kindly representatives of theme parks, including Alton Towers, told me that this might cause a neck injury. I finally settled on an option that would allow rigorous testing without risking a life-changing injury*: I would wear the travel pillows while playing motion-based arcade games at Arcade Club in Leeds.

Photographer Christian Hopewell and I barrelled into the arcade with armfuls of travel pillows, looking like the winners of a dozen left-field claw-machine prizes. We selected well-suited games – fun, photogenic and with plenty of movement simulation – and I set to the task of wearing each pillow while the seats rocked, rumbled, tilted and lurched.

This taught me a lot about each travel pillow. The Trtl’s side-bracing support made a high-octane game feel serene. A reasonably priced memory foam pillow from Boots was the perfect shock absorber for a bout of Mach Storm. Lifeventure’s inflatable travel pillow had ample cushioning for the hard-seated game After Burner, but it slid about on the smooth headrest.

Pillow talk

Pete Wise tests travel pillows in an amusement arcade game machine

Of course, product testing involves more than playful stress tests at the margins of the relevant – we can’t always be comfily chasing high scores or throwing suitcases from step-ladders.

Before I furrowed my brow and rested my head to the bleeps and chirps of a hundred arcade machines, I had tested the travel pillows on public transport – mostly trains, and a few buses with suitable seating.

One of my favourite moments from testing came at the end of the process, when I tried each pillow one last time on a busy train journey from Leeds to Chester. What must my fellow passengers have thought as I reached into a large rucksack, time after time, and produced a flamboyant procession of travel pillows?

I like to imagine that they took me for an exceptionally fussy traveller. But if any of them were regular readers of the Filter, they may have recognised our product testing fun and games in motion.

*Come to think of it, wearing a travel pillow while playing an arcade game probably isn’t risk-free. We advise against trying it for yourself.

This week’s picks

Editor’s pick

Halloween and Bonfire Night are history. Which means you may be turning your attention to the next big calendar event … You know, that one. To inspire you – and help you sort the good from the truly terrible – take a look at our gift guides: hand-picked, tried and tested, and from the horses’ mouths.

From gifts for 90s fans (remember Juicy Tubes lip balm?) to the perfect gifts for 13-year-olds, as chosen by 13-year-olds (skincare, trainers and tech rule in 2025, it seems), we’ll have you covered in the run-up to Christmas. And if you shop from our pieces, you’ll be supporting the Guardian, too.

Hannah Booth
Editor, the Filter

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