Travel Potty by Cool Gear

Travel potties are a godsend for parents who spend a lot of time outdoors or visiting. They're also useful on long car trips when rest rooms are scarce. The Travel Potty by Cool Gear features two compartments for storing toilet paper, wipes, extra underwear or other essentials, making it a versatile choice. It folds into a briefcase-sized unit, complete with its own carrying handle. When opened for use, this bench-style potty allows plenty of seating room. Any gallon-size zippered storage bag can be used to collect waste, held in place by the seat. On the downside, it's too large to carry in a diaper bag, and some reviewers say the potty opening is too small. As an alternative, the Kalencom 2-in-1 Potette Plus (*Est. $15) is a travel potty that folds up small enough to be carried in a diaper bag, and also functions as a potty seat, although some reviewers don't feel that it's very sturdy.

As a portable potty, the Travel Potty isn't included in many formal reviews of potty chairs, although we did find a recommendation for it in a potty chair roundup conducted by Tammy Everts at the design-oriented parenting website Ohdeedoh.com, where it is accompanied by a brief review. The Family Travel & Vacations Blog is the most detailed review of the Travel Potty we found, which reviews four different travel potty chairs, listing pros and cons of each. Owner opinions are valuable, particularly when it comes to travel potties, because parents can attest to how well a travel potty works during an inevitable toddler potty emergency. We found approximately 80 owner-written reviews between Amazon.com and Diapers.com.