Sussed on travel โ 10 top tech travel gadgets – Much as you’d love to have a holiday from them, rather than with them, when travelling, particularly overseas, there are some travel gadgets you just can’t leave at home…
TOP 4 ESSENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR TRAVEL
SMARTPHONE
Smartphones are now virtually mandatory, but more so when travelling. Better still is an unlocked smartphone (it’s apparently quite complicated to unlock once it’s locked), which makes it cheaper to plug in SIM cards local to the countries you intend visiting. BUT buying an unlocked smartphone is expensive. Get a second-hand one if you can, or an international SIM card that gives you free roaming in selected countries, cheap international calls and texts wherever you are โ not quite as good, but almost.
NOTEBOOK OR TABLET
Depending on your needs (work or entertainment) a notebook or tablet is one of the four top tech accessories to take when travelling. And the lighter the better, so something like MacBook Air (oh, I wish!) is slim enough and light enough to be practical, even if the battery leaves a little to be desired.
HANDHELD DIGITAL CAMERA
There is so much to choose from that you could go mad deciding on what to buy, so hopefully you already have a compact, lightweight but good performance digital camera and don’t need to dither (a DSLR and its various lenses is too cumbersome). Best is if your smartphone takes good pics. But otherwise consider an Olympus touch TG-2 (if you’re an adventurer) or the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX7 for its wide-angle lens.
THE eREADER
If you’re like me and cannot be without a book, then this is one of the best technology developments EVER! No need to haul onboard the four or so tomes you intend to read in the month whilst travelling…
6 NONESSENTIAL, BUT REALLY NICE-TO-HAVE GADGETS FOR TRAVEL
GOPRO
Create your own footage with TV ready image quality with the world’s smallest camera. Voted the best sports, and most versatile, camera around you can wear it because it’s small enough to clip to surfboards, bike helmets or cars, or mount it, use it underwater and above. As far as ‘action cam’ goes, this is it.
POCKETCELL DUO
A battery that not only fits in your pocket but can fully charge a tablet once, or a smartphone up to four times is worth having. Best of all, it can safely charge two gadgets at once (now you can charge more than one phone in the airport, at the same time โ perfect when there are flight delays).
AKG K 490 NC NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONES
I prefer over-ear headphones for the comfort (how do you wear in-ear headphones for more than an hour?) and the sound isolation, even though they are bulkier, but these ‘supra-aural’ headphones go a step further. They’re understated, fold flat, are compact, minimise aeroplane noise, have detachable cables, an internal USB-rechargeable battery, and they perform well.
FLIP MINO
This is a bit of a ‘girlie’ gadget, but so great if taking videos is your thing and you’re a bit of a tecnophobe. Flip Mino is a cigarette-pack sized video recorder with a huge, red record button (so you can’t miss it). Two gigabytes of internal memory allow about 60 minutes of recording time and it comes with an inbuilt USB plug that means easy upload.
THE GARMIN NรVI 3790T
As small as a smartpone this GPS device slips into your back pocket and is perfect for finding your way around as you land at your destination.
THE SURFEASY PLUG
This is a must for any traveller. It’s small enough to carry in your pocket but when you plug the USB key into your computer it acts as a private web browser and protects your passwords and web and search history with the same technology used by banks. Great for use in Internet cafes or open WiFi networks as you can surf without fear of being monitored.
