I recently returned from a four-week trip to South America with my wife, where I had space and weight limits, but wanted to ensure all my gadgets kept working whilst I travelled. In some locations, I had no access to mains power, and in others, I had limited time to charge my devices. I wanted to stay connected, but I had to deal with different languages, mains voltages, and plugs.
Some gadgets are considered essential, like phones, while others, like a good camera, can improve your trip. Here are my tips on how to be prepared for your next trip and what gadgets you should take.
What gadgets did we take?
Our trip involved sightseeing, hiking, snorkelling, canoeing, various means of travel and a lot of waiting around in transit. My wife and I had two bags and two day packs, each limited to 20kg, and at one point, we were only allowed 6kg for a four-day period.
For the duration of the trip, we took the following gadgets:
- 2 x Android smartphones
- Sony RX100 VII compact camera with a 30x zoom
- GoPro 12 action camera
- 2 x smartwatches
- 2 x headtorches
- 4 x headphone sets (yes, overkill, but I was reviewing several pairs)
Although we considered taking a tablet or a PC, we were on holiday, and you have to ask: do you need one? And are you prepared to carry it? If we were staying at a resort and not moving much, then probably, but we had 11 flights and about 30 transfers with our bags.
Accessories to keep gadgets working while travelling
Now that we had our gadgets, we decided what we needed to bring to keep them all working. We took:
- Travel eSIMs that would work in each of the three countries we visited
- MicroSD cards in cameras, enough to store more photos than we could take
- Spare batteries for the GoPro and the compact camera
- Two power banks
- USB cables, including spares
- Travel wall charger
What did I learn about the travel gadgets I chose?
Having spent many years having my mobile phone bill paid by my employer, I just got off a plane, and my phone just worked. Now I pay the bill myself, so a travel SIM was the obvious choice. Buying and installing it was easy, but making it work was a learning experience for me. More on that in a minute.
We had bought a compact camera with a 30x zoom as we wanted to photograph wildlife, but the big lesson was that a quality compact camera takes a far superior photo to our top-tier smartphones, even without the zoom. Smartphones are convenient for quick snaps, but next time I will use the compact camera more, now that I have seen the photos.
If you plan to go swimming or enjoy recording videos, then a GoPro is a worthwhile investment. We also took the optional waterproof housing for our GoPro, providing extra security when used in the water (GoPro is water-resistant by itself).
Note to self: when swimming with penguins, make sure to press the record button, not just the end button, which resulted in 5 minutes of footage of my legs and fins with no sign of penguins.
Should you take a smartwatch? No words of wisdom here. I like the extra features they bring, but to be honest, it’s only something extra that requires charging and an item that can be lost if not worn on your wrist.
We took headtorches because we had to hike in the dark at one point, but we used them time and time again, which was a surprise to us, given that we all have lights on our phones. Having a separate torch came in handy, especially when you can use it hands-free.
Headphones are more important than you might think
Traditionally, to watch a movie on a plane, you need a set of headphones with a cable. That is, however, changing, with most Qantas international planes now offering a Bluetooth connection. Many domestic flights offer a Wi-Fi entertainment solution that allows you to use your smartphone as the screen and your headphones.
I took two Bluetooth earbuds, my old, faithful wired noise-cancelling earbuds, and the new JBL Tour One M3 over-ear noise-cancelling headphones. I want to point out that all new products have a tiny percentage that fail in their first few hours of life, and unfortunately, the JBL headphones I was testing died after our second flight (the replacement pair fared much better).
With so much transit time, the headphones became a critical gadget. The type of headphone you choose is largely a personal preference. My wife is the case in point, as she has yet to find a solution she likes beyond a cheap pair she was given once. I, on the other hand, want top-of-the-line noise cancelling, and for the last few decades, I have tended to favour in-ear buds. For older planes that rely on corded headphones, a wireless adapter like Twelve South’s AirFly allows you to use wireless headphones with any wired socket.
A phone is a traveller’s best friend
Our most useful gadget, of course, was our smartphones, but I almost didn’t come home with mine. Pickpockets are a real concern when travelling, and in Australia, we are fortunate that it is not a significant issue.
In London, people will grab your phone out of your hand when you are using it. In South America, mine was removed from a zippered pocket in my pants while on the Metro, and it was only a sudden movement on my part that made the thief drop my phone. My thief was dressed in business attire and looked far more presentable than I did.
Being in a foreign country, we preloaded offline Google maps and, in our case, Spanish in Google Translate. This saved us time and mobile data. We learnt that Google Translate is significantly more powerful when used online for conversations in foreign languages and translating signs instantly.
Beyond that, we performed all the standard tasks with our phones, but with the added protection of a virtual private network (VPN). We used Norton’s VPN, which creates a secure connection to the internet to ensure that no one steals any of your private data, such as banking details. When you are on a public W-Fi network, thieves could intercept your traffic.
How did we keep our gadgets going?
Being able to recharge your gadgets whilst travelling is the most important consideration, but in our opinion, simply bundling all your home chargers into your bag is not the ideal solution. Instead, invest in a new travel charger.
We took a Laser 65W GaN USB Wall Charger with four adaptors. The adapters are the four different interchangeable wall plugs for Australia, Europe, the UK, and the US power points. The adapter also automatically adjusts to different voltages, so it is a very plug-and-play solution. Its output is 65W, and it can charge up to three devices across two USB-C and one USB-A sockets. Having a 65W charger also means your smartphone will charge quickly, versus older chargers that may only be 5-15W. As a result, when you have little time to charge, you will charge quickly.
Next on your list is USB cables. We needed USB-C and USB mini plugs to fit our devices. Always check what you need. We did take a spare (they can easily fail or be lost), but we shared cables instead of bringing cables for every device. I chose short cables as they are less likely to tangle and weigh less. One exception is the sole longer cable, which is USB-A to USB-C, I brought to plug into aircraft power when available and comfortably reach back to the seat.
Spare batteries for the cameras meant fast interchange and not relying on a recharge from the power bank at a critical time.
In hindsight, I would have taken only one power bank. We had a Laser 10,000 mAh and a 20,000mAh bank. There was a weight difference, but the larger bank would be my pick, supporting up to 100W output, while the smaller only supports 20W. Faster charging is better whilst travelling, especially when charging multiple devices. If you have enough cables, you can even use your power bank with multiple USB sockets, effectively serving as a power board. At night, you can charge the power bank while also charging your devices from it.
To store your precious photos, I recommend a two-stage approach. First, if you are using a camera with an SD memory card, purchase a high-capacity card with a fast transfer rate. They are relatively cheap and save you from having to worry about swapping memory cards.
Next, use cloud backup. We used Google Photos, which is useful since your smartphone is likely always running out of space, and this provides an automatic transfer when on Wi-Fi. By backing up on holiday, if you lose your camera or smartphone, you still have those memories stored in the cloud, which are priceless.
Keep your travel internet and phone costs down
The cheapest way to get internet access while travelling is to use free Wi-Fi, which, surprisingly, was available in all the hotels we stayed at, at every airport, and in most bars and restaurants we visited. This meant we did not have to rely so heavily on our mobile data. The simplest and most expensive way to have mobile data is to activate roaming on your Australian phone plan.
The most cost-effective option is to purchase a local SIM plan upon arrival at your destination. We chose a mid-point, which was a travel eSIM from Simify. The Simify plan allowed us to roam between multiple South American countries, so it just worked every time we got off the plane in a new country.
This eSIM allowed us to keep our Australian SIMs and still use the Australian number via the Wi-Fi calling feature (which also works using mobile data). It does not require a physical SIM card and is easy to install via a QR code.
What we found a little more complicated was that you need to tell your phone which SIM to use for mobile data and to allow it to roam. This caught me out on first use, but it can be quickly found in the SIM settings and only needs to be done once when you start using your eSIM. It also needs to be switched off when you return to Australia.
Travel is such a wonderful experience, and we hope these gadget tips make your next adventure seamless.
The post Must-have travel gadgets & what I learned for my next overseas trip appeared first on GadgetGuy.
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