Traveling used to be easier back when you didn’t have to worry about all your doodads. Now, before any trip, I seem to have to pack an electronic bazaar into my luggage just to avoid forgetting anything important. After lots of trips with gadgets in tow — and after consulting many friends and followers on Twitter — I’ve compiled my favorite tips for traveling with technology.
Whether you’re going abroad or staying in country this season, here are some of the best ways to get the most out of all your gadgets.
Pack lightly — but not too lightly. Depending on your trip, it’s always a good idea to take along a few extra cables, adapters and other accessories. For foreign travel, a power adapter — to charge your camera, phone, e-reader and other gadgets — is a must. I recommend a universal adapter, which will work on plugs in many different countries, and which are available at online retailers like Amazon for less than US$5.
For most electronics, an adapter is all you’ll need; for other appliances like hairdryers, shavers, and curling irons, you might also need a transformer. I recommend WalkaboutTravelGear.com, which has a range of these devices. Do you plan to do a lot of driving in rental cars? Take your music player, a male-to-male audio cable and a car charger for tunes on the go. Or consider a cord to connect your laptop to a TV to let you watch DVDs in your hotel room — the perfect way to end a long day of exploring the Hindu Kush.
MAKING LOCAL CALLS ABROAD
If you’ve got an old cell phone lying around — and who doesn’t? — it might be your ticket to cheap local calls in foreign lands. Before you leave, make sure your phone is “unlocked” so it can work on other networks.
Then, when you land, visit a local mobile phone shop and buy a SIM card, which should cost you about US$20. When you pop the card into your old phone, you’ll get a local number. Now your calls around town will be a bargain.
STAYING IN TOUCH WITH HOME
Don’t call home with that local SIM; the long-distance rates might be sky high. A better trick is to use Skype, the Internet phone system. Skype requires a laptop or smart phone and an Internet connection, which you can get at a hotel or cafe. With Skype, you’ll often be able to call home for just a few cents a minute. If you set up call forwarding on your Skype account, people at home can call a local number to ring you anywhere in the world, letting them pay nothing for the call.
AVOID BUYING HOTEL WI-Fi
Internet access is invaluable whether traveling for business or pleasure. The only trouble is the cost; some hotels want to charge you as much for a night as you would pay for a month of Internet service back home. That’s why it’s wise to take Wi-Fi prices into account before you book your trip. In the US, many low- and midrange hotels offer Wi-Fi free, while expensive chains ask US$10 or US$20 a night for service. For international travel, consult HotelChatter’s invaluable guide to which hotels around the world offer free or cheap Internet.
TIPS FOR SMART PHONE OWNERS
If you’ve got an iPhone or some other Internet-capable device, you might want to take it along for overseas trips, as it makes a nice way to access the Internet on the go. Remember to go into the phone’s settings panel and turn off “long-distance roaming”; this will prevent the phone from racking up huge data fees on foreign networks. Your phone will still be able to access the Internet through Wi-Fi. Some iPhone apps that are particularly handy overseas: Yelp, for reviews of restaurants and attractions; Skype, for calling home; and TripIt, a terrific online service that keeps all your itinerary details in order. TripIt’s Web site is great even if you don’t have an iPhone.
Spring for an iPad. I’ve found Apple’s tablet computer to be a fantastic travel machine. It’s small, lightweight and best of all, the US Transportation Security Administration doesn’t require you to take it out of your bag during airport screening. (Most of the time; a TSA agent at Kennedy Airport in New York did ask me to remove my iPad during a recent trip).
The iPad is better for leisure travel than business; it’s the perfect way to read books and watch movies on the go. But if you plan to write the great American novel while visiting Parisian cafes, take along a small Bluetooth keyboard (Apple makes a nice one) to connect to your iPad; even with the keyboard, the iPad setup is easier to carry in a satchel or large purse than most notebooks.
“GEOTAG” YOUR PICTURES
That old photo of your grandfather posing with an elephant — was that snapped in Rhodesia or at Ringling Brothers? Digital pictures offer a way to solve this sort of geographic confusion. Their files can be embedded with location information that will remember, forever, where you took your picture.
Some newer cameras and smart phones insert these geotags automatically, but if you’ve got an old camera, consider buying a geotagging memory card like the Eye-Fi Explore. The card has a Wi-Fi chip built in. Not only does the chip determine your geographical location, it can also upload your pictures to the Internet automatically.
Want “real” photos? Some people still can’t get over the idea of having their pictures inside memory cards. Sure, you can print those photos when you get back home, but if you miss instant prints, check out the Polaroid PoGo mobile printer. The device sells for US$40 but requires special paper that costs about US$0.30 a page. If you’re traveling with children, instant pictures can make for an entertaining on-the-go scrapbook project.
E-READERS ON THE BEACH
If you plan to spend your vacation with a shelf of classics, you ought to go digital; with a Kindle, Nook, iPad or other flat reader, there’s no practical limit to the number of books you can enjoy, and you don’t have to worry about weight. The only problem: How do you protect these delicate devices in the sand and surf? You could consider buying a waterproof sleeve for your reader; TrendyDigital makes one that sells for US$20. Or go on the cheap — encase your reader in a snug zipper sandwich bag. These are usually transparent enough to read through, but sturdy enough to protect your device from the weather.
NOISE-CANCELING HEADPHONES
Headphones that electronically eliminate ambient noise have been around for at least a decade. But they’re now so cheap — you can get the Sony MDR-NC7 for less than US$40 — that they’re no longer solely the domain of frequent travelers.
Noise-canceling headphones are a must if you plan to watch movies or listen to music on planes, trains and other loud means of locomotion; without them, you’ll have to turn up the volume to a high level, which isn’t good for your hearing. Consider a pair even if you don’t care to listen to songs, as these headphones turn an otherwise cacophonous plane ride into something resembling a vacation.
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