Travel tech

  Essentials

• Use the internet — The net can make your travel smoother, cheaper and more enjoyable. Research your destinations and experiences. Book transport, accommodation and activities. 
• Limit your apps — There are thousands of apps out there that you could use for travel. Don’t go overboard, cramming your device with apps and staring at your screen for hours every day. Choose a few core functions that do the most for you.
• Minimalist hardware solution — A large-screen, unlocked, quad-band GSM phone is best for many functions and okay for all the rest, except doing productive work.
• Optimum hardware solution — In addition to a mobile phone, which need not have a large screen, a tablet provides a superior display as well as portability. Add an external keyboard to liberate screen space and ease typing.
• Road warrior hardware solution — You still need a phone, but a laptop is required only if you need the computational power and keyboard to do work. If you have a laptop, never mind the tablet.
• Easy reading — An e-reader is an excellent alternative to the weight and bulk of hard copy books and is easier on the eyes and battery life than other digital devices. A minimalist option is an e-ink cover for your phone.
• Choose your photo quality — Your phone may be all you need for photographs and video. Quality varies. If you need more, try a compact camera. Unless you require (and know how to shoot) professional quality photos, leave the DSLR at home.
• Get the right adapter plugs — All powered devices must be chargeable on 110-220 volt mains. Batteries are a hassle and will end up in landfills. For connection to mains, need to have an adapter with the correct plug for your destinations. Surge protection is worth having.
• Stay secure — WiFi on the road is fine for general browsing, but is not secure for private online activities, such as banking or providing credit card information. To ensure you don’t get hacked, subscribe to a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Some are free.
• Insure your gear — Standard travel insurance packages have insufficient coverage for anything more than a mid-range mobile phone. Depending upon how many devices you carry and their value, you may want to buy supplemental insurance against loss or damage. 

Yes, you need travel tech. 

There are Old School travelers who still reject all tech. They say that it ropes you too close to home when what you need is freedom. They believe that being reliant on apps bleeds the adventure out of travel. For them, even a mobile phone ruins the travel experience. Some concede to carrying a phone, but leave it switched off almost all the time.

These traditional travelers are right, to a point. Who among us has not seen the lobby of a lodge, common room of a hostel or every chair at a cafe filled with people staring at a digital device. If you find yourself cruising through Halong Bay with your eyes glued to your phone instead of to the astonishing scenery, then you’ve got it wrong. It’s too easy to binge on technology. It’s not why we travel. 

We have some admiration for Old School travelers who don’t use tech, but we strongly advise you to take advantage of at least some travel tech to save time and money, reduce stress and make your trip more enjoyable.

But your digital device is just a tool, so limit your use. Yes, it’s also an entertainment tool for when you’re stuck in your room or riding on a night bus, but don’t default to whipping out your phone in every spare moment. Drink in your surroundings instead. Engage a stranger in conversation. There’s never a better time to beat an addiction to digital than when the world around you is so stimulating.

What devices do you need?

Ask yourself, “What do I need to do with travel tech?” Be careful here. Just like the temptation to pack too many clothes, you can be tempted to acquire too much gear. Do you really need a separate camera when your phone camera might be good enough? Do you really need a laptop, when a tablet with keyboard will do for booking sites and email?

The table lists devices in order of preference. Example: a tablet is better than a phone for travel apps because of more screen space, easier finger taps and easier typing. But the phone is better than a laptop because only some apps run on laptop operating systems.

Functions and device choices in the table are explained in detail further down on the page.

Keep in mind that we’re talking about types of devices: phones, tablets, laptops and more. Within those categories, not all devices are optimal for travel. For example, CDMA phones (still found in North America) are pretty much useless for travel. Big laptops and DSLR cameras (with attachments) are too bulky and heavy for one bag travel, but you should never put them in checked luggage. 

The line between phones and tablets is blurring, as is the line between tablets and laptops. In the same vein, peripheral devices can extend the use of some devices. An external keyboard liberates screen space on a tablet and makes typing much easier. Mobile phone covers with e-ink displays can turn your phone into an easy-to-read, battery-saving e-reader.

It’s up to you to decide how much you want to do, what apps you want to use and which devices you need to use them. You also need to decide what you can afford, since the best travel tech can be very costly. Our usual guideline applies: start with what you’ve already got and equip yourself with the minimum additional stuff that you truly need. Any money you don’t spend on gear can be used for travel.

Make & receive international calls and texts

Many of us are accustomed to casual voice calls and texting. But does that still apply when you’re half way around the planet? Ask yourself: do you need to call back home? Does someone from home need to call you? 

Think it through — you may not need voice and text very much during your trip. You will be physically distant from many or all of the people you usually call or text. That doesn’t mean you never call them, but the frequency should be less than during your regular life back home.

So, why would you still need the ability to make international voice calls or text messages?

• Just in case? — As with packing something “just in case,” the idea that constant phone contact might come in handy is an excuse to spend unnecessarily to keep yourself available whenever and wherever. Reconsider that assumption. Part of the liberation of travel is getting away from Always On. If you can, give yourself a break and don’t stay tethered 24/7. 
• Urgent personal or business contact — It could be that you have personal or business communications that require instant contact by voice or text. But is that really true? Is there something so urgent that it can’t be managed by checking your e-mail daily? If you’ve done good setup of your life back home, you will not need to make calls or send texts about your personal matters and (we hope) not so much about your business affairs either. Unless truly urgent, these communications should be handled by e-mail.
• Home… just because you must — Sometimes it’s just got to be in real time. Yes, you can call home to brag while standing on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, which  happens at dawn. There’s no WiFi up there, but there is a mobile phone tower in range.

Most travelers want to call home, but the phone is not the best medium. Video and chat services (Skype, Facetime and others) are free with a WiFi connection. Or you can use services like Skype to call landlines and mobile phones for pennies per minute. In this scenario, it’s still not possible for people to call or text you in real time whenever they want, but that’s a good thing! What difference can a few hours make before you go online in the evening to check your mail or make a call?

Which device is best?

• Mobile phone — This can be very costly. Please find out your options for international voice and text.

Make & receive national calls and texts

These are communications you may need to make inside any country you travel to. Most travelers don’t need to make voice calls or text messages in-country, but there are a few exceptions:

• Emergency calls — If you end up in some kind of trouble and need emergency assistance, there’s no substitute for a real time voice call to your embassy, the police or other emergency service. You should be able to call your insurance company’s 24/7 emergency contact number, too.
• Your lodge — Your lodge is your anchor in any place you visit. By checking in, you have a relationship, often your only relationship in a new location. You can call your lodge for help, such as instructing a taxi driver how to find the lodge.
• Local banks — Sooner or later, an ATM is going to eat your card. Or your ATM transaction will complete, but no money comes out. Either of these situations is pretty distressing. If the ATM is not in an open bank branch, there’s a phone number to call. 
• Your traveling companion(s) — If you’re traveling with a companion, friends or family members, you will probably do most of your activities together. But, if you’re going to be separated fairly often, you may want to have voice or text contact.
• Your local friends or activities vendors — Provided the language barrier does not prevent voice or text communication, you could benefit from keeping communication open.

Which device is best?

• Mobile phone — Due to the real time immediacy of these situations, a phone is the only device that will do. (A few tablets have phone functionality.)

Use a browser

The internet is the avenue for many useful travel functions. The best device for each function varies, so your choice depends upon your priorities.

• Communicate by e-mail — Everybody uses e-mail. It should be your primary mode of communication, considering your constant movement, timezone differences and perhaps lack of telephone contact.
• Communicate using video messaging or voice calls — Use Skype, Facetime or similar service to make scheduled video calls for free or pay just pennies per minute for calls to landlines and mobile phones.
• Search and book transportation & accommodation — This function is central to your travel methodology, so travel tech is indispensable. You need to get online to search for and book your next flight or lodge room. For flights, you’ll have to make payment, too, which requires a secure connection.
• Research destinations & activities — This is similar to the last one, although with less typing and few or no online purchases.
• Manage your affairs at home — The main task here is banking, although other business and home management issues may also be done. The main functions are e-mail and filling forms.
• Run “travel apps” — There are hundreds of apps marketed as “travel apps.” You will likely choose a select few.

Which device is best?

The answer depends on what you’re using the internet for.

• Access options — Phones and 3G/4G-enabled tablets can gain access through both WiFi and the mobile network. Laptops are limited to WiFi, unless tethered to a hotspot created using your phone or tablet. 
• Display — All good websites are optimized for mobile devices and many vendors of products and services have dedicated iOS and Android apps. Yet, the screen size of laptops and (larger) tablets show more and require less scrolling. 
• Typing & navigation — Laptops are best for typing and pointer placement, although tablets with add-on keyboards are also good. Typing and navigating on phones is slow and inaccurate in comparison.

Use travel apps

Once you have internet access, there are hundreds of “travel apps” and you’ll probably decide to use a few of them. 

What device is best?

• Display — All the apps are optimized for mobile, but will be easier to read on a tablet than on a phone.

  

• Typing — You’ll have to keyboard at least some input to many apps. Again, a tablet is better.
• Portability & security — While both a tablet and phone are easy to carry, a phone will be more accessible and easier to keep in your hands (and not a thief’s hands) than a tablet.

Some mobile apps also have browser versions, but many are iOS and/or Android only. (Windows and Blackberry have very few choices of travel apps.)

Shoot still photos or video

Who goes on a trip and doesn’t take pictures (or sometimes video)? As long as you’re not one of those sorry tourists who never sees anything except through a lens (or phone screen), you’ll want a reasonable visual record of where you’ve been, what you’ve done and the people you’ve encountered.

Which device is best?

• Photo quality — Of course, a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera, with attachments, will take the best photos and video. There are capable compact cameras that take reasonable photos. While some mobile phones come with high megapixel cameras and clever software, they have to rely on digital zoom, instead of superior optical zoom. Tablets generally have inferior cameras, compared to phones and are clunky to handle.
• Size & weight — DSLRs and their attachments are so bulky and heavy that a decision to take one precludes you from One Bag travel unless you’re a world champion minimalist with all your other stuff. Besides, you need to have your camera handy when it’s time for that spontaneous shot, a common occurrence when traveling. Pocket-sized compact cameras and mobile phones are going to be ready. A DSLR around the neck marks you as a tourist, a videocam even more so.
• Security & insurance — A DSLR and its kit are conspicuous, valued by thieves and cannot be safely placed in your main bag for transport. They will also require extra insurance, since standard travel insurance caps the insurable amount for any item. People taking pictures in public places are concentrated on their photo and not on the approaching “snatch-and-grab” thief. Phones and compact cameras, with a lanyard around your wrist, are easiest to protect.

Play audio or video entertainment

There will be plenty of “down time” when you’re sitting on a long transportation leg, trapped in your room by bad weather, lazing around the beach or simply relaxing at the end of a long day.

At times like this, it’s helpful to have the distraction of music, podcasts, audio books or video. All of these can be obtained and consumed on a digital device.

Which device is best?

• Audio — Listening to audio is best on a mobile phone because it can be tucked in a pocket and used anywhere on the go.
• Video — A tablet offers a decent sized display and easy handling. Laptops also work well, but aren’t so convenient during that long bus ride. Tablets have superior battery duration, too.

You might want to consider a tiny speaker to share your sound. Alternatively, when sharing an airplane or bus seat with your companion, get a splitter to run two pairs of earbuds from the same audio output jack. 

Read books

Even if you’re not a big reader now, you will be. Travel will create many little pauses in airports and stations, while on a plane, train or bus, in your room at night and more.

In the Old Days, we carried paper books, swapping them for fresh material as we went. But this makes no sense anymore. Even one paperback book is larger than a digital device that can carry thousands of books. There’s no reason to settle for the limited selection of books available for trade at a lodge or in English-language bookstores abroad. If you like to read in languages other than English, your choices are even fewer.

Why read junk when you can select exactly what you want? Read from your digital device and you can select from millions of books wherever you can get online.

What device is best?

• Display — An e-reader with e-ink display is easy on the eyes and clear even in bright sunlight (where all the other devices’ LCD displays fade). 
• Battery life — E-readers can go weeks on a single charge, a great thing on long transport legs. With LCD screens on phones and tablets, reading for hours can drain the battery long before your next recharging opportunity.
• E-ink phone case? — Single-purpose e-readers, like Amazon’s Kindle, are not the only option. There are cases for mobile phones that provide an e-ink display on the flip side of the phone. The phone screen means lots of page turning, so the larger screen of a dedicated e-reader is still preferred.
• No e-reader? — If you don’t have an e-reader, a tablet is best. It has a good combination of screen size, ease of handling and portability.

Read illustrated material & GPS locations

The trouble with e-ink displays is that they’re all greyscale. Zooming and scrolling around a large layout are not as smooth as on an LCD screen, in part because the image refresh rate is much slower. For this reason, any material with photos, maps, larger tables and charts will not look very good on an e-ink display. For travelers, that notably includes maps and electronic versions of guide books.

What device is best?

• Display — Photos and color illustrations are better viewed on a tablet or laptop because of display size and navigation speed. A tablet wins due to its portability.
• Geo-location — Almost all phones and most tablets (notably excluding the WiFi-only iPad) have a Geographic Positioning System (GPS) in them. Since you can download maps from Google Maps, Maps.me and others for offline use, you can locate yourself with ease.

Keep time

While traveling offers opportunities to ignore time-of-day, you will need to know the time for taking scheduled transportation, the start time of activities or even just meeting up with someone.

What device is best?

• Convenience & security — Wearing a watch, you don’t have to dig out your phone just to check the time. An inexpensive-looking watch on your wrist is also less of a target for theft.
• Alarms — You’ll need an alarm to tell you that it’s 4:30 a.m. and you have to get up to catch that train. Mobile phones are better for this, since you can set multiple alarms with different ring tones. The volume of alarms on some watches may not be enough to wake you.
• Multiple timezones — Mobile phone apps make it a breeze to figure out what time it is in any timezone. Some watches have this facility, too, but it’s not as easy to use.

Light the darkness

If you’re planning to travel in middle or poor countries, rural areas or if you want to camp, you’ll need a flashlight (torch). It’s also a handy tool for those who like to prowl city streets at night — even in rich countries, some streets aren’t well illuminated. When walking on streets or roads at dusk or after dark, a flashlight is not just to guide your way but to make you visible to motorists.

What device is best?

• Illumination — A proper LED flashlight is best, since it can provide stronger and more focused light than a phone. Many flashlights have a flashing mode to make you more visible to motorists or as an emergency beacon. Using a flashlight will also conserve the battery charge on your phone.
• Minimizing your stuff — A phone with flashlight function will do for a short time. If your travel will mostly be to cities in rich countries and if you won’t often go out on foot at night, a phone will do.

Be aware that not all phones are equipped to serve as flashlights and some of those that do provide very weak light. While makers don’t provide light intensity in their specifications, the better phones are said by commenters on the net to run 40-50 lumens.

Flashlights are either handheld or headlamp type. Headlamps leave you “hands free” and are great for hiking, but can be carried by hand so that you don’t look ridiculous walking home from the nightclub. The downside is that they’re bigger.

Do productive work

We left this for last because we really hope that you don’t have to work while you travel. But if you do (*sigh*), you will need a device that minimizes the time and effort to get that work done.

What device is best?

• Memory & computational power — No contest: all but the lowest spec laptops are better than the best tablet, although some manufacturers are bulking-up their top end tablets.
• Apps — The range of productivity apps available for mobile is growing, but still is nowhere near what’s available for laptops. Many of the apps on mobile are stripped-down “lite” versions of laptop apps because of memory and computing power limitations in mobile devices.
• Keyboard — Laptops, again, although some say that external keyboards for tablets are good enough.
• Display — Both large tablets and laptops do well, but the tablet screen area is sufficient only if the touch keyboard is removed from the screen by using an external keyboard.
• Navigation — If accuracy of pointer placement matters to your work, a mouse or touchpad provides more accuracy than your finger on a touch screen. Laptops again.

Key features of phones, tablets & laptops

The marketplace is full of choices for these three types of device. Decide what’s important for your travel usage. 

• Mobile network access — Do you need to make calls and send text messages? A phone is the obvious choice, but a few tablets also have phone functions. If you want to use a phone you already own, check that it is capable of working in other countries.
• Operating system — For phones and tablets, the only choice for travelers is between Android and iOS because many “travel apps” are available only in those two. Some apps are available only in Android, others only in iOS. Windows and especially Blackberry offer few apps. When you reach the boundary between tablets and laptops, you have the choice of Windows or Mac OS X (leave Linux for the geeks). If you have more than one device, it’s helpful to work in the same ecosystem. The pairings would be:
  • Android phone and Android tablet.
  • iPhone and iPad.
  • iPhone and Mac laptop.
  • Although Windows 10 integrates from phone to tablet to laptop, the relative lack of travel apps for Windows suggests that it is not the ideal operating system for travel. A Windows laptop will have to be paired with an Android or iOS mobile phone. 
• Display — What size do you need to do your functions. A phone screen might be small, but you can still do almost everything with it. Is it worth it to carry a tablet or even a laptop just because of the larger display?
• Keyboard — How much typing do you need to do? Updating a blog or writing business correspondence on a phone is possible, but aggravating. Add a decent keyboard to your tablet and you’re good to go. A laptop may not be necessary (see next bullet).
• Applications & processing power — The catalogs of apps available for iOS and Android grows every day, becoming more capable as the chips in iOS and Android devices get more powerful. However, there are some tasks and apps that are still second-best or not possible on mobile devices. Do you really need deeply capable apps and the processing power to drive them? Or is that level of functionality something you can leave at home?  
• Durability — Travel is rough on electronics. They’re bound to get bumped, crushed in a bag, even dropped from your hands or the table in your room. Metal cases are best. Water and dust resistance are also desirable. Where your specifications can be met by two different models, you want the tougher device, even if it’s a bit heavier. 

Peripherals & plugs

No, you’re not done yet. To optimize use of your digital devices, you need at least a few adapter plugs and peripherals.

Adapter plugs

You will need adapter plugs for any country that does not have the same wall socket plugs as your home country. Find out which of the 15 types of electric plugs there are and what plugs are used in your destination countries.

You are strongly encourage not to bring single voltage electric appliances. Either 110-120 volt (usually 60 Hz) or 220-240 volt (usually 50 Hz) will be used. If you plug a 110-120 volt appliance into a 220-240 volt outlet, it will burn out instantly. If you really, really, really need to have a hair drier, electric toothbrush or other such appliance with you, look for the dual voltage type.

Battery packs

Heavy use of a digital device (especially phones) could mean that the battery will run out of charge. This is especially true during long transport legs, notably the notorious red-eye (overnight trip), when you may not be able to charge your device for as long as 36 hours.

An external battery pack can save the day. You need one that is matched to the electric demands of your device, so a battery to power an 

Backup options

If you don’t want to lose those precious photos, any work you may have done on a device or even the entire contents of a phone, tablet or laptop, you need a backup.

• SD cards and USB sticks — These are good for a limited quantity of photos and other files. Some travelers mail one home from time to time. However, SD cards and USB sticks are not the most reliable medium, so don’t count on them as your only backup for important stuff.
• Portable hard disk — Especially if you need to back up a large quantity of data, you can use a very light, USB-powered hard disk. 
• Free cloud backup — Use services like DropBox to save your important files to the cloud. Free services have limited storage capacity, but that may be all you need for your important photos and files.
• Paid cloud backup — You can back up entire devices, including laptops to the cloud, starting at $5 per month or a higher one-time fee. Should your laptop crash or go missing, you can restore the entire contents to a new computer. Keep in mind that many WiFi connections won’t be good for massive volumes of data, so it’s best to do the initial backup on a high-speed internet connection before leaving home. These paid services allow you to automate your backups, so that any time you’re online, and incremental backup can be done.

Portable speakers

If you’re tired of using ear buds or maybe want to share some sounds, consider a very small and light bluetooth or wired speaker. The quality of sound is directly correlated with the size and weight of the speaker. Pro travelers compromise on bass, definition and loudness in favor of small size, light weight and not sharing your tastes with the people in the next room.

WiFi signal boosters

For laptop users.

Digital travelers depend on WiFi, often prioritizing free WiFi as the most important amenity for accommodation. But what if the WiFi at your lodge or in a public venue turns out to be weak or intermittent? While part of the problem is the the WiFi set up, your laptop is also to blame. Laptops come with short antennae and cards with weak radio signals. You can boost the radio signal by plugging your laptop into AC power or wandering around the room, hotel lobby or airport on a WiFi signal treasure hunt. Beyond that, you can get an external network card and larger, multi-directional antenna. These are inexpensive, widely available and can save you a lot of aggravation.

Digital services

While you will be on a constant search for WiFi or falling back to mobile network data, there are other services you will need.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

A VPN provider will give you a small app for your device that encrypts all outgoing data. You then log in to a remote server (the provider will have many throughout the world) and your data will be sent and received through it. Any lurking hacker will see only encrypted data coming and going. 

But that’s not all. Countries like China and Vietnam block many websites. China blocks Facebook and anything to do the Tibet, Falun Gong and other topics. With a decent VPN (not all of them) you can get around the Great Firewall of China and do your thing on FB.

VPNs vary in quality, largely depending upon how many servers they have scattered around the globe and the speed of throughput. Some VPNs are free, although they’re slow and have ads. Paid VPNs can be had for $10 / month or less.