I have always loved to travel, and in my last job with Expedia as Marketing Director for Australia & New Zealand I was lucky enough to do a fair bit of travel. I always enjoyed travelling for work; provided I had a bit of time to myself to sight-see and play tourist. What I did work out pretty quickly, was that there were some a few essential items I needed to travel with to make my travelling easier, better, funner (is that a word? The spellcheck let it ride …) and stress free.
Here is a list of things that I always ended up taking with me. The few times I omitted something on this list, I would end up cursing myself on a plane, in a hotel room at Narita airport, a random bar in Seattle, a post office in Toronto etc.
BTW - I originally started this as one long post but it got a bit out of control. I have split it up into 4 parts: useful gadgets; fun gadgets, services and stuff. Here is part 1:
Useful Gadgets
Portable wireless router
Portable Wireless Router not much bigger than my passport
I paid around 7,000 YEN for this back in Feb 07 which was about $75AUD at the time. A little bit tricky as it is all in Japanese - but I muddled through it with a few calculated guesses.
A portable wireless router is very useful for hotel rooms with non existent or flaky Wi-Fi connections. Or even better, when the broadband cable doesn’t reach to a desk, or a power point for your laptop!
A classic example of this was when I stayed at the Vibe Hotel in Surfers Paradise. I had to sit cross legged in the middle of the floor, with the laptop connected to the broadband cord one side, and a power cord from the opposite wall. My poor laptop looked as if it had been strung up. I tried to take a photo, but couldn’t even fit the ridiculousness into one frame.
Also, having a router means you can share the Internet connection via an Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi. Since most hotels charge upwards of $20 a day (The most expensive I have paid was $39.95 with excess charges above 200mb!), it can be useful for friends to check their email using their own devices. I think this will come in very handy with the iPhone since most hotel rooms still only have decent wired broadband access.
Travel snaps for:
- Freedom to roam around your hotel room
- Ability to share connections amongst friends/colleagues
- Useful to carry with iPhone for hotel rooms with only wired connections
Alternatives:
- ‘Borrow’ bandwidth from open W-Fi Networks
This did work for me once in suburban Barcelona, but I had to balance precariously on the window sill, 3 floors up. Generally I find Wi-Fi connections in hotel rooms pretty crap all over the world.
Noise Cancelling Headphones
Cheap noise canceling headphones - do the trick
Obviously I had been lusting over the $500 BOSE noise cancelling headphones, but couldn’t justify the money. These Sony Headphones are great (but clearly no where near the quality of more expensive devices) and I picked them up at Narita airport for around $50. They do they job and make a big difference on that hellishly long flight between SYD and LAX.
Travel snaps for:
- Drowning out the constant roar of the aircraft
- Only requires 1 AAA battery and lasted the pacific flight with spare juice
- An In flight adaptor for us plebs who sit in economy is invaluable (make sure you have one of these)
Alternatives:
- Ear plugs
Power-board
Don't get caught short when you need more power!
I think this is one of the most underrated useful gadgets ever! As we accumulate more and more things, we need more and more power, battery life and ability to charge! Carrying an Aussie power-board means I only have to carry one country adaptor with me for each country I visit. I can then charge or power my phone, laptop, camera, Nintendo, router etc without any problems . I usually carry a 4 plug board, but now I think it’s time to upgrade to a 6 plug, just to be sure!
Travel snaps for:
- Charging multiple devices with one power adaptor
- Lightweight
- Range of sizes fro 2 plugs (aka a double adaptor) to 8 or even more!
Alternatives:
- Additional Aussie to X country adapters. I have collected numerous adaptors, but since the UK, Europe, and the US are all different it gets pretty expensive if u need 3 adaptors for each device
Warnings:
- Be careful of voltage. Luckily most devices these days are dual voltage, but there is nothing worse than buying and American gadget and smelling the smoke of death upon power up.
Nintendo Wii’s are NOT dual voltage (Thanks to Magda for proving this one)
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Too right about the power board. Even business hotels get this wrong, there are never enough outlets, let alone outlets that you can reach without having to shift desks, beds or unplug lights etc. Come to think of it, hotel room lighting is pretty abyssmal, maybe it is worth while to pack a mini lamp for some extra lux.
As mentioned before Lifehacker has just come up with the Five Extra Things You Must Pack for a Business Trip. I can’t stress enough how important a powerboard is these days!
I agree with Miss Surry on the Power board, except I never have the room to pack another Gadget. I do like the Portable Wireless Router thats not much bigger than my passport. I can see some real use for that.