Gadgets

Planning a world trip

By Jaimy de Vries

There’s more to packing than clothes. Trying to decide on tech stuff is usually the most difficult. Cameras and laptops can become heavy and cumbersome on a long trip, not to mention having to worry about them getting stolen, lost, or broken. Next we’ll deal with what you need to be thinking about as far as tech and gear to bring on your trip. 

When it comes to travel, everyone seems to have an opinion about technology. Technology is ever-changing, so it’s tough to stay current with what’s available, what’s best for travel, and what’s totally unnecessary.

Gadgets can certainly assist the traveler and can be really nice to have, but too many can be a pain to worry about all the time. It’s important to do as much research as possible and make an informed decision. It’s also important to be honest with yourself. Just because someone else has no problem traveling with no electronics whatsoever doesn’t mean that you’ll like it. If you’re a tech person now, that’s not going to change when you leave for the trip. So do your research, think things through, and trust your instincts.

Smartphone

Just as recent as ten years ago, most people – let alone travelers – didn’t own smart phones, so bringing one on a world trip wasn’t even a question. Now that more people are accustomed to everything that smart phones can do because they use them regularly at home, it’s harder to imagine leaving them behind on a long trip. Your smart phone can be your main go-to gadget. It can serve as a way to communicate with family and friends, as a mini-computer, a camera,  and a navigation tool – so honestly, for the average traveler, a good smart phone might be all the gadget you need.

Tablet

Tablets have become one of the best travel companions. They’re small, lightweight, and the battery lasts for about 9-10 hours, making it perfect for long bus and train rides. The ease with which you can move around with it makes it great for bringing on trips. For educational purposes, there are tons of great apps you can utilize. But what about a world trip? Is a tablet sufficient for all your world travel needs? Would it just be easier to bring a lightweight, durable laptop?  Proponents of tablets say it’s perfect for your basic traveling needs. It may be difficult if you plan on blogging a lot as typing on the touch screen can get a bit tiresome for long posts. But you do have the option of getting a blue tooth keyboard to bring with you that makes things a bit easier (keep in mind that this essentially makes your tablet a laptop

Laptop

The main reasons for bringing a laptop are for work, photography, and/or blogging purposes. If you have a travel blog, whether for fun, family, or business, it’s much easier to keep up with if you have your own laptop vs. trying to do it on your phone or a tablet. If you like taking a lot of pictures, it’s nice to have a laptop so you can regularly download them from your camera. You can then easily back them up to hard drives or upload them to your favorite cloud service. Besides that, a laptop is a great gadget for entertainment. Some people like to be able to keep up with their favorite TV shows, movies, and sporting events, and having your own laptop allows you to do that, though you can do the same with a phone and/or tablet, so bringing one solely for entertainment might not make sense.

But is the extra weight necessary if you have a smartphone or tablet? If you do bring a laptop and you have a choice, you should definitely take the smallest one you can manage to bring. Every ounce of weight you are dragging around gets multiplied when you are literally hauling every possession on your back for months on end. There are risks with taking your laptop with you  It’s one more expensive item you have to carry with you and risk getting broken, lost, or stolen. Laptops are fragile. One drop and it could be totally done. 

E reader 

If you are a voracious reader who can easily go through a few books a week, purchasing an e-reader like a Kindle and loading it up with books can save you both money and space in your bag. Along your journey you’ll have lots of downtime, waiting for delayed planes and sitting on broken down buses. Like with all your electronics, if you do choose to bring an e-reader, just be sure to keep it secure when you aren’t using it. 

Hard drive / cloud 

You’ve got quite a few options here and this is getting easier all the time. If you’ve got a fast connection on a public computer, you can upload your photos to a cloud storage site like Dropbox, and if you have your own computer with you, it makes it easier as you can do it while sleeping if your hostel or hotel has a WiFi connection. But if you’ve got a ton of photos or the file sizes are large, this can take a bit of time, especially in countries where the connection isn’t what you’re used to.

Since they’re so small, bringing a small portable hard drive along with you might make sense as well, just to have another backup. These are getting smaller and cheaper every month. Some of the more expensive models even have a preview screen on the hard drive so you can sort easily.

Camera

If you bring your phone with you, probably you have a good camera already. But if you want to make photo’s and video’s while you’re diving, kayaking, canyoning or cycling, probably a sport camera will be addition to your gadget equipment. They’re usually small, light weighted and hard to break. 

Drone

Bringing a drone on your travels can be a great way to document your experiences and record memories. Most people who own a drone wouldn’t dream of traveling without it, but not every airline or travel destination is drone-friendly. Before you pack that drone in your suitcase, you should consider whether it will comply with TSA requirements, FAA hazardous material regulations, airline policies, and the drone laws in both your take-off location and arrival destination. 

Gadget checklist

Ask yourself the important questions when deciding to bring a laptop and/or cell phone or not:

  • Will you be taking tons of photos?
  • Do you plan on blogging?
  • How important is it to stay connected?
  • Do you get bored easily? Do you break out in hives at the thought of limited movies, tv shows, and sports?
  • Do you understand the concept of sim cards for using your cell internationally?
  • Do you want to have a budget for your cell phone bills/costs?
  • Is a goal of your trip to get disconnected?
  • How much do you plan on videocalling/staying in touch with family and friends?
  • Remember that internet cafes and hostel computer stations are still quite common

What I did....

I love gadgets, photo’s, video’s and blogging. So it’s not strange that I have almost everything off the list I explained above. As you know I have my own blog where I’ll be sharing my stories and give information about planning a world trip. So I need to bring my laptop and phone with me. I’d love to add nice pictures’ and video’s to my blog, so that’s why I bring my camera equipment including my go pro and drone with me. I also want to read books about self-development, so my E-reader comes with me as well. I wanted to avoid bringing more gadgets with me. So I left my hard drive at home and I’ll upload all my documents/photo’s and videos on Dropbox. 

Special thanks to Bootsnall.com for all the guidelines and information on how to plan a round-the-world trip!