No matter the time of year, many people are in the process of planning a trip abroad. Whether you are a seasoned globe-trotter or someone pushing themselves out of their staycation comfort zone, there are a few gadgets that no traveller should be without on their travels. This list covers those all-important gadgets to ensure that you are always ready for an adventure!
Power Bank: Portable Charging Station
These cunning devices, usually only a little larger than a mobile phone, can be life-savers when you are out and about all day while on holiday, snapping photos, uploading the best images to social media and keeping in touch with your emails and so on.
With so many events offering electronic ticketing these days, a flat battery can be so much more than a mere inconvenience: it can actually prevent you from enjoying events that you have paid to attend. These small portable devices are essentially spare batteries, enabling a mobile phone to be fully recharged between five and ten times before the power bank runs out.
Each power bank can usually charge two or three devices at one time, with many power banks offering lightning connectors for Apple devices or micro-USBs for Android offerings. Very occasionally, you can find power banks that provide both.
Ensuring that both your portable charger and your mobile phone are fully charged at the beginning of your holiday, will ensure that you are almost never out of battery power while enjoying the sights and attractions of your holiday destination. Remember to charge up at night or while you have access to a power point to make sure that your mobile devices do not dampen your holiday fun.
4-Inch Cable: Teeny-Tiny Charging Cable
Investing in a couple of these minute but oh-so-useful charging cables is a good idea for everyone, not just travellers. Usually, cables run to about 50cm long, which can make them more intrusive than is convenient, tangling around other items and taking up a significant amount of space when it is a precious resource.
These ultra-short cables take up almost no space, but fulfill all your charging functions while you are travelling. Often, public transport, cafés and other places provide charging points to their customers, but the cables are often not included.
Carrying one of these unobtrusive cables will ensure that you will almost always be able to top off your battery, keeping you in touch with the world, no matter what you are doing.
Mi-Fi: Your Own Personal Internet Hub
A Mi-Fi is a great way to stay in touch with the world while you are on your travels. You can connect up to fifteen devices onto the Mi-Fi and, as long as your connection is the right one for the country you are in, you will not pay any extra for the data.
This way you can all stay up-to-date with your friends, family and those all-important envy-inducing holiday snapshots on social media!
Packing Cubes: Extra Suitcase Space
These cunning packing cubes hold a surprising amount of clothing, then being vacuum-packed to remove all the air from the container. This – while not reducing the weight of the clothing – dramatically compresses heavy and bulky clothing, such as jumpers and sweaters, so you can get more into a small suitcase, keeping your excess baggage charges down, and ensuring that you are not overloaded with multiple suitcases while trying to hop on and off shuttles and getting in and out of taxis.
Just do not forget the compact vacuum device so you can repack everything for the way home!
E-Reader: Library Away From Home
There is something lovely about a real book: the riffle of pages, the smooth satisfaction offered by a smooth spine and shiny, brand new cover, but when you are going on holiday, with limited packing space and the necessity to carry everything with you, then an e-Reader comes into its own.
You can preload it with as many books as you like, without having to worry about their weight or bulk. e-Readers are designed to be read in all sorts of light, from bedside dimness to beach-bright sunshine, so you will be able to adjust the settings to a level that is comfortable for your eyes, making it the perfect lazy holiday accompaniment.
