You’ve got all your devices and various electronic bits. But how can you enjoy them on a crowded plane? How do you change them in another country?
These accessories make using your devices from home anywhere convenient and enjoyable.
Headphones
Headphones are a personal decision. Madeline and I have different preferences. Madeline likes the in-ear kind; I like on-ear models. You can buy the top-of-the-line Bose headphones for hundreds of dollars, and they’re great.
Or you can do what we did: purchase high quality, affordable headphones from Audio Technica. The in-ear variety sells for around $80. Their on-ear model sells for about $50. Either of these travel well, with their best feature being their noise-cancelling technology. I can’t stress enough how much this helps on a long airplane ride!
Headphone Splitter
Imagine you and your partner want to watch a video on your tablet, but also want to use your own headphones. A headphone splitter enables just that. With a splitter you and others can use your own headphones while listening to the audio from a single source. This works with any device, like a phone, tablet or audio player.
The AmazonBasics 5-Way Multi headphone splitter goes for about $10. I pack it for every trip, just in case.
Portable Charger
We travel with lots of things that have a battery that needs to be charged. We both carry Samsung Note 9s, Amazon Fires and Kindle e-readers. The Anker PowerCore Fusion works on an airplane that has a power plug and lets you charge 2 devices at the same time. We also take it with us on all of our trips, so we always can charge multiple devices, even with the limited plugs in some hotel rooms. Another great feature: It has a foldable plug so when you throw it in your briefcase or purse, it doesn’t catch on anything.
International Surge Protector/Power Strip
We have two Krieger Universal Power Strip/Surge Protector surge protector/power strips. Why should you have an international power strip? I’ve talked to so many people who’ve brought a US-style power strip overseas and plugged it into local electricity. If you’re in a country that provides 220 or 240 volt power and you use a US-style power strip, your power strip will fry. And you might trip a breaker in the hotel. Carry one of these to protect your devices and your host’s electricity.
If you look carefully at the picture, you’ll see that the power plug itself is an EU style plug which will work in many countries with 220V or 240V. You’ll want to purchase power adapters in addition to this power strip because you’ll find all sorts of variations on plug sizes. Luckily, this power strip will do most of the work for you since you can plug a wide variety of things into it once you’ve plugged the strip into local electricity.
You should definitely check all of your electrical or battery powered devices before you travel. It used to be that hair dryers were only 110V, but most hair dryers are now 110V-240V. All of our electronic equipment including Kindles, Fire TV, PC’s, mobile phones, shavers, etc., are all 110V-240V so this power strip can go anywhere. You need to verify that all of the things you want to plug in have the little symbol showing 110V-240V. As long as you see that, this power strip will be very helpful to you on your travels.
Power Plug Adapter
I used to carry all sorts of power plug adapters. They’d rattle around in my luggage, and I had to dig through them to find the right one for the country I was in.
Now they have these neat little multi-adapters. I carry four of them. Two of them are for the power strips. The other two are for when we just want to plug in something without a power strip.
With the international power strip, there are six outlets in each for a total of 12. Maybe you don’t need two power strips when you travel. But to protect your devices, you do need at least a couple of these power plug adapters from Amazon and at least one international power strip.
Power Inverter
We take lots of road trips. When Madeline wants to work on her laptop in car, the laptop battery likely won’t last long enough. This handy device lets her plug in her laptop and keep the battery charged. She’s happy she can work on our photos, while I drive and jam out to my tunes.
The BESTEK 300W power inverter plugs into a standard car power socket and offers two 115V plugs and two USB ports. It goes for about $30.
USB Hub
I bring my laptop with me when we travel. Since I’ve worked all over the world, I frequently take USB flash drives with me so that I can segregate the work product on a single device and not mingle it with other folders. It’s also quite handy to have flash drives when you want to get a large file from someone in your office. If you have an external hard drive in addition to the laptop’s main drive, it will require a USB connection in many cases as well.
Many laptops these days only come with a couple of USB ports. That doesn’t work when you need one for your mouse, one for your hard drive, one for your camera one for a flash drive, etc.
I use this four-port USB hub wherever I go. You can purchase it with USB 2.0 or 3.0 technology, depending on your device needs. It also comes in larger port configurations, so I also have the ten-port device shown above. If you are traveling with your spouse or significant other, you may want two devices so you both have the ability to have multiple things plugged in.
The AmazonBasics USB Hub 4-port model goes for about $18; the 10-port for about $40.
Cables
Not everyone has an iPhone. In fact, we have gone back and forth. The same problem occurs when you travel. You need a variety of cords and it’s best to have different colors to keep them separated visually. These USB cables do the trick. They are six feet long in a pack of three for about $10. The 90-degree design makes them more comfortable when using your device plugged in and less likely to fall apart. We carry them when we travel; we’ve even offered them to travelers with no way to power their phone!
We have iPhones, an iPad, etc. Apple’s Lightning cable that comes with the devices quickly wears out. Enough wear and there is danger of it not working or causing a shock. These cables come in several colors; Madeline likes the silver ones. At $10 for three six-foot cables, it’s cheap insurance at a great value.
LED Flashlights
Two of these tactical flashlights go for $15. We take them on all of our trips. We never know when we might need some light for a tour or nighttime walk. In many regions power is unreliable, so having some emergency light is always a safe bet.
These are waterproof and tough; we’ve dropped them many times. Additionally they can roll around in our luggage and survive. Remember to bring extra batteries!