Comments on: Travel Gadgets – How Many is too Many?

By: michelle o'flynn

michelle o'flynn — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:58:01 +0000

AAAh Travellers across space and time…it has been very enlightening to read of all your experiences and preferences for travelling with technology. As a sailor with a family and the requirements of stocking up on food, grog, sailing an dsafety equipment to remain away from land for a couple of weeks at a time, we have used (but not essential need for) a laptop, and a nextG phone. Essential gear for sailing is an EPIRB, and helpful stuff like radar, and electronic gps with navigational charts etc. However, we spent 6 months at sea last year, and the number of books both fiction and non-fiction that we carried about with us, adding to weight and space issues was a bit of a problem. For some people who only read a little, it is a simple matter of leaving books for others to read at the laundry of the next port marina, but I am a greedy reader, collecting classics, swapping some whodunits at bookswap stores, but otherwise just accumulating more delights to eat up. So the Kindle sounds like a very worthy addition to the technology locker for me. Thanks Shane for your techno-wisdom and opening the eyes of someone who believes less is more!

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:23:52 +0000

Great article Shane. I travel mostly to two to three different places in a year, and most of the time the biggest gadget I lug around is my MacBook, and that the white one. I realized that as of late, majority of my things are gadgets, and that’s with a six year old Smartphone, an external HD and a Canon point & shoot. I’m starting to rethink what things should I bring next time I go.

I still bring a notebook/journal and a smattering of pens. As for books, well, I have to have one… or two… but they do add a considerable weight to my baggage after I decide to bring more than just one.

By: marta

marta — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

i am probably one of the phew that doesn’t have an i-phone and i barely use my i-pod too but my laptop is now my travel companion as my external HD, which is invaluable and hosts all my precious moments

By: Shane Brown

Shane Brown — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:50:55 +0000

The external HD is one thing I forgot to mention. And it’s definitely invaluable. I take a 360 gig WD Passport HD, as well as a few 2 and 4 gig memory sticks.
The Kindle did take a lot of getting used to, but has proved itself to be both cost and space affective.

By: Chris - The Aussie Nomad

Chris - The Aussie Nomad — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:34:28 +0000

I can’t do the kindle. I love to chill out on my bed at night or relax outside on the couch and read. Folding the book every which way but sunday as I change positions to be comfortable. I can only imagine when I travel its going to be even more interesting. Add in the fact when I’m finished with the book I’d like to pass it onto someone else.

As for the rest of the tech gear. I’m trying to limit myself to camera, macbook and iphone oh and the flip video camera then there is the external hard drive for backup and argh what a digitally connected life we live.

By: Cally

Cally — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:55:54 +0000

The beauty of having tech contraptions, means that things like flights can go faster, when you can watch or read something, (especially if you don’t have to pay for the in-flight entertainment). I personally think this is very important as I travel with my kids, so it is nice to have something handy that will kill an hour or two (we usually are guilty of carrying loads of books, which get heavy even when they are kids picture story books), the other thing I have noticed is that my partner who is very tall is a big whinger when it comes to confined spaces- planes, trains, buses, ferry’s – all the things that must be encountered when traveling on a budget, but now he has an iPod touch, he is all of a sudden mad about public transport in any way shape or form, which will make our next trips to Southeast Asia happening rather soon (on a big budget with a family?!) a far more pleasant experience, he now relishes the idea of being on a bus for 6 hours, because he knows he will be ‘allowed’ to play with his gadgets without interruption! – so I say bring on the technophilia- I personally, am able to sleep just about anywhere so I have less ‘need’, but if it stops my grown up companion from ever complaining, I will sign up to anything and everything (remarkably the kids love confined spaces, and when I took them on a two day backpacker bus trip from Ho Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta, they were the only ones still interested in all the ‘talks’ from the guide mid way through day two! All the grown ups where way over it, and dying to be allowed to check their emails etc…. go figure?!)…

By: Mummy Dearest

Mummy Dearest — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:16:04 +0000

Good read, Shane. But, it’s all ‘geek’ to me. Not that I’m a total technophobe but the problem I have at present is getting a book light to read a novel in bed of a night that doesn’t chew through batteries once a week!
Let me know when you do a story for technology- impaired older folk like your parents, spawn of mine.

By: Vera Marie Badertscher

Vera Marie Badertscher — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:21:04 +0000

And see this article from Matador about the effect of Silence on travel http://bit.ly/c04pST
Oddly, I was flipping through my feeds, and soon after I read yours, I read the one on Silence.

By: Vera Marie Badertscher

Vera Marie Badertscher — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:15:06 +0000

Your post makes me turn philosophical and wonder what future travel writing will be about? The trials and tribulations of finding a place to charge ones batteries–or buy new batteries. The horror of losing a WIFI connection in the middle of a movie? The hardship of being lost in the jungle with nothing to eat but a digital wafer? Somehow it doesn’t sound quite as adventurous as the travelogues of old when they carried their cooking pots on the backs of their donkeys and counted the fleas rather than the stars rating wayside inns.

By: Collin

Collin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:58:46 +0000

I’m struggling with the amount of tech to take on my upcoming 6 month trip through SE Asia. In the past I have always traveled very light, especially when it came to gadgets. One small Canon point-and-shoot and that was it. No laptop and only one novel made of real paper. But I’ve been researching all that the iPod Touch can do, it’s basically an iPhone minus the phone (and the monthly fee) – as wifi device I can even use Skype. I’ve concluded (though all decisions are subject to change) to buy an iPod Touch and to take the extra weight of a recently acquired DSLR camera and one lens. This will be the most tech I’ve ever traveled with but hopefully the added burden will pay off in the end!