Gadgets and Apps for Long-Term Travel: An Updated List

Travel Gear Guide

Gadgets and Apps for Long-Term Travel: An Updated List

I've learned through three years of long-term travel which gadgets are genuinely indispensable and which ones I'm better off leaving at home.

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“The camera has not been replaced for serious photography, but the occasions when a separate camera is genuinely necessary have narrowed considerably.”

Three years into various iterations of long-term travel, the kit list has evolved considerably from the original backpack video filmed in Barnsley in 2011. Some things have proved indispensable. Several things I carried for months were left in guesthouses or posted home. The technology has changed significantly in the interval between the Asia trip and the South America one, and with it the balance between what you carry and what you access remotely.

The universal power adaptor remains essential and non-negotiable. The one I bought for six pounds before leaving Barnsley in 2011 died in Malaysia and was replaced by one I bought in Bangkok for approximately the same price. The replacement is still in service. The cost-to-usefulness ratio of a universal adaptor is unmatched by any other item in the bag.

2011

The one I bought for six pounds before leaving Barnsley in 2011 died in Malaysia and was replaced by one I bought in Bangkok for approximately the same price.

Gadgets and Apps for Long-Term Travel: An Updated List

The phone has replaced a significant number of separate devices: the camera for everyday shots, the navigation device, the translation tool, the alarm clock, the music player, the notepad, the guidebook. The camera has not been replaced for serious photography, but the occasions when a separate camera is genuinely necessary have narrowed considerably. The implication for packing weight is significant.

Offline maps, downloaded before entering areas with limited connectivity, are worth the storage space they require. Several hours of Burmese dirt road would have been more difficult without them. Vietnam train navigation would have been impossible. Google Maps offline has improved substantially since the 2011 trip; the coverage is now extensive enough for most destinations on the standard travel circuit.

The technology has changed significantly in the interval between the Asia trip and the South America
one, and with it the balance between what you carry and what you access remotely.

A full updated list of current recommendations will follow once the South America trip is properly written up.

2011

Google Maps offline has improved substantially since the 2011 trip; the coverage is now extensive enough for most destinations on the standard travel circuit.

dave@launchcx.com

dave@launchcx.com

A British ginger seeing the world one questionable decision at a time. Based wherever the wifi works.

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