Yeah, yeah, I know. ‘How to be a better traveller’ sounds like typical clickbait nonsense, but I genuinely believe that by following this guide on which must have travel essentials to use when abroad, your holidays and trip planning will be much faster, easier and more efficient. I know this because before I had these tools in my travel arsenal, I was losing money and taking unnecessary risks for no good reason.
From travel insurance, staying connected online safely, foreign spending, the best travel apps to use abroad, and even which travel adapter and hand luggage to use to beat the airlines, after reading this guide, you’ll be ready to take on the world, even if you’re a bit of technophobe and don’t really know what an app is!
So grab yourself a cup of coffee and get comfortable, ‘cause it’s time to make your travel life way easier!
THE TRAVEL TORTOISE'S MUST HAVE TRAVEL ESSENTIALS
A VPN to Stay Safe Online
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) creates a private, encrypted tunnel between whatever device you’re using (phone, laptop etc.) and the internet. There are several reasons why having a VPN when travelling is especially important:
a) Privacy: On an average 2-week trip, you’ll log in to lots of Wi-Fi networks (the airport, your accommodation, a couple of coffee shops etc.). Many of these will have open networks with shockingly bad security protocols, which make it easy for hackers to intercept your connection and see what you’re doing online. A VPN encrypts all your data (your passwords, IP address, emails, and photos) so nobody can steal it and it damn-well stays private! A VPN is basically digital travel insurance!
b) Streaming your favourite shows: Tired of seeing “This content isn’t available in your region when all you wanted to do was watch the big game, or keeping the kids entertained on a long bus or train journey?! With NordVPN, you can choose a server back home and then access your Netflix, HBO, BBC iPlayer, or Hulu library from anywhere. Of course, watching telly during a romantic dinner might get you in trouble, so do use sparingly 😉
c) Saving money on travel: Flight and hotel websites often like to take the piss and adjust prices based on your location. But, switching your NordVPN server to ‘Brazil’ and refreshing your search via an incognito browser, might just yield you cheaper tickets or hotels.
Essentially, a VPN lets you “shop” from different countries and sometimes score cheaper fares or accommodation. It’s not gonna change your life, but if you’re a bit of a travel tight arse, then play around with it and see if you can save a few quid here and there.
I’ve been using NordVPN for the last 5 years now, and I absolutely love it. I use it everywhere I go and I’ve benefited from safer and faster connections, and some better travel deals, all while staying connected to my favourite media from home. They have almost 9000 different servers in more than 178 different cities, so you’ll always have a fast, protected connection wherever you go.
Travel Insurance
Yeah, yeah, I know this a super boring topic, but the older we get, the more we really should be thinking about travel insurance. Dying when you’re abroad is likely the furthest thing from your mind as you sip pina coladas in Mykonos, but tragedy can, and does, strike anytime. Leaving your relos with a hefty bill to get your carcass back home, therefore, isn’t really a great legacy.
Based on my research and experience, there are four very good insurance providers to consider, depending on your circumstances. For anyone living outside the UK, check out Heymondo for single or annual-multi trip cover, or Safetywing if you’re a longer-term traveller or digital nomad.
UK residents should check out either Insure&Go (single or multi-trip policies with no upper age limits on all policy types & all medical conditions considered), or CoverForYou (zero excess policies, backpacker cover and gadget insurance). Both are among the highest-rated insurance providers on Trust Pilot, and you’ve got nothing to lose by at least getting a quote, eh?
A Great Travel Card for Spending Abroad
Without question, the most annoying aspect of travelling for me was checking my bank statements after any foreign trip and raging at how those fuckers were ripping me off every time I made a cash withdrawal or a card payment.
This boiling sense of injustice led me to become an early adopter of Wise (back then Transferwise). Not only do they offer a multi-currency bank account, which means you can hold money in pounds, US dollars, Euros, and pretty much any other currency you can think of, but even if you don’t make use of that facility and just spend in your home currency account, they use near perfect inter-bank exchange rates (i.e without marking it up) and they don’t charge ATM withdrawal fees.
Seriously, the days of getting ripped off by crappy foreign exchange rates should be over – you need Wise in your life. I’ve saved literally thousands of pounds by having a Wise account over the last decade or so.
Hand Luggage Which Helps You Avoid Fees
The single shittest way to start a holiday is getting busted for having too large a carry-on bag. We’ve all been there in the queue at the boarding gate, with some pretty industrial hand luggage, praying to god almighty that you don’t get picked out of the line to see if it fits into their fun-size suitcase measurer.
I’m certainly not the only one who pushes the boundaries, and it does make me laugh seeing the creative ways people try to mask how large their ‘hand’ luggage truly is, but I’m tired of the anxiety. I’ve seen too many people go through the whole embarrassing shebang, which inevitably ends with them livid, having pleaded unsuccessfully with a 23-year-old gate attendant to let them off. This is especially brutal for those travelling with kids – although when seeking to fulfill their quota for the day I find that boarding staff tend to pick out single travellers or couples mostly.
Anyway, with little surprise, Ryanair seem to be the tightest when it comes to carry-on bags, so if you plan to fly with them, or other similar low-cost airlines (Easyjet, Wizz etc.), then keep your carry-on bag dimensions to no more than H40cm, W 20cm, D 25cm, or 20L. They like to call these bags ‘underseat’ carry on.
If you’re travelling with the more established national carriers, like BA, Lufthansa, Air France, Iberia etc, then you can go a little bigger and take something with max dimensions of H 55cm, W 40cm, D 25cm.
I have two recommendations for you here, based on where you live. For UK readers, Case should be your first port of call for hand luggage. They have a huge range of all the top brands for carry on bags, and what I like most about their website, is that they’ve broken it down, airline by airline, to cover what each carrier’s hand luggage allowance is. They also filter by categories which include sustainable materials, underseat baggage, check-in baggage etc. This level of detail is really cool, and it takes much of the guesswork out of the equation. Check them out.
For readers in North America then definitely check out Take Off Luggage. These guys have come up with a brilliant system of easily removable wheels so your carry on fits comfortably into even the smallest of measurers. It’s genius, and it gives the finger to these tight-arse penny pinching airlines too, so I love it!
Alternatively, if you want a flexible option, i.e the ability to use one bag for low-cost airlines and another larger carry on for the national carriers and bigger airlines, then check out this sustainable Coolife cabin suitcase and under seat bag combo. With these in your arsenal, you’ll never get caught out again.
A Proper Worldwide Travel Adapter
You say potato, I say potato, and so it is with plugs. While us Brits love a stable tripod, those dodgy Aussies are all about their skinny diagonal pairs, and don’t get me started on the funky euros and their double eye-poke config! Yes, another annoying part of travelling is believing that you picked up the correct adapter from that draw in the kitchen with all the adapters in it, only to find that you…well, didn’t.
If you’re looking for one single final-boss adapter, which will sort you out pretty much forever more, my pick is the Bigfish 100 W Universal Travel Adapter, as it includes interchangeable plug pin configurations for the UK & Ireland, North America, the EU, Australia, and most of Asia (200+ countries in fact). It supports 100–250V universal voltage and has 2 USB A (the big ones) and 3 USB C (the small ones) sockets, so you can charge multiple devices at the same time.
It delivers up to 100W USB-C fast charging, so laptops, tablets, and phones, are charged in under two hours, and there’s a bunch of other safety and battery protecting things which further adds to its credentials, Unlike most travel adapters, it can even handle high-power items like hair dryers or straighteners.
TRAVEL APPS
I genuinely feel sorry for older travellers these days, some of which may, like my mum, are awful when it comes to navigating technology. For her, and other aging boomers who modern technology may have largely passed by, dealing with even a simple online check ins becomes a pretty intimidating world.
I reckon this travel technophobia can even lead to some people staying home to either holiday domestically or just give up on holidays altogether. However, there are a few great travel apps out there that I’ve been using for years, so here are my favourites…
Best Flight Booking App: Momondo
I’ve been using Momondo for about 8 years now, and I’ve not found a better app nor flight meta-search engine that is as customisable and easy to use. I love it. With millions of filters that include airports, airlines, time of departure, time of arrival etc. etc., the prices it offers are always the cheapest available.
And with so many results given for each search, you’ll be able to book an option which gives you the best points, miles or whatever other program you may be enrolled into. Have a little play with it, and I’m sure it’ll become your go-to flight booking app/website.
Best Train Booking App = TrainPal
TrainPal are not only great for UK domestic train travel, but they have great prices on European train tickets with no booking fees. I’ve also been using Split My Fare, Trainline and Omio over the years, but nine times out of ten TrainPal is the app I book with due to price, as well as the peace of mind I have knowing that all probable travel options have been covered in their results pages. They also offer coach options when there are no trains on a given route, and the app itself is super easy to use. They are constantly offering up little deals for their customers too, which is always nice.
Best Bus Booking App = Flixbus & Omio
I’ve written a detailed blog post about which is the best bus booking site/app for Europe, but if you can’t be arsed to read that, then Flixbus should be your first port of call. Essentially, if Flixbus offer the route you need, they’re pretty much always gonna be the cheapest option. Their network is growing fast too, in the US, the UK, and Europe. Omio should be your back up as they offer loads of different travel options (both trains and buses) with almost all local operators. They do tend to come in a bit more expensive due to the booking fees they charge on each ticket though.
TRAVEL ESSENTIALS: OUTRO
So there you have it, my list of must have travel essentials and gadgets which will make the world of travel much easier and a lot less scary, even if you are a bit of technophobe.
The speed at which technology is progressing is remarkable, also in the world of travel, so rather than getting left behind, embrace these tools, gadgets and apps, as not only can they make your travel planning way easier, but you’ll likely also save money, stay connected and safe online, and you’ll be delaying the inevitable march of tech, which will probably render us all fat lazy blobs by the end of the century anyway!
Safe travels folks!
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