The Ultimate Travel Gadget?

I thought we were the only ones that carried a leatherman... lol!!! Anyways, besides the leatherman, our trusty sewing kit, pens and pencils with duct tape around them (lifsavers), our SD card --> usb reader has saved us room in our bags from camera cords; but, i'm gonna have to say the one of our best things we brought were ziplock bags!!!! We have been missing music alot (we opted out on bringing the ipod) so brining it would have been great!

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I like this forum; I have read every entry -- unusual for me! I always have my Tungsten Palm with photos, contacts, alarm, calculator (for bargaining in any market) and lots of other useful software. Usually I have my iPod and some very small speakers (for music, movies, photos, and lots of podcasts like the best call of the week from CarTalk on NPR, or Bill Moyers radio shows, Chinese language podcasts, etc.

I used a Mobal internat'l phone this last trip to Europe--did not have to change sim cards in each country, but pay a higher price/minute. The phone is good anywhere in the world (and also has text messaging, which I use a lot).

Non-technical gear includes plastic knife, (for fruit), fork and spoon, plate and cup for cheap, but delicious, meals. Plastic goes through metal detectors. (How do you get the cork screws and leatherman tools through security???) Add laundry soap and string to hang clothes.

Generally, I don't check my small case. I do carry 2 SD cards that have USB connections (a cool gadget I bought in China) and 3 blank CDs to back up my photos from my Canon S2 15, which is the bulkiest thing I carry, but I, too, take hundreds of photos.

Obviously, after all that, you realize I don't take a lot of clothes, even in the winter! I like the solar panel idea since chargers, cords, adapters, etc are a major drawback.
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just my toiletry bag that hangs up. everything stays together, easy to carry and nothing has to touch the floor of the grim shower cubicles I have come across

AND those lil cases that go over the end of your toothbrush...so it doesn't matter if you just throw it in your bag

sarong - aka towel, skirt, dress, top, beach towel, blinfold, curtain, bed sheet, bag, flag, headscarf.......endless possibilities!!

tiz the small things in life Reply to this

Mine is the Ipod also ,i bought the new ipod nano (4GB) last year and i love this device ,it has room for video ,music and you can have multiple city time zones on it ,so i can see the local time at some of the places i will be visiting ,just love this device .
It is light easy to carry and fits in your pocket .
Being into photography i can't forget my cameras they are the most important .
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I traveled with a water purifier for five years. I ended up buying two of them because of an annoying squeak that developed in the first. For a total investment of less than two hundred dollars (for the two of them) I drank tap water everywhere I went (except a few of the undeveloped beach towns where the tap water was salty) and with few exceptions it tasted great. I also had water when I was out on the trails where other people had to carry lots of water, or boil it as they went. I made two to three liters a day, which only took a little more time than buying it, I saved the cost of buying water, which seemed to average about a dollar per liter, and i only contributed maybe ten plastic bottles to the mountains of plastic bottles that most towns in the developing world seem to have. I think it was a sound investment.

For me a water purifier is as important as my shoes or backpack when I am visiting somewhere that has questionable tap water. Its definitely not a common practice, since I got lots of strange looks from the other hostel patrons just about everywhere I went. Reply to this

I'm interested in how many people would include netbooks in this list now. I notice the last post before today was in March 2008, which is just before the big boom in netbooks started off. Reading back through the old posts, a lot of people were wishing for devices that were very similar to netbooks or the iPad now. Have these devices contributed to the concept of the independent traveler? I have a netbook that as been so useful in my daily (non-traveling) life that it has basically supplanted my larger laptop and desktop computers. But I'm afraid that this very fact means that taking it along would be too much like taking my daily (non-traveling) life with me when I travel.

As for topic at hand, the only indespensible thing I find I need no matter what is a phrasebook for the next language on the trip. I try and get one that has a detailed description of grammar and an IPA-based transcription. I buy them as I go, so I often end up with phrasebooks from the language I just came from to the one I'm going to. These are often my only souvenirs as well. Reply to this

Does anyone know of a good worldwide GPS? I will be backpacking around patagonia and want to buy a GPS for it. Reply to this