Essential gear + technology

This app has been surprisingly useful even here in the United States when cellular signal can be spotty. The ability to download maps of almost any region of the world is invaluable when you have spotty cellular data coverage and being able to use the navigation while offline is extremely useful for finding travel hot spots and food/drink.

Currency values fluctuate from country to country and their amounts are constantly changing. This app has been really useful in my world travels to help me understand the prices I see when bartering or ordering food. This converter gives me live updates in dozens of currencies worldwide making it the ideal travel companion for me. Trust me.

When you are in a country where you don’t speak the language, an app like Google Translate is your new best friend. I always download the language I need for offline translation use and it is absolutely a life saver. The voice to text function is so incredibly helpful when asking questions to a native speaker that it makes travel less stressful.

In all of my years of travel I’ve always wished I had a more functional bag and I’ve finally found it. Like most of the bags from The North Face this one is extremely durable and waterproof. This bag is perfect for world travel since it functions as a backpack as well as a duffel and has tons of straps and cinches to compress the size around the outside making it easy to secure.

The best way to ensure a smoother and easier trip is to plan accordingly and stay organized. I use these packing cubes on every trip I go on whether it’s a long weekend or a number of weeks abroad and they make things so much easier. The different sizes of packing cubes all fit perfectly snug inside the duffel bag. If you haven’t tried out packing cubes, 10/10 would recommend

Having access to readily available potable water when abroad is incredibly important and this packsack makes things so much easier. This pack holds over half a gallon of water and has tons of room for storage of snacks or other gear. I’ve recommended this piece of gear to so many people due to its versatility and it has plenty of loops and hooks to affix just about anything. This may be the most functional gear to date as I take it with me on all trips abroad.

Due to the sheer volume of pictures and videos I take when traveling, the number of apps I use for travel, and the navigation that I am constantly on when abroad I am always running down my smartphone battery. I discovered these Casely Power Pods that lock tight onto my iPhone’s MagSafe case and give me another full charge. These things are absolutely invaluable.

There are many different power requirements in the world including 120v here in the United States, 220v in Europe, South America, and Asia. Having the right adapter can be tricky unless you carry an adapter like this one with several different connections on it so you’re ready for almost anything. There are (15) primary connection types in the world but generally speaking you will only use two or three of them.

These are a recent addition to my travel “utility belt” but now I take them with me everywhere. Apple AirTags are very small and durable tracking devices that I’ve put in all of my bags so I can keep track of them when I’m picking them up from the baggage claim for example. I also buy handy carabiner clips to attach to my backpacks and water-packs just keep track of everything. These little devices have saved a difficult trip of mine more than once and now I can’t leave home without at least a few.