10 of the Best Travel Gadgets and Essentials

So you have the adaptors and cables and mouse and charging block but frequently you don’t have somewhere to keep them all together.  This see in cable and adaptor organiser is extremely lightweight, holds loads and keeps everything together.

I never travel anywhere, even for a day, without a USB portable charger.  Charge it up in advance (obvious?  Apparently not to some) and then it’ll keep you going for a day, a weekend or a few days depending on which version you go for.  Remember that the more battery power (mAh) the heavier it’ll be.  I find 5000 mAh plenty for a day out.

If you end up with your tickets, passport and currency all over the place keep them in a specific travel wallet which you can add to and a brightly coloured travel wallet is great for spotting in your bag.  The only thing I would say is don’t ever keep your passport with your driving license, and keep a credit card separate from your normal wallet.  If you keep everything together you risk losing everything at once. 

This travel neck pillow is by far the best I have ever come across.  I use it on planes, but you can use it for a nap in the car or on a bus.  It holds your head incredibly well. 
Whatever colour your suitcase is having a colourful luggage strap makes it sooo much easier to spot your bag coming off the belt.  And the extra lock is useful as well, particularly if you’re travelling with a duffle bag.

With such strict bag weight limitations in place for every airline it really helps to have portable bag scales with you to make sure you haven’t gone over.  All that shopping can be even more expensive if you get caught out, as I was at Albuquerque airport a while back.  An extra $100.  Ouch!

It’s always a good idea also to have a multi charger with you that’ll take care of your iPhone, charging your portable charger and the daughter with a Samsung.  This obviously has very short cables but makes up for it with versatility.

Mundane but essential.  I’ve found that you can never have too many adaptors, usually because another member of the family comes along and ‘borrows’ one, which you never see again.  I particularly like the 3 pin US adaptor as it gives you a much better connection than the flimsy 2 pin.

Syncwire’s 4 USB wall charger has interchangeable plugs so you can charge everything using just the cables.  I travel everywhere with one of these, cables plugged in at the ready.  Just make sure you put all the extra adaptors in your cable organiser.  Otherwise if you’re anything like me you’ll forget where you’ve put them.


Betron’s mini pop up speaker takes very little space and makes a good sound.  Buy two if you need stereo, but to let everyone else hear what you’re listening to (preferably not on a train or plane) this is the ideal piece of kit.