Do You Really Need Those Travel Gadgets?

These Days, It’s Easy To Experience Travel Gadget Overload

It always seems like the very moment you start searching for your plane tickets, hotel stays, and tours for your next vacation, the internet gods notice your musings and decide to start marketing every bit of travel gadgetry ever devised for you. Every other video you scroll through on your social media feed is one about translator earbuds, travel pillows, or little gadgets that the makers insist you’ll never want to travel without once you try them.

How many of these advertisements are legit and actually feature items that would really make your travel time immensely better? And how many of them represent just another item you’ll forget about for the entire trip and only remember once you get back home and start unpacking? Sometimes, it’s tough to really figure out whether you really need that “cool” item or whether the advertisement you’re watching is just really good at marketing itself.

I’ve spent more than the average number of hours online researching travel – both for myself and for others – and as a consequence, I’ve seen just about every travel advertisement under the sun. I’ve actually tried a fair number of items, too. Yes, they’ve cost me money, but I’ve definitely gained some wisdom on the subject. Some items have truly turned out to be pretty awesome, and others have just been “whatever status.

Below, I’m going to talk about some of the items I’ve used and how useful – or not – they’ve been during my travels. I’m also going to outline when these items have been worth it for various types of vacations (long, short, road trips, international, etc.). While, yes, you can probably travel without ever buying any of these items, it is worth taking a look at them to see if they’d truly make your life more enjoyable during your vacation.

(note: some of the links here are to websites with which I am an affiliate, and your purchases help fund my website!)

Neck Pillows, Sleeping Pillows, and Travel Comfort Items Like Blankets

I’m one of those people who can’t sleep on planes unless I have the absolute perfect conditions (which really never ever happen). I normally have to have myself lying flat to fall asleep, and that’s a tall order on an airplane unless you’re wealthy or savvy enough to score a lay-flat seat. And, just to clarify – a lot of those “lay flat” seats aren’t completely flat. They’re a little elevated, so you can’t really side sleep or stomach sleep on them.

One of the really popular (or seemingly popular items) that you’ll see frequently advertised is the neck pillow. They come in a few different shapes, with some shaped like a horseshoe for wrapping around your neck and others shaped like a circle that wraps fully around your neck. They’re supposed to prevent your neck and head from moving around while you sleep while sitting upright.

In my experience, they’re not worth the hassle of carrying them through the airport and having them dangle off your backpack. However, if you decide to buy one, just go with the cheapest you can get. Don’t fall for the luxury or high-priced models. It’s just a U-shaped pillow. It’s not revolutionary, and they’re really all the same. Just go with the cheapest one you can find at your local store or whatever’s on sale.

Do You Need an Extra Blanket? Or Pillow?

As far as the blankets you’ll see advertised that double up for use as beach towels, I find that these items are only really worth it if you’re actually going somewhere that you won’t have access to a beach towel when you’re at the beach – and you’re actually going somewhere that you’ll need the beach towel. You could also be flying basic economy where they don’t normally give you a blanket for your flight like you’d get in premium economy or the upper classes. If you won’t be using it for multiple reasons, taking a blanket/towel/wrap is just taking something that will weigh you down.

As for the travel pillows, I can honestly say that I LOVE taking a travel pillow, and I’ll haul that thing through anywhere that I have to in order to get great sleep. I get my pillows from Cushion Lab (no, I am not sponsored by them). I sleep on one at my house, and I also have a roll-up travel version that I leave unrolled whenever I’m not traveling.

I absolutely adore them, and I never have to worry about under-fluffed or over-fluffed pillows at my hotels. If you have trouble sleeping in unknown places, I really, really recommend one of their travel pillows. Even though they cost a pretty penny, I really recommend the Cushion Lab pillows. I usually roll it up and stuff it in my suitcase, and I sleep like a dream everywhere I go.

Instant Translators, Pen Translators, and Translation Tools

Having traveled around five continents (Australia and Antarctica. . . someday I’ll reach you!), I can honestly say I’ve never been at a total loss for words where I’ve thought: if only I had translator earbuds with me. Recently, they’ve become super-duper popular. So, too, have translator pens and other translation devices that are meant to help you understand what people are saying in real time.

There are two reasons I’ve found that these devices are just things that have taken up extra room in my bag while traveling. The first is that when you have a translation device, you’re not at all inclined to actually learn the local language. Yes, it’s cool to understand that person who’s having a conversation in back of you at the grocery store, but these items kind of seem gimmicky in real-world use.

Sometimes, All You Need is The Smartphone You Already Own

If you’re really, truly at a loss for words and can’t communicate with someone, the easiest and least expensive way is just to break out your smartphone and just do a simple translation with your phone. I mean, sure, maybe you’re deep in the Amazon jungle without access to the internet, but in that case, wouldn’t you probably make sure you had access to someone who spoke your language before you left for your travels?

You can seriously translate any language into any other language with a simple Google Translate search. Takes 10 seconds, and you’ll already be carrying your phone around anyway in almost every circumstance. If you’re trying to cut down on the number of gadgets and things you’ll have the tendency to lose or forget, a secondary translator is definitely something you can just skip without missing it too much.

Hand-Held Luggage Scales

One of the most disconcerting things about flying these days is the price of checking your bags, particularly when you over-stuff your bag, and the airline informs you it’ll be another 60 bucks to check your bag because it’s a single pound over the weight limit. Before absolutely every trip, I always weigh my luggage just to make sure I’m not over the weight limit.

I use a really simple hand-held device that wraps around the handle of my luggage and then gives me the luggage weight when I pull up and hang the luggage from the device. I weigh my carry-on luggage and my checked luggage, and I always research the luggage weight limits for the airlines I’m taking before I depart.

Now, you don’t necessarily need to pack this device with you. I normally just check the weight before I leave, so I know how much wiggle room I have when I’m traveling. For example, on my recent trip to Northwestern Europe, I knew I had a weight limit of 23 kgs (which is about 51 pounds) for our British Airways flights and the same weight limit for our Aer Lingus flight. Additionally, Aer Lingus had a weight limit of 10 kg (22 pounds) for a carry-on bag.

Are You Flying? Always Weigh Your Stuff.

When I weighed my checked luggage before we departed, it was 17 kg, so I knew I had a lot of weight I could add to the bag before I reached the weight limit. My carry-on bag was also well under the limit (it was just a backpack). I ended up buying a few things in Amsterdam, and I also bought some chocolate (okay, a lot of chocolate) in Belgium, but I never got to more than 20 kgs with my checked luggage.

Now, you can certainly take these little luggage-weight devices with you on your trip, but they’re not absolutely necessary unless you’re really, really close to the weight limit. If you’re something like 5 to 7 kgs away from the weight limit, you’ll probably do just fine leaving the scale at home, but it’s not a huge deal to chuck it in your luggage while you’re traveling, just to make sure you don’t go over the limit. At the very least, I do recommend having one of these handy little things to use at home before you depart.

Travel SIM cards, Internet Hot Spots, and Connection Devices

There’s a pretty huge market for international SIM cards and little hotspot devices that will allow you to connect to the internet anywhere on any device, no matter where you are in the world. If you don’t have a lot of experience traveling, you might assume that you won’t be able to access the internet in the same way as you might from home, especially if you’re an American traveling internationally for the first time.

I can honestly say that the internet coverage around the world is pretty great, even in countries where you’d think you’d be meeting up with a dial-up modem and a Netscape browser. I’ve sat in the middle of the desert in Morocco and posted pictures to Instagram. I’ve ridden a bike through rural Vietnam and texted my mom about the incredible view. I’ve gone on road trips around the most rural areas of Iceland and never lost my signal.

And I’ve done all this without buying any extra equipment or doing anything with extra SIM cards and devices. Now, the one reason you might want to mess with these devices is the cost. If your wireless carrier bills you an excessive amount for using your phone in international locations, you might want to take a look at these devices. You could save money.

Make a Call to Your Wireless Provider

But if you’d rather not have to deal with yet another little device to connect to the internet, there’s no reason to expect that your phone won’t connect just fine in almost any country. I lose my signal more often in Los Angeles than I do while traveling to most other continents. Basically, these items may save you money, but they’re not absolutely necessary for connecting to the internet when you already have a smartphone.

You’ll just need to contact your wireless provider and ask about whether your phone will work in your destination country. Sometimes, your plan might already include some extra countries. For example, a lot of United States-based plans already include coverage for Mexico, Canada, and a lot of the Caribbean.

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