Travelling with Technology

Yes, as a very seasoned traveller, I have a few ways to minimise the amount of technology I carry without shooting myself in the foot. And figured sharing what I have discovered may help others looking for a reliable tech travel packing list. This is the tldnr;

Internet top

Ok, so while travelling, the vast majority of people will need some sort of internet access, which is all well and good; however, there are a few gotcha you really need to know to keep safe while connecting.

The big one is hotel WiFi, which, from personal experience over the last few decades, can be a security nightmare for those who just connect and run. The issue is that the connection to the hotel WiFi system is not secure, so anything you send over that connection is not encrypted the way normal WiFi is.

And no, I am not saying all hotel WiFi runs like this, but everyone I have stayed at in the past decade or so has been. It's safer to assume the WiFi is not secure than assume it is.

Yes, it's a given that most people just use it as is and do not worry about it, as they should. Just about every website you can access is encrypted, as they should be; the same should be true for most common email services. So sure the risk is lower than expected, but what about that app you've been using since 2001, or the fact you have not installed any security patches since buying the machine?

For me, having worked in the technology business for over 40 years and being more than a little paranoid, I do not just use hotel or any other free wifi without using protection.

No, not that sort of protection, although you should use that also 😉

Virtual Private Networks top

What you need and should use is a Virtual Private Network service (VPN from this point on), which adds an additional layer of protection by encrypting everything from your machine, regardless of how secure the wifi connection is, no matter how out of date your security patching is, or those ancient apps you still use.

The big question is, which one of the 1001 different services should you use?

Well, it's really up to you. All I can say is I use VyprVPN and have for many years, and so far have had zero issues with it. Everything just works. By everything working, I really mean it. I have VyprVPN on my laptop, tablet and even my phone, and so far every app I have tried works, as do the streaming services I use, which include Netflix, Disney+, Prime and Apple TV

What about the other types of WiFi?

These days, free WiFi is not just in your hotel, but all over the place, and yes, your phone can be set to connect automagically as these services come in range.

I have used these services extensively, mainly in Hong Kong and Singapore, where it seems it's offered just about everywhere, including trains and some buses. Some need you to "accept" the conditions to connect; others just connect when your phone sees the WiFi service.

All that's well and good, but to date, I have never seen any of these with any form of security, so the same warning I gave for the hotel also applies.

In short, if you connect to any WiFi, make sure you have a VPN and use it. Again, I can only comment on VyprVPN, which has a kill switch that will block internet access if the connection is not protected by its secure connection. To me, it's a no-brainer to enable this.

Charging top

This can be an interesting one, as wherever you go, there is a good chance you will be using a different plug type to plug your charger into, so your charger brought from home may not fit the plug in your destination country.

And yes, I know some hotels have USB chargers built into their rooms, but with very few exceptions, all of these have been slow chargers and in some cases barely managed that.

Before anyone else pings me, I have added a new section covering the use of power banks 😉

There are several ways to get around this one; none are anything more than common sense. Just buy an adapter at the airport, and all will be good.

While this does work, I have seen many safety issues with some of these adapters, and various trustworthy tech channels on YouTube have some interesting names for them.

One good example is electrocute-o-daptor, which comes with an interesting, if a little old, video from Big Clive. Or try this one from DiodeGoneWild.

And yes, those are two channels that have been around forever and have content that is of better quality than most. Just remember this is YouTube, so treat everything as entertainment.

For me, I usually call these things Death-daptors, as all of them I have seen for the past decade or so have minimal to zero safety features. Basically, while these usually work, use at your own risk.

Some I have seen are so bad that they warm up when you try to use them, others spark and heat up, still others expose live wires, and one of the worst was made of such low-grade plastic that it cracked when I plugged it in.

What I used to do was take the usual Mac laptop power brick and get a local plug adapter for it.

These chargers have interchangeable plugs for various countries, and Apple, as expected, used to sell you what you need, with the Apple World Traveller Kit, but from what I can find is no longer available.

All is not lost, and as a surprise to no one, copies of these things can be found on amazon; for example, here's the UK one, which also works in HK, Singapore, Qatar and Ireland.

Going down this path, all was good, and I just charged everything else from the USB-C ports on the laptop.

For me, that worked well until I ran out of ports.

Now I go down a different path:

I use a desktop charging solution, specifically from Anker, which contains 6 high-capacity ports, and from personal experience, I can say it will run/charge my laptop, phone, watch, tablet, and various cameras all at the same time, and it's physically not much bigger than the old Apple laptop charger.

The specific Anker one I use is Anker Prime Charger (200W, 6 Ports, GaN)

With this solution, I do not need to worry about buying Apple's expensive plug adapters, as the Anker device uses a standard 2-pin figure-8 connection (also known as C7), which can be bought for next to nothing all over the planet.

I have personally bought these things in the UK, Mainland Europe, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea and at home in Australia. And yes, I know some of these countries use the same plug.

HINT: If you are unsure which plug your destination uses, you could Google it, or check out the Apple World Traveller Kit page, which covers it in an easy-to-follow way.

For me, it's even better, as my DSLR camera charger also uses the same cable, so one less cable to carry 😀

On my latest trip to Hong Kong, I used this to charge :

Everything just worked, and it did not even get warm. And from previous experience with Anker chargers, this is not unexpected; add to that, I have found them to be more tolerant of bad power than others, so it's a good sign.

Some Trivia: A while back, I tested a different model of Anker charger for safety and did not find anything bad, which, given that I tested it to a very smoky destruction, is a good sign.

And no, I am not claiming all their products are like the one I tested; it just means I have a higher level of confidence than I do with others.

Talking of the others, based on decades of experience with electronics, especially power supplies, I tend to stick to brands I have used in the past, and not the generic ones that promise everything for basically zero cost.

Put simply, if it sounds perfect and is a fraction of the price of the brands, then personally I run away.

Power Banks top

Now for the elephant in the room: power banks.

On a trip to HK a few years back, I bought a new phone which came with a Samsung-branded power bank, which the store told me was safe for flying.

Hmmm, at the time I was well aware of the safety issues of the lithium based batteries, but was not aware of any restrictions on these things when flying.

So, me being me, I did some digging and at the time the limits were the amount of lithium in the power bank. Anyhow, things change, and now things are more restrictive.

These things have been interesting to travel with for years now, and more recently the rules have changed on multiple airlines.

In my case, that's Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, both of which have enacted restrictions, given the issues with some lithium-based batteries and their habit of catching fire when, either abused or of poor quality, which is far from unexpected.

For me, this is not a problem, as while I do own several, I do not travel with them; I have never had the need to use them. USB-C chargers are everywhere these days, so why carry additional weight?

However, if you need to travel with these things, it's highly recommended that you check the rules with your airline.

From my recent travels, it's a case of limiting the number of these things; do not use or charge them on the flight.

Before moving on, see the above photo of a UGreen 100w power bank, this was chosen intentionally, as I have one of these and have abused it for several years, with zero issues, so if you need a power bank, check it out on amazon

Computing top

While travelling, I always take a lot of photos, I need to take enough computer power to let me do some editing, and also writing, in addition to the usual email, browsing, etc.

Personally, I do not do Windows, so I stick to Macs, which at this time is a MacBook Pro with an M4max CPU and 48GB of memory, which is more than enough to run Photoshop.

Regardless of the operating system you run, it's strongly recommended to use a laptop that has USB-C charging, so you do not need to carry a separate charger.

Ok you have a good laptop; you need a case. I strongly recommend using something that's easy to access, as in some countries, you will need to remove it from your bags for security, so unless you like delays, make sure you can comply quickly.

I use a sleeve-style case with a pocket for those critical cables, specifically one of these Incase branded ones. For me, I have had this one for many years, its outlasted several laptops and is just as good as it was when I bought it.

Thankfully, the need to remove laptops from carry-on bags is no longer universal, with some airports using newer scanning technology that no longer requires it; Hong Kong and Sydney are two that have this, which I have visited recently.

One surprise is that Singapore does not have this new technology yet, which is interesting as Changi is well known as one of the best airports on the planet. Hopefully they will fix this sooner than later.

Now, in my case, I also carry a tablet, which I use for additional screen real estate, as well as watching Netflix in bed/bath, etc. Mine is old but bulletproof at about 5 years old, and again, it just works for my use case. More on this in the next section for backups.

Backups top

Think about it: while travelling, you have even more reasons to keep your data safe. Just think about it, you have your whole life on your laptop, and it breaks, gets stolen or is destroyed by airline baggage handlers. And yes, I know you should never check your laptop, but some people do.

These days, there are so many ways to keep your data safe, with the two most popular ones being a portable hard drive for local backups and one or more of the almost unlimited number of cloud providers.

In my case, losing my photos while travelling would be the nightmare to end all nightmares. And yes, it has happened to me when a camera memory card failed on me after getting rained on. So backups are even more critical after that.

What works for me is taking a backup device for local Time Machine backups from my laptop, and also a cloud backup service.

And one final method to safeguard my photos is to copy them to the microSD card in my old tablet, which can hold enough photos to cover about 5 weeks of shooting. It's a 1TB microSD card.

Passwords top

We all have lots of passwords, passkeys and other forms of proving you are who you are. Now, while travelling, it's a no-brainer not to have any of these written down, as think about it: not only is this a bad idea even at home, as anyone can read them, but when travelling, if you lose the list, you are basically dead in the water.

Just think about it: you lost your password list; how will you talk to your bank, change passwords, etc.

Yes, you can use an encrypted spreadsheet or even Word files and hope your laptop/tablet is secure enough.

Much better is to use one of the many password manager services; just choose carefully.

All I can really comment on is the one I use, which is lastpass.

I have been using this for several years and have it on the same devices as the VPN. LastPass is not the cheapest, but again, from personal experience, it's one of those services that "just works", and that's on my laptop, tablet and even my phone.

When choosing a password manager, and as a shock to no one, you need to be careful, as not all are the same. As I said, the only one I have used is LastPass.

Anyhow, when choosing one, I would not base everything on price; just check what others think, and no, that's not just the vendor's official reviews.

Security top

Ok, so you now have your laptops and/or tablet, phone, cameras, etc. Now you need to keep them safe in general.

For me, I have stayed in all sorts of hotels ranging from budget to "thankfully my company paid", and so far have not seen a hotel room without some sort of safe since the late 80s, and even then, you could store valuables with the front desk.

These days, I put my laptop and tablet in the room safe before heading out, and tend to put the cameras into a cupboard or, in general, out of sight. To date, I have never had anything stolen from a hotel room.

Physical security for technology is always a combination of the country you are in, the type of hotel, etc. But for me, I will continue using the hotel safe for the laptop, etc.

And, shock horror, I still do this in 5-star high-end hotels, which I am well aware are/should be totally safe. Call me paranoid, but I will continue doing the same thing.

That's the hotel's physical security, but what about outside in the street?

This is very much location- and time-of-day-dependent; for example, I usually have a DSLR camera with me, and to date, have not had anything stolen. The only time I have ever felt even slightly nervous was at home in Sydney while carrying my DSLR with a large lens, and that was with someone approaching me wanting to hold my camera.

In places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan, I have never had any issues; in fact, in Singapore and Hong Kong, carrying a camera on public transport usually starts conversations about photography, etc. Add to that, in all those places, I have walked all over the place at all times of day or night, and never felt nervous.

In some other places, I do not openly carry the camera, but have it in a normal sports style bag, and take it out when I need to use it. Use common sense.

To ensure your tech's and your physical security, I do, and will continue to do:

Cameras top

This one is especially important for me, so something I have a massive amount of experience dealing with. In my case, we are not talking about taking photos with my phone, but using high-end professional camera gear.

For my latest visit to Hong Kong, I carried the following camera gear:

Just like with laptops and tablets, I strongly recommend that you do not ever even think about putting any camera gear in your checked bags. Just think about it: baggage handlers can be interesting in some countries and airports.

The only exception to this would be if you are packing using Pelican cases, which are basically indestructible, though very heavy. But then again, I used one of these with some horribly expensive film camera back in the 80s, and baggage handlers managed to dent a Pelican case, which, given that the military uses these things, is impressive. And yes, the cameras survived without any issues.

The way I usually pack these is to mount the 28-70 to the body and put that in a small camera bag, which most airlines allow in addition to the usual wheeled carry-on. The other lenses are packed in protective padded lens carriers in the normal carry-on.

For the sake of sanity, I always carry two batteries together with the charger, all of which fit in the small bag with the body of the 28-70mm lens.

Then come the memory cards, where again I always carry more than one of these and rotate them by the day. Now this sounds like madness, but think about it: if you lose one, then you have lost not more than 1 day's photos, whereas if you use one card, you have just lost everything.

From personal pain, while you are out and about taking photos, keep an eye on the weather, as while most high-end cameras are water-resistant, they are not waterproof, so it's strongly recommended to take a plastic bag for the camera if you get caught in the rain.

Phones top

Yes, we all have a phone, and travelling with it is usually no issue. Just remember some places require you to give them your social media access and camera roll, etc., so remember to lock it down first.

This social media access thing does not affect me as I do not use it at all, and yes, that includes LinkedIn.

However, it's something to remember just in case, and from what I know, it's mainly the US where the TSA has this power

Now for the big issue, costs.

International roaming using your local carrier can range from expensive to a total nightmare, especially for data usage. Back when I started to travel with a phone, the carriers did not even warn you, so the first you knew about the cost was the bill.

That's all changed now; yes, it's still expensive, but some carriers have a special deal for cheaper roaming and charge by the day plus your usual costs. Also changed are the warnings; now, when I arrive at my destination, I get a text from the carrier warning me about the costs.

These days, when I travel, I always get a local SIM card, which for my phone is a physical card, as my phone has dual physical SIM slots. However, newer phones may support eSIM, which is a digital SIM that, depending on the provider, can be set to automatically roam between countries.

Just be aware that eSIM is a little like the wild west with high-pressure sales at some airports, so I would recommend that you do your research before arriving and actually read the recommendations.

For me, I tend to stick with the major carriers; for example, in Singapore, I use the SingTel tourist SIM card, which costs little and lasts 28 days, and in Hong Kong, I use CSL, which has something similar.

While you can buy a SIM at the airport, just watch out for the pushy salespersons and read everything. For me in Singapore, I go to a SingTel Store, and in Hong Kong, I go to a 7-Eleven or a CSL Store. Again, do your research and read the terms and conditions.