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What ARE the best travel & road trip gadgets? How do you know which accessories are worth the money and which ones are… well… not! Fear not, brave explorer. After a year of Road Trippin’ around Europe, we’ve found some awesome bits of kit which have definitely enhanced our adventures!
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Road Trip Gadgets for Photography
Photography is one of my favourite parts of a road trip. I love trying to capture the beauty of the places we visit (and sharing them on Facebook. **cough cough** You’re following us on Facebook, right??) so I’m starting with my favourite gadgets that help.
iPhone Travel Gadgets
I’ve said it many times, but most of our photos are taken on an iPhone, because I’m rubbish and I keep forgetting/ can’t be bothered to lug a camera around with us. My FAVOURITE iPhone accessories are:
- These Clip On lenses are AMAZING! (US buyers, shop here)
- This Bluetooth Selfie button allows you to set up the shot and click the camera- without touching the phone at all! Clever, huh??!!
- This plug-in microphone helps capture clear sound if you are talking to the camera and reduces wind noise.
All of these are small enough to fit into a pocket or handbag, which means I actually USE them.
I also LOVE my glass photo ball, which allows me to take pretty pictures like this! I can’t believe how cheap it was or how pretty the pictures look. Definitely one of my favourite new toys.
GoPro Road Trip Gadgets
We recently got a GoPro Hero. It was an early Christmas present (in October- don’t judge!) and I cannot quite believe how AMAZING that camera is. It works above water and has such a wide angle lens I can get shots like this:
It works below water. It works whilst ziplining into water. It’s just all around flipping brilliant. Even better, there are TONNES of epic GoPro Accessories you can get to make your experience with the camera even more awesome.
Road Trip Gadgets- Drone
Since getting a drone, we have filmed some INCREDIBLE places, like John o’Groats, Lands End, Mont Blanc, Switzerland and the Italian Lakes, to name just a few. Obviously, you have to be INCREDIBLY careful and attentive to the rules in each country, but getting a drone has really enhanced our travels.
We recommend:
so you can get shots like this:
Portable Telescope
What’s the point of going on a road trip, if you can’t take some random but very cool gadgets with you? Our telescope definitely falls into this category and I guess it’s only exciting if you’re an astronomy nerd like me, but I love looking at the sky and the stars – a clear night is my perfect present.
Road Trip Gadgets for Wifi
As we mentioned before, now you’ve got all these incredible photos, you need a way to share them with the world as you travel. We LOVE this dongle- we’ve taken it most of the way around Europe and rarely had a problem. You can either buy an unlocked dongle, or buy one with a data sim already included. We use EE and have found it very easy to find networks across Europe to use.
I know very little about American wifi or networks, so I’m not even going to pretend to offer a recommendation. Here is the link to Amazon USA’s wifi page which should help you.
Road Trip gadgets for fun!
Kindle
I fought this for such a long time, as I LOVE books. I love the way they smell, and feel and taste…( uh…sorry, got carried away there!) In all seriousness, I thought I’d never love reading on a tablet. Turns out, it’s so easy! I use the Kindle app on my iPad and it’s brilliant, but if you don’t have an iPad, a Kindle saves you have to carry a million books with you. (It also allows you to read Harry Potter for the millionth time without anyone else knowing…!!)
I recommend getting a Kindle with WiFi- it makes it so much easier to sync/ download new books as you’re travelling- especially if you’re Road Trippin’ for a while.
Speakers
There is nothing worse than being on a quiet, tranquil campsite, and then some idiot pulls up next door and starts blaring loud music. Especially if it’s bad music! 😉 Still, I know you aren’t that inconsiderate, so here are our favourite speakers which last for hours and have GREAT sound quality.
American options:
Road Trip gadgets for POWER!
Powerpack
I think Power management is one of the hardest things about Road Trippin’, especially if you work from the road as we do. We’ve found various ways to make life as simple and efficient as possible. Firstly, we charge as many things as possible whilst we are driving. We charge laptops via our inverter and phones/ ipads by 12v chargers, so that when we arrive somewhere everything is (hopefully!) ready to go!
Our laptops (MacBook Pros) are brilliant but VERY power-hungry. The battery on mine lasts about 8hours of non-stop usage, which is a shock after my previous laptop which lasted a couple of days! So, we also carry a couple of power packs, one with and one without a ‘normal’ UK plug (think hairdryers girls! 🙂 ) Also useful for things like blenders/ juicers other smaller appliances which you might want to use whilst wild camping (just be careful of high-powered appliances- they can blow an invertor up very easily!)
American options:
Car Chargers
In order to charge 7 phones (yep, 7!), 4 ipads (including our ipad for our Sat Nav) and a power pack, we need some heavy duty car chargers! In order to do that, we use a cup charger (fits into a cup-holder!) and add a multi USB socket into one of the ports. It takes a bit of organisation, but we manage quite well. 🙂
American options:
Solar Panel
We debated for a long time whether we needed a solar panel or not. If you only go a day or two without a campsite and electric, my opinion is you probably don’t. If you plan to go for longer, it’s a good addition to your motorhome. We have a Sargent solar panel, which we ordered direct but can’t find it on their site anymore. It’s very similar to the one below. A flexible solar panel might also be a great idea, based on your vehicle.
American options:
Road Trip Gadgets- Portable BBQ
Not every campsite allows campfires- sad, but true! However, most will allow BBQs- and this clever bit of kit allows you to have a fire in a BBQ, watching the flames as you sip your hot chocolate. Is there a better ending to a day? Just be careful of lighting it in really dry conditions, especially if you’re in the middle of nowhere and make sure you have a supply of water to hand. Just in case. That’s why we LOVE the SANNO- the bottom doubles as a catch-all for stray sparks. Very useful!
Blimey! Is that enough Road Trip gadgets to keep you going for a while?!?! With all those, I think your Road Trip is going to be EPIC- let me know where you end up!!
– HELP- I need to stop Condensation in my camper
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Kat never planned to buy a motorhome. She also never planned to quit her job as an air traffic controller, go touring around Europe in said motorhome, start one of the UK’s largest motorhome travel websites… or get a cocker spaniel.
Find out how she went from stuck in the rat race to being a digital nomad and inspiring thousands of people to have their own epic adventures here.
If you’d like to connect with Kat, send her an email or follow her adventures on social media.