Travel and Tech: Tell The Extra Gadgets to Get Lost - A guest post | technology

What happens when people who love tech and consider their laptop an extra appendage also love travel? Ideally, they would get to enjoy their vacation, hassle-free and without having to worry about their electronics.
At this point, I can stop beating around the bush and just get real. I love electronics. Whether it’s for business or pleasure, I am usually glued to my iPhone, getting down to the tunes on my iPod or playing with pictures and videos on my laptop.

I’ve traveled extensively and I used to bring all my gadgets with me to show off, but I’ve wised up with time.

Now I want to offer some wisdom for the technophiles out there who aren’t sure whether to bring their own mini version of an Apple store with them on their next trip.
It should come as no surprise that when you are traveling, you want to pack as lightly as possible. This principle should be self-evident, but it is still shocking how much unnecessary clutter we carry with us. If you’re bringing a laptop, smartphone, iPod and tablet with you, you’re overdoing it.
Think rationally about what you plan to do while on your vacation. If you plan on spending a lot of time on all of those devices, you might as well just stay home. If you plan to listen to music, put a few of your favorite tunes on your smartphone and leave the iPod at home. If you don’t plan on making this a working vacation, leave the laptop at home and send any emails to friends and family from your tablet.

Adapters and chargers can be sticky propositions if you are traveling abroad. Different countries have different types of outlets, so you should research what type of socket the country you’re visiting uses. Amazon.com offers many adapters for US to European electricity.

Finally, if you absolutely can’t live without that laptop, be sure to back up your files on some sort of hard drive or Dropbox. Nothing is worse than realizing that you left your laptop, which contained your half-finished novel, photos and music, at some Parisian street cafe.

Simpler isn’t always better, but when it comes to technology and travel you’ll be better off with some restraint. It’s difficult, but if this technology addict can do it so can you.

Author’s Bio: Logan is a guest post writer on the subjects of air charter and technology, and can be found traveling in style when he’s not writing for the Blog Content Guild.