Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
Over the past 12 months, my husband and I have made 12 short trips (3 to 4 days on average) across France and some neighboring countries. From small towns like Amiens and Montreux to cosmopolitan capitals like Madrid and Amsterdam, we’ve tried to keep things fun and varied. On paper, 12 trips in 12 months seems excessive, but we had our (many) reasons to embark on this tourist adventure. So we were won over by the ease of getting around Europe and the simplicity of the lifestyle of train and backpack travel.
But what kind of geek would I be if I hadn’t used these travel opportunities to test out all sorts of products, devices, apps, services, and features? And what kind of writer would I be if I didn’t report on those who made a significant difference in my experience? That’s why I’m now here to tell you about my favorite discoveries – these are the 10 products that have completely changed the way I travel.
Wanderlog
There’s no trip planner like Wanderlog. Believe me, I downloaded almost all of them. The app (Android, iOS, web) lets me create trips, share them with others, and we can all edit them at once — yes, kind of like Google Docs. I can add accommodations, flights, trains, bus reservations and car rentals, then create multiple lists (with different colors and icons) of things I’m generally interested in as well as directions to places I have already decided to visit on a specific day. And it pulls location data from Google Maps, including opening hours, images, websites, and short descriptions.
Wanderlog saves me time at every step of the trip planning process. This may interest you : Bay County offers BayROC, a real-time, high-tech crime-fighting center. It’s my second brain before and during travel.
If that’s not enough, Wanderlog has won me over with all of its incredibly useful little extras. I can add formatted notes to each location or listing with my own bullets, bold/italics and hyperlinks. I can assign budgets to each location visited. The app automatically calculates the distance between two places on my route and tells me how long it will take to get from point A to point B by car, on foot or by public transport. And for most cities around the world, Wanderlog has an Explore section that brings blog posts and lists of recommended places and activities from all over the internet, puts them on the map, and allows me to add them to my lists or routes. All this without me having to search anything in Google or Maps. How insanely cool and totally frictionless is it?
Basically, Wanderlog replaces Google Maps listings, Chrome bookmarks, calendar events, email reservations, and separate notes, and it saves me time every step of the way. It has become my second brain both when planning trips and on an actual trip. Now it is simply indispensable to me.
Wanderlog was previously available in the Play Store, but was recently removed. Hope it comes back soon, but until then you can download the APK and install it.
eSIMs (Mobimatter and Airalo)
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In January 2015, I landed at midnight on a Sunday in Las Vegas for CES. I took a taxi to a 24/7 Walmart in 30 minutes to buy a SIM card. I needed it to be online during LG’s 8:00 a.m. press conference without relying on spotty conference room Wi-Fi. Unfortunately Walmart didn’t have prepaid SIM cards, so I found myself in the middle of nowhere, Vegas, with no cab nearby and no phone line at 3am wondering how I could get back to my hotel.
A prepaid data eSIM is simple, convenient and a complete game-changer when traveling.
Stupid jet-lagged decisions aside, international travel has long been a challenge for those who are always connected. I used to research the destination country’s prepaid sim card packages and operators for hours, then try to find a store that sells them at the airport or near my hotel, queue in said store, collected the SIM card, browsed abroad -language of text messages or websites, and found wonky recharge systems, just so I could be reachable in a new country without paying a kidney in roaming charges .
Last year, I discovered Mobimatter and Airalo, two sites that sell prepaid data eSIMs for almost every country in the world. Now I just browsed through these two to find the best deal, buy my data eSIM online before I go, “download” it as a secondary SIM on my Pixel 6 Pro, make sure the point of access is correctly configured and switch the data there when I land in the new country. The whole process takes ten minutes tops and I’m good to go. I have already used MobiMatter twice in Switzerland and once in Belgium, and tried Airalo once in Turkey. My colleague Dhruv got an Airalo eSIM in the UAE. We have nothing but good things to say about them. Absolute game changers.
Dig deeper: as a frequent traveler, I would never buy a phone without an eSIM slot
Osprey Fairview and Farpoint
About a year ago, my husband and I moved from Beirut to Paris, which opened up a whole world of train travel and short weekends for us. Before that, I had never imagined myself as a backpack traveler – too heavy, too uncomfortable – until I started thinking about how much easier and more practical a backpack would be for traveling around the world. This may interest you : There are many reasons for climate denial, but science is the solution. weekend. It’s certainly easier than dragging a wheeled suitcase behind me all the time.
We started by gifting my husband an Osprey Farpoint 40 (from $150 on Amazon). He loved her. Thanks to the shoulder straps and the belt, it is so comfortable to carry around stations and airports. The design provides exceptional support – even when the backpack is full it feels almost weightless. Plus, it’s made from a durable material, the zippers are smooth, and there’s room for a laptop, tablet, and a few other random little things.
Osprey makes one of the few backpacks with shoulder straps and sternum straps designed for a female body.
After briefly trying out her backpack and realizing how good it was, I decided to get the women’s version. The Osprey Fairview 40 (from $130 on Amazon) is essentially the same backpack, but the shoulder straps are attached and angled differently to account for a larger chest. After trying both backpacks, I can tell you that the Fairview is much more comfortable and better suited to a female body type. I’ve worn it before on trips to Amsterdam, Montreux, Berlin, Turin and Chantilly, and wouldn’t trade it for any other backpack.
Bobby Pro backpack and Karry 3.0 drawstring
Bobby Pro backpack and Karry 3.0 drawstring
While our Ospreys are great for carrying clothes and essentials on a train or plane, we still needed a day pack to use once we got to our destination.
When we’re only carrying one Osprey, our pick is the Bobby Pro Backpack ($130 at Amazon) from XD-Design. He has accompanied us on dozens of trips already since 2019, from the Himalayas to Meteora, passing through Abu Dhabi and Barcelona. The anti-theft design is perfect for busy cities, airports and public transport. But the sturdy material, comfortable balance, extra zippers and organizers, and direct USB-C charging; all of these are useful no matter the destination. City or nature, MWC or tech conferences, everything is done and it’s still beating. If he ever dies, I’m buying another one, no questions asked.
Choose one: an anti-theft day bag for busy cities or a lightweight drawstring bag for quick trips.
But since we only have four shoulders, we unfortunately realized that we couldn’t take the Bobby Pro on trips where we already carry our two Osprey backpacks. So we turned to Anvi Original’s Karry 3.0+ Drawstring to solve this problem. I bought the first version on Kickstarter and loved it so much that I also picked up the third. (They are now on their fifth iteration.) Why the Karry? Because this drawstring bag is unlike any other. It is more comfortable to wear all day thanks to its wide and soft drawstrings. It also has three large zipped pockets and comes with an additional flap to protect your belongings. And it’s made from an extra-durable material. The best part is that it can lie flat inside the Osprey when empty, so we can easily pack it up and then move into it after dropping our bags off at the hotel.
Zendure Passport II Pro
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
Like any self-respecting geek, we take a few technological gadgets with us when we travel. Phones, power banks, Fitbits, an action camera, and sometimes an iPad or laptop. To bill all that, the Zendure Passport ($75.99 at Amazon) is our jack-of-all-trades. This is a universal adapter with 100-240V DC input/output for multiple types of outlets and it works in the US, UK, rest of EU and many other countries. But that’s only half the story. The other half? It is also a multi-port charger.
It is a 61W PD travel adapter and charger. The one power adapter to rule them all.
On one side, there’s a 61W USB-C PD port. On the other side, there’s a secondary 12W USB-C port and three 12W USB-A ports. Power is split between all ports when used at the same time, with a total output of 61W. It might not be the most powerful PD charger, but it’s the most convenient of them all.
We just keep it in our Osprey backpack and know it’ll work everywhere for everything – no questions asked. For added portability, we bought a few short cables to go with it and now have a setup that’s very portable and capable of charging anything from a Galaxy Watch 4 (check that little USB-C puck) to a computer portable. It’s essentially the one charger to rule them all.
We recommend: The best multi-port USB chargers you can get
Too Good To Go
A few months ago, I discovered Too Good To Go, the anti-food waste application that allows you to reserve baskets of items close to expiry from bakeries, grocery stores and restaurants. At first, I only used the app in Paris, but then it occurred to me that I could also use it while traveling. And it was an incredible idea.
You avoid throwing away food and you save a few dollars.
Before I go on a trip, I check around our hotel or some of the activities we do to see what shops and baskets are on offer and at what time or so. Then, depending on our schedule, I will reserve baskets and make sure to pick them up for our dose of fresh fruits and vegetables or beautiful pastries, all for a few euros.
My favorite hack? Some hotels offer baskets on their breakfast. If you are already staying at this hotel (or near this hotel) and don’t want a very large breakfast, just book a $4-5 basket instead of a $10-20 breakfast . Get there around 10:00 AM, grab a few items from their spread, and you’re good to go. You avoided wasting food and you saved a few dollars too. Win-win.
Citymapper
No matter how much I enjoy Google Maps in a foreign city or town, I have to admit that it’s not the absolute best solution for walking or public transport. For that, I turned to Citymapper wherever it’s available. Sometimes Citymapper even supports cities where Google Maps has no data – this was the case when I went to Montreux in Switzerland a while ago, but it seems Google has caught up.
Having used both apps side-by-side, I also found that Citymapper had more accurate timetables in some cities, easier-to-read directions (especially entrances and exits, whether driving ahead, in the middle or at the back, and sometimes even clearer train names and directions). It also adds sidewalk crossing times while walking and time inside the station (to enter, change or exit) – two features that Google Maps completely ignores. And it integrates with Calendar, retrieving all my events and offering a list of all their locations for quick directions.
Google Maps wanted me to wait for a bus on a street under construction. Citymapper had the new temporary bus stop location.
Fun story: Citymapper completely won me over one night in Berlin. We were returning to our hotel around 11:00 p.m. and Google Maps suggested we walk a few minutes to catch the bus. As we did, we realized the supposed stop was on a street closed off by roadworks. Surely no bus could get there, but Google Maps was adamant. Citymapper, on the other hand, suggested we go back and wait at another stop (a diversion from this bus route). We followed him and, of course, there was a temporary stop right at the indicated place, and the bus arrived on time. Because of this incident alone, Citymapper has earned a permanent place on my phone.
Want to know more? When Google Maps struggles, Citymapper comes to my rescue
Trekology inflatable pillow
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
Look, if you travel on average once a month on a writer’s salary, you’re not booking five-star hotels with all the luxury and comfort. Affordable three stars are more like that. And if you’re in your late thirties to early forties like we both are, you can’t sleep on any surface and get up the next morning without back or neck pain.
Since we can’t transport our own mattresses, we solved the following problem that we encounter in cheaper hotels: incredibly thin pillows. You know the kind, it’s fluffy but flattens out into a thin paper when you lay your head on it. One pillow is too thin, two are too high; there is no middle ground.
An inflatable pillow is the difference between a thin hotel pillow and a support pillow.
Our solution to this is frankly brilliant. We have two Trekology Aluft 2.0 inflatable pillows ($17.99 on Amazon), which we inflate as needed and place inside the pillowcase under the hotel-provided mediocrity. This provides extra support and height while eliminating the awkward feeling of a hard inflatable pillow. It tricks us (almost) into thinking we’re sleeping on a normal compressible pillow. And when not in use, it simply reverts to a small, portable size.
Travel-friendly cutlery, straws and bottle
Travel-friendly cutlery, straws, and bottle
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
Another way to save dinero while traveling is to grab breakfast and other food essentials from nearby grocery stores or bodegas instead of eating out at every meal. The first time we did this, we realized that while the pre-cut mango is easy to grab with your fingers, the yogurt is not.
So we searched for travel-friendly cutlery and found this white label stainless steel set on AliExpress for a few dollars; you can also get it on Amazon for $16.99. It contains a fork, a spoon, a knife and two chopsticks, all divided into three pieces. Everything can be disassembled or reassembled in seconds. They’re washable, easy to carry, and perfect for store-bought yogurt, fruit, and salads.
You can’t eat yogurt with your fingers and you shouldn’t carry a spilled water bottle.
To take the idea to the next level, we also got these collapsible, washable silicone straws from GIR ($8.95 at Amazon). No more plastic straws that pollute the ocean or paper straws that melt quickly. (Note: GIR makes some of my favorite cookware, I recommend checking them out. I’m in love with the Spoonula.)
Our final item is this 13oz/400ml Quechua Insulated Water Bottle from Decathlon ($12.99). It’s bulky, heavy, inconvenient and time consuming to open and close, but we bought it because it has two screw caps, which makes spillage almost impossible. We’ve had it in our backpack for a year and, as expected, it never dropped a single drop no matter how much we threw, dropped or flipped the backpack. This anti-spill feature makes it an absolute winner.
Kindle Paperwhite (2021)
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
Traveling for me was all about music and sleep, but when I got the Kindle Paperwhite, I decided to give train reading a try, and I’m a convert. Whether it’s a short trip of an hour or two or longer trips of five to six hours, reading is a great way to dissociate until I reach my destination.
Books can transport you to another world and make any multi-hour trip a breeze.
What I realized is that even though the music is fun and immersive, I still get bored once in a while, I check the time and I’m annoyed that we still haven’t reached the destination. A good book, on the other hand, completely takes my mind off reality. Passengers, time, distance, everything dissolves and I am sucked into another world. I took a six hour train journey from Turin to Paris where I only looked at the time half an hour before arrival.
The Kindle Paperwhite is crucial to this experience. It’s lightweight, easy to pack, lasts for weeks on a charge, provides a readable screen in any light situation (dark night trains or sunny bus rides), and can carry thousands of pounds. I am currently rekindling my teenage passion for old French adventure book series – Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc and Bob Morane by Henri Verne.
Our opinion: Review of the Kindle Paperwhite (2021)
Notable mentions
I realize I’ve cheated before by combining some products together and mentioning more than 10 in total, but when I find something that works and works well, I love talking about it and sharing it with the world. So I’m going to cheat a bit more and add a few more products worthy of this list.
And There you go. Although this list is far from exhaustive, it is a collection of products that have positively influenced my travel experience over the past year. However, as you must have guessed by now, I don’t take my travels lightly, and I’m sure this list will grow over time.
