Spring is here, and soon summer vacation. Last year I did a write up on what to bring on vacation as for tech gear, and even going without. For those of you like me who cannot go cold turkey with tech, I have a list of techy-goodness, to keep you and your family happy.

Charge Me

During your vacation the need to charge or re-charge your devices is a must, but, what is ideal, and what is a waste of time. For starters, the “Lipstick Tube” chargers you find everywhere are a waste of money and time. They usually are 2000 milliamps, with 5 volts at 1 amp. Very basic, very cheap, and will only charge 1 device about half full from empty. So save the 5 bucks and put it towards a hefty charger, which will yield 7-10 full charges, they are found by any brand that carry 20,000 milliamps, have 2 USB ports, with 1 and 2.1 amps and will cost from 20- 50 dollars, depending on brand name and other features. The thing to look for is the 20,000 or higher milliamps, yes they take longer to fully charge than the lipstick tube, but when your phone is dead, and so is your tablet during a tour of the jungle, miles from an outlet, you can bring 2 devices back to life, at the same time, a full 7 times or more. The downside to these types of chargers, is weight, they are bulky and chunky.

Personal favorite found at Amazon- Anker 20100mAh Portable Charger Power Core 20100 – Ultra High Capacity Power Bank with 4.8A Output weighs as little as a can of soup (12.5 oz)

Big or Little

I’ve tried to bring a tablet and a laptop on vacation, but, never fully utilizing both. The laptop fell off the luggage cart, and broke inside the travel bag. A costly mistake, the IPad was also a big risk; it is highly sought after by thieves, very noticeable everywhere we went, and I was followed more than once to my room. Conclusion, don’t bring anything you can’t afford to lose. Not everyone has good intensions, and I felt all eyes upon me everywhere I went with this device in hand. I spent more time looking over my shoulder, rather than looking at the sights. I suggest a small but cheap laptop, or Android tablet if needed. I only used the laptop for looking up hotel rates for the next nights stay, and dumping photos off my devices and then to an external hard drive that was kept in the car’s glove box, locked. The laptop I brought last year was a used unit with not data on it, meaning if it was stolen, they got a basically blank laptop, I only used it for transfer and surfing the web. No credentials where ever kept on it. No checking the bank, or email, no risk of being hacked either. If you need a cheap laptop, most times I have some in stock, as for a tablet, what store doesn’t have one under 30 bucks? A good 128 GB USB Thumb drive should be able to handle all of your vacation pic’s to free up some space on your devices, and small enough to be hidden away, even in your pocket.

Personal Favorite, Found at many Retailers/ Sandisk CZ48 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Memory Drive.

Location, Location

This one is obviously a no brainer. Remember you are on vacation, and the idea is to get away from it all, including technology. This short article only covered a few things, but those are the essentials, and if you keep it simple, your vacation will be a vacation, not, an extension of your daily life, on the road. Have a backup charger, and a device to keep you connected to the outside world if needed. I would say bring a camera, but I am only the one in a few that actually own a Camera, a Camcorder, and a GPS, that are separate devices, we have covered this before. So, don’t bring the lipstick tube, bring a brick, that can charge many things at once, A tablet OR laptop with nothing personal on it, and a back-up hard drive to keep any photos or videos you take, just in case the aforementioned are lost. Your travel bag with tech won’t be heavy, but, it will keep you entertained, informed, and you will have a record of the time you spent seeing things you can’t see from a stolen or broken device. As a side note, if you are using your cell phone to cover the GPS, Camera and Camcorder section of this article, while on vacation, invest in a case for your cell phone that can handle a drop to concrete from 3 feet or more. Trust me. It is money well spent. A cheap windup wedding camera just doesn’t take good photos.

Thanks for reading, and remember at “Hunt Technology”, you always get “Quality Service & Individual Attention” you deserve.  Hunt Technology, 320 Watson St., Ripon WI, 920-290-0936