As part of finglobal.com’s #TravelTuesday feature, we will show you a host of destinations, locations, gadgets and hacks to make your jetsetting a bit better. Whether you are choosing your next best holiday spot, need advice on the best tagalongs and tech, or want a place to settle down in your old age, keep an eye out for your weekly feature for great travel tips and ideas.
This week, we’ll take a look at some of the best travel gadgets 2016 has to offer you!
2016’s most fun travel gadgets
Mobi EyeFi SD card
Tired of running out of storage or accidentally misplacing your SD cards? Tired of travelling with a bunch of cables? Well, it’s really imperative that you swop out that old and outdated SD for something a bit more tech-friendly. Get yourself an EyeFi SD card. These nifty gadgets allow you photo-uploads, transfers and sharing via built-inWiFi.
RHA T10 Earbuds
Nothing as irritating as those in-ear headphones that just don’t fit. Oh, no, there is – that is travelling for hours on end while trying to keep those earphones plugged into your ears. Luckily those fancy gadgematronic inventors have thought of a solution. Enter the RHA T10 Earbuds. With these earphones you get a choice of 10 sets of customisable ear tips of varying materials, sizes and filters (to optimise bass or treble). It also boosts noise isolation. So if you take your music seriously, this is definitely the travel gadget for you!
The Luggage scooter
We’re not sure whether this is a lazy hack or simply the most ingenious invention ever, but we’re pretty sure the luggage scooter must be the best travel ‘gadget’ we’ve ever tried. Basically it’s a bag and scooter in one. Essentially you are skating on your luggage. Seriously! We have already added this one to the shopping cart.
Air-to-water Fontus bottle
No, this is not a post from Back to the Future, the Fontus water bottle is legit, and it’s absolutely fascinating. Although it is still in development phase (to iron out a few minor issues), the Fontus really is the bottle of the future. Using movement (kinetic energy), the bottle filters moisture from the air and essentially converts water from the air around you through a process of condensation. The next phase of the development includes carbon filters for areas with high pollution.
The Avalanche North Face Patrol 24 ABS life saver
We’ve all seen horrible apocalyptic movies wherein crazy adventurers set off to climb unconquerable mountains and eventually (we are not shocked) die, having been swallowed by a humongous avalanche in the aftermath to a manmade earthquake. Not cool! But luckily, scientists have come up with a solution to the ominous avalanche scenario. Airbags! That’s right, the Avalanche North Face Patrol 24 ABS backpack doubles as mobile airbags which deploy on ‘snowball’ contact to keep climbers ‘afloat’ and increases the survival rate by as much as 95%. That’s a huge pro-survival number. We’re giving this one the thumbs up.
Panasonic Lumix TS6
Okay, so it may not rate up there with your Canons and Nikons (or your Sony phones) when it comes to megapixels, but the Panasonic can give all those guys a go when it comes to ruggedness. Think of it as the Nokia 3310 of the camera world – because this baby doesn’t break. First off, it’s much smaller and lighter than your DSLR cameras. Add to that the fact that it can withstand depths of up to 13 metres below water, temperatures down to -10˚ Celsius, as well as friction and dust from the worst Saharan sandstorm, and there really is no contest.
CGear sand-free beach mat
We are not even sure how this works, but apparently this nifty invention hails from military science camp, so it must be good and nice and amazeballs. Originally invented to make travel and camping for soldiers and special forces in less than favourable conditions a bit more comfy, this mat draws on a ‘quick-sand’ concept which draws particles down directly through the double-mesh polyethylene layers to the bottom. The way it was woven does not allow particles to ‘steal’ their way back to the surface, meaning they will have to stay down there, on the ground, where they belong!
Divoom Airbeat 10
Another little gadget for those with a serious love of Mozart (or Yeezy… we’re not judging here) is the Divoom Airbeat 10. If you like your music more than mild with a bit of a boom, this Bluetooth speaker comes with a surprising feature. Its suction cup, which seems like a rather flimsy and weird feature to support the speaker in an ‘upright’ position is, in fact, a device which uses the flat surface it suctions to as an additional subwoofer to amplify the bass.
Overboard Pro-vis waterproof gadget bag
Okay, so there really are waterproof cases for everything nowadays. Phones, tablets, phablets, laptops, cameras, you name it. But when you’re on the road, it’s really advisable to keep all your stuff dry – which is why we love the Overboard Pro-vis waterproof gadget bag so much. It’s got pockets and space a-plenty for all your random gadgets, gizmos and whatever else self-destructs on contact with H2O.
Sephora pink travel hairdryer
If you like your bangs to be blown just right, then you certainly can’t travel without a hairdryer. But where to put these bulky things? No worries though, as Sephora has it sorted. Their travel dryer is a mere 11.5 cm x 20 cm – the smallest dryer you’ll find in the market. They only come in pink, but for something that small and useful, we’re sure anyone can appreciate the hue.
That’s it for the top 10 travel gadgets for 2016. Check in again next week for your #TravelTuesday feature.