As I am mentally getting ready for another trip, I have started to
think about the various electricity using items I will be bringing and how to
work them out.
Now I don’t know what you carry on your travels but I find that
there are a lot of items that need electricity.
- Laptop and/or tablet
- Cellphone (sometimes 2 different models/brands)
- Camera with rechargeable batteries
- Electric razor
Each of these has a power cord, and thus needs to be plugged in to
charge if not to be used.
Now a little background, I live in a county where the voltage is
220v and this trip is to the USA, where the voltage is 110v. There are many
different outlet styles too. So this means adapters
or converters if the devices are not able to support both voltages. (Check what
each country you will visit uses in terms of voltage and plug here.)
Given that list, I should need 3 – 4 adapters (the camera uses a US
plug so I use an adapter at home). So, I cheat. Rather than take enough
adapters for every device or power pack, I take a 4 or 5 outlet power strip and
1 adapter for all the devices I use in my hotel room (phone charger, shaver,
etc.).
I also carry a computer electronics kit with:
- Retractable Ethernet cable
- USB hub
- Travel mouse
- Computer lock
Now you may ask why in this day and age of Wi-Fi
I need an Ethernet cable. To be honest I almost never need it, but I have gone
to a few hotels (mostly in USA or Japan) where there is no free Wi-Fi in the
rooms but they do have free Ethernet. Not sure why, but it is easy enough to
carry the retractable cable just in case.
Other things to consider, some devices use
batteries. Do you need special ones (like my camera) or can you just buy a
standard pack of AA or AAA
for your mouse or camera when they die? Some people use rechargeable AA or AAA
batteries, and I strongly approve. But I have had some problems when changing
voltage with the standard recharger. So either bring enough for your trip or be
prepared to buy a set of replacements.
Additional items that some people carry that
you may want to consider:
- Video adapter – usually needed to connect tablet or Mac laptop to projector
- Wi-Fi / MiFi hub to share connection between devices
- Laser Pointer for presentations (I carry an old fashion retractable one just in case)
Regardless of what you bring, keep security in
mind. There have been recent reports of theft of items from checked luggage. So
I try to keep anything valuable, or that I cannot work without, in my carry-on
bag. Thus power strip gets checked but chargers get carried.
