Going on holiday can be stressful so these 10 must-have gadgets are all the things we take with us when going on holiday (generally somewhere hot) and wouldn’t live without, most of them either save us time, increase our enjoyment or help us keep our sanity, obviously not all will apply to everyone as we’re all different but hopefully, it gives you a good idea.
1. Noise Cancelling Headphones
If these aren’t in your life already you need to take a long hard look at yourself, they block out most external sounds to ensure that you can fully concentrate on enjoying your music, film etc because of this and the cost of them rapidly falling over the year, they’ve become increasingly popular, they’re heaven for anyone who hates screaming kids, loud drunks, engine noises etc
E.g. Apple AirPods Pro 2 | Sony XM4s | Anker Soundcore Q30
2. A 5-way extension cable with UK Adapter + USB charging long cables
This will vary on usefulness depending on how many powered electricals you take with you on holiday, for us it’s hair straighteners / Dyson AirWrap, various phone/tablet chargers, kids accessories (e.g. monitor), mosquito zapper, TV stick, laptop charger (although we appreciate most people don’t work on holiday, we generally do).
e.g. Mscien 5 way + a UK/EU Adapter
3. Portable Solar Panel or Portable Battery
This will depend on your level of geekery and the amount of time you spend on your devices whilst on holiday but for us the worst feeling is knowing we’re low on battery power for our phones as our phones are our camera, communication device, watch, music player etc etc. We find portable batteries offer a great solution for the majority of holidays but sometimes we will take a compact solar panel instead as they’re generally lighter and allow us to not have to worry if we’ve remembered to charge it up or not, of course, this only works in sunny locations though!
Buy BigBlue Solar Panel or Anker Stand with Built in Battery Bank or Anker Magnetic Battery with Stand
4. Apple AirTags / Tile Pro
After our luggage was left at Heathrow and we only knew about it ~10 hours later after we landed at Las Vegas we now stuff one of these in each bag. It’s just a bit of a backup really and if you’re travelling and connecting across various airports, we would highly recommend them. We also have them attached to our headphones, sunglasses case and sometimes even our children…
Buy Apple AirTag 4 pack | Tile Pro
5. A rewards card with Airport Lounge Access
OK so this is a big luxury but can make financial sense if you don’t pay full price and stock up on drinks and snacks, but we repeat this won’t be for everyone and it will dramatically vary on the number of flights per year you take!
Sign up to Curve Metal for discounted Airport Lounge Access, Travel and Mobile Phone Insurance, Currency Conversion at fair prices and ATM withdrawals
6. A TV Stick
It may sound odd at first but we have kids so waking up to an episode of Bluey is a must of a morning + for adults sometimes after a long day of eating, drinking and relaxing it’s nice just to catch an episode of your favourite Netflix/YouTube/Prime videos and chill in your room for a while. Yes, some hotels may have smart TVs but we often find they don’t or they’re restrictive.
e.g. an Amazon Fire TV stick
7. Refillable Compact Perfume/Aftershave Bottle
To maximise savings on aftershave/perfume etc, we generally buy 100-200ml bottles, the one big drawback with this is you end up with quite large glass bottles that can weigh a decent amount and take up a chunk of your luggage space, instead we use these refillable spray bottles. To fill them you just spray your larger perfume or aftershave bottles into the smaller container until they’re full.
Buy this 5ml spray bottle
8. A phone mount to maximise your photos/videos/sat nav
Whether it’s watching a film on your phone on the plane or helping you capture the best video footage from your once-in-a-lifetime trip a phone mount is a must for us, they come in all shapes and sizes from those with batteries built in to those that stabilise your camera phone to produce pro video or from those that stick your phone to the windscreen (ideal for when renting a car) or those that attach to form a tripod having something to steady your phone is a must in our eyes.
9. A VPN
The problem with travelling is the majority of us are all desperate to connect to the nearest free Wi-Fi, the problem with public Wi-Fi is that it’s generally insecure, so a very wise idea is to have access to a VPN service which sends your phone/devices internet traffic via a secure. A VPN has loads of other benefits as well including showing content from other places (e.g US Netflix), advert removal, bypass internet censorship, block malicious sites etc.
Sign up for NordVPN
10. A set of Packing Cubes
These hidden gems are not to be overlooked, pack your case into different box compartments, making unpacking easier and giving you better organisation to find items. You’ll also fit more into your suitcase.
e.g. these Amazon-branded packing cubes
