13 of the best travel gadgets for under £100
Because travelling light is overrated
13 of the best travel gadgets for under £100
When you’ve saved all year for a holiday and converted all your cash into funny coloured notes, the last thing you want to be doing is splashing out even more moolah on tech to take with you. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of travel gadgets for less than £100 each. Just make sure you leave space in your case for pants.
1. Boom Travel+ (£30)
The best travel adaptors are, well, adaptable – and few can do as much as the Boom Travel+. Besides being compatible with sockets in more than 150 countries, it packs a built-in 6000mAh cell, so you’ll have plenty of juice for those Netflix shows you offlined in the departure lounge. Once you’re back at the wall, it’ll zap a plethora of tech simultaneously thanks to a pair of USB slots above the main plug – provided you’ve remembered your cables.
2. Walli Smart Wallet (£90)
You can lose a lot of things on holiday – sunglasses, flip flops, your dignity – but if your wallet goes wayward then you can wave goodbye to a good time. Whether it’s wads of cash or that napkin with the number of last night’s love interest, Walli will ensure you never leave your stash behind: paired via Bluetooth, it’ll ping your smartphone if you stray too far without it and show you its last known location. It works in reverse, too – so you’ll be able to track down your handset just by tapping.
3. Denon Envaya Pocket DSB-50BT (£74)
The tech in most hotel rooms begins with a travel kettle and ends with a tiny TV – and neither is likely to start the party. For a reliable vibe you could do worse than Denon’s diminutive Envaya Pocket. Available in two shades of subtle understatement, this Bluetooth bar can handle aptX for high quality audio, will talk to Siri on an iOS device and is waterproof for good measure. Sound quality is solid and it goes just loud enough that the only people banging on the walls will be those wanting to join the fun.
4. Anker PowerPort Solar Lite (£40)
Tanning is a classic example of clean energy transfer. You sprawl by the pool for the best part of the day. Solar energy pours itself upon your pasty skin. You become a lobster. It’s science in action – and the good news is that those rays are good for more than crisping your epidermis. This featherweight foldable solar panel will boost two USB devices whenever the sun is shining. Compact and weather-resistant, it’ll deliver juice at a speedy 2.1A, while its bigger brother can do the same at 3A.
5. Nanopresso (£70)
You wake in some faraway hotel, draw back the curtains and survey the cityscape before you, enjoying the plush cotton of the branded dressing gown and the shallow comfort of the corporate slippers. You take a long sip of coffee. Yuck! Why did you think a sachet of dried granules would be any different here than at home? While you rue your foolish caffeine faux pas, we’ll be sipping delicious espresso hand-pumped through Wacaco’s wonder machine – now smaller, lighter and more powerful than before.
6. Eagle Creek Expanse Convertible Carry-On (£86)
With many airlines cracking down on battery-equipped luggage, this convertible case might be a quicker ticket to a faff-free airport experience. Sure, it might not offer the GPS tracking and charging tech of bags three times the price, but the option to swap from wheels to backpack straps makes it a boon for all-terrain travellers. Roll it through the departure hall before slinging the 30L sack on your back for the steps up to the jet, safe in the knowledge that its rugged construction is securely hugging your stuff.
7. TP-Link M7350 (£80)
Roaming rates might be tumbling but for far-flung forays it’s still cheaper to buy a local SIM and live the data dream. Pop one in this 4G hotspot from TP-Link and you’ll be streaming before you’ve reached the arrivals lounge. Capable of speeds up to 150mbps, its party trick is supporting up to 15 devices at once – so the whole family can join the bandwidth battle at the beach. And with a battery life of 10 hours, they’ll be at it all day long. Bliss.
8. Flight001 4-in-1 Worldwide Travel Plug Adaptor (£20)
Three flights and four time zones away from home, your efforts to cram a three-pin plug into a two pin socket could almost be forgiven. Almost. Put paid to conversion confusion with this handy adapter: its compact 4-in-1 setup will sort you out in some 150 different countries. What’s more, those colour-coded blocks should make plug selection a cinch, even for jet-lagged brains.
9. Tile Sport (£30)
Taking anything of value away from home is always a risk. Just look at what happened when you took your favourite teddy to Thailand. Thankfully, with this tracker attached you’ll always know where your prized possessions are – even if you’re too hungover from all those vodka buckets to go and find them. Fire up the partner app and you’ll see the Tile Sport’s last known location and, if it’s within Bluetooth range, you’ll be able to make it beep. It’s rugged, too, so it should survive even the toughest night out with Mr Snuggles.
10. EasyAcc Monster Power Bank (£39)
Want to be the popular one on your next group getaway? Forget picking up the bar tab: bag this power bank and you’ll have friends practically flinging their tech at you. Equipped with a whopping 26,000mAh capacity, it’s capable of juicing an iPhone ten times over and, with four USB ports at its disposal, clever charging tech can automatically deliver optimal current to connected devices. And you’ll need plenty of them to give this Monster a challenge.
11. PacSafe Travelsafe (from £55)
It’s a universal truth that you can crack a hotel safe in five minutes with nothing but a breadstick and a YouTube tutorial. Short of taking your own vault on holiday, PacSafe’s Travelsafe sacks are the answer for go-anywhere security. Wrapped in a mesh of stainless steel wire, they’re secured with an in-built combination lock and there’s a useful loop for attaching them to nearby heavy objects. Available in 5L and 12L capacities, there’s now a limited edition 3L version – perfect for keeping your phone safe while you have a crack at kite-surfing.
12. Urbanista Seattle (£89)
If you’re flying long-haul on the regular then a reliable pair of noise-cancelling cans is far more important than one of those silly neck pillows. After all, even a business class bed can’t block out the 3am bawling of a disgruntled sprog. Bose’s QC35 II headphones have long been the benchmark for long-lasting silence, but you don’t need to spend big bucks for good quality: Urbanista’s Seattle ‘phones are subtle, solid and sound great – at a third of the price. Battery is good for 12 hours and you can go corded when it runs flat, too.
13. Nomad Universal Cable (£29)
Cables: a necessary evil. And when it comes to packing, they’re arguably the hardest thing to master. Do you loop them together? Leave them in a loose heap? Stuff them in a shoe? However you choose to stow them, there’s a good chance they’ll have tangled themselves into a bundle of frustration by the time you arrive. Unless you buy this universal cable, that is. Clad in a tear-resistant coating, it can do micro USB, USB-C and Lightning duties, and a handy tie-strap means it won’t mate with your shoelaces in the suitcase.
