10 Best Travel Gadgets You Need on Every Trip

Travelling can be exhausting. Especially when you’re on the road for a longer period, camping, or completely off the grid. You can never have too many clever travel gadgets. Here are the 10 best travel gadgets that will make your trips easier and even save space in your backpack.

1) Collapsible water bottle

For a long time, we struggled with how to handle water on the road. Buying bottled water isn’t eco-friendly and gets expensive on longer trips, while a regular plastic bottle takes up a lot of space even when it’s empty. Then we discovered Hydrapak, and this collapsible bottle quickly became our favourite travel gadget.

The bottle gradually shrinks as you drink from it, until it becomes almost completely flat.

2) What to do with dirty laundry? Every traveller’s dilemma

You wouldn’t think dirty laundry could be a problem. But after a few days, mixing it with your clean clothes is far from pleasant. We used to rely on plastic bags, but these travel laundry bags are a much better solution. They don’t let any odours through, they’re tough to tear, and they have handy loops for hanging.

3) Packing cubes

For years, our suitcases and backpacks were only tidy on the first day of a trip. After that, you start rummaging through your luggage and all those carefully organised sections you set up before departure are gone. Since we got our first packing cubes, they’ve become an indispensable part of our gear. Thanks to them, our bags finally stay organised even after weeks of travelling.

• Where to buy them? You can find quality packing cubes on Amazon. If you’d rather buy individual sizes instead of full sets, check out this link.

4) Inflatable travel pillow

Do you fly often or love sleeping in a tent? Then you know that feeling of giving anything for a pillow. This compact inflatable travel pillow goes everywhere with Lucka. It even fits in a pocket – a perfect gadget for flying.

5) Packable daypack

While we’re on the topic of collapsible things, we can’t forget a packable daypack. We originally bought ours for our e-bike expedition across Europe, but we quickly realised it’s useful almost everywhere. Just like the pillow, the backpack fits in a pocket when folded and weighs only 90g. We recommend either the Ferrino packable backpack (often sold out) or the Osprey Ultralight.

6) Portable espresso maker – Wacaco

This one is mainly for coffee lovers. But from our experience, every other traveller is a coffee enthusiast, so a portable espresso maker definitely belongs on this list. There are several travel-friendly coffee makers out there, but the one that’s served us best is the Wacaco espresso maker. It’s the only one that can generate pressure comparable to professional machines, and it’s about the size of a large potato.

7) Firesteel / fire starter

How many times in your life have you needed matches? For us, it’s been countless times. And when we finally found some, they were usually damp. That’s why we carry a firesteel, which lets us start a fire or light a stove absolutely anywhere. A great gadget that punches well above its price!

8) GorillaPod tripod and camera clip

If you’re into photography, you know how tricky it is to take photos of yourself while travelling. If you want to be in the picture, you either have to ask a passerby (90% of the time those photos turn out rubbish) or place the camera somewhere and use the self-timer. But often there’s nowhere to set the camera down or lean it against, and the shot doesn’t work. In the worst case, the camera falls and breaks.

The GorillaPod by Joby is the solution for exactly these situations. It’s extremely lightweight and lets you mount your camera on a branch, a pole, or a railing.

How to choose a GorillaPod

Pay attention to the weight capacity when choosing one. If you shoot with a DSLR, go for the 3 kg or 5 kg version. For mirrorless cameras, 3 kg is enough, and for compact cameras, 1 kg will do. It’s also great for smartphones – you just need to buy a phone mount attachment separately.

The second photography gadget is the Capture clip by Peak Design, which you can attach anywhere on your clothing or backpack. You then simply slide your camera into it.

9) Universal travel adapter – Powercube

We’ve been recommending this little cube to everyone for years. When we arrive somewhere, the first thing we do is hunt for a power socket because everything needs charging. But sockets aren’t the same everywhere, and we’ve bought our devices in different countries around the world. This is where the genius Powercube comes in.

You can use four different plug adapters depending on which part of the world you’re in, plus it has 4 standard sockets on the other sides and two USB ports. After four years of use, it’s only broken on us once. That’s impressive, considering we constantly overload it.

10) Travel payment cards

90% of our expenses are abroad, so we’re constantly dealing with ATM withdrawals, exchange rate calculations, and figuring out how to save a bit more. Smart payment cards like Revolut and Curve have been a huge help. They give us access to better exchange rates, and when combined correctly, we can even withdraw cash abroad without any fees.

Since this is a topic that deserves its own deep dive, we’ve written a dedicated article on our second blog where we cover finances and technology. Read our article about travel payment cards here.