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I've brought my netbook with me to every continent, and while I definitely understand not bringing one (and I probably wouldn't, if I wasn't taking a LOT of photos and needing to back them up as I went), there are some huge advantages to having one. Here's some tips for traveling with a netbook: 1. Many netbooks have a USB port that's capable of sleep-and-charge, which is amazing because it means you can use your netbook's battery as a giant extra battery for your smartphone. I packed mine so that the sleep-and-charge port was available in the bag, and then I mainly used the netbook when I actually had AC available to me. 2. If you're from the US, your consumer gear is set by default to only use channels 1-11 for wifi, and in some cases there's no way to change that. Lots of other countries use 12-14 as well, and if an access point is set to one of those channels you'll need to set your wifi adapter to allow that range. 3. If you're taking a netbook, don't buy any paper guidebooks before you go - just get PDF chapters of everywhere you're going from Lonely Planet. If you end up in a place where using your netbook as a guide book is too inconvenient you can still pick up a physical book there. 4. Personally, I'd consider a netbook over unsecured wifi a safer choice for accessing SSL-encrypted sites (like your bank account, Gmail, etc) than an internet cafe, as the likelyhood that someone has installed a keylogger somewhere is higher than someone sniffing your traffic and breaking SSL. 5. Your netbook doesn't need a transformer to plug into different voltages, just a physical adapter for the plug itself. I would travel with only stuff that you can charge without a transformer, so you don't need to carry around 2 pounds of metal. 6. At a minimum, you should have your netbook require a password when it comes back from hibernate. I'd go so far as to use whole-disk encryption like Truecrypt. 7. I bought my netbook based on the same principle I apply to everything I travel with: if it's too valuable to get stolen, it shouldn't come with you. A $300 netbook that's my second computer is cheap enough to be disposable for me, but a $1000 Macbook Air that's my only computer is not. I've never had anything stolen from me permanently while traveling, but I like to keep myself in the position of being mentally prepared to hand over everything on my person and my bags if I get mugged.
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May 31, 2011 00:09
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Here's the bag that I carried my netbook, camera, lenses, phone, and anything else that I wanted on me at all times: Looks like poo poo, right? It doesn't even zip up, anybody could just reach right in and grab stuff in it if they thought I wouldn't notice. No one ever did though, and I like to think that's because it looks so worthless. And actually, the front pockets have zippered bags on the inside for little items, there's another two zippered bags in the main section, and everything else in it is too big to pull out when the carabiners are snapped to the blue d-rings.
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May 31, 2011 00:47
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xcdude24 posted:Great thread; particularly looking forward to suggestions regarding rain gear, especially in regards to tropical climates. I don't think that would do all that much, since keyloggers generally log keystrokes directly regardless of the browser you're using. There may be some tools that specifically log keystrokes within an installed browser, but why an enterprising cafe owner/identity thief would choose that instead of logging all keystrokes is beyond me. If you're going to travel without your own laptop and log in to any important accounts, my recommendation would honestly be to change your password after each time, to limit the potential access. I know that seems paranoid, but I had my credit card number stolen while I was in New Zealand headed to South Africa the next day, and that was an absolute nightmare. There's nothing like having to cut up your check card with access to all your saved up cash right before flying in to Cape Town to put the fear of fraud in you.
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May 31, 2011 07:11
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XXdragonsparkzXX posted:For my trip to South America I got a waterproof jacket that is super thin and stuffs into it's own tiny little pouch when you're not using it: http://www.amazon.com/Sierra-Designs-Mens-Microlight-Jacket/dp/B003DEMKYE/ref=sr_1_3?s=apparel&qlEnable=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1306857171&sr=1-3 My girlfriend has the Patagonia version of this, and she absolutely loves it. I take a different tact, and just pretend that my hoodie is a raincoat. Obviously in heavy rain this doesn't work at all, but most of the time I'm just getting caught in a light rainstorm, and the hoodie takes all the rain for me; then when I get back inside, I hang it up to dry.
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May 31, 2011 18:37
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The one factor that really stopped me from using my phone as a laptop replacement (beyond all the the others, like wanting to dump/backup photos, type blog posts, read LP PDFs, etc) was that my T-Mobile G1 honestly doesn't get good enough wifi reception to use in a lot of hostels. I'd imagine if I had a newer phone it would've been easier, but by my rough estimate probably 75% of the hostels I've stayed at had poor enough signal that I couldn't actually use wifi there. Plus, when you're in a country where all the wifi is bought by the minute, it's painful using a smartphone instead of a real laptop. I know wifi isn't everybody's priority while traveling and probably it shouldn't be, but the last two big trips I've done have spanned both tax day and the timeframe that I apply for my job each year; I can't imagine trying to look up my W2s and deal with Turbotax on my smartphone while paying $6NZD per half-hour. It's too bad that so many translation apps depend on internet to work. While I was waiting for a train in China I used a Chinese dictionary app to communicate (slowly) with a Chinese kid who was waiting for the same train; I'd type the English words I was trying to say and then point to the traditional characters that were closest, and then he would take the phone and type pinyin to find the traditional characters, and point to which ones he meant.
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Jun 1, 2011 20:26
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Sheep-Goats posted:In my opinion you, at some point, simply need to get into the mindset that you should travel with a half empty bag. His bag is small, sure, but it's also filled to brim and is going to stick way off the back of his back which makes it feel heavier (you want the weight as close to your body as possible, so a longer, thinner pack would be more ergonomic). Yeah, it doesn't really matter how inconspicuous your bag looks, because you will always look like a tourist if you have a backpack - imagine seeing an adult wandering around your hometown with any kind of backpack on, you'd think they were a little strange. Now imagine being someone whose livelyhood depends on spotting tourists, like a pickpocket or a tout; a smaller backpack is not a disguise. It is very useful for plenty of other reasons though, like finding a place to put it on the plane/ferry/train/wagon, or fitting through crowds of people without knocking them over when you turn around, or being able to walk a few miles to your hostel comfortably when taxi drivers won't bargain because they know you're a tourist. Sheep-Goats posted:Shoes In some places decent sandals are a necessity though, like if you want to do any hiking in New Zealand; the expectation there is that if there's a river nearby, you'll probably need to ford it at some point. Overall your shoe suggestions lean on the side of urban and single, but I couldn't care less about how my shoes would look in nightclubs because I'm traveling with my girlfriend, and neither of us goes clubbing. Plus, why are people always so worried about foot fungus? I've taken plenty of showers in nasty hostels, never worn flip-flops, and never had a problem. All you need to do is wash your feet with soap, and then thoroughly dry them when you're done.
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Jun 2, 2011 04:58
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:For footwear depending on when and where I either go with my old birkenstocks/cheap hiking shoes on my feet through the airport and a pair of vibram KSOs stashed in my pack. For me at least it's not just the comfort but also endurance, after a long day of walking around in one, swapping to the other gets me using different muscles and it's like starting fresh again. Personally, once I've broken in my shoes or sandals they're comfortable to wear all day. Good socks make a huge difference though, I was a "8-pack of cotton socks from Target" guy for a long time until I bought some decent socks (these, to be exact), and I ended up just throwing away all my cheap cotton socks and just washing these more often.
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Jun 2, 2011 05:27
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The underwear/socks section reminded me of my favorite piece of travel gear - a packing cell. Not really because packing cells are all that important to have for separating stuff out (although they're handy for that), but because packing cell + clean socks and underwear = awesome travel pillow. Get one that's sized so it will fit all your clean stuff fairly tightly, so it's still good when half of it is dirty (or toss a t-shirt in with it). Sheep-Goats, are you planning on including a section on camping gear at all? I know it's useless in many parts of the world, but if you're in southern Africa a tent can save you tons of money, and also pretty much guarantee you can find a place to stay at night since hostels rarely fill up their camping areas.
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Jun 6, 2011 20:12
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Saladman posted:If you go camping in southern Africa rather than spending $40 a night on a hotel room, you get an award for the world's most miserly person. (Particularly after spending $1500+ on your plane ticket there.) What you said is -more useful- for Europe. Plus you can get a night's sleep in a tent instead of having a bunch of drunk Brits throw up all around you. I'm not talking about bush camping, I'm talking about camping on the grounds of a hostel. Many hostels do this in Africa (especially SA, Zambia, Zimbabwe), you pay a lot less than even a dorm bed but you still get to use all the facilities. Whether it's worth the money or not depends entirely on the length of your trip - if you're in Africa for a week, $40 a night isn't much. If you flew from NYC to Cape Town and stayed in SA for a month, that $40 a night will cost the same as your round-trip ticket. Most hostels charge upwards of about $5 per person for camping, so the difference between camping and staying at a hotel is the equivalent of three meals per day at decent restaurants. I think the key differences between hiking-camping and travel-camping is that when you're traveling, you really should be bringing just a tent (and maybe a very lightweight sleeping bag, if you're in a climate that gets cold at night). I wouldn't even bother bringing cooking supplies, unless you're planning on camping out at actual campsites as a major portion of your trip, and if you are you probably want to look at the hiking/backpacking thread instead. Lightweight tents are generally sized for 1-4 people, and I think the sweet spot for travel camping is 2 people because you can have one person carry the poles and the other carry the body of the tent, and each person is carrying less than if they had a 1-person tent to themselves. I've been using the Sierra Designs Lightning XT2, which is awesome and roomy and light (a little over 4 pounds) for the price. If you have more money to spend there are some that get lighter, like the Big Agnes Seedhouse SL2, but keep in mind that your tent should fall under than "Everything can be stolen" rule; especially since there's always the possibility that some drunk rear end in a top hat will fall on it in the night and break it. These models are available in 1-person and 3-person as well, also 4-person with the Sierra Designs one. Even if you're fairly small and traveling with your SO, don't think that you can squeeze into that larger 1-person tent because you tried it in REI and it seemed to work fine; they aren't designed with enough airflow to exhaust two people breathing in them, and you'll end up getting tons of condensation on the inside of the tent. If you buy a new tent with the intention of taking it traveling with you, take it out when you get it and set it up a few times to learn how to do it, even if you have to do it out on the lawn in front of all the neighbors. That's still less embarrassing than getting to a hostel in the dark and not being able to read the directions, so you sleep with your tent half-erected and you get rained on. Speaking of rain, these tents should be seam-sealed at the factory and can handle moderate rain out-of-the-box, but I would go a little further and seal the spots where the fly attaches to the extra lines just in case you get caught in a major storm. For sleeping bags, I'd avoid them if at all possible. If you're taking something like a sleep-sack you can probably just use that in tropical climates, but some places are less tropical than you'd expect at night. This Deuter Dreamlite 500 is the smallest-packed and lightest sleeping bag I've ever seen, and probably warm enough for most of Africa. It compresses down to the equivalent of probably a pair of khakis in your bag.
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Jun 6, 2011 23:46
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I like the shirts section, but recommending one pair of dress pants and one pair of cargo shorts is for someone who's clubbing. Jeans are popular not just because people like the look, but because they're much more durable than dress pants, something that's important when you might end up sitting on rough concrete to wait for a bus. And honestly, I don't really see the point in ever taking a pair of shorts traveling. Dress pants, khakis, jeans - they all can be worn in almost any situation, even if one is less appropriate than the other in some cases. Shorts have plenty of situations where you really can't wear them, and if it's hot enough that you think shorts will be more comfortable, it's probably also sunny enough that you'd be more comfortable keeping the sun off your legs.
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Jun 13, 2011 19:43
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Windmill Hut posted:But guys, dont bring shorts, the SUN might get on your legs! Uh, or you might not be allowed in to many of the places that you'd want to visit, because it's incredibly rude to wear shorts there? A large part of the world operates on a scale that ranges from "shorts look stupid" to "shorts are blatantly offensive". Honestly, if your method of travel is just to pack all of the stuff you want from home into a suitcase and show up somewhere else, then why would you need a travel gear thread? As for water filters, another (very inexpensive) option is to bring a metal camping mug, which is pretty light and can have things packed into it, and an immersion heater. There's a good chance you don't even need to take the immersion heater with you, I was able to find one pretty easily at markets in India and Morocco. Fill it up with non-potable tap water from your hostel, bring to a boil, and let cool. It's not going to replace bottled water entirely, but you'll have an option for when you can't get any more for some reason. Also, if you're like me and have trouble going out in public without having some coffee first, you can make a cup in your room with some instant.
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Jun 16, 2011 19:10
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I like the packing cell that I have (I load it up with my socks and underwear and use it for a pillow), but I'd think hard before using too many of them. One has always been enough for me, it's tempting to go all OCD and put everything you own into a packing cell but it won't actually make anything better in the long run.
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Jun 17, 2011 03:58
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One thing I'd add to the gloves section is Kiwi possum gloves. I work for the US Antarctic Program, and while most of the cold weather gear they give us is great, the glove liners are polypro pieces of crap. Not the end of the world for people like me who work indoors, but people who are outdoors working for extended periods of time will usually walk from McMurdo (the main US station) over to Scott Base (run by New Zealand) to buy gloves like these from their gift store. I picked some up myself, and they are the best gloves I've ever owned.
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Jul 2, 2011 07:24
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qirex posted:official Travel Dad gear: Psh, real travel dads carry around a camcorder and slowly pan it across everything they see, in order to make the most mind-numbing home video in the world for their relatives to pretend to watch.
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Jul 15, 2011 01:02
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Man, this is what you want if you aren't bringing a laptop and want to upload pictures using internet cafe computers. Just throw away the miniSD adapter, keep the microSD adapter in the camera, and the card reader is smaller than a USB plug.
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Jul 16, 2011 19:24
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Cheesemaster200 posted:(20) maleria pills (going to Laos for a week, quasi-rural) Malaria prophylactics might be a good topic to add to the OP, as well. Maybe an overview of the different kinds, and their relative efficacy and side effects?
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Jul 17, 2011 21:35
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Toussaint Louverture posted:I have one problem with the OP. This is all for local planetary travel, for interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic these rules may not apply.
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Jul 18, 2011 08:14
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I think the camera section looks good, definitely a good idea to discourage people from dragging along a DSLR unless they know what they're doing with it. Seriously, everybody who travels now has a DSLR, and most of them are probably nicer than yours - if you think that having a nice camera is going to get you better pictures, you're wrong. I can add some tips for DSLRs while traveling, though: Lenses - People seem to love buying lenses based on focal length, and you'll see a million people walking around with 18mm - 250mm telephotos on their camera. Frankly, I almost never end up wanting a focal length of >70mm when I'm traveling (I'm using a crop-sensor DSLR, so for full-frame adjust these numbers accordingly). You're not a secret agent, you're not a photojournalist, and you're not wildlife photographer. There's just not that much to zoom in on, and if you want a longer focal length you're going to sacrifice either speed or weight/size to do it. On the flip side, if you're like me you'll always wish you had a faster lens. Yes, your camera has a nice bright flash, and no, nothing will look good with it. Also, flash photography is going to shout out to anyone nearby that you have a camera. With a P&S or a cameraphone you can't get away with shooting without the flash, but a modern DSLR with the ISO cranked up and a fast lens (F2 or less) will get some very impressive nighttime shots. If you're using a Canon DSLR, you should own a EF50mm 1.8 prime, because it's the cheapest lens you can buy and really good for the price. If you're traveling with just one lens, I'd either get that, the 35mm version (more expensive, but on crop-sensor cameras the 50mm is really too long to use for everything), or stick with the kit 18-55. If you're wealthier than me and feel like you could afford to lose it, you could pick up a Sigma 18-50 2.8. Cases - I would get a form-fitting, holster-style case. Don't worry about finding a case that will hold a bunch of accessories, just toss those in your regular bag and, if possible, pack the camera (in its case) into whatever daybag you're carrying around. You can't really disguise a DSLR effectively any other way, people who see it (even if you've done stupid things like cover up the logos with electrical tape) are going to know it's valuable. Keep it in your bag, and don't take it out anywhere where it will make you too much of a target. Tripods - Don't bring them. Seriously, they suck. I do a lot of stitched pano photography, and thought that having a very lightweight tripod would be nice to help keep everything lined up and sharp, but after dragging that stupid thing around for 4 months I ended up discovering that almost none of the shots (pano or otherwise) that I took with the tripod ended up being good. And honestly, I think a lightweight tripod is actually worse than no tripod at all for DSLRs, because you can't even use them for long exposures; the camera's shutter action (yes, even with the mirror locked) is enough to jar the tripod and blur the shot.
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Jul 18, 2011 20:24
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Sheep-Goats posted:Uhhhhhhhh I think they just paid 600 bucks for a netbook. Yeah, netbooks do everything this does and more, they cost less, you can offload photos onto them, they're unbelievably durable.
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Jul 18, 2011 20:26
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Those little mini-tripods are great for self shots. They weigh next to nothing and take up no space so I always carry one along with me. They may not be perfect for late night time lapse, but they are still useful. I'm talking about things from the perspective of someone bringing a DSLR, in which case the camera will barely be stable on a mini-tripod. Also, if you're dragging along a DSLR I think it's a little silly to do the "here's a picture of me in front of the [insert famous building here]" routine with it, but I guess that's personal preference. qirex posted:There's also some best practices as far as computer/account security you should do on the road because even if you are using your own hardware your connection may not be trustworthy. The simplest thing to do is make a separate gmail account just for that trip with a 100% unique password and forward your mail to that. This will prevent 99% of "oh man my main email account got compromised and now my whole life is poo poo" scenarios Also if you need to check your money [and you're in the US/Canada] set up a mint.com account [again with a unique PW] so you're not typing in your online banking credentials unless you really need to. This is probably a little paranoid; if you're using Gmail all traffic is encrypted via SSL so you should be completely safe. This is also true of most banking sites, but not true of Facebook; they only encrypt the log in page. So someone couldn't sniff your user/pass if you log in to Facebook on an unsecured wireless network, but they could grab the cookie it gives you and masquerade as you for as long as you were logged in, probably changing your status to "penis penis penis" and making lewd comments on your friends' pictures. The key thing is having your own computer/phone/whatever to check your mail, because the real concern is keyloggers at internet cafes. If you want to be extra safe, I'd recommend you get into the habit of checking your activity log regularly.
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Jul 18, 2011 21:22
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qirex posted:I'm slightly less in love with my Canon s95 than I was when I first got it, I think because when pictures really come out they look so good that you're mad when you look at them next to the "OK" ones. I still think it's the best camera for its size you can get but I'd absolutely love it if it had faster shot-to-shot and autofocus and maybe some interface tweaks. If you had the money to blow, you could consider getting a Canon G12 - the S95 is based off the same big-for-a-small-camera sensor, which is why the pictures look so great, but it has a faster continuous shot speed.
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Jul 18, 2011 21:31
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qirex posted:It's not paranoid if you've seen the extent some places go to to jack online banking credentials from tourists, e.g. hidden cameras over keyboards. Also hotel networks are the absolute "dirtiest" as far as malware goes. I know, that's why I'd always recommend bringing a netbook with you. As long as you can avoid ever using someone else's computer to do anything important, you shouldn't have to worry. People think of wireless networks as being "unsecure" because they're not always encrypted, but everything important that you do is encrypted anyway, and all the way from your browser to the server instead of just between you and the access point owned by the shady hostel. The real risk is using a internet cafe's computer or a kiosk somewhere. Cheesemaster200 posted:I wouldn't drag along a DSLR just for that. However, if I am dragging it along anyway, you might as well get said pictures taken with a better camera. Why wouldn't you? Apart from being concerned that I'm setting my most expensive possession on a little stand and then walking 10 or 15 feet away from it in a public place? I try to travel with only things that I can stand to have stolen, but I'd still rather get my point and shoot stolen than my DSLR. Plus honestly, that type of picture will likely look better from the point and shoot - the smaller image sensor means that for the same aperture you have more depth of field, so you'll have an easier time getting whatever's behind you and yourself in focus at the same time.
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Jul 18, 2011 22:20
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Slimchandi posted:Can anyone offer some help regarding United Airlines carry-on policy? I phoned up their helpline today and the advice they offered me contradicted their website. Don't check your uke, your shoulder bag should count as your "purse/laptop" bag, which is usually in addition to a piece of carry-on "luggage", like a rolling bag that's sized for the overhead bin. I took my acoustic bass guitar as a carry-on in addition to a fairly hefty laptop bag holding tons of electronics and two laptops (a 17" and a netbook), which is technically too big to even consider as a carry-on since most airlines set the limit at a regular acoustic guitar. If you're really worried, you should just talk to the gate agents for your flight 30-45 minutes ahead of when boarding begins, and ask them politely if they think you'll have any trouble finding a place in the overhead bin for your uke. I guarantee they'll say that you'll be fine (and then for god's sake, once you get on the plane put it under the seat instead of in the overhead bin where someone will a rolly-bag will bash it 6 or 7 times). Worst case scenario, they might tell you that it has to be gate-checked, which means they'll give it a tag and take it from you as you board the plane, and it will be checked last - so it goes on the top of the pile, instead of under the golf clubs. ilovepy posted:Is it possible to have a pack-able wide brimmed hat and not look like a Travel Dad? Hats are dorky but so much better than sunscreen. My neck is red enough as it is. You could just do what I do, and wear a lightweight hooded long-sleeve shirt when you're out in the sun. Then when you put up the hood, you look like a pedophile or something instead of Travel Dad.
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Jul 26, 2011 00:45
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Laptop bag! It's a laptop bag, just fill it with laptops and you'll still be a man.
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Jul 26, 2011 09:26
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caberham posted:Camera stuff Seriously, drop the flash and the 85/1.2. Unless you're really going to be taking non-stop wildlife photography, it's not worth the extra weight. Plus, think of how you'll feel if you break your $2000 L glass trying to swap lenses to get a picture of some deer.
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Jul 28, 2011 20:27
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Sheep-Goats posted:Tripod alternative: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLlJl7TbXTA I'm very impressed - I was expecting him to just hang something heavy off the string but his idea is much better.
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Sep 27, 2011 09:59
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lostleaf posted:Does anyone have any recommendations for proxy services? I would like to be able to buy barnes and noble nook books on the road and occasionally listen to pandora. After looking at a few proxy services that seemed awfully sketchy and required a lot of information to sign up with, I just ended up getting a cloud server instance with Rackspace instead. It's a little more work on your end because you need to set up an SSH session with PuTTY and then proxy over that, but it works for my purposes.
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Jul 30, 2012 20:14
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