Six Essential Things to Pack For Vacation

For seasoned travelers experienced with the benefits of a smart phone and laptop, the check list continues to grow of things to carry on a trip. But, there consider adding these items to your treasure chest of travel gear:

• Power strip
  This came in handy when several of us shared a room and each had cell phone, hair dryer and curling iron. Usually rooms only have a few electrical outlets and this small light weight travel power strip had three outlets. While traveling in Europe, it worked with an adapter plugged into the outlet and gave us three extra places for curling our hair.  It even came in handy on a recent trip in the US with two people traveling. It proved itself worthwhile with all our electronic necessities.
• Skype headset
  The hands free device plugs easily into a laptop and eliminates the need to shout into the speaker microphone on the laptop.  The spongy ear piece is comfortable and drowns out background noises.  Others nearby can’t hear your conversation which may be a benefit depending on who is eavesdropping.   When the talking gets good and juicy, I cradle my hand over the flexible mouth piece and gab away.
• Car charger for cell phone
  An extra charger packed for my rental cars was a necessity for a day trip after using the phone’s map drained the battery.   It was good to find my way out of the boondocks while charging the phone and the navigation app led me in the right direction. Driving in unknown areas shouldn’t be a hazard with a dead cell phone battery.
• Casio G shock watch with world time
  I have the baby G which suites me just fine and all I have to do is push a button to change the time to 48 cities in the world. No matter where I travel to, there is a timezone for my current location.  A Man’s world time watch is bigger and doed more fancy time keeping because the mechanism can hold more data, but 3 a.m. in Paris reads the same on either watch.
• Small LED flashlight
  This mini light is compact with a powerful light and a handle designed for a firm grip which makes it the perfect piece of safety equipment when the lights go out.   I feel assured if the lighting system fails on a plane, train or inside a museum. I can find my way out with this little four inch precise stream of light.
• And last, there’s nothing better than an old fashioned notebook and a tethered pen to jot down interesting sightings and even a new friend’s address to keep in contact.

Travel preparedness; yes, be prepared for battle when traveling.