As we head into the summer months, I’m sure a lot of us will be doing a bit of traveling, and I wanted to go ahead and do an updated video showing off some of the essentials I take with me on my trips. Now this video features the things I like to have on long distance flights, on vacations that last a couple weeks, mainly for those tips that are a little more involved rather than just a quick weekend away.
Piorama B3 Bag (Official Website)
iPhone X (Amazon Link)
iPad Air 2 (Amazon Link)
USB C Lighting Cable (Amazon Link)
Bose QC35 II (Amazon Link)
Bose QC35 I (Just as good) (Amazon Link)
Anker PowerCore+ 26800 (Amazon Link)
–35% Off Code: ANKERPD7
Kensington Int’l Wall Plug (Amazon Link)
First up, let’s talk about the bag. This is the B3, a fully adjustable backpack from the folks over at piorama who were kind enough to send this over for me to check out, and right off the bat let me just say that it is easily the most versatile and useful bag I’ve come across. It’s essentially a backpack that can be transformed into 3 different sizes depending on how much stuff you have and how much space you need. The backpack can be used as a 31L, 46.6L or 62L bag and no matter what size you go with, it’s very comfortable and easy to carry. Even at its smallest size which you can see here, it’s still a good size backpack with a pretty simple design. On the exterior, you’ve got 2 zipper pouches that you can use to store some things you need easy access too, and they’re a pretty reasonable size, big enough to fit cables and chargers, sunglasses, earbuds, things like that. The shoulder straps are also very thick and wide with plenty of cushion and a lot of options to adjust them, and since this bag can be made to be so big, it’s definitely important that it remains comfortable if you do end up hauling around a bunch of stuff
On its own, this backpack is a solid option for travel. It’s water resistant, it’s comfortable, it’s made from quality material like high grade nylon and polyester, but the main selling point here obviously is it’s adjustability. At a bare minimum, you can of course adjust the straps on the size to take it from 25L to 31L, and that’s cool but a lot of other backpacks and bags can do that. What makes this bag special is that it utilizes a draw string setup to reveal additional space on the top and bottom to extend your storage capacity when you need it, and hide it away when you don’t. When you fill up the bag with everything you need, you just have to crumple in the excess material, pull the draw string to tighten everything up, and you’re back down to whatever smaller size you need and the draw strings can be tucked away using a little magnetic flap on the size as well. So if you just need a few days worth of clothes, you can keep everything small, if you need a little more space, you can always undo just 1 side of the bag, or you can go all out, fill this bag up with a month’s worth of clothes and different items and be set to go. On the inside of the bag, there are 2 more zipper pouches that you can use to keep track of some of the smaller things you might have with you like bathroom items or spare change. The fact that this bag transforms from a small backpack to basically a full size duffel bag makes it an excellent value overall, that’s what drew me to this bad. I love how versatile it is and I think for a lot of people, this is something they can get a ton of use out of especially for those longer vacations that require a bit more stuff.
Now let’s move on to some of the tech that goes inside the bag. Like I said, these items I utilize more on longer trips like long cross country or international flights and I try and keep it as simple as possible so that I’m not necessarily worrying about losing anything especially. My phone of choice right now is still my iPhone X. I change phones pretty often, I had the OnePlus 6, I moved on to the LG G7, I’m about to venture over to the V35, but for every day use and especially on trips, it’s really hard for me to put down my iPhone X. If I need something with a bigger screen to watch tv shows or movies, I’ll also bring an iPad with me and you’ll be surprised to know that this isn’t actually the latest and greatest iPad Pro, this is actually an iPad Air 2 and the reason I still have this is, for me, i only every need it to consume content. I don’t need Apple Pencil support, I don’t even really need that much better specs, and the iPad Air 2 has that nicer laminated display which isn’t on the $329 iPad Apple sells now, so this is just still a really solid device even if it is technically a little dated and you can actually still gets these refurbished online for pretty cheap too.
When I’m listening to music or watching movies, especially for travel, the Bose QC35’s are in my opinion the best headphones you can buy. These are the QC35 II’s that came out 7 or 8 months ago, yes they’re a bit on the expensive side, but with the sound quality and how comfortable they are and how well they cancel out noise, they are absolutely worth every penny. The fold up a bit which makes things easier when you carry them in a backpack and they also come with a hard shell case you can use too. The cushion on the earcups and the head band is some of the softest and most comfortable I’ve ever experienced, battery life will get you up to 20 hours wirelessly, but most importantly, the noise cancellation on these is ridiculous. It is silent. The outside world is gone, no airplane noise, no crying babies, nothing. And Bose does a nice job retaining the audio quality even with the active noise cancellation, they sound really good. If you have the opportunity and you’re looking for some of the best headphones to travel with, these are it right here. And by the way, you don’t necessarily have to get he Qc35 II’s you can get the first gen and save a few bucks too and you’ll be equally as happy.
To keep everything charged, there’s only one company I use, and that’s Anker. I still need to carry a lightning cable with me for my iPhone and iPad, this is the lightning to USB-C for quick charging, and that’s coupled with Anker’s powercore+ package here which includes a power bank and a USB-C PD wall plug. The wall plug is 30w adapter with power delivery which quickcharges the latest iPhones and iPads and any android device, especially if you’re an Apple user like I am, not having to spend 50 bucks on theirs is pretty awesome. Now the powerbank is even more special. This thing is a beast, it’s a 26,000 Mili vamp capacity also with power delivery, it’s got 2 power IQ usb power ports and a USB C port, so it can obviously charge smartphones and tablets, but it can also charge things like a Nintendo switch and even a USB C MacBook so it’s super versatile, it’s very powerful and really it’s going to be charge pretty much anything as fast as possible and multiple times over the course of a trip.
Finally, for international travel, you still might need a wall plug adapter. I’ve been using this one from Kensington for the last couple of years and it hasn’t failed me yet. It’s very affordable and comes jam packed with all the different international plug types you might need. You just slide the plug type you need on out, plug it into the wall and then plug whatever it is you need into the adapter. There’s even 2 more USB ports on the bottom for additional charging. You’ve got similar plug input options as well, and generally speaking, if you travel international on a regular basis you know how useful something like this is.
So there you go, those are the things I take with me on by longer trips and the bag that carries it all. Let me know some of the stuff you guys can’t travel without in the comments below, also be sure to follow TechDaily on twitter and subscribe to the TechDaily YouTube channel if you haven’t already and I’ll see you guys later.
