If you’re like me, you’ve probably read a hundred thousand “travel hacks” and product reviews. Let’s just say, some turned out better than others. After years of my own travel experience, I feel like I have come to rely not just on kitschy hacks or gadgets, but also on conscious habits. Working and creating on the go requires great gear—yes—but it also requires cunning. When things can go wrong, they will go wrong. That’s Murphey’s Law, right? As digital nomads, we have to be ready for when the unexpected happens. Here are my key survival strategies that have allowed me to prepare, prevent, and protect my work while I’m on the go.
Quick Links
2. Offline Maps
11. Use a VPN
Portable WiFi Hotspot
This lesson was learned on a trip to Angkor Wat in Siem Reap from Battambang, Cambodia. The drive through rural Cambodia took four hours in a minivan filled to the brim with human, and nonhuman, passengers. The woman in the front seat clutched a small child, maybe four or five years old. She also spent a majority of the first two hours vomiting in a plastic bag, which she then shamelessly threw out of the window. A young monk, maybe fourteen and clad in his orange robes, sat in the back seat hiding a chicken in a box and playing some violently loud first-person shooter game on his cell phone. So, when I finally arrived, I wanted no more trouble. However, the bus driver was not from Siem Reap and quickly got lost when looking for my tucked away hotel. The crumbled paper that held a crudely printed map of my hotel’s intersection was clearly not enough to trigger his sense of topography of the area. I had not bought a new sim card after mine had ran out in Battambang, so I was forced to endure a seemingly endless search as the driver putted up and down every intersection of the city. I eventually made it to my hotel. The moral of this incredibly long story? Always have WiFi.
For me, this means a WiFi hotspot device. I use a WiFi hotspot from a company called GlocalMe. Mine is the GlocalMe 3, which they recently discontinued, but at this moment you can find it at a ridiculously low price on WalMart.com. If you’re reading this by the time they’re gone for good, the GlocalMe 4 has some updated features and is available on Amazon. This little guy is amazing. Not only does it have two sim card slots for data you can buy cheap when you’re abroad, you can also order data directly through the company via their app. So, I order data before I take off, knowing damn well that I will have access when I land. Then, when by convenience I come across a cheaper sim card option, I pop that in there and I’m off to the races. GlocalMe offers a ton of WiFi hotspot plans for various countries and regions, making it one of the best WiFi hotspot prepaid options I’ve used. Don’t be like me and try to navigate through the rural Cambodian countryside without WiFi—get a WiFi hotspot device.
Offline Maps
Great, so you’ve got yourself a Wifi hotspot. You’re king of the world—until you travel to Cuba. Then, you’re reliant on the government provided WiFi. I’ve waited in those lines at the shady corner kiosks selling WiFi cards that can only be used at certain designated parks. Trust, don’t count on getting your full money’s worth. Although chilling with everyone else tethered to the government WiFi can be quite the way to meet locals, it can also really cramp your workflow.
Havana taught me how to download offline maps. You can’t navigate those winding, colorful streets without WiFi. So, if you plan to step foot out of the WiFi parks, download offline maps. And honestly, the same is true for any unfamiliar location you will be wandering around. Before I leave for my trip, I download offline maps on Google Maps. You can do this on your phone without having to sacrifice much space at all. Just head to the location on the map, click on your Google icon at the top right. You’ll see the Offline Maps options, where you can select your own Google offline maps or download their recommendations based on the location. It’s typically a few dozen MBs, which is nothing to ensure that bit more sanity when God forbid, you’re WiFi hotspot eats shit. Another great option is Maps.me, where you can download maps of key cities from their app.
Multiple Travel Adapters
My first trip to Paris had me on a desperate crusade to meet a deadline after my only international plug adapter died on me. Now, this thing was fancy, having like five USB ports. Before I left, I was convinced that it would have enough room for all my charging needs. After parading around the streets of Paris all day, I returned to my hotel room—horrified to see that it had not charged my laptop, or anything else for that matter. I was already late getting back, you know—because Paris. So, I was really pressed for time on a deadline. I needed another adapter ASAP. This was at 8 pm and honestly my hopes of fulfilling that quest were slim. However, to my delight I found a small tech/ whatever shop still open a few blocks down from my flat. It had not been listed on Google Maps and so it was literally like the heavens parted for me and delivered me power. Sometimes, just as much as things go wrong—they can also go right.
I got my paper done and submitted on time. And, I learned always to carry multiple adapters with me. Yes, it is great to have one with a ton of port options. The best international plug adapter I have been loving most lately I got off Amazon and gives me great plug and USB opportunities. But to throw all your power needs into one portable basket is a bit risky. So, I always carry around that European adapter I found from that one shopkeeper in the 11th Arrondissement. It only has one plug, but it is study and has a surge protector, making it my dedicated option for my laptop and all my hair tools. So, remember always to travel with more than one international travel adapter plug.
Carry Two Phones
I got two phones… one for the plug…and one for navigation? Although I look a bit like a plug myself juggling two phones, this habit is a new addition to my ever-growing tech survival guide. Last time I upgraded to a new iPhone I did not turn in my old one. That left me with my old iPhone X on top of the new iPhone 12 Pro. Why didn’t I just take the cash they would have given me to turn it in? Well, I use it primarily for navigation while I’m driving or mashing around on foot.
That means I have an older, less important iPhone in my hands as I wander around a new city, face glued to Google Maps. Throughout Southeast Asia, there are targeted grab and go robberies calculated by sneaky little motorcyclists who target tourists gazing down at their phones, precariously held in the weak grip of a single hand. I have heard the story many a times, from many a people. So, just like I hope you learn from my experiences, I try to learn from others’ as well. So, if I am caught off guard and am struck by one of these phone-stealing duos, I am not stuck without a phone and even better—my more expensive phone with a better camera is still safely tucked away in my crossbody bag. I also like using my old phone as a navigation device in my car as well, allowing me to shamelessly take quick photos with Apple ProRaw without having to wrestle the phone out of the dash mount. Worried about your phone's warranty by popping it open to add a SIM card? Well, that second, older phone also works great for cheap cell service in foriegn countries without risking the wrath of your phone carrier!
Portable Power Supply
Like so many of you, I’ve been doing a lot more road trips lately. With international travel still so up in the air at times, I’ve focused on a lot more travel within California. If you’ve seen any of my content on Lone Pine or the White Mountains, you saw me parading all over the Eastern Sierra. That trip was great partly because I really got to test out my new Mavic Air 2s at some truly epic locations. I was able to feed that ravenous drone with the help of my Jackery portable power station. I bought the Jackery 240W power station with their 100W solar panel and took off into the desert. For the first time, I felt comfortable camping in remote areas without constant need for power. The Jackery can be powered through an AC adaptor when you are driving or by the good old California sun. I wasn’t sure if 240W would be enough because it can’t run my hair tools—yes I am vain enough to want to straighten my hair in the middle of the high desert. But, I was surprised at how efficient charging was with that thing! The solar panels tend to bring about 40W or so, allowing for a full charge in about six hours.
Now, the Jackery portable power station ceases to be an option for airline travel. While great for road trips, it’s not getting through TSA. For my international trips, I actually have a pretty clever solution—multitasking. Remember that trusty GlocalMe WiFi hotspot? Yea, it is also a portable power supply; in fact, one of the best portable power supplies I’ve used lately. I’ve been through my fair share of disappointing power blocks that end up just that—blocks. The GlocalMe device can power my phone up to three times as well as pump out WiFi, although I would always recommend you save some juice for the WiFi itself! This helps me keep my everyday carry related to my portable power needs down to a minimum.
Cable Organization
So, on that same trip I fell in love with the Jackery power station, I lost two of its primary cords. The universe decided to take back the wall and AC adaptor, along with my DJI drone charger. Thankfully, the cord to the solar panel is literally fused on, or else I would have probably lost that too. Hey, Murphey’s Law, right?
So that really had me revisiting the importance of travel cable organization. On my road trip, I took all the extra space my car provided me for granted. I admit, my strict Marie Kondo organizing styles slipped and the larger chargers I had for my Jackery and DJI drone disappeared. Next time, I will make sure to put them where they belong, which is this awesome travel cable organizer case from Amazon. I cannot express how important a travel cord system really is when you’re on the go. Having a dedicated cord case or pouch while traveling is like taking your drawer of cables with you wherever you go. In fact, I actually even use mine while I am sedentary to keep all my cables from becoming a chaotic tangle of angry wires. The little bit of extra sanity helps keep me motivated to work and protects me from loosing those key cables I cannot work without.
All About that Pouch Life
The next major theme of this article revolves around protection. First, let’s talk about pouch protection. I remember one of the first times I solidified my pouch obsession, I traveled to Austria to stay with my then partner. The plan was to stay for a few months, so I was coming with all my key gear that I needed to work during one of my busiest seasons—finals season. That meant I was lugging around delicate camera, video, and work gear. When I got to my partner’s house, he could not help but laugh as I pulled out of my Mary Poppin’s carryon bag about twenty black pouches of various sizes. I admit, it must have looked ridiculous. But it kept my shit organized—and protected.
These days, my pouch collection has grown and I cannot recommend them enough to protect your gear. On Amazon, there is a compatible travel case for literally every electronic under the sun. My laptop lives in a neoprene sleeve, my drone is nestled quietly in its own DJI travel case, all my cords and dongles are tucked away within my tech travel case. The list goes on. I also have travel case for my hard drive, one for my USB microphone, another for my GoPro and its accessories. These pouches not only provide some padding and hard shell protection for my sensitive devices, but they also allow me to play Tetris with my gear that actually makes packing much easier. This strategy extends to a larger packing strategy in general. It is so helpful when your gear is protected and compartmentalized successfully, packed to stay organized and to prevent as many bumps and bruises as possible on your sensitive gear. I recently picked up a super functional DNA 16 slim Messenger bag from Tenba that is filled with all sorts of customizable inserts and pockets to fulfill all my pouch life dreams. I cannot wait to try out on my next excursion—keep reading to find out just exactly where that will be!
Travel Insurance--For You and Your Gear
Speaking of protection, I cannot express how important travel insurance is while working on the go. Travel insurance has been a key staple in my preparations for years now. International travel insurance covered my losses when floods ravaged through the streets of Venice in November 2019 causing me to cancel my trip. It covered the additional cost of rerouting flights to avoid train strikes in Paris—and adding on a few extra days with my then Austrian lover. I typically use AIG’s Travel Guard, a great general travel insurance plan that helps you travel with greater room for bobbing and weaving those obstacles when shit hits the fan.
When shopping for international travel insurance, I try to look for policies that also provide enough coverage to help reimburse me for any gear being lost or stolen in transit. With AIG, plans typically over a range of luggage and items coverage, so choose your plan based on the worth of the gear you’re bringing. Have crazy camera gear, computers, and even drones like me? Well, that is probably going to require additional insurance just for your gear. Depending on what you are bringing with you, I would highly advise investing in camera gear insurance, film gear insurance, or other equipment insurance that will help you stay in that Stoic mindset if something gets lost or stolen on your adventures. For my equipment insurance, I have a policy with Athos, a brokerage specializing in camera, film, and production insurance. They have affordable yearly plans that protect you worldwide, even from accidental damage and theft! I also have drone insurance through SkyWatch AI. Like much of my equipment insurance, I keep this one year-round, regardless of where I am. I get about $1 million in liability, hull, and theft insurance for my DJI Mavic Air 2S for about $75 a month. When I know I will be traveling, I can add on international coverage at an additional $27 a month. While all this insurance sounds extreme, it is necessary. With so many things that could go wrong with expensive gear or a robot flying around in the air, insurance is a must.
Laptop Maintenance
A recent debacle with my laptop introduced me to the importance of laptop maintenance. See, I had not run Windows Updater in months before I left. I simply kept putting the machine on sleep and kept it pushing. Not updating for months can lead to a serious clog of updates and make your laptop vulnerable to malware that’s constantly adapting to Windows’ security protocols, not to mention you can get into messy registry territory that can ruin the performance of your rig. So, the first of my key laptop maintenance tips is to always keep up to date with those damn updates.
Still, there are also some more advanced tips for laptop maintenance that I have recently added into my pre-trip procedure that I think any digital nomad would benefit tremendously from. So, think of this as a bit of a mini laptop maintenance checklist. The first thing I do is run a malware scan. I use Malwarebytes, which you can always get in a seven-day free trial. It is a quick scan of your drives to rout out any malware that may be hiding, waiting to bounce as soon as you settle down overseas expecting a productive workflow. After that, I run a program called Crystal Disk Info to check on my hard drive health. Running a quick scan can give you a check up on your hard drive’s health and give you warnings on when you may need to take any further steps in ensuring your drive is up to the task of behaving while working on the road. If my drive is showing signs of trouble, I will create a plan of action moving forward. I recently went through this laptop maintenance checklist and made the executive decision to make some critical upgrades before my next adventure. It is actually surprising easy to update most laptop’s hard drives and RAM memory. Just make sure to review your device’s manual.
I also love using CPU Z to get the exact parts in my rig so that I can use a site like PCPartPicker or Kingston Memory Finder to get parts compatible with your system. I replaced by hard drive with a SSD and doubled the RAM, which I know will make my workflow so much more productive while abroad. After all, I want to spend my time wandering the globe, not watching my web browser endlessly load because of poor laptop performance.
Back Up Your Data
Protecting nontangible items is just as important. I learned that this past Spring when visiting my partner in Austria. It was high finals season and so I was really putting my laptop to work. Just on que, it starts lagging—freezing—giving me a heart attack. I took a quick moment of clarity to back up my data onto my external hard drive just as the laptop decided to completely dump out on me. Now, it was not the blue screen of death, thank God, and so I was able to revive it with some work, which I described in the previous section.
Still, the relief that all my data was not lost helped ease my mind and give me greater patience to work through all the steps it took to revive my laptop. I feel like this is such an obvious. If you are not backing up your data, you are really living life on the edge! The true precariousness of this position prompts me to push the issue, even if it is preaching to the choir. I know I am guilty of not remembering my backup data process before I leave for a trip. Currently, I am using my trusty Seagate Portable 4TB External Hard Drive, but really need to get myself a portable SSD drive. I have my eye on the Samsung T7 Touch Portable SSD 1 TB—which is next on my list of upgrades. One thing I have been adamant about lately is using not just backing up your data on a hard drive, but in some online format as well. I use Drop Box in order to dump all my video and image files so that I have copies floating somewhere in the cloud in case I need them. It’s a great option that allows you to back up your data on your phone as well. So, before we move on—I am going to say again for those in the back—BACK UP YOUR DATA!
Use a VPN
If you have made it this far, I commend you! Finally, the last survival habit of this guide for adapting our gear list and travel behavior to boost productivity on the go—using a VPN. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are secure networks that allow you to send and receive data with greater protection. Remember those WiFi parks in Cuba? Well, let’s just say I was not the only one watching me browse. The government is known to monitor tourists’ online behavior. Using a VPN gave me that little bit of added security and peace of mind.
VPNs are crucial for working on public WiFi anywhere you go. They help protect against hackers watching your browsing history and sensitive data. VPNs are useful in other ways too! You can set you connection to a particular country in order to unlock content specific to that area. So, if you feel like watching something on Netflix Canada, just log on to that Torrent from Vancouver. VPNs can also be used to secure cheap flights. I have a whole guide on how to find cheap flights on my website but I will touch base a bit again here. This actually leads me into my big reveal of my next travel location—Greece! To secure the cheapest flights, I connect to a few different connections from different countries and compare prices. You will often find that if you change the connect far, far away from your base airport, you will find cheaper flights.
While some people may not have the patience for this, I treat it like a game, working the system to my advantage as much as I can. So, what’s the best VPN? I have really been enjoying Keep Solid's VPN Unlimited. The company offers a trial run so you can test out free VPN services to see just how right I am on this topic. Keep Solid also allows you to connect multiple devices. I use it on my desktop, laptop, and they even offer VPN on the iPhone or Android devices. Yes, it is an extra step, but the security and stealth is clutch for the digital nomad refusing to overpay these scandalous ass airline prices!
Word to the wize… create your own travel tech survival guide protocol! Each of our rigs and workflows are so unique, so I am sure there are behaviors I missed that you may think are critical to not just surviving working on the road—but thriving in it. What are some of your essential tips, products, and behaviors? Leave them in the comments!
Now that you know my next secret location, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss all the great travel content coming from Greece!
DISCLAIMER: All of my reviews or opinions of the products mentioned in this post are my own. Some of the links provided may contain affiliate links, which do not add any cost to you but will help this blog grow when you purchase through them. Thanks for any support!
Comments