If you’re heading to Europe soon for a vacation, you have no doubt heard lots of different suggestions.
“Go the Eiffel Tower on Tuesdays.”
“Big Ben is under renovations, skip it this year.”
“Watch out for pickpockets in Rome, they’re everywhere!”
Your tips will include restaurant recommendations, city recommendations, transportation tips, good deals and maybe some secret spots for you to check out.
One of the most important aspects of your trip is making sure you have everything packed up and squared away. This includes some important tech items you’ll have to bring with you and some other things you should do before you head out.
Fortunately, below is a checklist that will help you remember everything you should do.
Download Everything to Your Phone
Before leaving the house, you always check yourself for your keys, wallet and phone. It’s safe to say you’ll have your phone just about anywhere. That means you should keep all of your important information with your phone.
By important, that doesn’t mean copies of your credit cards or social security number.
But, you should take a screenshot of your hotel information, any directions, important phone numbers and reservations. You can’t always rely on having the internet when traveling abroad and your best bet would be to make sure you have everything offline.
This is for all those “just in case” moments, like if your email won’t load and you need to give the address to the taxi cab driver. Have a “hard copy” of your hotel information so you can arrive safe and sound.
Buy a Good Converter
The travel gods cursed everyone when they decided not all countries would run on the same electrical current. The entirety of Europe runs on 240V while the United States runs on 110V and the plugs are entirely different shapes. Heck, even the plugs in the UK are different than the ones in mainland Europe.
This means you’re going to have to buy a converter. This is not the time to go cheap and it’s better to spend a little extra. A bad converter can easily fry anything you plug into it. Make sure you buy one with a USB connection as well so you can charge two things at once.
Be wary not to overload it though so don’t plug a surge protector into any power converter.
Bring a Backup Charger
Unfortunately, finding a place to charge your phone, tablet or camera is not as easy as it may be in the United States. Some European airports do not have dedicated charging stations and if they do, are usually much smaller and not as accessible.
You don’t want your phone to die while you’re touring around Pompeii, so make sure you bring a backup charger. Many of them can easily fit in your purse or pocket and are relatively inexpensive. Make sure you charge them along with your phone you can keep your phone or other devices ready to go throughout the day.
Don’t Forget About Entertainment
Even though you may be gung-ho about seeing everything during your trip, there may be a day or two when you want to relax or check in early and just watch a movie.
The only issue is, your streaming services are geographically locked, meaning you might not be able to access the content you want to watch. Thankfully, Troypoint has an answer to this issue.
They have a guide that will show you how to easily install CyberFlix TV on your streaming device and take it with you. It’s a great way to keep your entertainment with you and have great content for relaxing days.
Go to the Cloud
Unless you have a really nice camera, chances are you’ll be taking most of your pictures with your phone. But what happens if your phone is lost, stolen or damaged?
Recovering all of your contacts and information is already pain enough, but sometimes there’s little you can do about all those photos. That’s why you need to make sure you have your phoned linked to some kind of cloud service on a separate device. That way, all of your photos will be backed up just in case the worst happens.
They’ll all be in one spot, easing for browsing and editing.
