Tuesday Travel Tip: Pack the Proper Technology

Today's Travel Tip is brought to you by a guest blogger, Julyne Derrick.  Julyne and I met when we worked as camp counselors at Sky Ranch Lutheran Camp in Colorado on summer breaks during college. Since then, she has built a successful career as a journalist that included many years at MSN before becoming a freelancer last year. You can read more of her work at http://beauty.about.com.

I've traveled all over the world this year since I started working for myself and the one thing that has saved me every time is packing the proper technology.

Since I'm a writer, I have to have a laptop with me at all times and I've lugged my heavy 6-pound MacBook Pro across the United States, to Mexico, Bermuda and Thailand. Never again. Not only is it bad for the back, but it takes up so much space in my carry-on. This year before my October trip to India I'm going to invest in a MacBook Air, which is featherlight and under $1,000. Don't want a MacBook? Consider the iPad or a Netbook PC.

Instead of packing a travel alarm clock or a heavy camera, I use my iPhone, which takes amazing pictures and videos and works as an alarm clock as well. Just make sure to get the International plan if you're traveling abroad or at least turn off your data roaming so you don't end up with a $5,000 phone bill.

Perhaps my biggest indulgence for travel is the Kindle. I'm an avid reader when I travel and the Kindle holds a library of books so I no longer have to pack a bunch of paperbacks, leaving them at hotels in my wake as I finish them. I've used mine on the beach, by the pool (that's me pictured below with my Kindle in Bermuda), on the airplane, on trains and on subways. I make sure to pack a tiny headlamp so I can read it under the the covers at night and not wake up my traveling companion. The iPad may be an even better bet because you get the reader and the laptop in one.

Happy travels!

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