Technology That Makes Travel Better

It may be hard to imagine in this techno-heavy world we live in, but people once traveled without the benefit of electronic gadgetry. No mobile phones, no netbooks, no iPads – not even a calling card to use at a payphone. In some cases, people travel nowadays to escape the sort of technology that makes us feel overloaded at home – but there are some technological resources that can help you travel better, too.

A recent article on BootsnAll in our Round the World Wednesday series highlighted 10 different resources that weren’t designed with travelers in mind, but that have become favorites of many travelers anyway.

>> Check out the whole article, 10 Non-Travel Resources to Help You Travel Better

A clear favorite among most of the travelers we know is Evernote, an organizing system that’s accessible via your smartphone, online, or on your computer desktop.

Budget-conscious people in general love Mint for the ways it lets them track expenses and save up for big purchases, and for long-term travelers it makes the budgeting easier to manage.

Anyone who’s dealt with a computer crash knows the heartache of losing data, and if you’re traveling with a laptop or netbook then the fact that there’s online back-up to cloud systems like Mozy and Backblaze is very good news, indeed.

And even if you’re not carrying a laptop around, who can resist the polite suggestion from Mom to stop into an internet cafe and call her on Skype now and then to let her know you’re still alive?

Another tool that is geared toward travelers is TripDoc, designed to help you track all the places you’d otherwise scribble into the margins of a guidebook and plot them on a map. (Full disclosure – TripDoc is designed by Pacific Northwest friends-of-BootsnAll, and we received a promotional code to test out the app. Since then, we’ve fallen completely in love with it.)

Yes, technology can complicate our everyday lives as much as it helps us, but that doesn’t mean you should shun technology altogether for your RTW trip.

>> What are your favorite tech resources that you think help travelers?

This topic came up in our weekly Round the World Wednesday series – catch up on the articles you’ve missed and stay tuned for the next one on BootsnAll. And don’t forget to sign up for BootsnAll’s monthely RTW Travel Newsletter, too.