With Memorial Day kicking off the official start of Road Trip Season, it seemed like the right time to dust off my vacation mobile gear list as a reference point. Yes, I leave the big cameras at home, but many accessories need to come along for the ride. If you haven’t left yet for a weekend trip, you might want to pick up a few.
Most Important Travel Accessory: Power bank
When you go on vacation with your phones and shoot a lot of photos and videos, the battery levels starts getting weaker way faster than when you’re at home. For me, all that video and photo snapping brings me to a dead battery usually by around 11 a.m.
So what to do? Bring along accessory power, in the form of a Power Bank. These cute little devices have come a long way since they were first introduced with bulky wires a few years back. Now, they just snap onto the back of an iPhone or iPhone case magnetically, if you buy a MagSafe version, and they bring your phone back to life instantly. (For Android users, you need to buy a MagSafe phone case to use the magnetic banks.) The MagSafe banks are great as they fit on the back of the phone—the older models were awkwardly designed and hard to hold with the phone.
Power banks are made by a host of companies, most notably Anker, but I recently bought one from a company I’d never heard of called Poduro that is very prominent on Amazon for just over $30. It works great, and has one very important add-on.
The thing about the mobile chargers: they need to be plugged into A/C for a charge before you can use them. The Poduro Power Bank (and others from Anker, Belkin and the like) have built-in cables, so you don’t have to hunt around for an extra one when it’s time to charge up.
Motel Room Save: Multiple Fast Charger
Don't be the person who arrives to the Yellowstone Geyser with an exhausted battery. Please make sure your phone is at 100%. The good news: this is easier to do than ever, with a multiple charger in the car so that everyone’s phone is getting juice as you drive along. There are many models available:
This Belkin charger fits into the cigarette lighter of the car, and has slots for both the newer USB-C devices and the old USB-A ones. (More on cables and slots below.) You can get chargers with more slots too.
Meanwhile, motel rooms are notoriously stingy on finding places to charge up, so make sure to buy a multiple charge cord for the room as well, or two if you plan on having a few phones, tablet, AirPods and a Watch as well. Here again the multiple charger comes really handy. (Note that many motels now have USB slots built into their lamps, which is great and really helps. However, they're usually for the old USB-A, which few of us still use—right readers? So have the correct rods ready.)
I like this one from Anker that fast charges two USB-C devices at the same time, and also has room for the old, slower USB-A. It sells for just under $40 on Amazon, and no one should go on the road without at least one. Have it live in your suitcase. Buy two of them if you’re traveling with family. Your alternative is to buy a charger with slots for four devices, but they’re very cumbersome and hard to keep track of with four dangling wires.
Cables
This is very, very important, as getting the right cable can be very tough on the open road. The simple old iPhone Lightning to USB-C cable you probably already have, and if you're an Android user or have the iPhone 15 or 16 models, you have the basic USB-C to USB-C cable. But again, the hotels, if they offer it, will give you extra power slots in the form of the old USB-A cable, so make sure to have one of those in your bag as well—the USB-A to USB-C cable, to connect to your current devices, like these babies:
However, I’d rather have a good, fast-charging USB-C cable that connects to the Anker charger any day than one of those slow old USB cables. But that’s just me.
Tripods
I’m a huge fan of the Peak Design Travel Tripod, but fair warning, it ain’t cheap, at $599. However, it’s really light, and a joy to carry, opens up quickly and is sturdy enough for the many video timelapses I like to make.
(You can’t be a solo creator like I am and not have a tripod. Well, you can, but then you’d be one of those bozos who does his/her shots with the arm extended and a shaky camera. I prefer the tripod look, and being able to step back from the camera.) Tripods are invaluable for group shots and my beloved Timelapse videos.
My friend Jan Schrieber (check out her amazing YouTube channel) likes the Freewell Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod, which sells for half the price of the Peak Design tripod. It’s also slightly smaller than the Peak Design tripod, extending to 4 foot 11 inches, compared to 5.5 feet.
Selfie Sticks
Longtime readers know I also never leave home without my beloved Selfie stick—the Insta360 Selfie Stick/Tripod. It makes for a fantastic grip for smooth video pans, and pretty much eliminates my need for an accessory gimbal to steady the shots. Plus it extends into a 4 foot tripod, which is more useful than you might think,. To connect a phone to the stick, or any tripod, you will need another accessory: I recommend the Manfrotto smartphone tripod adapter. Â
What about the gimbal, which promise to make your video shots steadier? I’ve never found one that was so good, it made it worth my while to drag around yet another piece of gear while traveling. Insta360 just released a new gimbal, the Flow Pro 2, which makes your video shot a little smoother, and also has a built in small tripod. The cost is just around $150, and while its an improvement over last year’s edition, it’s still yet another thing you have to worry about bringing with you. And frankly, I haven’t seen shots made on a smartphone gimbal that look dramatically better than what you get on a selfie stick.
Have fun on the open road and don't forget to wave or honk at me when we cross paths on the highway.
Travel photography is so much fun. You can eat like crazy when you’re out and about, and have great memories of what everything tasted like, but only your photos and videos will bring what you remember back to life! And thanks to mobile technology, it’s easier than ever to capture the images than ever before.
More questions on mobile tech? Remember that as subscriber, I’m always here for you. Keep the questions coming.
The scene from Carthrage, MO and Route 66
I’ll be back at you over the weekend to tell you all about my Route 66 photographic adventures, which begin with Sunday’s episode of Photowalks on Scripps News and YouTube at 10 a.m. ET.
Jeff
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