5 gadget essentials for your solo travel

Last April, I went to Bangkok, Thailand to attend Coldplay's A Head Full of Dream Concerts and tour the city. It is my first out-of-the-country travel alone which is not work-related. 

Since Thailand is a non-speaking country, it surely is hard to be alone but five gadgets helped me get through this trip. I listed them down and hope these will help you:

1) Trusty smartphone 

Sure money and passport is everything when traveling abroad or even in domestic trips, but smartphone is also everything! It can be your alarm clock, entertainment gadget, camera, calculator, map, translator and other functions in one, you just have to load the right apps.

For my recent Thailand and Malaysia trips, I downloaded the two countries' maps in Maps.Me. Maps.Me is a map app that works even when you're offline. This works like Waze that helps you navigate when in a vehicle or even by foot.

Ride-sharing apps, Grab and Uber also helped as some local drivers prefer foreign riders since they cannot understand much English and these ride-sharing apps help them navigate and book passengers easily.

Google Translator app is also one of the emergency apps just in case you're desperate to translate a foreign phrase.

2) Pocket Wifi 

Now this is something truly important as it can replace the simcard on your smartphone. You no longer need to buy another sim for a foreign country because pocket wifi works wonders and you can connect to any social media app or even search anything in an instant.

In my case, I used iVideo Wifi. This wifi service is based in Taiwan but caters to 150 other countries. They also rent out powerbanks.

What's good about iVideo is it provided me with 2.2 GB mobile data a day with its 4G speed letting me share my #travelgoals and concert snaps easily. From the moment I landed it instantly worked in Bangkok airport so I did not really got lost, I just set it up hours before I left Philippines, following the manual.

The iVideo Wifi comes with charger, mobile sim and is pretty handy. Check out their website for various rates including the shipping: iVideo website and iVideo Facebook.

Heads up, iVideo Wifi gives discounts so you better monitor their website and their tech assistants can answer you 24/7 in case you encounter any problem.

Contact them here

3) Camera 

Channel your inner Nadine Lustre with Sony a5000

You may have smartphones that take quality photos but you will still need a camera. Cameras have better storage for photos and take great quality photos that you can share and even frame when you come back. This also helps when your phone ran out of batter.

I personally like this Sony a5000 mirrorless camera since it is handy, video-capable, wifi-cable and is selfie-ready with its flip-ready screen plus its design is sleek. It comes with a strap that you can carry on wherever you go. And its len can also be interchangeable.

Toting my favorite camera in Melaka

4) Mini-tripod

Mini-tripod 

Since we are talking about photos, mini-tripod is handy for solo travelers. It can become a monopod and a tripod in one and it's very handy. I use Benro's mini-tripod that is also bluetooth capable and can be connected to your phone. With this, you no longer need to ask strangers for photos since you can capture great portraits using this.

Did I mention it is also sturdy?

5) Powerbank

Romoss powerbank and iVideo wifi device comes in pair

Last but not the least in the list is your powerbank. Never forget your powerbank. Since you are traveling you may not always have the luxury to charge and once you ran out of batteries, powerbank is here to save you.

What's good about Romoss is it has 10,000 mAh that can last a day. Two gadgets can charge here simultaneously. I already tried charging the phone, the camera and even the iVideo wifi here and it works. Just make sure it is fully-charged.

There you go, never leave without these five gadget essentials! Safe travels!