We have been travelling fulltime around the world for six years now. It took a bit of adjusting and tweaking after the first year of travel. But we have put together the perfect electronics packing list for traveling.
Albeit choosing electronics and a phone or camera for travel can be a daunting and overwhelming decision to make. Add to that the fact you are setting off for a completely new and exciting destination and you have a serious dilemma on your hands!
Ultimately, we wanted to know the best recommendations for electronics to carry for longterm travel.
But fast forward to now – six years on – and we reckon we’ve got our electronics packing list pretty well refined.
It’s evolved and adapted as we’ve travelled and it fits our needs.
So without further ado and in the hope of giving you confidence for packing and choosing new gear to buy; here is our ultimate and very detailed electronics packing list for travel.
Camera – Electronics Packing List For Travel
When we were researching camera gear, we looked for cameras with a full frame sensor, and wide-angle lenses that could capture as much scenery as possible.
The verdict? We love our camera setup!
But like travel itself, our camera gear has evolved over our six years of travel.
Here is what is in our camera bag:
Manfrotto Camera Holster Bag
After the camera, important part of what’s in my camera bag is the bag itself. Because I don’t carry extra lenses (one is plenty when juggling kids and bags and busy streets of Asia) this small holster bag is perfect for my camera. It’s compact and keeps the camera safely stored without taking up too much room in my day pack.
Sony Alpha 7iii E-Mount Camera
This is a lightweight, full-frame mirrorless camera – and I absolutely love it! When we left for our first family gap year I took my DSLR (a Canon 760D) which was great as I’d had it for ages. But it was much bigger to carry. It was a big decision to make the switch to mirrorless but I’m a proud convert!
Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS Lens
This is my favourite lens. It is a beautiful wide-angle zoom lens. It is only F4 aperture, but it also doesn’t have the price tag of the F2.8. So for adventure travel it feels more relaxing to carry! We love this lens for travel.
Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD Lens for Sony E
This was the lens I carried for the second year of our travels. It is a great flexible wide-angle lens to carry. Though it is bigger – and much more expensive – than the Sony F4 equivalent I now carry.
Camera Accessories – Electronics Packing List
But wait; there’s more!
These are other camera accessories we use as part of our electronics kit for full-time travel:
- B+W 67mm UV MRC-Nano Lens Filter: I’ve not experimented much with different filters but find a clear B+W UV filter much more serves a purpose of protection for my lens. I have a not-so-great but ended-well story from Egypt where Harry dropped my camera and lens (not from high at all) but hard enough that it shattered the lens filter. It’s much easier to replace a filter than to swallow the reality of replacing a lens.
- Rode VideoMicro Compact On-Camera Microphone: This is an awesome mini microphone with a “Dead Cat” fake-fur wind shield that does a brilliant job of keeping wind noise out for videos and vlogs. (This is a new addition to our camera bag since moving to the Cook Islands but so far has proved worth carrying in our electronics kit!).
- Brand-less Camera Strap: Not a necessity but one more way (attempt) to look ever so slightly a little bit less like a glitzy rich travel photographer and therefore less of a target. I’m not 100% sure if this really deflects such attempts but it’s worth a shot, right? Plus I always love the colour splash.
- Memory Cards: We use Sandisk Extreme Pro SD cards in the camera and GoPro. From experience with backing up and converting and shifting files from memory cards to storage and/or Bluetooth it’s not worth being cheap when it comes to memory cards. For extra safety and protection of our cards we use a waterproof SD card carrying case.
Waterproof and Action Photography – Electronics Packing List For Travel
This is Gavin’s domain and he does an awesome job videoing and capturing action moments that aren’t suitable for carrying my main camera.
Plus see below as to why I need to separate that this is the waterproof and action camera so that he doesn’t use mine for THAT!
We find the GoPro so easy to carry and great for the kids to use.
It’s obviously much more discrete for videoing than a larger camera – useful for quick or sneaky shots, easy time lapses or filming on the move.
In The GoPro Bag
- GoPro Hero12 Black
- GoPro 3-Way Shortie Tripod
- Waterproof Sleeve & Lanyard
- Floating Hand Grip
- Various Adapters
- Micro SD Cards
- HERO12 Dual Battery Charger
- 4x Rechargeable Batteries
From The Sky – Electronics Packing List For Travel
It’s a tough call whether the drone or GoPro was Gavin’s real pride and joy in our first year of travel. But I reckon it would be a close call!
However, the down side to carrying a drone is the increase in restrictions on where you can and can’t fly it.
For many of the countries we like to travel to – Uzbekistan, Iran, Pakistan, Morocco – any kind of drone is not permitted. Moreover it isn’t worth the risk of carrying one any trying to enter, yet alone to fly it.
- UPDATE: I now DO NOT recommend including a drone in your electronics packing list for travel.
We ditched the drone after our first year of travel.
But while we lived in the Cook Islands and travelled New Zealand in a motorhome, we loved flying the drone.
We used the DJI Spark.
The DJI Spark is an amazing lightweight piece of modern technology and it takes pretty fantastic video footage and photography. It packs up into a handy small kit so it’s easy to store in your backpack.
It does however require a few accessories:
- DJI Spark Drone
- 2x spare batteries
- Drone controller (attaches to phone)
- Dual Charging battery station
- 8x spare propellers
- Micro-SD cards
The DJI Spark has since ceased manufacture. But it has been replaced (and upgraded) by the DJI Mavic Mini – which is even lighter than the Spark at only 249 grams!
- NOTE: Do be very careful in checking ahead about restrictions and rules in different regions and countries you plan to travel to with a drone. Some countries do not allow drones full-stop and some have restrictions of drones over a certain size.
Computers and Screens – Electronics Packing List For Travel
We travel with a 13″ MacBook Air and the kids have a basic Samsung Tablet each.
We use the laptop for making travel bookings, writing blog posts, saving and editing photos and editing videos for our YouTube channel.
In The Computer Bag
- Apple 13” Macbook Air
- 2x Samsung A9 Lite Tablets
- iPhone 13 (Sarah’s)
- iPhone 12+ (Gavin’s)
- Kindle
We haven’t upgraded our phones in a while though find our current phones fine for now. They aren’t exactly subtle, but it does feel marginally less risky carrying older, smaller iPhones.
The Kindle is a new purchase on round two of full-time travel. It is an amazing addition to our electronics packing list.
Harry uses this the most and loves finding a book series to get into. Which is great for long-term travel – obviously – as books are definitely not one for the backpackers packing list!
Cords and Miscellaneous – Electronics Packing List For Travel
- 5x Thunderbolt Cables
- 1x Mini-USB Cable
- 2x Micro-USB Cables – 1 short & 1 long
- 1x 1TB Seagate Portable External Hard Drive
- 1x Macbook Power Adapter – multiple adapters
- 4-Port USB Multiplug Travel Charger
- Z-Series Rechargeable Camera Battery – 1x cord
- 1x Universal International Multi Plug Adapter
- 10,000mAh Power Bank
Programmes For Photo And Video Editing
I use Adobe Lightroom to edit all our photos. Though just for the colours and lighting; I haven’t gone near Photoshop and manipulating photos in that way yet!
To edit videos for our YouTube channel we use Adobe Premiere Pro. This is an amazing programme though there is much to learn to navigate all the tricks and tools this is capable of.
We source music for the videos from YouTube Library and Epidemic Sound.
Apps – Electronics Packing List For Travel
Some of these apps are absolute life-savers.
Picture trying to make your way through some of the busiest cities in Asia without any data connection. Offline maps are your best friend!
I recommend you download these apps and test them out at home before you hit the road for long-term travel.
For the currency exchange apps you can pre-load the next currencies you need for your travels.
I find these most useful for converting the cost of accommodation and getting a rough idea ahead of the next days travel for how much a taxi might cost (and how much you should be prepared to haggle).
- Uber (Free): Check which countries you are travelling to have Uber or similar rideshare service. (We used Dart in Brunei and Grab in Vietnam).
- Trip-It (FREE): Keep track of all your flight and accommodation bookings in one place. (Trip-It can also be accessed offline).
- XE Currency (FREE): The best app for currency conversion. Can save up to 10 currencies to check the conversion rate even while offline.
- Skyscanner (FREE): Our favourite flight checking app. This is easy to use and I have it set to NZD so it’s easy for me to immediately spot if it’s a good price for a flight (without having to change currency each time).
- Google Maps (FREE): Some map selections can be pre-downloaded to use offline. Great for use in bigger cities where shops and sites are all marked.
- Maps.me (FREE): The best map app for using offline. You can download entire cities and/or countries ahead of time.
- Spotify (FREE): An awesome app for all kinds of music. Easy to use. And if you upgrade to Premium you can listen to music while offline.
What did we remove from our electronics packing list the second time round?
After our first year of travel we had a month at home in New Zealand before setting off again.
This was a good time to plan and re-jiggle our electronics packing list for travel.
The kids were older and some things didn’t seem such a good fit for off the beaten track travel.
We ditched these from our Electronics Packing List:
- iPad Mini: These were initially useful for the kids to store downloaded movies for travel days. But we replaced this the second year with 2x Samsung A7 Lite Tablets later upgraded to A9 Lite.
- JBL Kids Headphones: The kids are old enough to wear over-ear or plug-in headphones now.
What’s on our wish-list?
Alright I suppose this is time to confess (though let’s not tell Gavin about this one!).
On my wish list is the Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM lens.
We already have the equivalent F4 lens. But I would love the more focused aperture for travel portraits and scene photography.
The verdict on our Electronics Packing List?
That’s about it!
It does sound like a lot to carry. It IS a lot.
But to be honest this is our refined electronics packing list. After we came home from our first gap year we tweaked things that we hadn’t used or didn’t really need.
One thing we tossed after much debate was the drone. This is definitely location-dependent so it depends entirely on where you live and where you want to travel to. So this would be one large item I recommend you reconsider carrying depending on where you travel too.
The rest we use on a regular basis and need to carry in order to keep everything charged and working!
What do you think? Is there anything you would change or something on your electronics list you can’t live without?
Read more about packing for travel
- 10 Daypack Essentials.
- Our Travel Medical Kit.
- Our Packing List For Full-Time Travel: 2 Packs, 4 People.
- Packing List For India.
- Kids Daypacks For Travel.
- Packing The Other Essentials.
Useful links for your travel and travel-planning and packing
These are the companies we use and can recommend for planning and booking travel.
- Booking.com – The best all-around accommodation booking site that constantly provides the cheapest and lowest rates. They have the widest selection of budget accommodation. It is easy to filter and sort into price and availability with all the extras you are looking for personally.
- 12GoAsia – Book trains anywhere online.
- Skyscanner– This is by far our favourite flight search engine. They are able to search small websites and budget airlines that larger search sites often miss. We book all our flights through Skyscanner.
- GetYourGuide– Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace for tours and excursions offered all around the world. Everything from walking tours, to street-food tours, cooking classes, desert safari’s and more!
- SafetyWing – A global travel insurance that covers people from all over the world while outside their home country. You can buy it short or longterm; and even if you are out of the country.
- World Nomads – Make sure you have insurance before further contemplating that electronics packing list!
