The iPhone is a Game Changer for Traveling…

Good day,

Today let us discuss the somewhat important matter of travel tools. Please note I’ve never written a played out vanilla guide on “how to pack” because frankly, like most things on this planet “there is no wrong way to do it”. I would like to discuss however what I think is the world’s most dynamic travel tool that will change the way you travel and it’s called the iPhone…

When it comes to travel tools, let me list a few of the most common: alarm clock, notepad, telephone with local sim, computer(mainly just for FB & web surfing), camera, compass, multilingual dictionary, guide book(cringes) and so on… Well guess what? The iPhone has all that AND MORE. If you aren’t writing a blog or doing some type of web work, an iPhone is all you need. Let’s get real here, most travelers you see using the internet are sending emails, checking Facebook and researching their next destination or buying a ticket, right?

You can buy an unlocked iPhone 4 with 8GB of memory for roughly $650US in many parts of the world. How much would that fancy high end camera cost you? What about the lenses? What about carrying them? Are you a photographer or a traveler? Did you know that since December 2010, every photo I’ve taken for this blog has been on the iPhone 4? I urge you NOT to waste your cash on a camera but dump it into the coolest device I can think of in recent memory.

You could also go for an Android or something but the iPhone is the Aston Martin of telephones and it just works so incredibly and has “Mac Store’s” around the world should you have issues. No, I’m not endorsed by Apple or anything, it just changed the way I travel. I never had one because I’m fundamentally “Frugal Frank” and couldn’t justify it until I was carrying a larger higher end camera in Africa and felt like a clown. A friend showed up to a wedding with a new one and I said “you realize you’re not leaving with that, right?”

If you aren’t going to bring a laptop, I suggest you buy a big memory stick and you can copy files from your phone to your memory sticks or external hard-drive in any cafe in the world. The whole point of travel is to be an adventurer, not the mule carrying all the stuff, get that? As a result, if you can get a powerful tool that combines everything in one, you’re laughing.

I will note that you want to make “the world’s best phone” look like a piece of flaming garbage from the outside though. You never want to draw attention to yourself as a source of wealth, let someone else get the attention of the boisterous barracudas while you go about enjoying your time in the coral reef of life, so to speak.

I removed the cover from my iPhone on a trip recently and it was like everyone I already knew started asking me about my phone and getting all curious. Before that, I had a crappy cover for years and NOBODY, EVER asked me about the phone. Notice how from the case it looks like some old beat up piece of junk? That’s what you’re going for. The case I have, I bought in Bangkok at Pantip Plaza for roughly $5US. It has a soft rubber liner that goes into a hard case. Notice there is NO HOLE for the Apple symbol? That’s what you want.

If you’re planning a trip, think long and hard about what you bring and you’ll see that the iPhone is a game changer. I can’t imagine traveling without it now, let’s not forget how cool it is to be waiting somewhere, anywhere and just whip it out and be right in touch with everyone you care about and have access to over 500,000 applications on demand…

Traveling is a lot like life, you want to simplify it not complicate it…

Tips hat,

P.S: Note the missing “T” on my laptop. How often do you use the T?