The Tux in the Backpack

The auld days the common area of hostels offered as “entertainment” a telly, some board games, a couple of deck of cards and some old crappy book left by backpackers who wanted to travel a pound or two lighter. Things are changing lately as technology and Flashpackers change the concept of entertainment and that feeling of “being home” while travelling.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my books and deck of cards while travelling, but if there’s something that make an old Flashpacker like me feel at home it’s an hour or two in front of a video game. As long as that doesn’t mean spending your time playing rather than exploring the place of course. It just reminds me of the times where after a day at the office (or any work place) you go home and while playing you have that comfy feeling of figuratively “taking your shoes off”.

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Popularity: 25% [?]

You read often definitions of Flashpackers as backpackers who travel on a bigger budget or with some tech accessories. Somehow a general idea is emerging, that some accessories are the one that makes the Flashpacker. Well I’d like to state something different; bringing some accessories (especially on their own) with you while travelling don’t necessarily means you’re a Flashpacker.

Let’s have a look at the most common ones.

Digital camera
Ahem, who doesn’t bring one on a trip nowadays? My parents are in their late sixties, they do have a digital camera, but trust me, they’re not Flashpackers. It would be even more “Flashpacker” to have a non-digital camera nowadays; that could mean you’re into good old professional pictures.

Mobile phone
As above. I don’t think 86% of travellers (according to a Hostelworld study in 2006 that’s the number then of people travelling with a mobile phone) are Flashpackers.

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Popularity: 29% [?]

Gadgets and accessories are indeed vital for a Flashpacker. It’s not surprising then to see many articles on the web about what are the must-have Flashpacking accessories.

Flashpacking though is not simply travelling with a huge amount of tech gadgets. I believe a Flashpacker is defined by the travelling style; even if accessories are a big help, the ideal Flashpacker is not the one with the most gadgets in the backpack. At the contrary, Flashpacking is also travelling in a comfortable (read: light) way.

The gadgets you need depends mainly on what is your “basic package” of accessories following you on your travels. For example if you have a big laptop with lot of memory you don’t necessarily need an external hard drive, or if you have an iPod you don’t necessarily need an iPhone too.

Here’s a list of gadgets that, depending on what you bring with you, you might not necessarily need.

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Popularity: 41% [?]

A laptop is indeed one of the most important accessories for the Flashpacker.

First of all a good travel laptop allows the Flashpacker to keep in touch with friends and family, to stay up to date with news, and to maintain travel blogs, websites and social networking profiles updated. But most importantly a good laptop allows the Flashpacker to be a Flashpacker, finding online great deals on accommodations and transportation, and tips on off the beaten track destinations.

There are many laptops that are perfect for travelling due to their small size and light weight. Lately actually there’s a real explosion on the market of what are called netbooks or subnotebooks.

Some examples are Acer Inspire One, ASUS EeePc, Samsung NC10, MSI Wind PC and the latest arrival, Dell Inspiron Mini 9. Many rumors about an Apple netbook but so far the closest to an Apple truly portable laptop are the 13” Macbook or the Macbook Air.

Of such a vital importance is a good travel laptop to the Flashpacker that I couldn’t simply tell you (like many articles about accessories and gadgets seems to do lately) what is the one that you need to bring with you on your travels, but rather ask the experienced Flashpackers out there:

What’s your ultimate travel laptop? And why?

Do you prefer a netbook with almost no memory or a classic laptop with plenty of functionality? A mobile phone maybe? Looking forward to hear your point of view in the Comments section below..

Popularity: 23% [?]

If you’re a professional (or semi-pro) photographer you probably bring with you a very good camera, equipped with all accessories, and you probably bring with you a heavy and sturdy tripod for those spectacular night or low-light shots.

If instead you use a totally automatic and compact camera you probably don’t need anything else.

But if you consider yourself somewhere halfway, probably you wouldn’t mind to take nice long shutter pictures, but at the same time don’t want to bring around a tripod that will take a lot of space or even worse, a heavy one.

In that case the solution for you is Gorilla Pod by Joby. Superlight (45.3g or 1.6oz), easy to carry, and best of all, with flexible leg joints that allow you to have your pictures taken from basically every surface.

I guess the names comes from the fact that you can bend the legs to wrap your Gorillapod around a tree branch exactly like a monkey. But you can use it to secure your camera to a piece of rock, a pole, sand, virtually any surface.

Gorillapod has got also 2 bigger, heavier brothers, with the biggest one able to support cameras that weights up to 3kgs (6.6lbs), for the pro who still doesn’t want to carry a classib big tripod around, or simply for when working with uneven surfaces where a normal tripod won’t work.

What makes it even funkier is the fact that comes in many colours as well, to go with your pink shoes or green backpack!

Definitely a must have for any Flashpacker that is not a professional photographer, or that simply don’t want to carry yet another heavy accessory. Available in photography shops or at Amazon (aff).

Popularity: 16% [?]