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”.

Well a few hostels were ready to re-create that feeling offering free Xbox or Playstation for their guests. You might argue that the hardcore Flashpacker doesn’t need that as she/he will bring along a PSP (and with a GPS receiver too!), but we’re talking average Flashpackers here.

The trend apparently started with some funky minded hotels but now, thanks to the younger and more tech savvy customers, is spreading through hostels as well. Or at least Flashpackers Hostels.

Wherever you’re travelling you might be able to find one, from Medellin to Sydney, from Boston to Krakow.

And here’s just a few to get you started (more details available in brackets if not on official site).

Tiger Paw Hostel, Medellin, Colombia (Xbox)

Hostel 70s, Krakow, Poland (Playstation 2)

H.I. Boston Downtown, Boston, USA (Xbox)

Hostel Bekuo, San Jose, Costa Rica (Xbox)

Jacobs Inn Hostel, Dublin, Ireland

Jolly Swagman Backpackers, Sydney, Australia (Xbox)

Let us know your thoughts in the Comments Section below and kill that Level 3 monster!!

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.

Laptop
On a very long train journey I took lately I noticed how a good 3 quarters of people on the train were watching something on their laptop. But they were not Flashpackers of course, they were commuters, business people, etc. Who normally bring a laptop with them, especially if you have 6 hours of train ahead of you.

Netbook
Until a while ago carrying a netbook on your trips it was a good sign of being a Flashpacker. Not many would know how cheap, portable and powerful these toys can be. But again, the word spread fast and the cheap price helped, so now they’re extremely popular.

Ipod
Having some mp3 player doesn’t mean necessarily you’re a travelling geek crazy about technology, or a Flashpacker either. Mp3 players are getting more and more affordable and popular, like a Walkman in the old days.

Iphone
Another classic Flashpacker accessory, but having one one your trip doesn’t necessarily means you’re a Flashpacker. Iphones are very popular with anyone who wants or needs to be online almost anytime.

External hard-drive
Having one of these should actually means you’re not a Flashpacker. Flashpackers live online and love to travel light; as a consequence they back up everything on the Internet cloud. Pics go on Flickr, docs on Google docs, the rest on virtual hard drives. That also explains why netbooks with hard drive as small as 4GB were so popular with Flashpackers.

Don’t get me wrong, I use many of the above accessories, love a good few of them and think they’re quite indispensable. I just don’t believe gadgets makes you a Flashpacker. Flashpacking is all about the style; being able to travel with some kind of luxury without spending a fortune, and knowing how to do it (and internet comes handy here, that’s why being online can make the difference) in order to afford to do it for long periods of time.

What are your thoughts? Any obvious gadgets that doesn’t make you a Flashpacker missing from the list? Or you have a different opinion? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.. Happy Flashpacking!

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.

LAPTOP
What? A Flashpacker without a laptop?
Well, if you only need to check your emails, update your Facebook and do some minimal blogging even a good phone with a browser could simply do. The most known (and expensive) of all is of course the iPhone. With a toy like that you can do even quite advanced blogging tasks. Check out these 13 Apps to Turn Your iPhone into a Blogging Machine.

PORTABLE HARD DRIVE
As mentioned, if you are already carrying with you a decent laptop with plenty of memory, and thanks to all online virtual back-ups you don’t necessarily need to bring with you a portable hard drive. If instead you have a netbook with little memory and an old 160GB iPod, how about bringing the iPod to listen to your 20GB of music and use the rest of the space as an hard drive?

INTERNATIONAL SIM CARD
No matter how cheap they are getting nowadays, there are still better options. If you have anything with you that connects to internet (even a PSP would do) Skype or similar VoIP services are still cheaper. If you don’t mind having few SIM cards with you and you are not visiting 20 countries in a month then a cheap option is buying a local SIM card. Prices to same-country phones calls are unbeatable and in most cases calling abroad is cheaper then with an international SIM card.

IPHONE
If you already have a netbook or a laptop, and your old mobile phone is still working, do you need an iPhone too? Especially if you already possess a camera and maybe an iPod to listen to your music. Definitely fashionable, but with only 16GB of memory is it the wisest choice?

CARD READER
Many laptops and netbooks nowadays come with a built-in card reader. Again it depends on what is your “basic package” of accessories.

WIFI FINDER
Pretty handy to find out if there’s some Wireless connection available in the area. It will save you the time to drop your bags, take out and turn on your big laptop. But what if you’re using a tiny netbook or an iPhone instead? Another down side is that many of those little “keychain” wifi finder don’t distinguish between free networks and protected ones, although this one does.

GPS
Let’s be honest here. If you’re not going in the very middle of an inextricable jungle, or going to drive through the desert for a week, do you really need one? Is it not part of the trip getting lost in a city and in this way discover an off-the-beaten track jewel? Consider also that most mobile phones nowadays come with a GPS or at least Google Maps.

Well, I guess the bottom line is: be wise in choosing your gadgets, there’s a lot there you might not need.. It all depends on how and why you travel. After all Flashpacking is about the style, and that do means travelling comfortably as well.

But I’d like to hear from you: any useless gadgets you’ve been carrying around lately? What you think for example of water purifiers or universal adapters?

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..

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).