We are so reliant on the internet these days whether it is for keeping in touch, doing research, getting directions or simply entertaining ourselves. Here are the items we bring with us that are MUSTS. I refer to this portion of my luggage as “the Office”

1. The obvious stuff is the adapters and cords for your phones and laptops. My laptop is the ultra ultra light Samsung that uses the same cord as my Google phone which really helps a lot with weight and chargers.
   
2. Unlimited data plan from Google Fi – It is not perfect and there are other ways to do this like using Google Voice and calling people back with Google Hangouts . Either way you still need the data and we find it’s just a lot less hassle to make sure people can reliably call you. Mind you the data portion of the plan only last 3 months before it starts slowing down dramatically and needs to be “rebooted” with a trip back to the US. This is not just a Google issue, all the other phone companies seem to have this issue as well. So far we have only been out of the US for a about 5 months continuously before needing to go back for one reason or another so we just use data in other ways when that 3rd month kicks in.
   
3. A phone with a physical removal sim card that you can pick up and swap out in different countries to provide you with data if you don’t go with #1 above (or if you are gone more that 3 months) If you are an iphone person, you might consider an inexpensive android burner phone that you can use on the road as believe it or not most of the world is not on an iphone and getting that phone fixed or replaced is virtually impossible in many places of the world. And that iphone is a very tempting target for pickpockets if you are using it for your day to day navigation and surfing. So do yourself a favor and tuck that fancy iphone that represents more than a month’s salary in most places in the world and make like Jason Bourne and use that burner in the souks of Marrakech. You can break it out at dinner at that Michelin star restaurant.
   
4. A power pack – there are many times where we are without a way to charge our devices for over 24 hours because of travel, power being out, issues with outlets or a myriad of other things.
   
5. An HDMI cable – we use it for connecting to screens wherever we stay for an extra work screen and to be able to watch sports!
   
6. Memory bank – to hold photographs, documents backup of what is on our laptops and phones
   
7. Digital copy of your passport and any visas or vaccines required for your trip.
   
8. A trackable calendar or phone– my sister has access to my google calendar and she can see where we fly to and where we stay in the unlikely event that some misfortune were to occur and we were not able to contact anyone, she can see the last place we stayed.