TGIF Survey: Vacation Tech Bag

Vacation or not... all I bring with me everywhere is my DS and my PSP. Portable gaming heaven.

i always bring, Ipod shuffle 1Gb Ipod Photo 60 Gb Palm LifeDrive Sanyo C1 Canon EOS 20D + Speedlite 580Ex Canon 24-70 mm(awesome lens) Powerbook aluminium 1,5 ghz Tomtom Go 700 Canary wireless 4 gb microdrive 2 gb sandisk extreme III Never leave without this package

Just got back from 4th vacation and thought I'd chime in. Some of my favorite vacations have been times when I didn't have access to any tech gear. It feels good to get back to the basics every once and awhile and go, as my friends and I refer to it, 'off grid.' For this trip, I took our camcorder, digital camera, wife's ipod, and my Treo 650. The camcorder and digital camera are perfect for creating digital memories of the trip (and I'll be in iMovie next weekend creating my next home DVD) and the Treo is my daily phone. I did no email on the phone but did text a couple of buds and checked a few websites (directions to places we wanted to visit, etc.). I feel that tech shouldn't be the focus of your vacation/relaxing time - people should. Tech should complement the trip but not detract from interactions with others. For example, no PSP, no laptops, no email, no headphones with the ipod (unless you're working out and or going for a walk alone), etc.

The post, and your comments, were so fun to read ! Because that's exactly the kind of "dilemma" I'm in when going on vacation. I'm leaving one week next week (U2 concerts in Paris in Amsterdam) and though the choice of hotels with internet access (preferably wifi) was essential, I still don't know if I'm taking the Powerbook with me. I will already have : - my Cli頔H55, sufficiently connected through AvantGo / QuickNews / Verichat and of course NetFront and ClieMail, with its Chainpus keyboard that will allow to write if I want to (even though I won't be able to publish on iBlog) (of course its charger) ; - my Ixus v2, with its 3 batteries, its 4 CF, its charger ; - my GSM (and its charger) ... Don't you think it's enough already ? :) No, my iPod is not an option, because I don't listen to music while travelling (especially not on concerts :p ) and if I really want to listen to music, I'll put 2-3 albums on my Cli頺 enough for me. :) Thanks for the post that made me smile ! :)

Well I too have "overpacked" when trying to go on a vacation. my next trip to NYC I'll have to decide what I need to cut down packing. All I really need is my Rebel XT, 40GB iPod with color and the connector. The temptation is deciding do I need all the extra gear for my bag. This is what I usually carry http://photos5.flickr.com/6445178_aff14ddc65.jpg

I'm going on vacation today and I'm leaving most of my tech stuff at home. Cube, iMac G% (awesome), electric guitar, amp, speakers, tv, etc. I don't have a lot of small tech stuff. But I am bringing my iPod for the 3 hour drive and then it will stay in my bag unless my five year old cousin annoys me to the point of listening to it again. But that's it. And I'm bringing my dad's acoustic guitar so I can keep my musical genious happy. Just bring your iPod and camera and a couple movies. You have the PowerBook to watch the movies and it'd be better to watch them at night in your cabin/hotel room/whatever than on the sunny beach where you can't see the screen. But that's just me.

I always use vacation as a great way to leave my technology at home. It is nice and relaxing to sit on a beach and read words written in a book instead of a computer screen. I only take my iPod and my Casio Exilim. The cellphone is there, but usually turned off for the week, but you always need it just in case.

Black and blue, those are the colors that say you packed too much. My shoulders are bruised and hurt. I'm surprised my strap didn't snap off, spilling the contents of my gadget bag like one of those cartoon sacks that comically have no end to the contents within as they pile up on the floor. I picked a bag for my beloved portable electronics that would limit what I could bring, but not necessarily to Amish proportions. Powerbook, cellphone, iPod and accompanying chargersand cables made sense. It is usually at this point that "made sense" becomes a very relative term and my obsessively compulsive "what if" line of thinking kicks in. Before I knew it, I had everything from an extra iPod to a Beta tape copy of Top Gun stuffed into this poor little bag. What was supposed to be a very rectangular bag became a nice obese oval shape in the end. Also, having been a photojournalist at one point, 2 SLR bodies, 3 lenses and a fat man's butt load of chargers/batteries/CF cards was as basic as I could get. This latter set of goods spilled into a second piece of carry on luggage, a, luckily very restrictive in size, hard case. Best part to all this is that most of this stuff never gets used until I get back home. The lesson to be learned here? Buy a bigger bag...with wheels.

I'd stick with the camera, the iPod, the photo transfer widget (I have the Apple one, but I'm sure the Belkin one works just as well) and AC chargers for the iPod and the camera batteries. Lock the iPod & chargers in the room safe every day and take just the camera on day trips. Then in the evening you can transfer the day's photos onto the iPod while you get ready for dinner, and lock all the tech up in the safe for the night before leaving the room... Oh, and I'd ban your wife's PowerBook too unless there's a really, really good reason she needs it with her.

Um, I hope you bring like a book or a magazine or something. You're going to the beach... maybe a frisbee? Sunscreen? Mmmm, I love PABA... or do I hate it?