We live in a world where there seems to be an app or gadget for almost everything. While I wouldn’t call myself a technology expert, I have found some really great inventions that can come in handy whilst travelling abroad.
Here are my top 5 travel tech essential that I promise will make life easier:

1. Get h-app-y:
I wasn’t joking when I said there’s an app for almost everything. These apps are all free and available on both android and iphones and will have you wondering how you ever survived without them before. Take into consideration it’s probably best to download these from your devices app store before you leave home to avoid excessive data usage.

• Word Lens A free app that uses your smartphones camera to translate foreign language into something you can understand.
• Viber – Viber is an alternative to using your phones credit and instead uses your internet connection to send messages, make calls, take photos or send video messages to your loved ones back home to make them green with envy of course! Its my favourite way to chat for free on your phone and automatically syncs with your phones contact list.
• Skyscanner – This well-established app is an essential tool in your travel kit that compares flight times and prices, to any destination, across every airline. It covers thousands of airlines around the world and with 20 million downloads and counting, its clearly ticking plenty of boxes.
• TravelSmart If you encounter an emergency overseas, its a good idea to have an app that gives you access to local hospitals, emergency numbers and information about foreign medicine and health advice. Perhaps not the most exciting app here, but it could save your life. Its also sponsored by Allianz Global Assistance.
• Wifi Finder – If you want to keep updated on what the internet has to offer without using your data downloads, use this handy app to find a free connection. Wifi Finder even compares wifi strength from locations near you, like cafes or libraries.

2. Snap it up:
If you lose your camera overseas you also say goodbye to hundreds of beautiful moments and irreplaceable memories not even travel insurance can recover those! There’s a multitude of dedicated photo-storage sites around (like Flickr), offering both free and paid storage solutions. If you have internet access, then a cloud solution is an ideal way to back-up your photographs and video files I often use Dropbox which is easily downloaded for free on to your laptop and accessed from any device via the internet.
If the cloud sounds a little ominous then a portable backup device might be the next-best solution. These devices are a hard drive in themselves, but they also come with photographer-ready features like CompactFlash and SD card slots to transfer photos and videos without any extra wires. Just ask your local electronics store to point you in the right direction!

3. Tablets ‘ and I don’t mean your daily fish oil
These handy devices have the capabilities of a fully equipped computer, compacted into a handheld 10 inch screen. Tablets like the iPad, Samsung Galaxy Note and Microsoft Surface 3 have tablet optimised apps and are surprisingly easy to use. They’re also handy for doing that quick spot of work at an elegant Parisian cafe.

4. Electric elegance
It might seem obvious but you wouldn’t believe how many times I have arrived at the airport to realise I haven’t packed an international power adaptor. These lifesavers can charge any USB enabled device from any power-point around the world and you can find them from any good consumer electronics shop. Don’t have a power-point? Let portable batteries be your plan B. Products like the YellowStone Power Bar are a portable charging solution that pack plenty of juice for the constantly connected diva.

5. Noise cancelling headphones
Sometimes you need to block out the rest of the world and a good pair of noise cancelling headphones will do just that. Bose and Sol Republic have a great range of ‘over-ear’, ‘on-ear’, and ‘in-ear’ head phones which range in prices from $40 all the way up to $400 for top of the range options. I prefer in-ear headphones as they are more comfortable for resting your head during a mid-air snooze – but it is worth trailing a pair to see what is the right fit for you.