Month: July 2022

Five Top Tips for Safe Travel This Summer From International SOS

Five Top Tips for Safe Travel This Summer From International SOS

LONDON–(Enterprise WIRE)–Following two years of stringent COVID-19 journey constraints, which have now mainly eased, lots of are at last savoring journey yet again and especially all through these summer months. To assure an fulfilling trip International SOS has outlined critical necessities for vacation abroad this 

9 Things I Wish I Knew Before Embarking On A Six-Month-Long Road Trip

9 Things I Wish I Knew Before Embarking On A Six-Month-Long Road Trip

15 several years ago, my spouse, Dave, and I had been residing in Estes Park, Colorado, a picturesque mountain city just minutes absent from the entrance to Rocky Mountain Nationwide Park. Despite all its magnificence and accessibility to the outside, dwelling entire-time in a tiny 

Travel tech: the best gadgets to pack on your holiday this summer | Gadgets

Travel tech: the best gadgets to pack on your holiday this summer | Gadgets

Summer is finally here, and after two years of disruption, many people will be getting on a plane, long-distance train or ferry for the first time in a long while.

A lot of us will inevitably be chucking a few gadgets and gizmos into our suitcases and hand luggage – from essentials such as travel adaptors to the items that can make a journey more pleasant, such as headphones and portable handheld fans.

Here’s our guide to the best gadgets to pack on your holiday this summer.

Noise-cancelling headphones


Bose QuietComfort 45

The Bose QuietComfort 45 folded in a case.
The Bose QuietComfort 45 offer long-term comfort and fold up neatly for travel. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

RRP: £319.95 – deals from £289, refurbished from £160.

Take some of the stress out of travelling by cancelling out the drone of engines or fellow passengers with a good set of headphones. The Bose QuietComfort 45 are the sequel to some of the best noise-cancelling headphones ever made, now with updated technology, including better battery life and sound, to give you a bit of peace and quiet.

Anker Soundcore Life Q30

The Soundcore Life Q30 headphones on a table.
The Soundcore Life Q30 offer long battery life and noise-cancelling on a budget. Photograph: Anker

RRP: £80 – refurbished from £66.

For those looking for something cheaper, Anker’s Soundcore Life Q30 offer Bluetooth 5, good noise reduction, reasonable sound quality and a 40-hour battery life that takes some beating, and cost as little as £66 refurbished. An updated model with higher-resolution Bluetooth support, the Life Q35, is also available with an official price of £130, although this week you could find them on Amazon for £90.

Portable speakers


Sonos Roam

Sonos Roam speaker standing on a patch of grass.
The Sonos Roam is ready to get the party started on the road or at home. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

RRP: £159 – refurbished from £130.

If you want something better than the myriad of cheap, not-great Bluetooth speakers that are available to buy, the Sonos Roam is so good, you’ll want to use it in your home, too.

Use it on wifi when at home or on Bluetooth when on the road. It’s water-resistant and durable, the battery lasts up to 10 hours, and it can fill a room with music despite its diminutive water-bottle-like size. It costs £159 without microphones or £179 with voice control.

Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2

Multiple people with phones streaming music to the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 speaker
The small but mighty Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 offers big sound for a bit less. Photograph: David Biedert/Ultimate Ears

RRP: £90 – deals from £70, refurbished from £55.

If you are looking to spend a little less money but want something that’s just as durable and boasts really decent sound, the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 is still one of the best Bluetooth speakers you can get. It can be picked up for about £55 onwards. The compact Bluetooth speaker is drop-proof, has 13 hours of battery life and water resistance.

Chargers and adaptors


Go Travel Worldwide Adaptor

Go Travel Worldwide Adaptor
Go Travel Worldwide Adaptor. Photograph: Design Go Ltd

RRP: £30 – deals from £26.

Juggling multiple power adaptors when travelling can be a pain, so the Go Travel Worldwide travel adaptor aims to be a one-for-all solution. It takes UK and other plugs, with slide-out pins for the UK, US, China and Australia, plus two-prong Europe sockets. It is available with two USB charging sockets for £40, too.

Anker 543 USB charger

The Anker 543 charger with four USB cables plugged into it.
The Anker 543 can charge up to four things at once, and can output up to 45W via a USB-C port, which is enough for a laptop. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

RRP: £45.

For more powerful gadgets, a multicharger such as this – it can charge up to four things at once – is the way to go. This super-slim but high-powered 65W Anker charger is my to-go, with two USB-C ports and two USB-A ports capable of charging most modern gadgets, from smartphones to laptops.

Portable battery chargers


Anker PowerCore Slim 10000 PD

The PowerCore Slim 10000 PD portable power bank.
The PowerCore Slim 10000 PD has enough power to fast-charge your phone twice or a tablet once. Photograph: Anker

RRP: £36.99.

Thankfully, modern smartphones have much better battery life, making portable chargers less of a necessity. But if you are running low and a plug isn’t within reach, the PowerCore Slim 10000 PD has the best balance of capacity, weight and charge speed, with USB-A and USB-C ports.

TV

Roku Streaming Stick 4K

Roku Streaming Stick 4K and remote.
Take your media streaming with you, even on difficult hotel wifi. Photograph: Roku

RRP: £50.

Sometimes the weather isn’t great, or you just need to take a break in your hotel room. Armed with a streaming stick, you can put your favourite TV shows or movies on any TV by just plugging it into power and an HDMI socket on the back.

The Roku Streaming Stick has a dedicated mode for dealing with difficult hotel wifi but Amazon’s recent Fire TV sticks (from £30) should be able to connect, too.

USB-C to HDMI cable

From £10.

If a streaming stick is a no-go and you have a modern Android phone, tablet or laptop, a USB-C to HDMI cable can hook it up to a TV like an external monitor. All PCs and Macs with USB-C ports will work, as will many high-end Android phones and Apple iPads with USB-C, but not the iPhone without a pricey adaptor.

Windscreen mount

A Ugreen windscreen phone mount.
Stick your phone to the windshield for use as a satnav and take some of the stress out of holiday drives. Photograph: Ugreen

From £10.

If you are hiring a car, a suction-cup windscreen mount that can turn your smartphone into a satnav may make life easier. Costing from about £6, mounts range in strength and size, with Ugreen’s well-reviewed model fitting most smartphones for £17.

Alternatively, your hire car may have Android Auto or Apple’s CarPlay. Just plug in your phone with a USB cable to put Google or Apple Maps on the built-in display.

Cable tidy

Keep the clutter of cables and chargers tidy on the road with these zip-up bags.
Keep the clutter of cables and chargers tidy on the road with these zip-up bags. Photograph: Bagsmart

From £10.

If your party is taking a number of devices on holiday, a cable organiser can help deal with the clutter of leads and chargers. They come in a variety of sizes, from rollup tool bags to hard-case boxes, with elastic loops to keep individual cables out the way. My pick are the zippered wallets that are small enough to shove in your hand luggage, such as the £16 Bagsmart.

Vero Beach, Florida – WorldAtlas

Vero Beach, Florida – WorldAtlas

Vero Beach is a quaint beachfront community situated along the US State of Florida’s Treasure Coast. With a favorable climate to flaunt throughout the year, many are attracted by the abundance of wildlife and sandy beaches along the Atlantic Coastline. With numerous points of interest 

8 of the Cheapest Countries to Retire Around the World

8 of the Cheapest Countries to Retire Around the World

Retirement plans are as unique as the individuals who are looking forward to the day when work, at least as they know it, comes to an end. For some, retirement can mean a career change to a long wished for profession or more time to 

Cheap holidays in south-east Asia due to lack of Chinese tourists

Cheap holidays in south-east Asia due to lack of Chinese tourists

Extravagant a a few-evening keep at the plush Banyan Tree Lodge in Bangkok, beneath 1 of the world’s top rooftop bars, commencing from $750? How about a 7 days in mid-August at the magnificent Alila Ubud tucked absent in a serene spot just outside Bali’s cultural hotspot, just $1960? Or that identical 7 days at the colonial-model Anantara Hoi Ann halfway alongside Vietnam’s shoreline, starting off from $1992?

It is really only not too long ago that these nations have opened to fully vaccinated travellers – Thailand due to the fact July 1, considering that June 8 in the situation of Indonesia, Vietnam from mid-May perhaps – and hoteliers are priming the pump with discount-basement fees.

“Bali, Thailand and Vietnam keep on being outstanding benefit for travellers,” according to Adam Schwab, CEO of Luxury Escapes, “especially now they are open for guests with virtually all COVID restrictions removed. This implies Luxurious Escapes has been in a position to offer even far more more value. For example, our all inclusive provide at the amazing Melia Resort in Bali is about 20 for every cent much better value than pre-COVID.” At the 4-star Phuket Graceland Resort and Spa on Patong Beach front, a single of Asia’s favourite holiday locations, “a ‘stay 6 nights spend for three’ offer starts from $580 per pair which include breakfast,” states Lorraine Youthful, Flight Centre’s Solution Shipping Co-ordinator.

Options from Luxury Escapes’ internet site include things like a week in late August at the swanky beachfront Sarojin at Khao Lak, north of Phuket at all-around $1800, or that similar 7 days at the ultra-luxe Apurva Kempinski Beachfront Vacation resort at Bali’s Nusa Dua, from $2800. For something nearer to Bali’s nightlife action, a 7 days at the good Mamaka by Ovolo at Legian will set you back just above $1000. Some of the finest specials are to be identified in Bangkok, these types of as the Shangri-La, beginning value a shade less than $200 for every night time.

The nations around the world wherever prices have fallen most are all those that relied on visitors from China, and tourism from China is lifeless in the water. In 2019 Thailand welcomed 11 million Chinese vacationers, a lot more than a quarter of its overall visitor quantities. Vietnam noticed 5.8 million Chinese website visitors, Cambodia 2.4 million and Indonesia 2.1 million. In 2022, apart from for crucial good reasons, Chinese citizens are forbidden from travelling abroad. All those nations are anticipating a swift revival of their tourism industries but specified the intense lockdowns that the Chinese management continues to impose when COVID-19 threatens to choose root in their community, Chinese vacationers could be absent from south-east Asia for some time however. That could imply tender rates as motels contend for a slice of a smaller sized tourism pie, specifically in Thailand.

The area to seem for bargains is on the internet websites that bundle lodging together with airfares, this sort of as Luxurious Escapes, Journey-A-Offer and Flight Centre. The special discounts that these operators can leverage by advantage of their obtaining electricity frequently make their specials sharper than reserving your individual airfare and the identical area in the very same lodge, even by way of the hotel’s individual web page.

Though the hotel deals are excellent, airfares usually are not. Put up-pandemic, we are spending concerning 20-50 per cent a lot more for air vacation. It helps make perception thus to decrease the cost for each working day of your getaway with a extended crack. Which include financial state airfares, a one-7 days holiday getaway for two in a Pool Home at Thailand’s Sarojin could expense all around $635 per evening booked by Luxurious Escapes. Continue to be for two weeks, break up your journey in between the Sarojin and the five-star Banyan Tree in Bangkok and the price tag for airfares plus lodging for two drops to about $465 for each night. Even on the one-week getaway nonetheless, you would be tricky pressed to come across air travel in addition vacation lodging of that top quality at a similar cost anywhere in Australia.

The terrific unfamiliar is when Chinese citizens will be permitted out. When they do, the high airfares that throttle again demand from Australian travellers as well as those from Europe and North The us will not use to the China current market – they’re a great deal nearer to south-east Asia than we are. At the time the China opens the floodgates, hope lodge charges to leap.

The intelligent money says e book in now.

“We are now viewing pricing start to normalise and we hope most Asian locations to be back again to pre-COVID concentrations in the upcoming number of months,” claims Schwab. “We are telling our members to lock in all their 2022 vacations now, and if you might be organizing on likely to a seriously well-known spot like Fiji or Bali, commencing to seem at Easter 2023 now because these presents are not likely to at any time be repeated.”

See also: The nations nonetheless building it hard (or impossible) for Australians to pay a visit to

See also: Hot new destinations Australians can fly to: A tutorial to the best new airways and routes