Tips For Traveling

Australia, here I come!

2015-07-21T04:37:00.004-07:00

Ok, finally another post on this blog! I managed to actually book my flight to Australia now, so for the next couple of weeks I will be posting some useful stuff for travelling and backpacking, so please stay tuned for what's to come!

"Red Earth Desert" by Wayne England - originally posted to Flickr as Red Earth Desert. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_Earth_Desert.jpg#/media/File:Red_Earth_Desert.jpg

Long Flight ahead? Read these tips!

2013-10-16T03:32:00.000-07:00

So you plan to go on a long flight? You probably know that it won't be the best time of your life but with these tips you will at leas be able to get through it without to much of a trouble.

1. Set your watch.

As soon as you board the plan, change the time on your watch to the time in the country you will fly to.

2. Sleep (or not)

Look at your watch. If it is time to sleep at your destination, do everything to fall asleep. If it is in the middle of the day, try to stay awake at all costs. This way jetlag won't be too much of an issue. (It's not the perfect cure for everybody but it will definitely make you feel better)

3. If you have to stay awake: Entertainment is key!

It's time to load up your tablet or phone with everything you want to watch or read. Keep your eyes peeled, I will write an in-depth post about how I do it.

4. Drink something, eat something

I guess this is a no-brainer. Your body needs nutrition, no matter where you are. And, dehydration is not something you want to play with.

5. On the first day, try to stay awake.

If you arrive during the day, try to stay awake. This way you won't wake up in the middle of the night.

Anyway, I hope you have a nice flight and as always: Safe Travels!
(Sorry that this post is that short, I decided to write an entire post for itself about in-flight entertainment!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996646802@N01/5478216148/in/photolist-9m6hNy-cFF6hb-fArPdK-gc6k5w-edc2iU-cPUtny-8ifn4J-bajQKB-8KSTWb-8tRVGC-dWCMXr-8rzJrn-9znd2i-8on7Px-fgjBBd-9QvNNk-8X2UiA-82cP6a-943erw-9cLXF9-c28bLo-aS1wTP-e2RQRW-ac1Cci-aS1wHR-aS1wq2-aS1wfz-aS1wC4-7QtD3x-fTH93i-8ceTLT-ebE7zs-ebyvSa-dRWs9n-dRTWtC-7zSfE2-7zW1Mm-aDuRra-bjnXWZ-aS1xUz-aS1xmn-aS1yAz-aS1xvi-aS1xDx-aS1yvn-aS1x3e-aS1xM8-aS1xai-aS1yjp-aS1y3H

Traveling with devices! or What if my device is stolen? / What if I lose my device?

2013-10-15T23:20:00.000-07:00

So, you want to travel and bring one of your favourite devices? A smartphone? A tablet? Then you should definitely take good care of it. Try these tips and you will be much more comfortable with lugging your precious device around with you in a foreign land.

1. Backup!

You should always backup your device, because you might never know when your SD card or the internal storage fails but especially when you travel, who knows, you might lose that device with all your photos, your music and other files.
Now, how do you do it?

Android

A good app for backups is Titanium Backup. There is a free and a paid (premium) version,

though the free version will be just fine. Two problems: It's only really good for app backups and the free version won't let you send your backups to a cloud storage. Furthermore your phone needs to be rooted for it to do anything at all.

Another good allrounder ist Ease Backup. Just like Titanium Backup it will save all your apps, of course only if you're rooted, but it will also backup all your contacts, appointments in your calendar, WiFi access points and so on. The latter part also works without root! Best of all (if you have the premium version) you can set up a time table, so it will backup at, say, 2 o'clock in the morning while you are asleep, so all your files are safe!

iPhone / iPad

With iOS it's rather easy! Just switch on "iCloud Backup" and "Photostream" in your settings and all your data will be saved onto Apple servers automatically!

2. What if you loose your phone? / What if it is stolen?

Of course there is no app to prevent your phone from being stolen but there sure are apps to recover it.

Cerberus web app

iPhone / iPad

Simples! Switch on "Find my iPhone" in your settings and you're golden!

Android

Google just recently rolled out the "Android Manager" but in my opinion it's a little limited in what it can do.
A much better and powerful app is Cerberus. With it you can not only track your phone or tablet, you can also remotely delete all data, should it come to it. Sadly, it's not entirely free. You can use it for a limited amount of time before you have to activate it (by paying ;) ) but I think it is completely worth it!

3. Safe Travels!

I hope these tips will help you while traveling but no app can compete with common sense! If you see a dark alley you wouldn't go down back at home then don't go down it when your away! I hope you'll have a lot of fun and: Stay Safe!

This video shows you how to pack the pro way!

2013-08-13T13:17:00.001-07:00

I just found this YouTube video and thought this might be interesting / helpful for some!

Should I encrypt my android device? (And how to do it for Android)

2013-08-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

First: What is encryption?

If you encrypt your android device, all your data that is stored on your phone will be "scrambled" and no one without the password can read it. Every time you unlock your phone you will have to type in your password and the data will be temporarily "unscrambled" so you can use your phone. As soon as you lock it everything is encrypted again and no one can read it without the password.

Why would I do that? Who is this for? What does it have to do with travel?

Well, encryption is mainly for business people who want their business secrets to be save. But you could use it to protect your photos or personal data when you lose your phone or when it's stolen (which hopefully never happens to you!).

What are the downsides?

If you encrypt your phone it could be less responsive and a little bit slower than before.
It's a one-way-process. Once you've encrypted your phone you will have to factory-reset it, if you want to get rid of the encryption. That means the phone will erase all the data stored on it and you will have to put everything back on it afterwards.

You still want to enable encryption? Here's how to do it!

BACKUP ALL YOUR DATA! (This is just to be on the safe side, you can leave this step out, but you have been warned! I won't be responsible if anything happens to your phone and it's data!)
Be sure you want to do this! This will take one or more hours!
Still reading? Then let's get started. PLUG IN YOUR PHONE! If it switches off during the encryption process your might lose some, if not all, data!
Make sure your battery is charged. (Leave it plugged in)
Set up a lock screen PIN or password (on most phones: Settings -> Lock screen -> Screen lock -> PIN / Password)
Open settings once more
Go to "Security"
Tap on "Encrypt device"
Read the warning. It's there for a reason.
Tap "Encrypt device"
Wait.

How to get rid of the encryption?

If you want to get rid of the encryption you will have to reset your device, which means you will lose all data on the device, so make sure you have everything backed up!!!!

Do Anti-Mosquito Apps really work?

2013-08-11T13:25:00.001-07:00

Well, the short answer for everybody who doesn't want to read the entire post: no.

Wouldn't it be awesome? You are out and about and suddenly millions of little bugs want to bite or sting you. You could just reach for your smartphone, open an app like Anti Mosquito - Sonic Repeller (Android, free) and all the little buggers would be gone in a minute.
Well, according to studies, these apps and other electronic mosquito repellents may be a good placebo, but they do not actually work. Even worse, a more recent study even showed that these apps might attract mosquitos rather than repel them...

In the end, we now know that bug repellent apps do work, they just do exactly the opposite of what they are supposed to do. My advice: get a good bug repellent spray for the next time you go camping.

You don't know what to do in a city? - Try Tripomatic

2013-07-29T12:34:00.001-07:00

Tripomatic is a useful little app which automatically creates an itinerary for you. You just have to type in your destination and the date and off you go. It will add a few interesting activities for every day of your trip and you can easily add more if you like with the in-app map. You can use this app as a Webapp on your PC or Mac, on your iPhone, your iPad and your Android device. And the best thing? It's free, so go ahead and try it out, what can you lose?

BTW: If you use Tripomatic on your PC or Mac you can print out your itinerary with a few more tips baked right in it.

Open Webapp

Download
Android - iOS

An App for saving mobile data: Onavo Extend [UPDATE]

2013-07-14T08:08:00.000-07:00

Onavo Extend is a pretty clever app, which minimizes the amount of data that is sent to your mobile phone and therefore saves you some money on overage fees. After you install it (it's free, by the way) you just have to allow it to manage your data. It will then route all data from the website you want to visit to their servers, where they shrink it, and then sends it to your phone. It's nice if you are in a foreign country and you only have a small data plan.

Download:
Android - iOS

Update: Facebook has aquired Onavo so if you're concerned about your data and privacy you might want to avoid using Onavo for now.

Mobile Internet Access in Germany! (if you are on vacation with your smartphone / tablet / notebook)

2013-07-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

as of July 10th, 2013
If you have a smartphone you will probably want to be online wherever you go, even if you are on vacation. And let's be honest, these little devices are way more useful when they are connected to the internet at all times. So, if you plan to go to Germany this year, I have some recommendations for you.

WiFi Access Points

Sign for a Telekom Hotspot

If you're not in a lager city like Berlin, you will have a hard time finding one of those. And mostly they are (in my opinion) rather expensive, so I wouldn't recommend them if you are staying for more than 3 days. Telekom has the most hotspots here, and with them it's almost 5€ for 24 hours, 20€ for 600 Minutes or 35€ for 30 days.

Buy a SIM Card

If your smartphone is unlocked and working in the GSM band, you can simply buy a SIM card and stick it in. (If you don't know what unlocked an GSM band means, just ask your carrier whether your phone will work in Germany or not)
Aldi Talk provides cheap SIMs and their Internet Flatrate L flatrate is only about 10€ a month for 1,5GB high speed (if you surpass this amount, you can continue to surf without paying overage fees, but it will be considerably slower). You can buy a card in every ALDI and they are all over Germany. You will have to register it online though and ALDI Talk ist in the "E-Plus" network, which is fine in citys, but a little slow in rural areas. By the way, with this package you can use your phone as a hotspot for your other devices without paying any fees.
You could also go to one of the Vodafone, T-Mobile or O2 stores in larger citys. They will activate your SIM right in the store, so you will be able to use it almost immediately, but especially Vodafone and T-Mobile are a lot more expensive than for example Aldi Talk.

Starbucks / McDonalds

One of the logos for WiFi at McDonald's

If you have a Starbucks around the corner of your hotel, then you can go there for all your internet needs. With them you can connect for 2 hours each "session". If one session is over, you have to log out and then log in again.
McDonalds is a little different. I have a McDonalds in my area, and if I go there I can log on for an hour every day. However, I have been to McDonalds in Germany where you could stay online for as long as you want for free and I have been to some where you couldn't sign in for free at all.

Flava - a great, free app for saving your travel memories

2013-06-04T07:48:00.002-07:00

Flava is like a digital diary in which you can save your memories. You can write text, you can attach photos, your location, tags and even the music you've listed to. And best of all it syncs with it's service, so you can have your entries on all your devices.
Download:
Android - iOS

Best app for editing your photos on the go

2013-06-03T07:32:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite apps for photoediting on my phone or my tablet is Snapseed. It is available for Android as well as iOS (optimized for iPad and iPhone) and it's totally free!
Download:
Android - iOS

The best apps for travelers!

2013-05-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

There are hundreds of apps out there claiming to be "the only travel app you will ever need" but most of them aren't worth anyone's time. In this post I will list the apps I keep using for my traveling needs.

TripIt

This is a screenshot of the Android app.

TripIt is a no-brainer for me and I use it to sync my travel itinerary between all my devices. After you signed up, you can send your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and they will "automagically" appear in your itinerary! It's really useful and you should definitely try it. Best of all, it's free, although there is a pro option.
Download:
Android - iOS

MetrO

This app is only really useful if you are in a larger city with an underground. You can just type in at which station you are an where you want to go and it will display all possible routes. Simple. I know, it doesn't look particularly pretty, but it gets the job done.
If you want it on Android, you will have to go to their website (just follow the link below) and sideload it onto your device, because it is not yet available in the Google Play Store.
Download:
Android - iOS

City Maps 2Go

This app isn't free but

City Maps 2Go - Android

it let's you download the map of your destination to your phone, which means that you do not have to pay the high roaming charges for mobile internet access in a foreign country. The maps are quite big, so make sure you have enough memory left on your phone or tablet.
Download (full version, has wikipedia travel guides built in):
Android - iOS
Download (free, lite version)
Android - iOS

PocketGuide

This is an app which let's you download audio guides for a whole bunch of citys and while you walk along the displayed route it plays the tour (it uses the GPS of your phone to track you and play back the according audio files). The tours are saved locally on your phone, so it doesn't depend on an internet connection. While the app itself is free, you have to pay for the tours.
Download:
Android - iOS

Of course, these aren't the only travel apps I use, so I will make another post with more soon!
What apps do you use while you travel? Let me know in the comments!