We've recently booked future travel to Africa and Antarctica. Both trips have luggage weight restrictions and are causing us to consider ways to lighten up our load. Given that we want to travel with a DSLR camera, additional DSLR lens and binoculars, we need to reduce our luggage load a bit - both in weight and size.
I typically travel with a small (11 inch screen) laptop computer. This adds to about 3.5 pounds with the power brick. My latest thought is to leave the laptop computer at home and use the recently released 2013 Nexus 7 tablet in combination with a small keyboard. The keyboard is almost a necessity for updating a travel blog.
The new equipment is a Nexus 7 32GB tablet, combined with a MiniSuit wireless keyboard case. The keyboard is only eight inches wide and the keys are somewhat small, but this equipment combination seems completely functional. The tablet slips in and out of the case for standalone use. I installed OfficeSuite Pro, Version 7, on the Nexus so that I can create and edit Word, Excel and Powerpoint type files. Most of the travel programs I use on my laptop are available for Android. These apps include Skype, Tripadvisor, Tripcase, Weather and airline-related programs. The new equipment combination is likely about 1.5 pounds and has a much smaller physical footprint.
We've also recently acquired two 24x12x12
inch Timberland rolling duffels.This luggage meets the smaller dimensions required for intra-Africa flights and each piece is about five pounds. These smaller bags also will be useful as we fly from Puntas Arenas, Chile to King George Island, in Antarctica. The airplanes on these flights generally use smaller aircraft and can't accept large and/or hard-sided luggage. The trick is minimizing the amount of clothes which means cycling through a limited set of items (e.g., handwashing every other evening).
On our upcoming trip to Rome and Greece, we're still using slightly larger luggage, but will try the Nexus as a laptop computer alternative.
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| ©2013, R. Ono |
The new equipment is a Nexus 7 32GB tablet, combined with a MiniSuit wireless keyboard case. The keyboard is only eight inches wide and the keys are somewhat small, but this equipment combination seems completely functional. The tablet slips in and out of the case for standalone use. I installed OfficeSuite Pro, Version 7, on the Nexus so that I can create and edit Word, Excel and Powerpoint type files. Most of the travel programs I use on my laptop are available for Android. These apps include Skype, Tripadvisor, Tripcase, Weather and airline-related programs. The new equipment combination is likely about 1.5 pounds and has a much smaller physical footprint.
We've also recently acquired two 24x12x12 inch Timberland rolling duffels.This luggage meets the smaller dimensions required for intra-Africa flights and each piece is about five pounds. These smaller bags also will be useful as we fly from Puntas Arenas, Chile to King George Island, in Antarctica. The airplanes on these flights generally use smaller aircraft and can't accept large and/or hard-sided luggage. The trick is minimizing the amount of clothes which means cycling through a limited set of items (e.g., handwashing every other evening).
On our upcoming trip to Rome and Greece, we're still using slightly larger luggage, but will try the Nexus as a laptop computer alternative.
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