One of the things I enjoy doing most with my family is traveling. Annually, we go on two or three domestic trips (at least one of them to Hawaii to visit relatives).
What happened
We try to go on a big international trip every 18 months or so—I went to South Africa in 2024, and I just got back from a trip to Iceland in August to see the eclipse . And I always take a lot of gear with me.
Where the sources line up
Over the years, I’ve figured out what tech I absolutely need to take with me. There’s an art to figuring out what to bring. You don’t want to overdo it, because you’ll end up lugging around stuff you aren’t using. But you don’t want to be left without that thing you absolutely need and don’t really have a means of obtaining that item where you are.
Practical impact for readers
While I now rely on my iPhone for all the photos and videos I shoot, I need other items to ensure a successful and enjoyable trip. Here’s a list of the gear I bring with me on my trips. This is the stuff I almost always bring no matter where I’m going. Hopefully, you can use this list to help you figure out what you need to bring on your next trip. If you have suggestions, drop me a line at rloyola@macworld. com. (Note: Prices stated here are MSRPs, but Amazon often runs sales and discounts on many of them.
Who should pay attention now
There was a time when I would bring separate video and still cameras on every trip, but the iPhone has gotten so good, I don’t need any other camera. With some practice and knowledge of iOS’s features and settings, or with third-party camera apps, you can replicate the capabilities of cameras that cost hundreds more. I just took a trip this past weekend and relied on the iPhone 18 Pro Max to document everything, but prior to this trip, I was using a iPhone 17 Pro Max , And before that, I used an iPhone 16 Plus , but I really prefer to the Pro’s telephoto lens.
What is still unclear
On longer trips where I’ll shoot a lot of photos and video, I bring a MacBook so I can browse and manage my shots after each day is done. I used to bring an extremely old MacBook Pro instead of the MacBook Pro that I use daily, so if it was lost, stolen, or damaged on the trip, I wouldn’t sweat it that much. But it’s also extremely slow and heavy. Even with a recent $100 price hike, the MacBook Neo is such a delight–lightweight, fast, and durable. And as I point out in my review , it doesn’t need to be a secondary machine—the Neo is extremely capable of being a daily-use Mac.
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