10 Family Tech Tools for the Open Road

Taking a road trip this Summer?  How about traveling with a rental car?  Our family recently took a road trip where we flew to Memphis, TN, rented a car, and traveled through Birmingham, AL down to New Orleans, LA.  We visited my mother-in-law’s family along the way and had a great time.  With so many hours in the car at a time, I wanted to ensure we had entertainment…and power.

Here are the family tech tools we took on our Road Trip…

1.  Sewell  Circa USB Travel Charger

My Ford Edge at home as built-in USB ports, so it’s always easy to plug in my phone.  But I didn’t know what to expect with a rental car.  The Sewell Circa USB Travel Charger is a dual charger.  It can charge your phone/tablets in the car with its expanding  car adapter or it can be charged in wall plug.  It’s perfect for travel so you can use it in your hotel room and then plug it into your car for on the go.  And even better, it has two USB ports.  The Sewell Circa USB Travel Charger worked great for us for charging two items at once.  I kept my phone charging while draining my battery with Google Maps and used the other port to charge our tablets.

The Sewell Circa USB Travel Charger is extremely reasonable at $12.95 at Sewelldirect.com.

2.  SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive

The SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive is pretty amazing. The SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive looks like a small thumb drive…and it is…but it has capacity for 64 GB of space on it to hold pictures, music, and movies.  And better yet, it acts as its own network.  You can link up to 6 phones/tablets up to it to share movies, pictures, and music.

I added some favorite music and a TON of pictures on it for the kids to view while driving.  I loaded many of their baby pictures and videos on there as well as their formative years up to last year.  The kids were able to watch videos and pictures of them when they were younger.  It was fun to hear their laughter and remember memories together.  I loved that they could enjoy past memories as we were in the process of creating new ones.

You can also load movies onto the SanDisk Drive if you have them digitized.  You don’t have to worry about bad cellular or WiFi signals, because the signal is coming from the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive itself, right there in the car with you.  I also love the fact that you can place the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive in your pocket, go to someone’s house, borrow their tablet, connect to your USB drive in your pocket, and show them your vacation pictures on the spot.  So cool!

Do you have an iPad or Android tablet with limited memory?  Just keep your SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive nearby and you now have 64 more GB!

The SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive sells for $88.99 plus free shipping at Amazon.

3.  Tablets

Having a tablet…or two…on a road trip is a life-saver.  We took three of them.  The Samsung Note 8 (which is my personal favorite when I travel), the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX, and an iPad Mini (on loan from Tivo).

I enjoy the Samsung Note 8 when I travel because of it’s compact but nice screen size, the ability to take notes with its built-in stylus, and split screen capabilities (you can use two different apps at once!).

The Amazon Fire HDX has an amazing screen with it’s 2560 x 1600 very high definition display.  We bought the Minecraft app for the kids and they are constantly fighting for the Kindle.  I will soon be buying Amazon Prime for it too, which will give our kids even more opportunity to read some great books over the Summer.

The iPad Mini has a good screen size for our kids, though I prefer a bigger screen.  As a Tivo ambassador, Tivo lent us the iPad Mini to try out the full capabilities of the Tivo app…and because my tablet hard drives were full!  Believe me, I tried really hard to figure out a way to save our Tivo shows on the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive, but the Tivo app just doesn’t work that way, it has to be downloaded directly to a phone or tablet’s hard drive.

Having multiple tablets worked great for the kids.  They were quiet for most of the ride.  Believe it or not, all of the the “when will we be there?” questions came from my in-laws rather than the kids!  I should have brought some tablets for them too!  😉

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 sells for $344.99, the Amazon Fire HDX for $379, and the Apple iPad Mini for $269.00, all with free shipping.

4.  Tivo App

If you own a Tivo Roamio Plus, taking the Tivo app along with you is a must.  Connected to the Internet, your Tivo app (on your phone or on your tablet), can connect to your Tivo back home and you can access ALL of your shows and movies!  It was awesome to watch our favorite shows in the evenings when we had downtime in the evenings at the hotel.

We couldn’t watch our shows live from our Tivo while we were traveling across the countryside because my T-Mobile signal wasn’t very strong.  However, I found out that Tivo also gives you the opportunity to download shows/movies to your tablet (which is why I needed a tablet with some hard drive space available.)  I downloaded The Wizard of Oz, Beethoven, Chicken Little, and Mrs. Doubtfire for the kids to watch.  I wasn’t able to download them fully at home before we left, but had no problem downloading them at the hotel we stayed at, while connected wirelessly.  It takes about 2-4 hours to download a movie.  I downloaded most of them at night.

The kids watched The Wizard of Oz in its entirety… 2 1/2 hours… and then Beethoven during just one leg of our trip.  I was so surprised and pleased at how emersed the kids were into watching The Wizard of Oz.

The Tivo app is free on both the Apple and Google Play Stores.  You will need to set up your Tivo app to communicate with your Tivo box before you travel.

5.  Headphones & A Headphone Splitter

My daughter brought her pink headphones and I lent my SOL Republic headphones to my son to watch movies together.  I recommend over the ear headphones, so kids can comfortably watch a movie and not be distracted by noise by others in the car.  Also, invest in a headphone splitter to take with you on the plane or in a car, this inexpensive family tech tool is a winner!  This way your kids can watch the same movie at the same time and share the same experience.

Over the ear headphones can cost anywhere from $20 – $$400, but for kids, I’d recommend going on the cheaper end.  My SOL Republic headphones cost around $100.  Here’s a good deal on some inexpensive Kinivo Bluetooth Stereo Headphones for $24.99.  A headphone splitter will cost under $10.  Here’s one from iLuv for $8.98.

6.  Google Maps App

The free Google Maps App is a must-have app for travel.  In some cases, we we traveling in the backwoods of Alabama and Mississippi and Google Maps was a guiding force in ensuring we got to where we were going.  At one point, we were traveling in Alabama and detour signs took us off the freeway.  As we followed the detour sign on the other side of the freeway, we looked down and saw there was no more freeway!  Only dirt and grass!  The detour signs disappeared once we got a little further, but Google Maps kept on guiding us and we got to our hotel OK, through a bunch of back roads!

7.  Trip Advisor

If you haven’t downloaded the free Trip Advisor app, you really should.  It tells you the best hotels, restaurants, and activities to visit, as rated by locals and tourists, in each city.  We used Trip Advisor extensively during our trip to China last year and found it useful on this trip as well.  After traveling a number of days, we were tired of the traditional fast food fare.  Using Trip-It, I found a small restaurant that took us 6 miles away from the freeway, but it was a local-run restaurant with great hospitality and great food.  It was worth the extra mileage and we enjoyed our Italian beef and meatball sandwiches!

Trip Advisor is free and available on Android,  Apple, and Windows.

8.  Trip It App

I am a big fan of Trip-It.  It is very helpful in helping to keep your trips straight.  And with the Trip-It Pro, it always alerts me of which gate to go to, if my flight is on time, and it reminds me to check in the day before.  With Trip-It Pro, I even get notices if my flight is delayed…often times well ahead of communication from the airlines!

I often have several trips pending at one time and Trip-It has allowed me to keep my flight, hotel, car rental, and notes organized in one central place so I don’t have to worry about it.  In fact, if you give Trip-It permission, Trip-It finds travel plans emails in your inbox and automatically sends it to your account for you.

The Trip-It App is free on the Android, Apple, Blackberry, and Windows platforms.  Trip-It Pro sells for $49 per year, after a free 30-day period.

9.  Siri or Google Voice

As a Straight Talk Tester, I also had my iPhone 5S with Straight Talk service handy.  I found Siri to be very helpful in finding important places like Dairy Queen, Whole Foods, and directions to places we were going.  I also used the voice activated Google Voice Search on my Google Samsung Note 3 phone and found it useful as well.

Don’t forget about these two great voice-activated tools to help make finding things on the Internet…and around you…easier.

Both Siri and Google Voice are free and are already included in your Apple or Google phone.

10.  360 Electrical Powercurve Mini Surge Protector

I received the 360 Electrical Powercurve Mini Surge after attending the Consumer Electronics Show, earlier this year.  I do not go on any trips without it, it is such an incredible useful tool in helping me keep things charged.  The two AC outlets rotate to make it easier to work with larger plugs and not get in the way of each other.  In addition, it holds 2 USB ports, so I can plug in a total of 4 gadgets at once to charge.  And, it comes with the added protection of a surge protector to protect my devices should there be a short in the hotel electricity.

Often in a hotel, you may be lucky to find one open plug next to your bed.  One plug is all I need to easily charge 4 devices at once.  Love it!  It was no problem keeping our phones and tablets charged each night and ready to face the day!

The 360 Electrical Powercurve Mini Surge Protector sells for $18.81 at Amazon.

And An Honorable (non-tech) Mention Goes to…

11.  Insulated Ice Chest Bag

OK, I know this isn’t a tech item, but it is a must on a road trip.  My mother-in-law brought a small insulated ice chest bag with her on the plane as her carry on.  It only measured about 12 x 9 x 12 or so.  I thought it was a little strange…at first.  Then we filled it up with water and soft drinks and topped it with ice at the hotels for our road trip travels.  Boy was that handy!  I loved that it didn’t take much room but it held more than 8 drinks for all of us.

So if you’re traveling this Summer, gather up your family tech tools  like what’s listed here, to ensure you have all the  tech essentials ready for a successful family road trip!

Enjoy your travels!

*  I was given the Sewell Circa charger, SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive, the Samsung Note 8, Amazon HDX, SOL Republic Headphones, Trip-It Pro, and 360Electrical Powercurve sure protector for purposes of review.  All opinions are my own.