10 tools and gadgets I—as a world-traveling digital nomad & photographer— can’t live without

I’ve been traveling the world full-time for the last 5 years. I want to provide you with some expert insights from all my experiences as a world-traveling digital nomad.

I firmly believe your travels and your digital nomad journey will be more comfortable and enjoyable with using these tools and gadgets:

My toolkit:

A noise-cancelling headset

My number 1 tip for any traveler and digital nomad is without a doubt to immediately get yourself a quality noise-cancelling headset. The amount of times this headset has saved me from noisy nights in Mexico, noisy cafes in Japan, and noisy construction in Bali, has been in the triple digits.

I’ve had Bose NC headsets for over 8 years now, and I don’t see myself switching anytime soon. The Sony and Apple headsets are also quite excellent by the way.

A projector
Most Airbnbs and hotels have horrible little old tv’s. Watching movies and shows on your laptop all the time just doesn’t do it for me. I need something bigger to unwind after a long day of grinding. A handy little projector has been a wonderful outcome!

I have the excellent Halo+ from XGimi, a little powerhouse with 700 lumens and a 1080p Full HD resolution. It has Auto Keystone Correction (to correct itself constantly when moved across the room to make sure you have a normal viewing screen), sound by Harman/Kardon, and Google TV and the Google Play Store provide seamless access to 5000+ apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Prime Video.

You don’t even have to hook up your laptop to the projector. You can just watch all your favorite shows and movies on the Halo+.

Check out my Instagram Stories for videofootage of the Halo+ in action.

A VPN
It is an absolute must for any serious traveler and/or digital nomad. You can’t be logging in at WIFIs from airports and cafes without the protection of a VPN. And there is another huge plus: you can watch shows from other countries or your own home country while you are out in another country.

I for instance love to watch UFC on HBO, but when I’m in for example Australia, they won’t let me watch it. Switching to my home country makes it possible to watch whatever I want.

I personally have NordVPN and Mullvad VPN. The latter even makes it possible to enjoy your Western internet in China!

Youtube Premium

I can’t believe it when somebody tells me they use Youtube with Youtube Premium. This means they endure a lot of ads. Like A LOT of ads. It’s quite absurd how many ads they serve, and after using Premium you will think the exact same way.

It’s not cheap per se, but I watch dozens of Youtube-videos a week, so I save a lot of time with skipping these horrendously annoying ads.

An Xbox Controller

I love to play video games to blow off some steam after a day of working. An Xbox or Playstation controller can be connected to your laptop via Bluetooth to play some fun video games.

Recently, I’ve replayed some old retro classics via emulators. It was great to replay golden oldies like Metal Gear Solid, Altered Beast, Rambo III, Colin Mcrae Rally, and many more.

A high-quality smartphone
There is just no way I could have lived the way I live without my trusty sidekick. Although very addicting, the smartphone has been unbelievable in providing me with information, inspiration, guidance, and entertainment.

But I want to address something in the impressive difference between affordable smartphones and expensive flagships. The speed, the screen, the cameras, and the build quality of a flagship smartphone is just a shocking difference.

I upgraded to an iPhone 15 Pro Max and fell in love with the screen, the cameras, and the super smooth user interface. It’s a powerhouse that just does everything right. An essential partner for running my online businesses!

eSIM

Before I had a new smartphone, I had to go to the airport in a new country and get myself a new physical sim card. But with eSIMs, you can buy the digital esim in the country where you are (and are connected to like the WIFI there). This means that when you land, you are immediately connected to the 5G data.

I use MobiMatter as my platform to buy eSIMs. What surprised me the most is that it is quite affordable compared to physical sim cards.

So, get yourself a recently brought out smartphone, and never look back at those old physical little sim cards.

A Macbook
I’ve been a Windows and Android kid my whole life, but since 2023 I switched to Apple completely. And I will never look back.

The Macbook has been just so smooth and so slick. The only negative thing I can think of is that there are not many video games to play on.

I got myself the Macbook Air 15-inch M2. I adore this machine. It’s the backbone of my digital nomad existence.

Airtags

Luggage gets lost in airports, maids steal from your hotel room, and crooks can rob you in clear daylight of your precious belongings. Imagine you could trace your stuff down and get it all back. It’s made possible with Airtags (or the equivalent of it). Just buy a set of three per person and drop them in your suitcase, backpack, and wallet.

Airtag all the things!! :)

Google Google Google

Special shoutout to Google for being just awesome in making my digital nomad journey possible. Without them, I would probably be stuck in a boring 9-5 office job in rainy Holland.

Just imagine a life as a digital nomad without Maps, Translate, Search, Agenda, Reviews, Gmail, Drive and so on. I’m grateful for life!

Bonus tip: ChatGPT.

We’re closing this list with the newest addition to my toolkit, and this is one I can’t believe I’ve lived and worked with my entire life before it.

ChatGPT (and other LLM’s like Grok, Gemini, DeepSeek) have been transformative in how I search, think, plan, and do.

You prompt, you get. It’s just unbelievable how much faster I can work thanks to the nifty prompts I’ve given to ChatGPT. I think I save one day a week of tedious work that I now don’t have to do any more thanks to ChatGPT.

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More?

Read more about the lifestyle of a world-traveling digital nomad in my FREE ebook: “50 Practical Travel Tips from a World Traveler“. I guarantee there is a golden nugget or two in there for you.

This article is made in collaboration with XGIMI for the Halo+