Be the envy of the departure lounge with these flight-friendly travel companions, perfect for whatever type of holiday you’ve got booked

[Photography Matt Beedle]

CITY-BREAK SLICKER

Just because you’re travelling light for an urban weekend doesn’t mean you have to leave the tech at home: these pint-sized powerhouses really do punch above their weight

1 Denon Envaya Pocket DSB-50BT

£80 / denon.co.uk

The tech in most hotel rooms begins and ends with a travel kettle; so if you want something to soundtrack your afterparty, you could do worse than Denon’s teeny Envaya Pocket. It comes in boring black or this natty Municipal Library Carpet Beige, and goes just loud enough that the only people you’ll have banging on the walls are the ones who want to come and join the fun.

2 Boom Travel+

£30 / findyourboom.com

Stick the little Boom Travel+ plug adaptor in your cabin baggage and it’ll be to hand as soon as you land – and what’s more, if your phone needs perking up mid-flight you can use its built-in 6000mAh battery to make sure it doesn’t conk out before you’ve finished watching all those Netflix shows you offlined in the departure lounge. Once it’s plugged into the wall its two USB ports are still accessible, so you can charge all your tech at once. Oh, and did we mention it works in over 150 countries worldwide?

3 Walli Smart Wallet

£90 / thefowndry.com

Losing anything on holiday is a pain, but there’s one thing that’ll leave you really gutted if it goes missing: your wallet. Never mind the cash – just think of all the cards you’d have to replace. This Smart Wallet has a Bluetooth tracker sewn in, so if it gets left behind or strays too far from your phone you’ll receive a notification with its last known position. And it works the other way around too: doubletap the Walli’s corner and your phone will let out a bleep.

4 Huawei P20 Pro

£799 / consumer.huawei.com

Can’t fit a separate camera in your carry-on baggage? Budget airlines don’t make it easy, but it’s nothing to worry about if you’ve got a P20 Pro in your pocket. As the first smartphone to get three cameras on the back (40MP telephoto, 20MP monochrome and 8MP standard), it gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘camera phone’, capturing images that are bursting with texture and detail. We’d never ditch a dedicated camera if we could help it, but having one of these bad boys certainly softens the blow.

Motorola Moto G6

ALTERNATIVELALTERNATIVELY

£219 / motorola.co.uk

Want a dual-lens camera on your phone without having to fork out for a flagship? Motorola’s G6 has one 12MP sensor and a secondary 5MP one, meaning it performs better in low light and can blur the backgrounds of your snaps to give them that arty look.

5 Matador Packable Freerain24 Backpack 24L

£45 / bearandbear.com

When you hit the streets of a new city for the first time, you’re only going to need the essentials: wallet, phone, hotel key. But as you explore you tend to accrue bits and pieces – fridge magnet, sweets, maybe a tarantula for Granny – and carrying an empty bag makes you look like a bank robber, so stick one of these squashable, waterproof rucksacks in your back pocket instead.

ADRENALINE ADDICT

Your resting heart rate sits at 200 beats per minute and you always parachute to work: these are the hardcore gadgets you’re going to need for your high-octane trip away

1 DJI Mavic Air

£769 / dji.com

Most drones are so big they come in their own suitcase, which is less than ideal if you want to haul one up a mountain with you or take it out into the wilds to track your riding trails. DJI’s Mavic Air, on the other hand, folds neatly right up and weighs just 430g, so you can easily stick it in the top of your backpack. It still offers awesome 4K footage and 12MP HDR stills, though its diminutive dimensions mean flight time takes a bit of a hit. Oh well – you can just use some of that space you’re saving to pack extra batteries.

2 GoTenna Mesh

From £199 for 2 / gotenna.com

If you’re a genuine adrenaline junkie, the kind who just isn’t happy unless they’re closer to the stratosphere than the nearest Starbucks, you probably find yourself without any phone signal on a regular basis. Get everyone in your trekking group to carry a GoTenna Mesh unit, though, and you’ll be able to send missives and location data up to four miles, even when you’ve got no reception. If there are other GoTenna users in the area, it’ll even piggyback on their devices to reach even further.

3 Goal Zero Venture 30

£100 / ellis-brigham.com

There are portable chargers – and then there’s the Goal Zero Venture 30. Where the others would shrink in the face of dirt, wind and rain, the IPX6-rated Venture 30 proffers its built-in microUSB cable, grabs you by the sideburns and bellows “JUICE ME!” into your face at full volume. With a 7800mAh battery, you’ll get about two and a half charges out of it for most phones, or there’s an extra USB port if you want to add your own cable and re-up two lumps of tech at once.

4 GoPro Hero6 Black

£345 / jessops.com

Heading off somewhere to do something gnarly? You might as well not bother unless you’ve got GoPros strapped to every spare square centimetre of your body. That could get pricey, though, so if you’re just going to get one, make it the Hero6 Black. It’s voice-activated, shoots 4K and slow-mo video plus 12MP stills, and the app automatically edits your footage into Insta-baiting clips in a flash. Nobody can accuse you of faking it after that.

DJI Mavic Pro Platinum

ALTERNATIVELY

£1199 / dji.com

If you’re happy to cart around something a bit bigger, DJI’s Mavic Pro Platinum takes up a bit more of your luggage allowance but offers a 30-minute battery life and is much quieter in flight, so you don’t have to worry so much about scaring the locals.

5 Suunto Traverse

From £325 / suunto.com

“I am just going outside, and may be some time,” you say to your tearful, intrepid companions as you exit the tent and embark on your solo mission into the wilderness. Little do they know, however, that you’re not really going solo at all, because strapped to your wrist is a Suunto Traverse watch. It’s got GPS, can predict weather changes and, if you use the Movescount app, it’ll show you popular routes to run, ride and ski in the area. So while it’s true – you may well be some time – that’s only because you’re having so much fun.

FESTIVAL FANATIC

Tent? Check. Hat and zany glasses? Check. Dignity? No, you can leave that at home: where you’re going, you don’t need dignity. But you could probably do with these…

1 Scrubba

£40 / thescrubba.com

If you’re worrying about getting your clothes dirty, you’re going to get a big surprise when you find out where everyone goes to the toilet at a festival. But if you really must freshen up your vintage Dire Straits T-shirt halfway through the weekend, get a Scrubba. It works like an old-fashioned washboard: just add water and detergent, squeeze out the air, give the contents a good rub and you’ll be smelling like roses again in no time. It’s just a shame it’ll probably make the stink of everybody else more noticeable.

2 KitSound Diggit

£40 / kitsound.co.uk

There’s nothing worse than getting back to your tent after a hard day festival-ing to find some berk on the campsite, usually sporting socks and sandals, banging out Ed Sheeran covers on an acoustic guitar. Fortunately for everyone, you packed a KitSound Diggit – a waterproof Bluetooth speaker with an eight-hour battery. While it probably won’t go quite loud enough to drown out Ed, you can always connect two together to make a stereo pair, or, failing that, use the detachable spike to put an end to his inane warbling.

3 Petzl Reactik+

£65 / ellis-brigham.com

Walking the guy-rope gauntlet is probably the most treacherous part of spending the weekend in a field, particularly when you’ve spent all day sampling the local ciders. Shed some light on the situation without having to worry about pointing a torch in the right direction by sticking a Petzl Reactik+ head-torch on your noggin. It automatically adjusts the brightness depending on how dark it is and you can even use an app to activate different lighting profiles, although sadly there isn’t one called Lost Tent Locator.

4 Vodafone Smart First 7

£20 / vodafone.co.uk

There’s no point buying a cheapo phone for a festival if you can’t join the crew’s WhatsApp group when you’re there – otherwise how will you know where to meet before seeing Ambient Banter at 3am on the Bovril Energy stage? Vodafone’s Smart First 7 is a full-on 4G Android phone for just £20, and on Voda’s pay-as-you-go 1 tariff it’ll never cost you more than a quid a day to use. Just don’t expect its 2MP camera to produce many Insta-worthy snaps of the bands.

Nokia 8110 4G

ALTERNATIVELY

£80 / nokia.com

Don’t want to be seen with a shonky smartphone down the front at Bantzfest ‘18? Nokia’s rebooted 8110 has 4G and a cool slidey answering mechanism, and comes in bright yellow, so it should be easy to spot when you drop it on the floor.

5 Juice Extreme

£25 / juice.co.uk

Considering that most phones can’t get through a single day without needing a re-up, you’re definitely going to need a portable charger to take with you on your musical adventure. The Juice Extreme has a rugged, waterproof chassis, two charging ports and a built-in LED just in case you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t find your loo roll. Its 5600mAh capacity means you’ll get about two and a half full charges from it for a top-end smartphone, although you’ll get more if you’ve taken a burner instead.

BEACH BOSS

Here’s a boatload of stonking gadgets that won’t mind in the slightest if they come into contact with a bit of sand and water – just remember to pack your best swimmers

1 Disc Jock-e

£28 / thefowndry.com

Proper audiophiles will always tell you good sound quality is all about getting your speaker placement absolutely right, so chucking a Disc Jock-e at them is likely to cause a few to break out into a cold sweat. This Bluetooth speaker doubles as a frisbee – but thankfully it’s also waterproof, so it doesn’t matter if your aim is a bit off. With playback buttons on the top, you can keep your smartphone tucked away in a bag and inflict that new Sting and Shaggy album on as many fellow beachgoers as possible. What’s not to like?

2 Kindle Oasis

£230 / amazon.co.uk

There’s one annoying trait that ebook readers share with their analogue ancestors: they don’t like going for a swim, no matter how warm the water. That’s unless, of course, you’re reading on the Kindle Oasis, which has a 7in 300ppi screen and is the first of Amazon’s e-readers to be waterproof. Its IPX8 rating means you can drop it in the shallow end of your local lido and it’ll survive unscathed as long as you don’t leave it there too long. Considering how much it costs, that’s probably just as well.

3 Manniska Folding Solar Panel

£40 / menkind.co.uk

While you sprawl by the pool, slowly roasting until you’re a nice golden brown, think about how much clean energy your body is absorbing. Wouldn’t it be good if you could capture some of it and put it to good use? If you’d rather not put on a solar-powered onesie, this folding charger is splashproof and comes with both Lightning and USB connectors, so you can use it to re-up your phone as you bask.

4 Nikon Coolpix W300

£389 / jessops.com

Just because you’re on the beach, that doesn’t mean you have to lounge around all day getting burned. The W300 is waterproof to 30m, so not only can you take it in the sea, but it also practically begs you to take it diving. With a 16MP sensor, wide-angle lens and the ability to capture 4K footage you’ll snag some great pics and video, and there’s also Wi-Fi and GPS, so you can show the scientists exactly where you discovered that new species of jellyfish.

Ultimate Ears Wonderboom

ALTERNATIVELY

£59, / ao.com

If you’d rather your music stayed in one place, UE’s Wonderboom is a tough, pool-friendly Bluetooth speaker that sounds much bigger than it looks. And if the urge to play catch gets the better of you, you can even use it as a ball.

5 Tile Sport

£30 / thetileapp.com

As we all know, taking anything of value to the beach can be a bit of a risk. Sand is the perfect medium for accidentally hiding things, and you can’t keep an eye on all of your stuff all of the time if you’re concentrating on catching rays. So get a Tile Sport to do the concentrating for you instead. Attach one of these trackers and it’ll show its last known location on a map using the Tile app, or you can make it beep if it’s still within Bluetooth range. It’s rugged and waterproof, making it perfect for trips to the seaside.

WORLDWIDE WANDERER

Bring these for your long-haul flight and it won’t only be the people turning left on the plane who are having a first-class trip

1 G-RO Carry-on Classic

£399 / uk.g-ro.com

When you’re queuing at passport control, frequent flyers will judge you based on your choice of luggage. Show them you know what’s what by taking one of these G-RO suitcases, which comes with a built-in (but removable) 10,000 mAh battery and two USB ports to make use of it, plus a Tile Slim Bluetooth locator so you’ll always know where it is. And the GravityRoll wheels make this the luggage equivalent of an all-terrain vehicle.

2 Panasonic Lumix DC-TZ200

£729 / jessops.com

Zoom lenses take up a lot of space, right? Wrong! The 15x optical zoom on Panasonic’s TZ200 concertinas inside a pocket-sized body – and combined with the 20.1MP sensor and Leica lens, it makes for a great all-rounder that’s ready for pretty much any photographic situation. The 1in sensor makes it much more capable than your phone in low light and it even has that nifty Post Focus feature, so you can change which part of your picture is sharp after you’ve taken it.

3 AYO Light Glasses

£299 / selfridges.com

When you’ve spent a big chunk of your hard-earned cash on a holiday, the last thing you want is for jetlag to rob you of too many waking hours at your destination. AYO’s futuristic headset might make you look like you’ve escaped from an episode of Black Mirror, but the blue light it emits is supposed to help you adapt to your new time zone up to three times faster than just allowing it to happen naturally. Got to be worth a try, right?

4 Bose QC35 II

£330 / bose.co.uk

A pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones has practically become a uniform for serious business types lording it up on aeroplane flat beds, but there’s a good reason for that: they block out the drone of in-flight hubbub better than any other. The QC35 IIs have a 20-hour battery life, enough for even the longest of long-haul flights, and an app that allows you to adjust the noisecancelling to exactly your liking. What’s more, when you’re back down on terra firma, they have Google Assistant built in as well.

Urbanista New York

ALTERNATIVELY

£149 / uk.urbanista.com

If leaving an expensive pair of headphones on the plane is a very real possibility for you, Urbanista’s New York noise-cancellers might be a better bet. They’re hardly disposable but they sound great and won’t be so gutting to lose as the Boses.

5 Flight001 4-in-1 Worldwide Travel Plug Adaptor

£20 / bearandbear.com

When you globetrot as much as you do, it can be tough to remember which timezone you’re in, let alone which plug adaptor you need to take with you. Fortunately you remembered to pack this 4-in-1 colour-coded converter. It’ll have you covered in 150 different countries around the world, and fits together so neatly that you can just chuck the whole lot in your bag and know you don’t have to worry.