Category: Technology
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komoot: The Most Powerful Route Planning App For Bikepacking & Cycle Touring?
Full disclosure: komoot provided financial support for my 2018 tour of Armenia, and I published this review as part of that agreement. In 2023 I updated the post to reflect the app’s evolution. Lots of people have been asking about the route planning and navigation apps I’ve been using on my recent bike tours. The app I’ve mostly been using since 2018 is komoot (with a lowercase ‘k’), the creation of a Berlin-based team of developers, which is finding increasing favour with recreational outdoor users – and it also happens to be an excellent route planning and navigation tool for cycle tourists… Continue reading →
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Stop Bleeding Away Your Travel Money Via Overseas Card Transaction Fees (UK Only)
Fee-free UK current accounts for overseas spending are hard to come by. Enter Starling Bank, a mobile-only 'challenger' bank offering its customers zero-fee withdrawals and purchases in any currency anywhere in the world. Continue reading →
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8 Handy Bits Of Software For Travellers & Adventurers
If you’ve ignored all my advice to go on low-tech adventures and are packing a laptop and mobile net connection alongside your merino-wool boxer shorts and solar panels, you might find these bits of software make your precious time at the battery-powered screen a bit easier, safer and more productive. (And 7 out of the 8 are free.) Continue reading →
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How To Use A GPS Unit On A Cycle Tour
As with many of the technology and equipment articles I write, this one opens with a question: Do you really need to use GPS on your tour? Will a GPS unit help you significantly to achieve your goals? Or will it serve as a distraction from the experience? Could you navigate by road-sign, map & compass, common-sense and by asking for directions, and would that be more fun? Would a cycle-computer suffice to keep track of distance — and why are statistics so important anyway? Still considering using GPS for your next bike tour? Let’s continue. Continue reading →
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How To Start A Travel Blog: A 5‑Minute Intro To How Easy It Really Is
Travel blogging direct from the road, on your backpacking/walking/cycling/skateboarding/unicycling trip, is not only a realistic ambition: with today’s technology it’s also a piece of cake and costs very little. Read on for a quick primer… Continue reading →
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High-Tech or Low-Tech?
There’s a balance to be struck between taking too many and too few techy gadgets on an expedition. I’m a bit schizophrenic in this area. I’d like to say I’m naturally frugal — last year I hitched home from Armenia with only a knife, phone and poncho — but I also greatly value the usefulness of certain technologies. But some technologies become nothing but a fad, or — worse — create more problems than they solve. Over-complicated computer systems in small libraries. GPS navigation units which send drivers merrily trundling into rivers, despite warning signs and the presence of bridges.… Continue reading →