To WiFi and beyond...

As I sit and write on the balcony of a Balinese hotel, I recognise the invaluable addition to our 'essential' travel kit. Whilst it might not be part of everyone's kit, it has found a definite use here. Two years ago, I wrote about the 4-way extension which we never fail to bring along with us. Now, there's another piece of kit.

Modern travelling does require use of the Internet particularly if you travel like we do. We don't have an itinary prepared with hotel bookings and travel dates, we tend to go with the flow and move around whenever the feeling takes us. It requires us to have Internet to allow us to do this since nearly all bookings for hotels are made this way. We carry around a Lonely Planet guidebook with some recommendations, but the best deals and availability are found online.

Often reasonably-priced accommodation will promote free WiFi and usually it's usually stated this is hotel-wide and in all the rooms. However, this isn't the case in many places. WiFi is usually available at the front desk and apart from a few seats, that's it. 

The Apple Airport Express is a small brick, approx 10cm x 5cm x 2cm. It is light enough to squeeze into the backpack and with 125V / 240V power supply hooks onto an already available WiFi connection and extends the WiFi coverage. Our Airport Express is dangling over the balcony at the moment and extends the signal into the room. Perfect.

The Airport Express was released by Apple in 2004 and ever since then it's been invaluable. Not only does it support AirPlay at home, but it's become a travelling companion too.