After 3 Years On the Road, What’s in My Bag? (Part 2: Tech Gear)

After almost 4 years on the road, here’s my digital nomad gear for work. © Rose Ernst, 2023.

In November 2023, I’ll celebrate 4 years of continuous slow travel as a nomad.

I’m fortunate enough to work on the road, so this nomad essentials list for tech gear reflects my remote worker setup. You’ll need less if you’re not working while traveling.

Three other relevant points for your own packing list:

1. Sound items: I’m sensitive to sound, so you’ll probably need fewer of these items.
2. Backup items: You might be more willing to live on the edge and need fewer items. I’m sometimes in a rural area where I cannot buy replacements.
3. Weight: Other than the MacBook, everything is lightweight. Don’t forget to consider this when making your own list.

Ready for my packing justifications?

(See the first article in this series here)

Note: All the items in the picture above add up to 34 pieces. The numbered list below is lower because I combined some items for discussion. If you want the full itemized list with links, you can find it here.

Laptop Setup

1. MacBook Air (13-Inch)

© Rose Ernst, 2023.

This is the best Mac size I’ve found for on-the-road remote work — a MacBook Pro is too large (and heavy) for me.

If you’re not working on the road, you can get away with a tablet and a keyboard.

2. Macbook charger + 2 converters

© Rose Ernst, 2023.

In countries with different electrical outlets than your home country, you may think you can simply plugin your MacBook charger into an adapter.

Please don’t try this. It will slowly (or quickly!) fry your laptops.

For example, in Europe, outlets are 220 volts, while they’re 110 in the United States. I actually slowly ruined one of my old laptops by plugging it into an…