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Entertainment on the Road |
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Entertainment on the road may seem rather ridiculous - after all, why entertain yourself on the road when you could be saving lots of money and time by entertaining yourself back home? Traveling by itself is a form of entertainment. The reason we bring along a few digital entertainment gadgets is to keep us occupied during our down time - when we just want to chill out somewhere, when we're waiting for a bus, when we're stuck in a tent, or the road we're on is long and monotonous, our digital devices can kill some time. When you have kids with you these toys come in very handy. It used to be the only forms of entertainment options were reading books and talking with other travelers (which aren't bad things), but with the proliferation of digital devices there are now many, many more options. I will list a few of them here, but it's far from complete. MP3 PlayersMP3 players can be much more than just music players. For one thing they can hold audio books and language lessons. I loaded some Spanish lessons on my MP3 player so I could study it while I rode my bike. I stored a bunch of audio books on the laptop and periodically put them on the MP3 player for the kids to listen to. You can get a wide variety of audio books from many different sources (e.g. audible.com), many of them free. Check your local library! When people hear the word MP3 player, an iPod is probably the first thing that comes into mind. There are many alternatives, all of them cheaper. I have a very simple-to-use Creative Zen Media Playerwhich has served me well for many years. MP3 players are evolving into much more than sound devices - you can watch movies, play games and surf the internet on some of the more sophisticated ones. Check out the Creative Zen 32 GB Portable Media Player
ComputersA computer by itself is a complete entertainment system. You can play games, watch movies (if you have a DVD drive), and listen to music. The disadvantage of it is that it's not very portable - you wouldn't want to pull it out in a bus station and start playing video games in a third world country, even if you had unlimited battery time. There are also some very good educational programs that we use for homeschooling our kids. Hand-Held Gaming DevicesGameboy Pocket
Portable DVD PlayersThese are devices that only play DVD movies. I guess they would be nice if you liked movies but for the traveler you might as well buy a laptop with a DVD player. It would do everything the portable DVD player would do and LOTS more. |
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, 
, and the 
. With the iPod Touch you can use it's built-in Wi-Fi to connect directly to iTunes and download TV shows, movies, games, and music. On top of this you can surf the web and check your email.
, 
, and 
are the most popular. I never use them, but my kids do. Their Game Boys are great for those times when we are just hanging around and haven't been able to find English books for them to read.