Is your line of work taking you from hotel to a hotel? Do you spend most of your “free” time in a hotel room? Is your biggest problem that you get bored in the room and don’t know what to do to kill the time? Then you definitely need to have gadgets that will help you not “die” of boredom.
We know how boring hotel rooms can be, especially if you are practically living in them. Cable TV is okay, but that gets boring soon and then you have to think of the ways to entertain yourself until you fall asleep. Therefore, having a few gadgets at your disposal is never a bad idea. But, how to know which ones will be ideal for you? That’s where we jump in.
We are going to help you with a few great gadget suggestions. After you are done reading, you might decide to get one of them, a few, or maybe all of them.
TV Box
The majority of hotels have TVs and cable, but not all have great cable channels. So, if there’s nothing to watch, what can you do? Well, if you are lucky enough to have a Smart TV in your room, and if installing new Apps is not locked by the hotel (most of the time it is since they don’t want the guest to install all kinds of apps), you can install Netflix and use your own password. Presto! Instant entertainment!
But, those are ideal conditions and we all know that such a thing is extremely rare. So, we have a solution! It’s called a TV Box, and all it needs is a TV and WiFi. What this affordable (you can buy some really good models for around $30) useful, little gadget does, is that it practically turns a regular TV (It needs to have an HDMI port), into a Smart one. Meaning, you can install all kinds of apps on your Box, and use them through the TV. You know what this means? Exactly, Netflix!
But, you can also install other apps that act as Movie and TV Shows search engines and you don’t even need the Netflix account. Also, you can play android video games, use YouTube, Skype, and pretty much everything you already use on your Smartphone.
Telescope
When bored with watching movies and TV shows, people usually turn their attention to watching through the hotel room window. A new city, new surroundings, there something interesting bound to be seen. Unfortunately, none of us has an eagle vision, meaning that we can’t zoom in on something, thus we are pretty much limited to seeing just the “wider picture”.
But, imagine having a telescope! When we say telescope, we don’t mean those bulky home models, but more practical, portable and compact ones that can easily fit a backpack. This way, if you are lucky to have a room with an ocean view, you can have a relaxing ocean-watching sessions, or if you are in a mountain surrounded region, you can check what’s going on over there.
Furthermore, most of the new models come with smartphone adaptors, meaning that you can even see what’s on the other side, on your phone’s screen, and even make cool photos. A tip, wait till it gets dark and check out the moon and make some cool close ups of it.
If this sounds interesting to you, you can check out the reviews of some of the best and relatively affordable models on OpticGearLab.
Headphones
For frequent travelers, headphones are a must. Especially if you spend a lot of time in hotel rooms, you need headphones so that you can watch anything on your tablet or a laptop, at the volume level you want. We all know how thing the hotel walls are and how other guests will start complaining if you watch a movie too loud, or if some other guest are too loud, you can simply tune out by placing headphones on.
When choosing a pair, you need to make sure they have quality sound, and that means having a 3 system speaker, further meaning, your headphones need to cover all sound ranges, low (bass), middle, and high sounds. So, if you are looking for the ultimate sound experience, forget about those ear plug models, go for the big ones that cover your entire ear. And, the longer the cable, the better. Or, you can get a pair of wireless ones, which might be the best solution if you don’t like getting all tangled up in the cable.
Mini Drone
Now this is a fun gadget that will definitely help you kill some time, but, also get you addicted to drone piloting. In order not to have problems at the airports and with the FAA, we recommend getting a mini (micro) drone. Also, the bigger ones are for outdoors and you can’t fly it in a hotel room.
Now, as far as micro drones are concerned, they are easy to use, aren’t dangerous, and offer tons of fun. If you get a model like, for example, the Parrot Minidrone Rolling Spider, not only that you will be able to fly it around the room, but you will also be able to see where the drone flies, because it has a camera and can stream live video feed on the screen on your Smartphone.
If you want the full piloting sensation, we recommend getting the Vr Head Set or FPV goggles as well. With the full setup, you can even create a course in your hotel room and do laps to beat your own times.
Portable Projector
Who says you can’t have movie nights in your hotel room? Oh, yes you can, and you can even do it with style! All you need is a portable projector that has enough Lumens to make the picture bright enough, and presto, your personal hotel-room-theater is open for business.
Most of these projectors have either USB ors SD card slot, so that you can watch movies directly from them, but some also support smartphone streaming, as well as the TV Box support. So, get some snacks from the minibar, connect everything, turn off the lights, and enjoy!
