Ask HN: Most useful travel accessories

1. Noise-canceling headphones. I have the Bose QC-15. I'm on my second pair and not sure I would recommend them. The foam pieces that fit over the ear deteriorate, flake, and fall apart. But the silence is golden.

2. T-Mobile as your mobile carrier. Now I just get on a plane and go. No fear of massive data charges from ATT. It's slow data but fine for email. My US mobile works just fine overseas so I get calls on it without fear. Prices are better than ATT.

3. An unlocked iPhone (or whatever you use) exactly like your day to day phone. Same model. Same stuff on it. Same configuration on the screen. (Eliminates brain damage to you this way.) This is to buy a local SIM for high speed data and a local number to communicate with the locals. Use this to tether to your laptop.

4. Learn to live out of a backpack. I can make 10 day trips using my big Goruck. I make shorter trips using another Goruck backpack smaller than what my kids use for school. You will move effortlessly and fast.

Generally, my philosophy is a max of three things in my pockets (phone, passport, wallet) and a backpack for everything else. Travel removes IQ points. Keep it simple. Buy stuff when you're there and leave it behind.

I downsized to a MBA 11 -- from a MBA 13. Profoundly better. Got rid of the iPad -- that is a piece of useless frippery for me and no match for the MBA 11.