Q: My husband and I are retiring in two years. We plan on selling our house and becoming international vagabonds. What kind of things do I need to do so we can use technology to our best advantage during our travels. We use Apple because it seems simple. Should I take a laptop or will a tablet work?

Image credit: Phil Long / Flickr

A: Sounds like you’ll be living the dream, Pam! If you have both a laptop and a tablet, we say take them both. But if you have to pick one, take a laptop. You’re going to get tired of typing emails and messages on a tablet before too long. There is a whole class of ultra-thin and lightweight laptops called “ultrabooks” which would work great for traveling.

The great news is that either one will work – just as long as you have the right adapter plugs, which you can get a set of at just about any big box store.

The great thing about electronics in the last couple of decades is that the power bricks dangling off them are designed to take from 100 to 240 watts of power, which basically covers all the power levels you are likely to encounter. Most electronic devices can handle all the standard voltages as well, so you just need the right adapter for the power sockets of the country you’re in.

Once you have power, you’ll want internet access. Getting online with your laptop or tablet can be easy if you’re in a place where you have Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is a world-wide standard, so your device can connect to Japanese or Italian Wi-Fi just as easily as American Wi-Fi.

Smart phones are trickier, though. Basically you have two options: you can buy cheap, disposable phones and SIM cards in every country you travel to, or you can invest in a “world phone”. These are smart phones that operate on almost every carrier, which when paired with world-roaming data plans can be used basically anywhere. However, this can get pretty expensive fast. Our advice is to stick to Wi-Fi when you can, and try calling land-lines using Skype. You can read more about using your phone in a different country in this article.