How to Charge Up Your Travels and Home

Over the 16 years we've been traveling to more than 80 countries, with close to that many different electronic devices, we've become rather reluctant experts on how to keep things going while on the road, and while out for a long day of photographing and mapping with our phones.

Getting your devices charged up efficiently, and keeping them charged after a long day is essential. Because even though the battery life of our phones in particular has vastly improved since we first ventured out with Blackberry phones in 2010, the tendency to constantly use them, especially as mapping devices and cameras has also vastly increased.

And, since both mapping and photographing – and uploading your photos to social media and the cloud – are power intensive, you'll want to be sure you've still got adequate juice at the end of the day.

All that said, here's what we're currently using to keep our travels powered up.

Travel Charging Solutions

First, you'll need to charge your devices overnight so you can start fresh in the morning. For that, you've got a couple of choices.

As our default choice for overnight charging, for when charging speed is not so critical, we're using a Tessan 65-watt universal adapter/charger. It has two older style USB-A and two new USB-C ports where you attach your devices to be charged; a multi-plug system that handles the US, Europe, UK, Australia, and most other electrical plugs; and a similarly useful multi-plug female receptacle on the face for plugging in stand alone electric devices – for example the reading lamp you had to unplug from the wall to plug in the adapter.

We've used dozens of these universal adapters over the years, and this one is the best combination of build quality, size, and speed we've found. It's definitely our new favorite.

If more charging speed is essential, you might consider the 140-watt Tessan universal adapter charger. It works just like the 65-watt version, but has one USB-A and three USB-C ports. It is more than twice as fast as the 65-watt adapter, and you might consider carrying it with you during the day if you anticipate being at a café where you might be able to plug in for a quick recharge. It's a bit more substantial (read heavy) than the 65-watt charger, coming in at 271 grams (9.6 oz) vs. 196 grams (6.9 oz.) That much extra weight is not too terrible in a purse or day pack, but it can be a bit of a problem in some wonky hotel outlet where it might have a tendency to come loose or fall out of an overused wall socket.

Finally, if weight is a concern, and you don't mind giving up some charging speed, consider this 20-watt thin profile charger. It comes in at only 100 grams (3.5 oz.). You'll give up a few USB ports – this one has one USB-A and two USB-C ports. And the female plug on the face only accepts US style plugs.

Be aware that if you use either of the higher powered chargers, you'll need charging cables that match their speed. It does you no good to have a high speed charger if you're using cables that are designed for only 10-20 watt transmission.

So, there are a couple of options: if you're using the 65-watt charger, use 100-watt cables. If you're using the 140-watt charger, the best option is 240-watt cables. Believe me, it's worth the small investment in better cables for both speed and safety reasons. You don't want overloads!

Buy the 240W cables at Amazon

The other charging solution we use when we're out and about is probably the most practical: a portable charging source you can carry with you to add charge to your phone as you go without having to search for a place to plug in.

Again, there are multiple possibilities, but we like this Tessan 30-watt portable charger that has both a lightning (for iPhone 15 and older) and USB-C cable built in. There are also USB-A and USB-C ports if you need to charge more than one device at once. It's a bit heavy at 369 grams (13 oz), but we'll bear that weight for a quick charge when needed.

There's also a Tessan 20-watt portable charger which is lighter at 220 grams (7.8 oz,) but won't charge as many devices or do it as fast at the 30-watt version. Also, there's no remaining charge display, so you won't know when this device is running out. That's the main reason we prefer the 30-watt version. If you're not worried about running out during the day, get this one.

Both versions have fold out US style plugs for charging, so you'll need an adapter if you're outside the US.

You can see all our recommended travel accessories in this post.

Charging Up at Home

While there's no reason you can't use the an adapter/charger like the ones we've recommended above to charge your device at home, we prefer to leave them pre-packed in our travel kit and use a combination plug extender and charger when we're at home. There are lots of choices, especially for lower powered charger components, but we're impatient and prefer having a few of these Tessan 100-watt charging stations around the house that we use in our home offices, bedsides, and in the living room for when we need a quick recharge after we've been doom scrolling all day.

I also specifically use this one to charge my Apple watch, which I prefer to charge first thing in the morning rather than overnight. It usually does the job bringing the watch back up to 100 percent charge in about 15 minutes.

To reiterate, to effectively use this charger, you'll need the 100-watt cables.

And finally, for the time we spend at our desk, often using our laptop, phone, and maybe our iPad at the same time, there's this handy Tessan 100-watt desktop multi-device charger. You can charge as many as six devices at once, three USB-A and three USB-C, and the charging rate will be between 21 and 100 watts, depending on how many devices you have plugged in at once. This unit also has 3 AC plugs.

Disclosure: Tessan provided us with these devices for testing, but has not paid us specifically to endorse them. We actually have replaced our previous devices with these and have been using them for a while and can honestly recommend them without reservation.

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