I wrote a packing trip report for my recent trip to Iceland, Stockholm, and Norway, but I thought I would also write a tech trip report, mostly showing how I used AI and several other apps to plan the trip, but also sharing the specific tech items I use and apps, along with talking about cell phone coverage and eSIMs.
CELL PHONE COVERAGE: None of these are really country-specific, as pretty much everything that applied in one country applied in the other. Overall, cell phone coverage was very good in all three countries and I never had a problem accessing the internet.
That said, I read in a few trip reports that sometimes Iceland had some spotty coverage. When I rented my car through Blue, there was an offer to get a Wi-Fi router with the car. It would have been an extra $100, and I decided it wasn't worth it but it did make me think about supplementing my T-Mobile international plan. As many of you know, T-Mobile offers a free international plan for certain T-Mobile plans that gives you 5 GB of high-speed data. When you run out, however, they drop the speed down to 256 Mbps. I go through data quickly, so I knew that at some point I was going to be facing slower speeds, so I decided to get an eSIM to supplement that.
Bcengi e-SIM: I read about Bcengi on Reddit, but also found some posts here from members who liked it. Instead of the typical eSIMs, where you buy fixed data bundles for specific areas that expire, Bcenji is a pay-as-you-go eSIM. You load a cash balance into your account and pay only for the exact amount of data you use. The network adjusts rates and connects automatically as you cross borders into different countries. When you get home, you can turn it off, and then turn it back on again the next time you travel outside the country.
So there's no need to buy separate eSIMs for different countries or areas, and you don't lose any leftover data at the end of it. It worked really well for me. I used it in Norway after my T-Mobile slowed down for about ten days and spent $6.88. There is no app, so everything is done on the web, but you really don't even need to use it that much. I used a credit card to pay the $25, which automatically reloads when your deposit is down to $10. And you can stop the automatic reload at any time.
TECH TOOLS: Most of the ones I use are pretty basic, so I won't go into detail on those, but these are two that I really like a lot.
European Travel Power Strip: I really like this purchase. The best thing about it is that it has a European plug, so if you're traveling through most of Europe, you just plug it into the wall—no adaptor needed. That said, it does come with a UK and US adapter for travel to the UK or if you want to use it in the US. It has three regular outlets, plus 2 USB-A and 2 USB-C ports. It's great if you need to plug in multiple items by your bed, like a CPAP, phone, watch, etc. There always seem to be outlets that aren't anywhere near where you want them to be, so it's handy to have that longer cord. It's very lightweight as well. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJ5VLWMY?th=1
Anker Nano Power Bank: I bought this a year or so ago, and I love it. It's smaller than most power banks, around 3”x2, is 10K, 45W and First of all, it has a built-in retractable USB-C cable, so you don't need to remember to bring another cord along if you need to charge the power bank. Then you use a separate cord to charge the phone or whatever device you need.In this pretty powerful period, I was really surprised at how quickly it charged my phone. I bought it through Costco next, but I don't think they're carrying it right now. You can find it on the Anker website. It comes in five different colors.