Best Travel — Curated from The Hiro Report

I grabbed one of these to bring on some upcoming travels, with the goal of being able to use it to share the airplane and Airbnb's Wi-Fi connections with the entire family without having to log each device in. The travel router lets you run a VPN on the device so all traffic from all devices connected to it is automatically protected. This model is a little thicc but has really great range and offers Wi-Fi 7 for bountiful speeds and throughput. That said, if it wasn't permanently sold out everywhere, I probably would have grabbed the Wi-Fi 5 travel router from UniFi just because it's so tiny.

Speaking of travel, Peak Design launched the pre-orders for their long-awaited rolling travel bag this week. In typical PD fashion, they've meticulously designed every single piece of it—no off-the-shelf components. It has a super slim, entirely carbon fiber retractable handle. The insides are cavernous with thoughtful touches for securely organizing everything from your clothes to your cameras and laptop to your passport. I really dig it. That said, it costs $600 at retail when it releases later this year. Big gulp.

Flighty is another one of my essential iOS travel apps, regardless of whether it’s a quick domestic flight or an epic international jaunt. As an Apple Design Award winner, it beautifully tracks your flights, gates, baggage carousels, and uses Live Activity notifications both to alert you to any delays and to track how much time is left on your flight. It also lets you share a live tracking link with friends and family so they can keep up with your flight status and arrival time as it evolves.

A few years back, when I traveled across time zones more regularly, I discovered the magic of sleep masks. After trying a bunch of various options ranging from free in-flight ones to more premium options, the Manta Sleep Mask has become my go-to for quality sleep in unfamiliar places. I have both the Slim and Pro versions—I prefer the Pro slightly, but I’d say that it’s probably not worth paying double the cost of the Slim for it.

This iOS app is my secret jet-lag killer. Just enter your home location, destination, travel dates, and duration of the trip, and Timeshifter creates a custom schedule to help adjust your circadian rhythm before, during, and after your trip. It includes recommendations for dosage and timing of sleep, caffeine, screen time, and sunlight exposure. I’ve used it on two transatlantic trips, and both times, I managed to sleep peacefully through the night at my destination and when I got home.

The Flighty app for iOS is one of my travel essentials, and came in handy during all the travel this week-- It's a really thoughtfully designed, delightful app for tracking your flights and any relevant updates (delays, gate changes, etc). It routinely gives me updates on my flights faster than the airlines' own apps, and also offers a handy Live Activity view of how much time is left until your flight, and then how long until your arrival.