This may not be a surprise but our main travel accessory as travel bloggers is our smartphones. They are small, compact, and have endless possibilities.

The other great part is that you probably already own this travel accessory. At this point, almost everyone has a cell phone. Heck, even 10-year-olds have cell phones.

Before we go on any trip, even a weekend getaway, we have our smartphones. It's the last thing we check for before heading out the door.

Being able to do so much for the site without compromising our time exploring has been amazing. We have so many tools for the blog fitting in the palm of our hand.

We have met other travelers that agree with us that smartphones are the cannot live without travel must. As a go-to travel accessory, any smartphone will do.

Kelsey prefers the iPhone but Phil thinks the Google Pixel is the best fit. This is fitting since Kelsey is mostly on Pinterest and Phil is always taking pictures.

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Why It's the Best Accessory for Traveler Bloggers

The fact that there is so much at your disposal with such a little device makes it perfect for traveling. The use of a smartphone while traveling is almost unlimited.

The versatility and the small size makes our smartphone our cannot live without, travel must. To get the full use of a cell phone while traveling you may need internet or an international plan but there are also plenty of uses without these.

Just for air travel alone, you can use a smartphone for boarding passes, rental cars, and entertainment. Not to mention having a map in new places can be a must. There are so many ways that having a smartphone while traveling can make your time adventuring even better (and easier).

What We Use our Phones For as Bloggers

Internet

We live in a tiny home, move constantly, and vacation as much as possible. This can make connecting to the internet more difficult. We can't get an internet hook up since we don't always know where we will be.

We have thought about buying a little internet box but as minimalists, we try to have as little as possible. Our phones not only give us a way to easily hook up to the internet but we have data plans so we have internet access all the time. Plus when we travel internationally it makes it easy to hook up to WiFi and stay in touch with friends and family.

Social Media

We are far from social media experts but we love keeping in touch with everyone through social media. Plus it is the best way to self-market for our website and vlog.

We try to stay active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram which can be a little time-consuming. Having all three on our phone to easily update makes it easier.

We make sure to get on all three at least once a day and this would be impossible without our phones. Even if we are traveling we can check on our social media before getting out of bed or while waiting to board a plane.

Pictures and Videos

Most of our videos are filmed with our GoPro but most of our pictures are taken with our phones. There may be other options for better cameras but our pictures work out great for us. It lets us capture our moments and allows for easy sharing to social media.

Since we already have our phone on us it makes it easier to take a picture on the fly. Plus, since we travel just the two of us it allows for some great selfies. We also take videos from time to time like when we forget to charge the GoPro or forgot to bring it.

Managing Our Site

There are a lot of things we try to track and the main one is visitors. This helps up track our ad revenue and where our traffic is coming from.

We try to not be too obsessive with it but it's good to check at least a few times a week. Our phones let us do some quick checking in our downtime such as waiting in line.

Our Favorite Apps

The best part of our iPhones is for sure the apps. Here are our favorite apps and what we use them for.

Social Media

As we already talked about we have several social media accounts so we have an app for each account we have:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest

There are a few other apps we use that their only purpose is to make our social media better.

Boomerang

We don't use this one as much as we could because for a while there it seemed it was overused but it's still good to have. It allows us to make little quick videos that we can then use on our social media accounts.

Our favorites are clinking our glasses together or doing a little dance move.

Regrammer

This app Phil found after Kelsey posted a video to Instagram then deleted it from her phone. She then wanted it for Facebook and there was no way to get it back...or so she thought until Phil discovered this app. Now we use it if we ever need old content from our Instagram.

Pictures and Videos

This is kind of our bread and butter since this is the main way we keep up with social media. Plus without videos, we could not have a vlog. As we said we mostly use GoPro so their apps are what we use the most.

GoPro

This lets us get the pictures from the GoPro onto our phones. It also lets us take some still shots from our videos.

Before we had the GoPro 6 we had the Hero3+ which has no screen. Therefore the app was needed to review our content and see if we liked it or not.

YouTube

Since we have a vlog we have to stay up to date with Youtube. Having it on our phone makes it easy to check out what's going on with our account and stay up with others. We have tried adding a video via the app but we have found it's easier to use the computer for that.

Google Photos

Google Photos is a LIFESAVER. It has unlimited picture storage for free which can also include our videos. Since we take a lot, and we do mean A LOT, of pictures having online storage helps. It also keeps everything digital so we don't have to worry about having an external hard drive we can lose.

Managing the Site

WordPress

We use WordPress to run our site and thankfully they have an app. The apps make it easier to transfer pictures from our phones into our site. There is an option to write and edit posts as well but we don't use that as much. We mostly use the apps to see our traffic and see what links are being clicked on.

Google Analytics

Since we get ad revenue from our site it's nice having an app that lets us easily check how we're doing. We try not to check too often since the main point of the site was to have our memories and not for profit.

Apps we Could not Live Without

Google Drive

All of our important documents are kept on Google Drive. We have folders for everything. Our health documents, our cat's documents and all the other important things in our life. As minimalists, we don't like keeping papers around so this helps us keep what we need and lets us access it with ease.

Evernote

Since you can use Evernote without the internet we do most of our initial writing of posts on this app. Then once we connect to the internet we can transfer it to our site. We also like having this app to have a place to write little reminders.

Google Tasks

We used to use Wunderlist as our task manager but now we use Google Tasks. It integrates seamlessly on our phones no matter where we go. We also each have our own to-do list so we don't get bogged down with too many tasks.

Starbucks

We try to avoid wasteful spending but unfortunately, we still have a Starbucks guilty pleasure. We bring our own cups to reduce our waste and we try to get drinks that allow free refills.

Plus, Starbucks is a great place to get free, fast WiFi. With the app, we get free rewards and since we're going anyway it's perfect.

Perfect for Bloggers on the Go

It might seem like a cop-out but our phones are the travel MVP of every vacation. Not only do we keep a lot of travel information on our phones but we can easily get work done while waiting around.