Whether you are traveling through South- East Asia with your backpack, enjoying a weekly holiday on a beach in Spain, are on a business trip abroad, or just happen to find yourself lucky enough to afford monthly excursion trips in the Bahamas, there is one thing you will miss the most from home; your favorite games.
Lucky for us, we live in a golden-gamer age where games can easily be played online on your Android or IOS devices. On top of that, you might even decide to fit your game consul in your suitcase by leaving those extra pair of shoes at home. Every hotel room has a TV where you can hook up your Nintendo or Xbox within a minute.
Killing time
Many travelers experience lots of waiting time during their excursions. Imagine waiting in a boring bus station for hours to catch that ride to the pyramids or having to spend a huge amount of time waiting for your plane to depart. Most people grab their phone and start scrolling through Facebook or binge-watch YouTube fail videos.
While other people entertain themselves by logging in to the many online casinos or even a crypto casino to earn some extra cash while sitting there “wasting time”.
These online casinos have all the games available that you will find in a real land-based casino and are lots of fun to visit. Talking about a win-win situation, right?
A few tips for traveling gamers
Use headphones!
There is nothing more annoying than having a person next to you on a long bus ride who plays a game with a loud slot machine online. Or this guy who is playing his first-person shooter on high volume while grenades and bullets are flying around through their speakers.
Respect your surroundings and bring a pair of headphones or earbuds.
Know your surroundings
Speaking of respecting your surroundings, it’s also very important to watch where you are before you get lost in your game. You might miss your bus stop or pass through that village you wanted to visit while you were lost in your game.
Also, the amount of people getting killed in traffic while being occupied on their phone or tablet is unbelievable. Make sure that you play when you finally reach your hotel room or when you are safely seated in the bus or train before you get caught in the game.
Use a VPN
A VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and activating this could save you from a ton of trouble.
Traveling gamers have a tendency to log into any WIFI connection that seems to pop up from anywhere. At this point, you are very vulnerable to hackers and they can access all your private keys, addresses, and more if you are not careful.
It’s defiantly worth the extra effort to search for a VPN that will suit your needs while on the road.
Keep an eye on your data usage
If you lose track of your mobile data usage, you might be in for a nasty surprise when you get home, facing this huge phone bill that seemed to have popped out of nowhere.
Switch off your data roaming function on your device while on the road!
Use the WIFI available (with your VPN of course), or look for a SIM card with a nice data plan when you visit a country.
You will be surprised how many phone companies overwhelm you with data offers when you pick your SIM card on vacation.
Sometimes it really pays off keeping an eye on the many phone company billboards that you can find in airports and train stations.
Take care of your batteries
Sure, gaming can be a lot of fun while killing time or while underway to somewhere. But it also drains your battery faster than any other activity on your phone or tablet.
Many facilities have sockets everywhere so that you can just plug in whenever is convenient but what if you are on the agonizing 18-hour flight or 6-hour train ride and you completely run out of juice?
Not only will this affect your battery lifespan but it will leave you literally powerless in case of an emergency.
I know it’s hard, but just make sure that you -at least- have 10% of your battery level left. And don’t use it to finish the next level of Candy Crush!
Invest in a good power bank. Some even have two outlets and can be solar charged. You can even get two; one for entertainment purposes and one as a backup for when you “really” need your phone charged.
Don’t forget to enjoy your trip
Please, don’t be that person who is always tied to the screen of his phone. Enjoy, look around, take in the view, the scent, the sounds.
Don’t miss out on this experience that you normally won’t have back home or at your work.
Playing games surely is a lot of fun, that’s for sure. But being where you are right now, in a different country, with different people and customs, creates lots of memories that you will treasure forever. You are most likely to forget that you reached level 12 with Clash of Clans four years ago than that volcano hike in Indonesia where you met those crazy people in the bar afterward.
Waiting for a bus or plane can be incredibly boring and that’s when playing games on your mobile device is the most common thing to do while killing time. However, if you walk around the airport or train station you are more likely to encounter a small adventure of your own.
Go and stretch your legs a little, have a conversation with a stranger, smile at the old lady across your aisle, and go and buy a souvenir for your little sister or something.
Have a great trip and remember, life itself is the best game ever and you only get one life per game!
Game Over!
