One of the things I sometimes miss when on the road is reading my favourite magazine.  Recently I’ve been using Zinio to read some magazines whilst on the road.  Zinio has been around for some time now but they offer discounted magazine subscriptions via their website, and the magazines are available to read offline on a variety of platforms, from iPad, iPhone and desktop (both through a desktop client and an Adobe Air client).  An Android client is also due for arrival soon which means this growing platform won’t be neglected.

The best thing of all is the magazines can be read offline, with the Zinio application alerting you when a new title is available.  This means you can read titles such as National Geographic Traveler, Backpacker, travel related titles like DestinAsian, and speciality magazines for Photography, Canoe & Kayak and many more.

The applications ensure titles can be read where and when you’d like to read them whether that’s on your laptop or iPhone, on the plane or on the bus,  and they remain in your library forever.

After using the application on my desktop whilst travelling through Central Asia and New Zealand I find it’s very easy to use, and pages can be flipped or zoomed without too much hassle.

Whilst I prefer having a paper magazine, there’s enough to carry around with you in these days of limited baggage allowance.  Guidebooks and the like take up an awful lot of that allowance, but sometimes I just like to kick back and read something familiar.  If you’re really missing the gossip you can even get titles like Hello!, OK magazine, or NME if you want to know what new music you’ve been missing on when travelling down the rivers in Borneo. If it’s the lifestyle stuff, check out the iPad, MacUser or Maxim magazines.

One of the biggest benefits if you’re a regular reader of a magazine is that you won’t have to try and find the outlet selling the English magazines at some extortionate price in Bangkok. Some of the digital subscriptions allow you to have a full scubscription for 76% less than the newstand price which may mean you get a year’s subscription for the price of a couple of issues bought overseas.
If you like the sound of that, click on the link below and try it out.

Online Magazine Subcriptions – reading when on the road is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

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2. Using a VPN to Access Blocked or Restricted Sites When Abroad – e.g Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Facebook

Many more travellers get disappointed when they travel with their gadgets and they can’t access sites such as Hulu, BBC iPlayer and Facebook when they’re on the road.

Although you may associate this with countries such as China and the recent spats they’ve had with Google and the likes, it could also affect services such as Skype in countries like UAE (Dubai), Oman etc.

To get around this more and more travellers are starting to use VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks on their laptops, netbooks, or their smartphones (whether they’re Android, iPhone or another platform).

The other benefit of these are they will make your WiFi connection more secure and keep your banking and other passwords away from prying hackers.

I’ve just written a page on the site that will give you more information and a few sites to look at to get a VPN installed on your device – have a look at my new Top Travel Tips Page to get more information. Over time a lot more articles will appear here given info and advice on budgets, destinations and technology for travel.

Using a VPN to Access Blocked or Restricted Sites When Abroad – e.g Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Facebook is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

Related posts:

1. Accessing Hulu, BBC iPlayer and other web sites when abroad (and Skype when it’s banned)
2. Top Travel Tips – Trip Research, Budgets, Travel Tips, Technology and how to access some home comforts whilst on the road..