Preparing to travel to a warm(er) weather spot than Maine in the next few months? Or are you contemplating a summer trip that you are already planning for? We hope so!

I fall into the former category. Two of your BoomerTECH Adventures consultants typically travel in February and I am one of them. My wife, Connie, and I have been going to several towns in Mexico for nearly 20 years and this year is no exception. While some may laugh when we say this, ours is truly a working vacation. We work in the mornings and play (beach, swimming, hiking, bike riding, reading) in the afternoon and evening.

Since we are working, we need to plan ahead with our technology so we have everything we need. We are fortunate that the most important aspect of working in Mexico has steadily improved every year: our internet access. We stay in a small town in a modest apartment, definitely not a resort hotel, so strong internet was not initially guaranteed. It is much better now, just as it has improved many places in the states.

Both of us develop content for our work, both written and video, so our laptops are key. We both use external monitors, but they do not travel with us. We become accustomed to working on smaller screens, although that is more difficult for me than Connie. With Zoom, we stay connected with colleagues and clients just as if we were at home. All the usual cables, earbuds, external chargers go with us, of course, but that is all routine! Organizing all this stuff is key and and makes everything easier to find and use.

Although we don’t have to worry about this in Mexico, you may want to research the plug types used in your destination(s) and purchase a universal travel adapter or individual adapters for each country. And before you plug anything in, double-check the voltage where you are.

On the vacation side of our Mexico stay are a couple of tech issues we plan for. Our VPN service allows us to stream programs that we enjoy watching as well as enhances security and privacy. We communicate with family and friends via FaceTime and Zoom, keeping the extra cost of phone service in Mexico to only one of our phones, a phone plan we sign up for before we leave the U.S.

Colleague, Jill, a seasoned traveler reminded me about a number of other tech planning we should do:

• Download books to Kindle or to my iPhone.
• Make sure to pack a safe power strip/surge protector
• Practice using Translate and currency converter apps. (How much did we pay for that excellent taco?)
• Take pictures of important documents — passport, license, medical cards, credit cards. (This is a very important one.)
• Take a few extra batteries for my wireless mouse and keypad.
• Download boarding passes. (Jill likes to have a printed copy, and I agree with her!)

Colleague, Chris, another seasoned traveler, suggested several other tech must-dos. He recommends downloading the airline app for the carrier you are flying to access onboard movies and entertainment as well as receive last-minute boarding information. Last year in Cancun preparing to fly home, we boarded a flight to Fort Lauderdale instead of Boston when we didn’t hear or see a late gate change. Whoops! (Yes, somehow we were allowed on the wrong plane!)

If you don’t already have some, noise-canceling earphones or earbuds are great on a flight. Their ability to cancel out engine noise, crying babies you’re not responsible for and other cabin noise really helps create a private space around you.

Finally, here are several clean-up items on my to-do list before we leave home: back up my computer (very important); unplug devices that don’t need to be plugged in while we are gone for several weeks (computers, TVs and chargers not in use); set lights on timers to turn on and off at various times. And because we are in Maine, take down any Christmas wreaths and store for next year!

¡Que tengas un buen viaje!

BoomerTECH Adventures (boomertechadventures.com) helps boomers and older adults navigate the digital world with confidence and competence. Active boomers themselves, they use their backgrounds as Maine teachers to support individuals and groups with online courses through Maine Adult Education (tinyurl.com/BTAclasses) articles, videos and presentations to organizations upon request.