What to pack: A cheap MP3 player

I love my Creative Zen MP3 player. It's great for the commute, hooking up to the stereo at home, and even bringing to parties. But, while traveling I'm always worried it'll be stolen or broken. So I looked for a much cheaper player instead.

Savebuckets.co.uk to the rescue

I looked over the other price comparison sites, but they're pretty difficult to use. Or, the prices really aren't all that good. I got tipped off to try Savebuckets.co.uk instead and their new service. They've got a selection of more than 900 mp3 players to chose from, ranging from a measly £3.96 (OK, not even I am that cheap) to great Archos video vaults for nearly GBP 500.

What I eventually went with was a 2GB Creative Zen VV player, which is flash-based, small, and only GBP 70. Much better than losing the £250 MP3 player while backpacking! Of course, it also takes up less room in my pack, so it's a bonus.

Good headphones are a must

The greatest problem with carting your music with you while traveling is that moving about almost anywhere is really quite noisy though. I've got a pair of Shure headphones for my main player. Again, too expensive to carry with me backpacking! What I've done is find myself a pair of Sony MDR-EX71SL headphones. Those are also noise-inhibiting and just GBP 22 or so. You won't cry if they're broken or lost!