So you're going on a vacation. If you plan to leave your PDA at home, think again. Your handheld may just be the perfect personal travel assistant you are looking for.

Work and play. These two don't mix too well. That's why when it's time for you to take that well-deserved vacation, you'd rather leave your gadgets at home. Who wants to marvel at the sights and sounds of exotic Spain with a laptop, mobile phone, or a personal digital assistant (PDA) in their backpack?

Before you decide to leave your Palm Pilot or Pocket PC at home, have you considered that your handy PDA can be an excellent travel guide and assistant when you're on holiday?

Just as the PDA can be a useful tool for organising your business schedule, it can also be used for planning and managing your trip. With the right applications loaded, your PDA can help you track your travel expenses, perform currency conversion calculations, and even keep you pleasantly occupied while you're waiting for your flight.

Power it up

Perhaps the biggest limitation of a PDA is its short battery life. There's no point bringing your handheld along with you on your trip only to have it run out of juice when you need to check your carefully-planned itinerary.

The problem is less acute if you use a Palm III series PDA, because these run on batteries. Bring your own extra batteries, or buy them wherever they are available along your trip. But if you're using the Palm V, things can get a little complicated since it uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery. Instead of lugging your PDA cradle halfway round the world, you might want to bring the Syncharger instead. This nifty device is a portable charger that runs on batteries and allows you to charge up your Palm so that you never have to worry about your Palm running out of juice.

For those using the Pocket PC, it is wise to bring your AC adapter and charge your handheld when you're running low on power.

Keeping in touch

Checking your email is probably the last thing on your mind when you're basking in the warm Caribbean sun. However, it sure would be nice to be able to send a quick note to your loved ones back home. Hey, and it's faster than a postcard!

However, to access the Internet while overseas, you may need additional peripherals such as a modem or a mobile connection kit that allows you to use your mobile phone as a modem to send and receive data using an RS232 cable or via an infrared interface between your phone and your handheld.

An alternative is to look out for infrared Internet access kiosks such as the those in Singapore's Changi Airport. Other airports with infrared access points include the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and the Northwest Airlines WorldClubs lounges in Minneapolis and Detroit. At these wireless access points, all you need to do to go online is to make sure that your PDA is properly set up to connect to the Web. You can find the instructions on how to configure your PDA for infrared connectivity here.

Although the Mail application included in Palm allows you to sync your mails with Outlook, you will need something more powerful to send your emails over the Internet. With the Eudora Internet Suite, Palm users can easily check and send mails without the need to do a Hotsync.

For Pocket PC users, you can use the included Pocket Outlook software to check and send your mail. Another option is to use the Pocket Internet Explorer and send your email using Web-based services such as Hotmail or Yahoo! mail.

Manage your holiday

The secret to getting an enjoyable holiday is careful planning. You don't want to go on a vacation to find out that your hotel is not booked, or your transport to Disneyland didn't show up because you forgot to confirm your trip. If a PDA can help you organise your life, then with the right software, it can also help you plan and organise your holiday.

If you need something on your Palm that can help you handle every detail of your hotel, rental car, and flight reservations, check out Gulliver. Another application worth checking out is TravelTracker. In addition to keeping track of your itinerary, these programs allow you to link to your Address Book and Date Book so that you have the information you need, at your fingertips.

If you're using the Pocket PC, you can use Pocket Outlook to manage your tour schedule. However, you may want to grab Pocket Informant to give your handheld an improved interface so that you can keep track of your itinerary more effectively.

When it comes to planning your trip, one of the most useful tools to have is a checklist. With it, you can create an inventory of what you need to bring on your trip, places you'd like to visit, and even a list of what souvenirs to buy back for your pals back home. With a PDA, you can hold all your checklists in one place without having to deal with scraps of paper. Palm users can check out Mobile Checklist Lite while Pocket PC users can try Checklist for Pocket PCs.

A guide in hand

Printed travel guides can show you where to find the best hotels, the classiest restaurants, and the most popular tourist attractions in a city. However, carrying those weighty tomes around can be a real hassle. After all, you're on a holiday, not participating in a weight training camp.

The solution? Load the travel guides into your PDA! Besides lightening your travel load, these electronic guides provide up-to-date maps and useful information on your destinations.

Perhaps one of the best electronic guides available on the Palm is Lonely Planet's Citysync. In addition to the usual touristy information like where to stay, what to eat, and what to see, this excellent program from the popular travel publisher provides you with information like health and safety tips and interesting facts about the city you're visiting. It even allows you to link these details to your Palm Date Book and Memo Pad.

Another useful guide for Palm users is Vindigo. This free application helps you find the best places to eat, shop, and play, and how to get there.

For Pocket PC users, check out the Port@able Guide. This feature-rich guide allows you to view interactive maps, read reviews from Frommer's Travel Guides, and shows you how to get around with just a tap.

For Part 2 of this story, click here

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