However, when it comes to seriously planning a round the world trip and making it a reality, a Volkswagen from the 70′s isn’t quiet as attractive when you actually have to deal with unmaintained roads, mountain passes and extreme weather conditions.

If I was just planning on driving around Europe, then one of the classic VW campers would be perfect, they have everything you need to make a homely living space, but as I start looking at viable routes, and reading up on other peoples experiences, it becomes clear that while not impossible in a camper van, they are massive advantages to driving a 4×4.

At first the concept of abandoning a camper van in favor of a four wheel drive jeep type setup was a bit disheartening, I never really pictured myself as a 4×4 driver, and I tend to frown upon people who use a 4×4 as their day to day vehicle. But since I’m not just driving to the shops, any conditioned guilt about large cars is soon replaced with certainty that it’s the most viable mode of transport.

I’ve started to have a bit of a look at the type of 4x4s there are out there, and have even seen a few camper van type models, but there is a lot of choice out there so I will have to carefully research the options.

Now I’ve settled on the 4×4 in order to better prepare for the trip I’ve also started looking up various off road driving courses around the country, which actually look very reasonably priced at around £150 per day, so something that would defiantly been worth while.

Without really looking into the practicality of any of these, here are the first five gadgets that leap to my mind:

Solar Panels on the roof

Gadgets need power, and I don’t need to be burning fuel needlessly, but adding some solar panels to the roof should give me all the power I need – I plan on getting a solar powered backpack too, which has enough juice to power a laptop of PDA/GPS so a whole roof full should be perfectly achievable and useful. Obviously something that needs some research but I don’t see any problem with mounting solar panels on to the top of a camper van.

Satellite Phone and Internet

This is on my must have list, not only can I keep blogging from near enough anywhere in the world and work in the most remote locations on the earth, but it’s unbelievably cool. I’ve already done some initial research into roaming with the BGAN satellite internet connection.

Titanium Inka Pen

These compact pens look amazing and since I came across them on David Seah’s blog I’ve been very tempted to get one. The regular version will do for right away, but when it comes to traveling I’d like the idea of having something as rugged as possible, and the Titanium version of the Inka Pen looks perfect. The fact it can fit on a keyring so easy to carry around near enough anywhere without thinking about it, combined with the fact it can write nearly anywhere make for a really attractive looking pen.

Odd Essay Vehicle Mounted Cam

The idea of having a camera mounted on a car has been mulled around in conversations with friends for ages, so I can’t be sure who came up with it in the first place, I think it was more a general realization that it would be ace to have something rigged up to take a picture at regular intervals, and driving around the world makes this seem like the perfect time to set up some sort of time lapse capture.

GPS

Pretty much a no brainer. GPS is a must for traveling long distances in unknown places and I think driving around the world comes into that category. I’m using the MDA Vario III right now (A rebranded HTC TyTN II/Kaiser) and I’d probably expand that with an antenna mounted on the bus.