The new hot topic is to go a-flashpacking (aka, traveling with technology). Given pop culture's many new tech-heavy habits the trend isn't surprising. It does however let you travel with all those internet-age sensibilities you've managed to adopt over the past half-decade.

With international wi-fi popping up everywhere, the idea resonates firmly with the traveling community. Blogging from the road, processing your photos from your hotel/hostel bed, sharing music with fellow travelers at a café table, are all now par for the course inside or outside the technorati multitude.

These opportunities are supported by the popularity of the netbook computer. Essentially pint-size laptops, netbooks are lighter, cheaper, less flashy but extremely portable and often still quite powerful machines. Billed as the traveler's laptop, netbooks are more aligned to the modern traveler's needs—they're small, usually offering 7' – 10" screens and diminutive keyboards and designed to free up space by offering the no-frills approach to internet computing, limiting functionality to only what's absolutely necessary. Netbooks allow for internet access via wi-fi if it's available and give a slew of digital storage solutions. Netbooks are perfect for web browsing, word-processing and other general purpose applications. The size also keeps it out of the prying eyes of predators while freeing up your luggage for other more traditional traveling items—like clothing.

According to a survey by hostelworld.com, 21% of visitors to their website travel with a laptop, 54% with an MP3 player, 83% with a cell phone and 86% with a digital camera.