Bringing a surge protector and adapter for travel is a bad idea

A recent Facebook meme from a popular travel site suggested bringing a single surge protector and adapter when traveling abroad — and comments flooded in.

There's a lot of good travel advice on the internet, but there's also a lot of really, really terrible travel advice, too. One is this recent meme, which seems to encourage people bring an outlet extension strip and a single adapter with them when they travel.

This is bad advice for a number of reasons. Wiring up electronics that aren't meant to go together like you’re trying to throw together a zero-budget music festival is a sure way to tempt fate with shorting out the electricity or destroying your gadget (or, worse, starting a fire).

Instead, please just buy a normal travel adapter with multiple outlets in it. These days, the devices you’re likely to bring with you traveling — laptops, earbuds, Kindles, iPhones, travel hair dryers — are designed to hold up with different voltages, with the range clearly marked on the plug.

Full-size hairdryers? Older devices? Probably not, but most of the time you can find the answers on the plug. Buy an adapter specifically for the region you’re going to, and you will likely be A-OK.

Here's a quick (but not complete) rundown of voltages:

Ten years and more than 35 countries later, my only electrical mishap so far has been this past June, when I tried to plug an American Ninja blender via a travel adapter into an Italian kitchen plug (luckily for my Airbnb rating, the mishap only shorted out the device). I probably needed a converter there. Still, it's not a bad track record.

Here are a few highly rated options to consider:

BESTEK International Power Adapter Voltage Converter

This outlet will let you bring your U.S. devices to countries like India and South Africa by converting their voltage for the 110V, 60Hz current U.S. devices run on. Ideal for couples or groups of friends, it has four smart USB charging ports, with two for power-hungry devices, plus three outlets for charging seven devices at the same time.

European Plug Adapter 2-Pack

This is the kind of thing I keep around my Berlin apartment by the half dozen. One plug and you have your Kindle, phone, and laptop charging at the same time — and $11 each isn't a bad deal. And you don't have to risk starting a fire — a huge plus if you don't like starting fires.