If you’re traveling to a beautiful destination, it’s only natural that you’ll want to capture it from as many angles as possible, which is why travel drones are a great thing.
There’s no better way to get great images and videos of your travels than that with a drone.
Drones have taken over the world by storm.
The drone technology has come a great way from the early years, and with continuous improvements, they became more affordable and portable.
They have become the latest and greatest travel accessory, making it possible for any traveler to take professional-quality photos.
Despite their portability and price, lugging a drone can be challenging.
Before buying your flying travel accessory, you should familiarize yourself with some essential information you need to take into account when selecting your travel drone.
What To Look For In A Travel Drone?
When buying a drone for travel or as a gift for travel lovers, you need to think about several things.
- Weight and size – there’s no need to take these into account if you’re planning to fly your drone at home. But if you’re packing a drone for travel, these are extremely important. It’s essential that your drone fits your packing method, without taking too much space or becoming an inconvenience. If you’re traveling light, weight and size are important factors.
- Photo and video quality – If you’re going on a vacation, and you want to use your drone for fun, you don’t really need a professional grade unit. But if you want to capture high-quality content, you’ll want something that takes the best quality photos and videos of the places you’re visiting. Please note that not all drones have a built-in camera. Some drones can be bought as just a flying structure to attach your own camera.
- Battery life – Plan your flight time. How much flight time, in terms of battery power, you have is pretty essential when choosing a travel drone. Since you’ll be using it on the road, you want something that lasts a decent amount of time. Opting to buy more than one battery, and bringing spare batteries is always a good idea.
- Price – Drones are becoming cheaper by the day, but they can still be quite an investment. If you’re a beginner at drone flying, spending loads of money for something that you’ll crash is not the best idea. In that case, it’s recommended that you go for an older model, since they are slightly cheaper, but feature almost the same functionalities as the new ones do. That way you won’t feel like you wasted money if you happen to crash it.
Some more things you should know:
- Familiarize yourself with the drone laws of your travel destination, to avoid misunderstandings and legal issues. Some countries and places, like natural parks, don’t allow the use of drones.
- You have to register your drone if it weighs more than 0.5 kilograms and less than 55 pounds, especially if you plan on flying for commercial purposes.
- You may not want to be flying in certain areas, like near airports or in parks. Make sure you look at where it’s legal to fly before doing so. For example, in the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates commercial drone usage. You can check what the FAA’s regulations are for flying drones in each state .
- The laws about having your drone out of your line of site are different across the world. In some places, you must keep it within eyesight at all times; in others, you can fly for up to 1 kilometer away from you.
Now that we covered the basics, here’s a list of best drones for travel.
List Of Best Drones For Travel
1. DJI Spark Fly – Best Small Drone For Travel
Despite its small and portable design, Spark offers a ton of features and functionalities.
Some of those features include a wide range of flying modes, gesture recognition abilities, and obstacle avoidance system.
The hand gesture ability allows you to operate the drone without a controller or a smartphone.
The Spark is exceptionally well designed, especially considering the tech it carries.
On top of that, it’s pretty sturdy, and there’s not much on this model that’s likely to break as a result of crashing.
It would be ill-advised to drop a drone, or plummet it onto a hard surface, as it may cause damage.
But a 20-feet drop onto a softer surface, like grass or carpeting, wouldn’t do much damage.
A 12-megapixel camera shoots video in 1080p, ant 30 frames per second.
The Spark’s two-axial gimbal lets it mechanically stabilize the camera, canceling out any shaky movement – resulting in smoother, better-looking footage.
Being quick, agile, and impressively stable, the Spark offers a reliable and responsive flying experience.
- Controller-free gesture controls
- Tiny, but sturdy
- Automatic Quickshot modes
2. Altair Aerial AA108
If you’re a beginner when it comes to flying drones, buying an expensive $500+ model is not the best idea.
Of course, purchasing a drone with a lower price point means you’ll be sacrificing some pretty great features like obstacle detection and a 4K camera.
Altair Aerial AA108 offers excellent features like headless more, altitude hold, one-button takeoff, and one-button landing, plus an extra battery life for more flight time.
For its price point, Aerial AA108 offers a durable and robust construction.
This sturdy build is essential, especially for beginners, who will most likely crash it into a tree more than a few times.
That’s why Aerial AA108 comes with four extra propellers, since they are most likely to break, regardless of how strong the rest of the drone is.
The onboard 720p camera is quite good. It allows live video transmission and the first person viewing on your smartphone or VR goggles (not included in the package).
However, you can’t angle or rotate the camera, meaning you’re pretty much stuck in the specific field of view. The camera has a 120° angle, so, it’s a relatively large field of view.
- Easy to fly
- Affordable
- Good camera
- 15-20 minutes of flight time
3. Altair 818 Hornet
The 818 Hornet is small, lightweight, easy-to-use drone. Weighing only 3lbs, it will easily fit in your bag, or a backpack.
It offers excellent features like headless mode, altitude hold, emergency landing, and a 1-button landing/take off.
Due to its size, this model does not come pre-assembled, but requires some assembly by the user, like attaching the propellers, and the camera.
Assembly is pretty straightforward and usually takes about 15 minutes before you have a flight-ready drone.
The Altair 818 Hornet is also highly durable. The large prop guards are responsible for preventing damage during crashes.
This feature is incredibly vital for beginner pilots, who are more likely to cause crashes. 818 Hornet isn’t meant just for novices.
This model offers three different flight skill levels; therefore, pilot of varying skill levels should experience no trouble flying this drone.
The Hornet comes with a rubber-damper 720p camera with a 120° wide-angle that ensures that photos and videos taken are beautiful. The battery offers 15 minutes of flight time.
The great thing is that Hornet comes not only with one, but with two batteries. On a full charge, both batteries offer 30 minutes of flight time.
- Durable
- Awesome battery life
- Top-quality 720p camera
- Easy to control
4. DJI – Mavic Pro Quadcopter
Do you dream of traveling the world, capturing its beauty in your photographs and videos? If so, you’ll want to check out the DJI Mavic Pro.
This amazing little drone has a ton of features that make it perfect for travel bloggers and photographers. Let’s take a closer look at some of those features.
First, the Mavic Pro is small and lightweight, making it easy to take with you on your travels. It also folds up quickly, so you can easily store it in your luggage.
Second, the drone has an incredible range of up to 7 kilometers, meaning you can capture beautiful shots from far away.
Finally, the Mavic Pro comes with an amazing stabilized camera that will help you capture smooth, professional footage.
If you’re looking for an amazing drone that is both small and lightweight, the Mavic Pro is definitely worth checking out.
With its long range and stabilized camera, the Mavic Pro can help you capture stunning footage of your travels.
The Mavic is the perfect drone for anyone looking to capture amazing footage, regardless of experience level.
If you’re new to drones and aren’t sure where to start, the Mavic is a great option because of its stability and easy-to-use controls.
With its 4K camera and 3-axis stabilization system, the Mavic is capable of capturing stunning video and photos that will make your friends jealous.
So what are you waiting for? Check out the Mavic today!
What drone has the best distance? The Mavic Pro!
- The high-quality camera and camera stabilization
- Plenty of flight modes
- Great flight time
- Great obstacle avoidance
5. Holy Stone HS100
The HS100 is a pleasant surprise, offering great features at a rather affordable price.
This product features a brushless motor, a high-resolution camera, good flight time, and a maximum range of about 1600 feet.
Holy Stone HS100 is a rather bulky drone, but its size is manageable. Together with the battery, the drone weighs about 1.5lbs, adding to its portability.
The overall build sports an ergonomic design and superb build quality.
This device is paired with a 720p camera that sports a tilting servo motor that supports it.
It offers decent image stabilization, saving all the captured images and videos to its MicroSD card (8GB included).
Another great feature is the GPS navigation. The GPS assisted flight enhances both safety and location tracking, granting a piece of mind.
If the battery capacity drops too low, or when you get out of range, the drone has an automatic return-to-home feature.
The maximum range is up to 1600 feet in an open and unobstructed environment. However, with the FPV mode activated, the range drops to 500 feet.
The advanced features the HS100 offers, make it a must-have for any drone enthusiast.
- Safety features and a GPS assisted light
- Affordable
- Good camera
- Good build and overall design
Which Drone Will You Take On Your Next Adventure?
When it comes to picking the right drone, you want to make sure you’re getting one that is not only compatible with your travel plans but also has features which are important for content creators.
If an easy-to-use and affordable drone sounds like a good fit for what you need, take a look at DJI Mavic Pro or the DJI Spark.
These drones have been popular among travelers because of their portability and can be easily stored in most carry-on bags without taking up too much space.
They also come equipped with powerful cameras so capturing beautiful footage on your next adventure will never be easier!
Which brand of drone would suit your needs best? Let us know by following below in the comments.
Looking for more top travel items?
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- Guide to finding the right travel jacket for men.
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