10 Great Road Trip Gadgets

If you're heading out on a Labor Day Weekend road trip, don't despair. Even if we have no control over the price of gas, at least we can take a road trip with cool gadgets to keep us company. Here's a look at 10 great road-trip gadgets to take with you, from laptops to iPods to portable DVD players.

Nothing can ruin a good road trip than a speeding ticket. Gadget experts recommend the $400 Valentine One Radar Locator, which has a front-end antenna and a rear-end antenna. Among top-rated radar detectors under $200: the Whistler 1788 Cordless Radar Detector and the Beltronics Vector 955 Radar Detector.

If you hate frequent stops, pack a battery-operated car cooler with your drinks and food for the ride. Hundreds of these 12-volt car coolers are on the market right now, and they plug into your cigarette lighter for power. Koolatron makes many sizes of coolers and warmers for your car, RV or truck, which range from $139 up to $200.

If you're traveling with children, get some help in the form of a good portable DVD player and a stash of DVDs. Amazon ranks several portable DVD players among the best, including the Sony DVPFX810 8" Portable DVD Player, at $129.99. For a larger screen, upgrade to the Audiovox D2017 10" Portable DVD Player, available for about $175. Don't forget to purchase headphones for each backseat viewer, or you'll wish you did.

Portable wireless routers, like the pocket-sized Linksys Travel Router, can take a single Ethernet connection in your hotel room and turn it into a wireless network everyone in the family can enjoy. And this is awesome -- you can also use it to share a wireless hotspot connection. The Linksys costs about $80.

Welcome to the 21st century. If you haven't purchased an FM transmitter for your iPod, now's the time. You simply plug these into your cigarette lighter, tune them to the recommended FM frequency, and plug the other end into your iPod. Then you can blast your favorite tunes through the radio while charging your iPod at the same time. There are many on the market, but Apple recommends the Monster iCarPlay Plus FM Transmitter and Car Charger, which sells for $79.99.

Power up your electric shaver, MP3 player, or your laptop with a portable power inverter, a handy device that plugs into your car cigarette lighter, but has a 75-watt electrical plug on the other end. The Kensington Portable Power Inverter, which also has a USB port, sells on Amazon for about $40.

If money is no object and you can't live without TV on the road, check out the $2,995 TracVision A7, a "dish" that mounts to the top of your RV and feeds 185 DirecTV channels to your TV. For less money, you can purchase the $1,500 Sat-Go from DirecTV, a 17-inch screen and a satellite receiver in one product.

If you don't have a global positioning system in your car yet, consider purchasing one for your next long road trip. They make traveling not only easier, but safer. As you can imagine, there are hundreds of portable GPS navigators on the market, but prices now range from an affordable $150 to $300. The Garmin StreetPilot c340 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator, for example, sells on Amazon for $182.

This gadget is brand new, but an essential item for long trips. CarMD is a handheld diagnostic tool that helps you to find out exactly what your car is trying to tell you when the dreaded red or yellow indicator light comes on. Hook the device up to your car's internal computer, then upload the results to CarMD.com to learn what's making your car sick. You can register up to 3 vehicles for each CarMD tester purchased.

If you love to read, and love gadgets, invest in the Kindle before your next road trip. Amazon's groundbreaking electronic reading device allows you to download complete books (with a library of 160,000) and newspapers, and read them on a small screen without the need for a computer or cables and complete with wireless connectivity. The Kindle sells these days for $359.