Everyone Should Travel With a Pair of Cheap Wired Headphones (2026)

Summer is right around the corner. We’re headed out on adventures and bringing our stuff with us. Here are all the tech and tips that WIRED Reviews recommends for your travels.

I did it. I caved and did something completely out of character as a seasoned Reviews editor: I made an impulse purchase with zero prior research. When I was in the airport with my family last week, I walked into one of the insanely expensive Hudson News kiosks and bought a pair of (relatively) cheap wired headphones. They cost me $15 (but they’re much cheaper if you buy them before you leave).

We had forgotten to charge my daughter’s over-ears Bluetooth headphones before we left our vacation rental. She couldn’t listen to the conversations in Tomodachi Life on her Nintendo Switch Lite—and she was driving me crazy. At the time, $15 seemed like a reasonable price to pay for her not having to walk around attached to a giant power bank. Even though these are not the best wired headphones you could possibly buy, my daughter still noted that they’re more comfortable than my old wired AirPods ($19) that she’s occasionally used in the past. (If I had planned ahead, I would’ve gotten the Koss Porta-Pros ($50).)

I was just anxious to escape the never-ending Bluetooth hell cycle of charging and connection. So while I’m not giving up my AirPods Max 2, I’m going to argue that a pair of cheap wired headphones is a critical addition to your travel tech kit. Here are a few reasons why you should always have one on hand.

You don’t have to charge them. This is the most obvious reason. I bring a laptop power bank on every trip with my family, and about halfway through, every single port has a phone, Nintendo Switch Lite, or iPad plugged into it. I’m so sick of charging every single device before we leave the house.

You don’t have to futz with connecting to different devices. Is there anything worse than having to buy another device to use the device that you already have? The standard solution to being able to use your regular headphones on a plane is the Twelve South Airfly ($55), a little Bluetooth adapter that you plug into the headphone jack for in-flight entertainment. I own one. Did I have it with me on the plane? No, because I was charging it and forgot it.

A surprising number of devices still have headphone jacks. My kids each have a Nintendo Switch Lite ($230) and a refurbished iPad for watching movies, and both have 3.5-mm headphone jacks. While Bluetooth headphones can now connect to multiple devices, do they have the ability to always know accurately when an 8- and an 11-year-old are swapping Switches, iPads, and in-flight movies? No, they do not. I would gladly pay more than $15 just to reduce the number of things my kids can argue about.

They’re more portable. My kids’ over-ears headphones tend to be more comfortable if you’re wearing them for long periods, but they take up a lot of valuable backpack space. Wired headphones also reduce the possibility that they’ll drop a single Bluetooth earbud on the floor, have it roll somewhere, and then lose it forever. (Not that this has ever happened or anything.)

There’s no latency. This is important for gaming, which we all do.

Your husband won’t show up in your phone as a stalker. If you’re constantly connecting and disconnecting Bluetooth headphones while walking as a family, your spouse will show up as a stalker in your iPhone or Pixel phone. “An unknown device is following you,” your phone will say, and you’ll cast your eyes wildly about before remembering: I know who is following me! I agreed to this when we got married!

I mean, it’s either him or the creepy guy with his hoodie up who has been following us for 50 gates, but what are the odds? Just plug in your headphones and go on with your life.