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You are here: Home / Backpacking Guides / Best Travel Drones for Backpacking

Best Travel Drones for Backpacking

Backpacking Guides, Travel Gear Last Updated · Jan 5th, 2022

Wondering which is the best drone for backpacking?

best travel drone
Travel Drone in Action

When it comes to living a high-quality travel experience, one of the best things that you can do is capture its appeal and style.


Quick Answer: Best Drone for Backpacking

  • Top Quality Flight Design – For Experienced Pro Drone Pilots
  • An Easy Drone to Set Up – Best Drone for Hiking
  • Perfect for on-the-go Photos – Boasts an Impressive 20MP Camera
  • Capture Stable, Shake-Free Videos – Designed for Go-Pro Fans
  • Travel Buyers Guide – Best Drone For Backpacking

I’m not sure if you’ve ever considered backpacking with a drone or not but this guide is intended to help you choose a drone either way.

Allow me to mention that after many years of backpacking I’ve learned that quality travel gear is a must for any backpacker.

Table of Contents

  • Best Drone for Backpacking
    • What makes a good drone for travel?
  • Best Travel Drones
    • DJI Mavic Pro Platinum
    • Dji Mavic Air
    • DJI Mavic Pro
    • DJI Spark
    • DJI Phantom 4
    • DJI Phantom 3K
    • Autel Robotics X-Star
    • GoPro Karma
    • Yuneec Breeze Done
    • Holy Stone HS100
  • Buying a Drone: Things to Consider
    • Drone Specs vs Your Goals
  • Where Can I fly My Drone?
    • Basic Drone Flying Etiquette
    • Additional Rules and Regulations
  • Drone Terminology
    • Drone Acronyms
    • Traveling with a Drone
  • Best Drones for Travel

Best Drone for Backpacking

Many forms of travel can be enhanced simply by making an investment in the best drone for travel you can find at a price you can afford.

Now, let’s take a look at what makes up the best drone for backpacking.

What makes a good drone for travel?

  • For one, it needs to have a high-quality camera fitted. It must be able to snapshots of the world as you go, or it’s not suitable.
  • It also needs to have a high quality battery life to make sure that it meets your exact expectations and never falls short.
  • Good elevation is needed, too, so that you can capture those impressive shots of the skyline and the cities you visit.
  • Also, it needs to be durable and have plenty of space for storing your memorable shots!

Best Travel Drones

If you are looking to pick up a high quality drone, then I recommend that you take a look at the following market options:

DJI Mavic Pro Platinum

best travel drone

Good Points

  • Top quality flight design
  • Impressive space features
  • Long-lasting battery life provided

If you want the best drone for travel needs, then start here. The DJI Mavic Pro Phantom is a very impressive piece of kit that should make life much easier for you, ensuring that you can get up into the sky with minimal fuss and effort.

This is probably the best drone for hiking if you’re looking to get the highest quality drone shots possible. However, not recommend for beginners and you should probably get accustomed to flying drones before investing in the DJI Mavic Pro Phantom.

Price via Amazon


Dji Mavic Air

best travel drone

Good Points

  • High quality 12MP camera
  • Top quality 4K, 30FPS video
  • Controlled using smartphones

The DJI Mavic Air is a must-have for all fans of this kind of hardware who want to see something proper impressive come to life here. the kind of experience you could easily enjoy if you want to take shots using a camera that performs.

When you are out and about seeing the world, this makes it easy to snap, save and share without issue. This is up near the top as my best travel drone for 2019.

Price via Amazon


DJI Mavic Pro

travel drone

Good Points

  • Impressive overall build quality
  • 40mph for 30-minute performance
  • 4K capable sensor redundancy

If you are looking for the best drone for travel purposes, then you might have just found it. The DJI Mavic Pro is a fine piece of kit and comes with a very impressive design that should fit into just about any normal bag design.

Easy to set up and take with you on your travels, it’s got ample space, storage, and shooting quality overall.

Price via Amazon


DJI Spark

drones for backpackers

Good Points

  • Easily controlled remote management
  • 31mph for 16 minutes
  • 1.2 mile control radius

When you need to capture that special shot of the city skyline or something similar, you’ll find that the DJI Spark is a fine starting point.

A finely tuned 4-rotor helicopter, can give you a highly impressive 1080p, 30fps shots from its 12MP 2-axis Gimbal camera.

A must-have for anyone who is really looking for that added touch of high-end performance.

Price via Amazon


DJI Phantom 4

the best drone

Good Points

  • Impressive 20MP camera on-board
  • 60fps videos hooting available
  • 4K shots with 100mbps

If you want to capture those special moments when abroad, the DJI Phantom 4 makes a tough task so much simpler. Fire this up and you can get the perfect shot of the wider world, whilst ensuring that you can use a high-quality camera to really snap top quality shots without any disruption.

The ideal choice for on-the-go photography.

Price via Amazon


DJI Phantom 3K

best drone for backpacking

Good Points

  • Impressive overall build quality
  • Rechargeable remote control provided
  • 4K UHD video recording

Normally, the best kind of hardware for using a travel drone is one with 4K shots, allowing you to get close-to-reality shots that really live up to the quality expected.

In my opinion, this is the best drone for backpacking. It’s easy to use and controlled using the DJI Pilot app, you can easily use this with your smartphone and make sure you can set it up and get snapping in a shorter period of time.

Price via Amazon


Autel Robotics X-Star

best drone for backpacking

Good Points

  • Highly impressive 4K camera
  • HD live view @0.62m
  • 6GB of space free

From the rapid charging speeds to the increasingly easy management of the Autel Robotics X-Star, you can make a transformative difference to the way that you work whilst ensuring that you have an easy to use, fast-charging, and easily controlled solution for capturing the shots that you want.

If you’re still looking for the best drone for backpacking this is the perfect choice for beginner travelers.

Price via Amazon


GoPro Karma

drones for travel

Good Points

  • Highly impressive build quality
  • Easily hand-held or body-mounted
  • Stable, shake-free videos produced

The GoPro Karma makes a fine starting point for those who are interested in an added touch of quality and class. The shake-free video produced is excellent, while you also find that you can easily mount it up and carry it around or send it up into the air for some truly exceptional snaps of the world around you.

Price via Amazon


Yuneec Breeze Done

best travel drone 2018

Good Points

  • High quality 4K camera
  • Easy to use out-the-box
  • Controlled via smartphone app

If you want not only one of the best travel drones, but also to pick up the kind of high-performance solution that you need for easy and effective flight, then you should look to pick up the Yuneec Breeze.

Few solutions are quite as effective for being used as flying cameras, delivering 13MP still shots and 4K video shots for making sure you do the beauty of the world some justice!

Price via Amazon


Holy Stone HS100

drones from travel

Good Points

  • Impressive GPS-assisted flight
  • 720P, 120-degree FOV camera
  • 15 minutes of flight-time

The best backpacking drone for portability. With the help of this highly reliable and incredibly effective little drone, you can make sure that you have the best drone for travel that’s easy to use and comes with a simple control scheme.

Most likely the best cheap travel drone on this list. Use the awesome little pad provided, and you can easily steer this wherever you wish to make sure you can get the best experience and really capture those holiday shots together.

Price via Amazon


Buying a Drone: Things to Consider

Purchasing a travel drone before your next vacation is an exciting proposition.

We’ve all seen numerous Youtube videos of spectacular aerial footage of beaches, mountains, and impressive landscapes.

Buying and operating a drone is relatively simple. However, before you buy a drone and run off to a Caribbean island or an exotic country, there are several things you must consider.

Drone Specs vs Your Goals

There are countless numbers of different drones available on the market today. Purchasing the right travel drone, whether it’s your first time or your 50th is a matter of knowing what your goals are.

Before buying a drone, ask yourself, what will I be using this drone for?

Will you be taking selfies, or will it be used for aerial photography of the beach you’re visiting?

Each drone has different features and options and picking the right drone ties into knowing what your goals are.

An example of differing drones’ specifications, features, and options:

The DJI Mavic Pro has a max flight time of 27-minutes, while the DJI Spark has a flight time of only 16-minutes.

Additionally, the Mavic Pro’s top speed and range are 64kph and 7km. The Spark’s speed is 35kph and 100m.

Where Can I fly My Drone?

Knowing what rules and regulations to adhere to when flying your travel drone will help keep you out of trouble.

There is some basic etiquette you should follow, as well as some additional rules and regulations.

As a drone owner and pilot, it’s your responsibility to know these rules and regulations before you take to the sky.

Basic Drone Flying Etiquette

  • 1. Do not fly within 5-miles of any airport.
  • 2. Do not fly more than 400-feet above ground.
  • 3. Do not fly over private property, crime scenes, or fires.
  • 4. Do not fly over government buildings.
  • 5. Do not fly over people without permission.

Additional Rules and Regulations

  • In the U.S. it’s advisable that you register your drone with the FAA.
  • Traveling to Jamaica, drone rules and regulations.
  • Traveling to Nicaragua, rules, and regulations.

Drone Terminology

Among things to consider before buying a travel drone is the terminology. For example, do you know the difference between an RTF drone and an ARF drone?

Drone Acronyms

Here I’ll break down some common terminology to help you make an informed buying decision.

RTF – stands for Ready-To-Fly. These types of drones come assembled and ready to fly. However, you may need to charge the batteries and install the propellers.

ARF – stands for Almost-Ready-to-Fly. These drones typically come as a kit and assembly is required. Whenever you see ARF, read the description thoroughly as additional components may need to be purchased separately.

BNF – stands for Bind-and-Fly. These drones typically come assembled, but without a controller. You’ll need to purchase one separately or use the one you currently have and sync it with the drone.

Operating a drone carries a lot of responsibilities. Among the most important of these is flying responsibly, and knowing what you can and can’t do.

Traveling with a Drone

All these rules, regulations, and things to consider before buying a travel drone can seem overwhelming.

With a little patience and due diligence, we’re confident you’ll be capturing astonishing pictures and videos on your next vacation.

Best Drones for Travel

Still not satisfied you’ve found the best drone for traveling?

By using any of the drones above, you can make sure that every moment of your travel experience can be as satisfying as possible.

Not only will it help you to make sure that you can get amazing shots from the sights. But you’ll help to show the world how much you have seen, done, and taken on – if that’s not a good excuse, what is?

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best travel drone for backpacking
backpacking drone
Do you have a drone, or thinking buying a backpacking drone?

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Filed Under: Backpacking Guides, Travel Gear

Daniel James

Helping thousands of people worldwide with backpacking in Latin America. Layer Culture means to dig deeper into the ideas, customs, and behavior of a group of people.

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