The weekend adventure

Getting away from it all for a couple of days is a great way to recharge‚ and whether a city break or a hiking trip is your speed, you can tech it up to improve your trip. First thing is a camera. The Sony A6500 (£ 1,249, sony.co.uk) is a brilliant compact system camera, packing top tech, including a DSLR-matching APS- C sensor and viewfinder, in a small body. (we also totally recommend its older sibling, the a6000, for around £500 including lens) When you’re doing a lot of walking, you’ve got to keep your feet comfortable. Salomon’s Quest 4D 2 GTX walking boots (£ 131.99, salomon.com) have a design inspired by running shoes to keep the weight down, while giving you the cushioning and support you need to traipse around a city or hillside all day. Pair it with the Arc’teryx Beta

LT (£330, arcteryx.com) jacket, which is similarly lightweight and breathable, to keep you cool in mild conditions, but can also stand up to that ‘surprise’ summer rain.

If you’re doing serious wilderness exploring, a dedicated GPS system is a huge help ‚ Garmin’s Oregon 750 (£470 without maps, £495 with GB Maps bundle, garmin.com) comes with all the latest GPS and GLONASS positioning smarts, height sensors, a touchscreen, the ability to pack it with whatever maps you need, and route tracking. Or, if you don’t want to be carrying that around, Garmin’s Fenix 5x (£465, garmin.com) is a smartwatch that includes TOPO mapping for Europe, most of the same GPS and location sensors as the Oregon 750, as well as personal activity tracking.

One last thing, make sure you’ve got a spare phone with great battery life for emergencies ‚ the new Nokia

3310 (£40, nokia.com) lasts for a month on a single charge, and is small and light enough to just toss in a bag.