14 of Our Top Travel Essentials
These are 14 of Our Favorite Travel Essentials! We’ve used each of these products during the past year of our travels and wanted to share our honest opinions on how they’ve helped us out for efficient lightweight travel.
This carryon has been one of the best travel investments we’ve made this year. After countless trips using other carryons we’ve experience a lot of issues.
Problems included
- Our suitcase ripping or cracking in transit
- the wheels would fall off
- they would stop rolling correctly
- our items would get damaged from lack of protection
- our bag being slightly over airline size requirements.
However this one carryon solved all of those problems! Ahhh how satisfying it is watching airline desk attendants attempt to charge you extra for your oversized carryon and it being able to slide perfectly into those ridiculously measured metal squares! It puts a smile on my face every single time. As a photographer always traveling with an extensive amount of camera gear, this is the only carryon I trust to check my equipment in.
It has a professional style & great design
It also has beautifully designed compartments that help even the messiest of packers appear organized. Most importantly the portable charger inside becomes very helpful when your phone is dead and all the surrounding outlets are in use.
However, remember to take out the battery pack out before you check your bag. The airline will take it out and you’ll be without a really great external charger. This isn’t a paid post we are just huge fans of this brand. It has made our travels a whole lot more enjoyable this year and we hope it can bring the same value to you as well.
Depending on what kind of traveling you’re doing, you’ll either need a roller suitcase or a backpackers backpack. For more packing tips refer to our post “How to pack for a month of travel.” We’ve been traveling with this Osprey backpack for the last four years and it’s been a great travel companion.
What makes this backpack unique?
There’s a zipper in the back! This design allows you to have access your entire bag almost like a suitcase. You are able to get to all of your things at once therefore making your life easier at the airport when you need to find something. The Osprey’s design is unlike other backpack styles where you have to basically dump everything out from the top to reach what you need on the bottom.
We have experienced traveling with both backpack styles and this one is for sure our favorite. Our packing stays much more organized and it’s actually comfortable to wear. When you start to get your bag ready to be checked or be put in overhead, there’s an extra cover located on the very bottom of the bag that zips up all the straps. This keeps them neatly packed, clean and protected from damage.
Lastly, we love love how it comes with an extra day pack that can be attached to the back or the front. Its perfect for travelers who need a personal item for their laptop and equipment.
Having a portable charger with you on your travels is a must. It will save you from annoying and unfortunate circumstances that every traveler ends up encountering. For example, when your phone dies right when you need to show your digital tickets or when you’re following a GPS to your hotel. Having one of these on you will let you have peace of mind while you’re traveling (just remember to charge it!). Most importantly I love how this charger has two USB outlets so you can charge multiple devices at once. Perfect for my phone and Sony camera!
These headphones have been with us on every trip for the past two years. We never leave with out them. They work extremely well, great sound, very comfortable, and drown out all the loud unpleasant noises on those long flights. These are probably the most affordable headphones we’ve come across for such awesome quality. Therefore if you’re in the search for nice pair of bluetooth headphones for your next trip, we highly recommend you bring a pair of these with you.
Always bring a water bottle with you traveling. It saves on plastic waste, and they will keep your drinks cold or hot for hours. These are perfect for camping, long hikes, and really for every day use. We’ve used this bottle for the last few months and it kept our drinks cold for the entire day. This was especially great for the 5 hour hike we took in 95 degrees through the Thai jungle. Most importantly it’s the perfect product to help reduce on plastic use. The more eco friendly travelers the better!
We’ve made the mistake on multiple occasions not packing a raincoat. After a few trips of rushing around to buy a one dollar poncho during a rain storm, we final remember to bring one with us each trip. Theres nothing worse than having to spend the rest of the day exploring completely soaked. Especially if you’ll be traveling to countries during their rainy season, have one of these with you in your day pack at all times. Sometimes the rain comes out of nowhere and you’ll be really proud of yourself for being prepared!
A travel towel!! Too many times we’ve forgotten to pack one of these handy gems and had to uncomfortably drip dry during our travels. They dry so fast and are super soft and comfortable. They roll up tightly to make the perfect compact travel companion. All in all this is a very important item to bring in your day pack. Whenever you spontaneously stumble upon a waterfall or take a detour to the beach, you’ll be ready!
This is for any traveler who packs light and washes a lot of their clothes in the sink. Rather than trying to find places around your hotel room to haphazardly hang your clothes to dry, this clothesline will make your life a whole lot easier.
We are defiantly one of those travelers who rather wash their limited clothes items, then carry a whole months wardrobe on our backs. Therefore, this elastic clothing line has worked wonders for us. The clips stay attached to the line so you can’t loose them, and they are all adjustable to move around how you need. Running to a laundromat could be expensive depending on where you’re traveling and could also be hard to find. Let’s not be smelly travelers and do some washing ourselves. Our clothes dried so much faster using one of these!
On the topic of washing clothes, we’ve been using this laundry bar on our recent trips and really loved it. First of all, packing solid soaps are always our go-to packing rule because of liquid packing restrictions, and leaky messes. This Laundry bar smells also smells AMAZING. Its made with 100% biodegradable ingredients which is super important especially if you’re camping in nature. Another awesome reason try out this product is because it’s cruelty free. The bar lasts for a long time and works great to remove stains.
This brand also makes awesome solid shampoo and conditioner bars. This bar smelt great, foamed up nicely, and lasted for over a month of travel (we still have half left). We love how it comes in plastic free packaging and made with safe & healthy ingredients.
We have long, thick wavy hair and the conditioner bar left it feeling very smooth just like any other liquid conditioner. Using these solid soaps save so much room packing, and you avoid wasting plastic from all those mini travel sized toiletries.
We’re always trying to switch our travel products to things that are healthier for us and our environment. Instead of bringing a plastic travel toothbrush that most people just toss out after a trip, try bring one of these eco-friendly soft bristle brushes on your next trip. Help keep all those plastic toothbrushes out of our oceans and landfills.
Sticking with the theme of liquid free toiletries, we found this mini solid facial sunscreen perfect on our last trip to the Thai Islands. It smelt great, worked great, and saved my skin from hours under the hot sun. If you’re running out the door and don’t have room to pack a bag with a bunch of things, this is the perfect little sunscreen to fit with you at all times.
Whenever you go to locations where you’ll be getting a lot of sun exposure, make sure you look for reef safe sunscreen! Sunscreen is poisoning our coral reefs.
The ingredients you need to avoid are
- Oxybenzone
- Octinoxate
These are like a safety blanket for us while we’re in route traveling. We use one right when we get on a flight, in the middle of the flight, before we get off the flight, and in route everywhere really. It’s hard to stay as fresh as you’d like while you’re on a 6 to 12 hour flight. These help you feel cleansed and much more comfortable on your journey.
While we travel through airports, metros and bus stations we’re constantly cleaning using sanitizer making our hands extremely dry. I don’t know about you but having rough dry hands is such an uncomfortable feeling. This is definitely something you’d always keep with you during your travels!
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