“I Feel Like I’m Forgetting Something”
We’ve all been there. You’re super excited to explore a new place until you realize—man, I wish I’d brought that jacket. Or ear plugs. Or a nail file. Argh! Increasing fees for checked luggage mean many people are confined to carry-on luggage, which tend to look full so fast that we zip ‘em up and consider ourselves fully packed.
Well, we scoured the web for tips from seasoned travelers for the items that came in handy in the most unexpected ways. If you’re the type of person who hates losing valuable vacation time scouring local stores for things you’ve forgotten, consider this a checklist for your next trip.
Ziploc Bags
Ziploc bags—or any plastic bags, really—take up basically no space and serve so many purposes. Bring a handful of regular size and a few large size ones, tied up with an elastic. Worried about leaking bottles, or packing up damp toiletries right after a shower? Ziploc bag. Keeping snacks and breakfast foods in your hotel or Airbnb to save some cash? Well, once you open those packages, you’re gonna want a Ziploc bag.
Extra-large or XXL Ziploc bags will even fit most sizes of shoes, so they don’t dirty or stink up your luggage. There are truly a million uses for them.
Thin Towel
Packing a regular old bath towel would be both useless and too bulky for most vacation situations, but a thin, microfibre towel like a PackTowl or a stylish woven Turkish towel can prove incredibly useful. They’re way easier to head to the beach with, and can also function as a picnic blanket for parks.
A Turkish towel is stylish enough that women can use it over their shoulders to keep warm, or as a cover-up for visiting churches or religious sites.
adaptice photography, Shutterstock
Power Strip
Not all lodging—be it a hotel, vacation rental, or a friend’s guest room—is created equal. At the end of the day, when you want to charge your phone, portable battery (speaking of useful items…), headphones, and maybe even a Bluetooth speaker, e-reader, or camera, a single outlet used by one person or split by a couple isn’t going to cut it.
There are many low profile power strips on the market that are easily packable, and that will make sure every morning is fully charged.
Aeropress
Just like not all lodgings are created equal, not all coffee is created equal. The Aeropress Travel, which fits inside its own cup, is a fantastic option for either the coffee snob, or the person who needs coffee the moment they wake up. All you need is a kettle or a microwave to boil water, and you’ve got a cup that lives up to your standards.
Alternatively, a number of brands have begun offering instant cold brew, which can be made with cold water—great for bare bones lodging, or for iced coffee fans. Just throw a few tablespoons or cups in a—and stop me if you’ve heard this before—Ziploc bag before packing.
Travel Tissue Packs
Many of us already wouldn’t be caught dead without a travel tissue pack—and for those who wouldn’t think to pick a pack or two up at the pharmacy counter, it’s time to join our ranks. They’re perfect to take on an unexpected food spill in a kitchen-less room or while out for the day. But most importantly, they come in clutch when faced with every traveler’s—nay, every human’s—nightmare: the toilet paper-less bathroom.
Wirestock Creators, Shutterstock
Coconut Oil
If you’re a minimalist when it comes to packing, coconut oil might be right up your alley. It can be used as a conditioner for hair, moisturizer for face and skin, and lip balm. And hey, if you happen to be in that classic situation—an Airbnb with a kitchen but absolutely none of the essentials to cook with—you can even use it to fry your eggs in the morning.
Headlamp
A lot of our most-used items while camping—like quick-drying microfiber towels and Ziploc bags—also happen to come in handy during a regular trip. The headlamp is a great example of this. When you’re sleeping in an unfamiliar place, it can really come in clutch. Want to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom without waking up your partner by turning the big light on? Headlamp. Grasping for the aforementioned bathroom light switch? Headlamp. Lost an earring on a patterned hotel room carpet? Headlamp.
Just don’t look under the hotel room bed…
Bandana
Another thing that hikers and campers get right? The bandana. There is, of course, its use as basically a portable sweat towel. If you’re somewhere really hot, you can dip it in water and tie it around your neck. And if your hair is greasy, it makes for a great cover-up. Bandanas have multiple uses and are easy to wash and dry in a hotel bathroom.
E-Reader
If you’re hoping to get a lot of reading and relaxing done on your vacation, there’s no more romantic image than laying out on a beach or curling up in a chair by a roaring fire at a lodge with a good book. Unfortunately, if you’re like us, some books take weeks to read—while others can take a day. And no one wants to be left without reading material, but overpacking books is a big mistake.
Most people don’t want to make the switch from book to e-reader—and you really don’t have to in your day-to-day life—but they’re incredibly handy for traveling. Simply load it up with a handful…or five…or 10 books of your choice, and if you blow through them, great!
Portable Charger With Built-In Cable
It’s no surprise that portable chargers made it to this list. In fact, if anything, it’s too obvious. But if you’re still using a portable charger you bought a few years ago, they’ve come a long way since then—in that many of them now have built-in cables.
They fit into small handbags or fanny packs a lot easier as a result, and there’s no awkward switching the lightning cable from the charger to the wall outlet when you get back to where you’re staying.
Laundry Supplies
The key to packing light is to plan to do laundry—but few people want to waste hours of their trip at a laundromat, and not every hotel offers the service. With just three items, though, you can take care of the problem. The first is a small pack of travel detergent. The second is a travel clothesline, which many camping supply brands make. The third—which really makes this whole process easy—is a universal sink stopper. It’s small, and will make it so you can soak your clothing in the tub or sink with the detergent.
Wool Socks
A good pair of wool socks can ease a lot of discomfort while traveling, especially in cold or wet conditions. If you’re walking in puddles, snowbanks, or slush, and your footwear isn’t up to the task, wool socks will naturally dry incredibly fast with the heat generated from your feet, keeping you warm and dry. And they’re not just for winter either—unless you’re a human radiator, they’re pretty good at keeping feet comfy in most weather.
Additionally, if you don’t want a pair of slippers taking up space in your luggage, they’re great for cold floors at Airbnbs.
Baby Wipes
If you’re of the generation who have gotten used to having a bidet in the home, it can be…unpleasant to travel and leave yours behind. While certain companies do make “travel” bidets, they’re little more than squeeze water bottles with a little tube—and nobody wants to clean that while on vacation. The happy medium is a pack of baby wipes, which are great to keep on the back of the toilet. Just be sure to follow the guidelines wherever you’re staying when it comes to flushing them vs throwing them out.
You can also put a few in a trusty Ziploc bag for washing your hands without a sink while out doing activities during the day.
Tweezers
We honestly recommend a good, tiny manicure kit to tackle most problems—while a nail file is good for annoying snags, those tiny scissors can serve a lot of purposes—but if you were only going to pack one item, we’d pick tweezers. Great for hangnails and splinters, they can come in handy in emergencies—like a dropped wedding ring down the bathroom sink.
Dry Bag
We don’t even need to say the c-word again—we’ll just present a few hypothetical situations. You have a great beach day out but want to head to a bar for a few drinks afterward. Throw towels and bathing suits in the dry bag, and don’t worry about getting all the stuff in your tote damp. Half the clothes you’ve brought are dirty, half are clean, and it’s time to pack and hit another leg of your trip, but you don’t want the dirty stinking up the clean. Once again: dry bag. Has it sold itself yet?
One Portable Game You Love
For some, all you need is a deck of cards. For others, they might prefer something different. Even if you don’t wind up using it on 90% of vacations, that one time that you’re stuck at an airport for hours, or facing a power outage, or simply get tired of reading, you’ll appreciate having a game to fill up the time. Some very small yet very addictive options are Wizard or Monopoly Deal.
Earplugs
For many, this is already a must-pack. But if you’re the type to not pack ear plugs—well, it’s just likely you haven’t been in a situation where you need them yet. Ear plugs are great for noisy places like concerts, as well as sleeping in a hotel that’s on a busy street or that has poor insulation.
If you have trouble sleeping while traveling but just choose to blame it on the new environment or your routine being interrupted, just pop in some earplugs and try a sleep mask. It’s possible that the small variations in light and ambient sound versus those you’re used to at home can be affecting you without your noticing.
OTC Meds
While many people will remember to bring Tylenol or Aspirin, may we suggest an expanded list? People think that traveler’s diarrhea is the most common stomach issue while traveling, but according to doctors at Houston Methodist hospital, it’s actually constipation. So, bring a laxative along with the Immodium. And on top of that, Tums for heartburn, Gravol or another anti-nausea medicine, and Benadryl for allergies.
With just a couple of each in your pill pack, you’re prepared for a whole slew of issues.
Coin Purse/Small Zippered Bag
If you’re traveling to a place with foreign currency that won’t necessarily offer a lot of opportunities to pay by card, you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches by carrying it in a separate wallet. In many places, local bank notes will be too large for a standard wallet meant for US cash. In others, like Mexico for example, it can be confusing to deal with the sheer volume of bills needed to get around (where $5USD is 100 pesos, and $100 is just over 2,000 pesos).
In a place like Japan, you will end up using a lot of coinage, so you’ll really appreciate a coin purse. Look into local currency in your destination and decide what kind of bag to use from there.
One Item Of Clothing For The “Opposite” Weather
No matter where you go, basically, you can always use a swimsuit. Even if you’re traveling in the winter, you don’t know when the opportunity to use a hot tub or go to a spa might come up. And if you’re going somewhere beachy, unless you’re headed there in the dog days of summer, it’s a good idea to bring a packable fleece or sweater, either for breezy nights, or frigid air conditioning.
Extra Contacts/Glasses
This one may not apply to everyone—but if you have impaired vision, you know that nothing ruins a trip faster than losing a contact or breaking a pair of glasses. They’re basically impossible to replace without your actual paper prescription, and even then, it still might be difficult. For that reason, packing multiple extra pairs of contacts is a good idea.
Many glasses wearers only have one pair, but if you happen to have an old pair, even if it’s out of date, pack it—because being a little blurry is way better than “everything is blurry”.
