We have put together a list of our favorite travel items! These are all things that we personally use and love for both domestic and international trips. Whether you plan to treat yourself or buy a gift for the travel loving person in your life, you can’t go wrong with the travel essentials listed below.
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ebags Motherlode Backpack
If you follow us closely, you’ve likely seen us give a shoutout to our favorite piece of luggage – the ebags Motherlode Travel Backpack. This bag is great for weekend getaways or when you want to pack light for a bigger trip. It has so many handy compartments and is surprisingly roomy for a carry-on size bag. Kayla was able to pack for a 2 week trip to Portugal in the fall and Amanda took it on our 2 week trip over the summer to London, Amsterdam, and Paris. An added bonus is that it comes in a variety of fun colors that you don’t usually see in luggage. Did we mention it also has a lifetime warranty? If you are thinking about buying a new weekender bag or spacious carry-on that packs a big punch, look no further!
ebags Classic Packing Cube Set
Ebags doesn’t just make great bags, they also make great quality packing cubes. We love the ebags Classic Packing Cube Set because they are light as a feather, have breathable mesh tops, and the corded pulls on the zippers are easy to open and close. We’ve compared the ebags packing cubes to other brands, and firmly believe these are the best. We did not understand the hype about packing cubes before we used them, but now we can’t imagine traveling without them. You’ve been warned: If you start using these packing cubes, you’ll never go back.
Jewelry Organizer
Having a jewelry organizer helps you pack your accessories with the peace of mind that they won’t be tangled or damaged when you arrive at your destination. They come in various shapes and sizes, but Kayla uses the exact same one pictured here because it is compact and stores a good bit. It also comes in a fun variety of colors!
Hanging Toiletry Bag
Toiletries can take up a lot of space if not packed right, because they are usually in oddly shaped packaging. We love traveling with a hanging toiletry bag because they have various sized pockets for stowing toiletry items, makeup, and travel sized bottles. When bathroom counterspace is limited, these bags are great because they can hang from towel hooks, doorframes, or just the counter itself. We love the Bagsmart Hanging Toiletry Bag because of the different sized compartments, how flat it lays when closed up, and the cute patterns and colors to choose from. There’s a reason why almost 50k people have left it a 4.8 star review!
TSA Approved Travel Bottles for Toiletries
Traveling with the full size bottles of your shampoo, conditioner, soap, etc. can end up taking a lot of space in your suitcase and could be the deciding factor in whether your suitcase weighs too much for a flight. That’s why reusable travel bottles are next on our list of our favorite items for travel. Not only are they a space saver, they are better for the environment and your wallet in the long run! The Mrsdry Travel Bottles tick these boxes and each set comes in an ombre of colors, making it easy to remember which liquid is in which bottle.
Comfy Walking Shoes
Nothing can ruin a trip faster than sore feet. If you are in the market for new shoes for an upcoming trip, buy them far enough in advance that you have the chance to wear them a few times to break them in. After a lot of research, we have both found comfy shoes that we can walk miles in with no issue and can be dressed up or down. We wore these shoes all over London, Amsterdam, and Paris and loved them so much that they went from being our “travel sneakers” to our everyday sneakers!
Amanda’s Favorite: Allbirds Women’s Tree Runners Everyday Sneakers – This versatile style has an enhanced cushioned foam midsole for all day comfort. They are also machine washable and made from all natural materials, cutting their carbon footprint in half. Amanda has wide feet and has a hard time finding sneakers that fit well AND look cute – once she found these Allbirds, she got rid of all of her other sneakers!
Kayla’s Favorite: Cole Haan Grandpro Topspin Sneaker – This classic court sneaker has a Grandfoam midsole with luxe leather and suede uppers. They are extremely lightweight, and the materials are easy to wipe down when they need cleaning.
Bombas Socks
Compression socks are a must to ensure your feet and ankles do not swell while flying and to keep your blood circulating normally. Kayla’s favorites are the Bombas Compression socks. They offer strategically placed cushioning, arch support, and are much easier to get on than most compression socks.
We also are big fans of the Bombas no show socks! If you wear no shows, you know it is hard to come by some that aren’t bunched up around your toes within seconds of putting them on. We have never had this issue with the Bombas no shows! They are made of a super soft cotton and have contour seam construction ensuring a comfortable and snug fit.
The thing we love most about Bombas is that for every one pair of socks purchased, they donate one pair of socks to a homeless shelter.
Stitch Fix Membership
Anybody else have the urge to buy a new wardrobe before every trip? Just us? Stitch Fix makes shopping for new clothes easier than ever before. You are able to fill out your interests and style preferences through their app, they assign you a personal shopper, and they will send you a box with 5 items to try in the sizes you wear! You can schedule your Fixes for as often as you’d like. Don’t care for the items you received or need to switch sizes? Just ship them back. You also have the option to browse individual items for purchase. It’s absolutely addictive, but we’ve both found a lot of fantastic high quality pieces through Stitch Fix and they make it so easy to shop. That’s why a Stitch Fix membership has made our list of our favorite items for travel.
Travel Wallet
Passports can be a bit awkward to travel with because they are too big to fit into most standard sized wallets. We love traveling with a passport wallet, so we can keep our passport, cards, money, tickets, etc. all in one place and organized.
Kayla’s grandpa bought this RFID blocking leather passport wallet after seeing it on our Travel Gift Guide For Men. He loves it so much, it’s turned into his everyday wallet! This wallet is sleek and classy at an affordable price point. It is perfect for people only keeping up with one passport and a few cards.
If you are traveling with kids and in charge of keeping up with all the passports, you’ll need something a little larger. We recommend this family travel document organizer that looks like a normal zippered wallet, but can conveniently hold up to 4 passports. It’s also RFID blocking, which is a must when traveling.
Change Purse
On that note, a change purse is a must if you’re visiting basically any European country and plan on using local currency. Americans are used to loose change amounting to less than a dollar and therefore not being worth much. In the UK though for instance, they have coins that are worth £1 and £2 (approximately $1.25 and $2.50 respectively). So if you buy something with currency, the change you receive back could very well be numerous coins amounting to quite a bit instead of cash / paper money.
Having a change purse helps to keep track of these coins, and honestly for us, they also serve as a visual reminder to use up whatever coins we’ve accumulated before we leave that country. These can also be a handy souvenir to bring back for yourself – Kayla bought a wool change purse in Scotland and uses it for every trip to Europe now.
Portable Fan
Americans are wimps when we don’t have constant air flow, and Amanda and I fall into that category. If we aren’t staying in a place that has AC, we will bring a portable fan with us – primarily to help us sleep more comfortably at night.
Amanda has one like this Treva 10-inch Portable Fan and loves it. We used it nightly in Costa Rica when we were up late playing card games.
Since Kayla usually travels with her 2 year old daughter, she uses her daughter’s Amacool Stroller Fan since it has octopus-esque legs that can tripod and stand on a nightstand. The double use of this stroller fan is one of the reasons it made our list of 15 Must Haves For Traveling With Children Under 3.
Refillable Water Bottle
If you’re traveling to a place where the water is safe to drink, bring a refillable water bottle with you to save money (and the environment!). You can fill it up before you go to explore for the day and not have to worry about staying hydrated. The kind you choose is really a matter of preference. A lot of travelers have started using a collapsible water bottle like this one as a space saver. We tend to try and keep water on us at all times though, so the collapsible feature doesn’t really make sense for us. The Pogo Plastic Water Bottle is great because it helps you track the ounces you are drinking, has a wide chug spout for maximum hydration, has a loop hole for easy carrying or attaching to a backpack/purse, and is easy to clean. Stay hydrated, friends!
AirPods
AirPods are fantastic because they allow you to listen on your device without being tethered to it and hardly take up any room at all. They also have fantastic sound quality and noise canceling capabilities. They make listening to your favorite podcast, audible book, or music a breeze. When they are removed from your ears, it automatically pauses whatever you were listening to. They are sweat and water resistant, and they can be connected to Siri. They also have an incredibly long battery life, with the 3rd generation lasting for up to 30 hours! Not only are our Airpods one of our favorite items for travel, they are one of our favorite tech items in life, period.
Airfly Bluetooth Wireless Audio Transmitter
For a long time, even if you traveled with your airpods, you still had to use headphones with a jack to listen to the airlines’ in flight entertainment systems. That is not the case anymore! With the Airfly Bluetooth Wireless Audio Transmitter, you plug it into the headphone jack, connect your Airpods, and now you can listen to your movie with your Airpods! This is great since the headphones given out by airlines usually don’t have good sound quality, are uncomfortable to wear, and you have to fight with a cord the whole flight. The Airfly device is a great stocking stuffer for frequent flyers!
A Good Book
We never travel without a good book to read along the way! While we love having an actual book, they can be a bit cumbersome for travel. The Kindle Paperwhite is an excellent option to have thousands of books at your fingertips in a tiny device designed to make you feel like you’re reading a real book. We are also huge fans of Audible. A good book coupled with an excellent narrator creates a whole ambience that can really take a book to another level.
What are your favorite travel items? Tell us in the comments below!
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