Five Things You Need To Pack On Your Next Vacation
Are you gearing up for an adventure, whether it's a weekend getaway or a month-long expedition? Packing efficiently can make or break your travel experience. It's not just about fitting everything into your suitcase; it’s also about packing the CORRECT items in that suitcase.
I’m by no means, a travel expert, but I’ve made plenty of my own packing mistakes and I want you to be comfortable! Here are some of my favorite travel related items that you might want to consider purchasing and taking with you next time.
PS, a lot of these items I’ll just keep stored in my carryon or suitcase so that I don’t forget to pack them the next time!
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If you’re like me, you’re going to be taking hundreds (if not thousands) of photos and videos while you’re on your vacation. Well, that can eat away at your cell phone battery life super quick! And don’t forget about having to keep your social media audience updated with every activity you’re experiencing in real time.
I know that a lot of places will have portable chargers that you can get from a vending machine that you can exchange throughout the day, but I’ve found those chargers to not be as robust as I need.
I carry around an Anker charger (there’s many different sizes) because they can hold a ton of juice. This way, I can charge not only my phone, but whoever else I happen to be with that day as well, without having to stop and get another power bank during the day. These little guys are absolutely awesome.
Plus, I’ll keep one like this in my car for road trips just in case we were to have car trouble or get stuck somewhere, I’d always want my phone to work.
Ok this one may seem a bit “overkill” and I’ll admit, when my mom found it and insisted on ordering it, I rolled my eyes.
But the truth is, typically we’re two women traveling alone and that can be intimidating sometimes. We’ve traveled from small country towns, to big bustling cities, all alone and I’ve never been in an unsafe situation. But we’re careful about it right? There are certain places we’ve been that we don’t go wandering the streets after dark, or hanging around the wrong type of areas. We always make sure that our hotels are in safe places, near people and towards the center of towns.
A couple of years ago we started packing this “extra lock” in our suitcase to use when we could. It’s simple to use from the inside of your hotel door and makes it so that no one (not even staff with a key) can enter your room when you’re in it.
The mechanism attaches from the inside of the door and slides down to block the door from being opened and then you simply remove it when you leave the room for the day. Again, we’ve never been in a situation where we felt like we absolutely had to have this, but it’s given us peace of mind to just use.
I have absolutely fallen in love with these packing cubes. I’m one of those “stressed out” packers who overthinks everything and always, always forgets something. But since I’ve started packing in these cubes, I’ve been so much more organized and ready to go!
You can use these many different ways from packing daily outfits together, or organizing them separately. This is one of those items that I keep packed away in my suitcase, so that any time I go to pull it down and pack again, they’re waiting for me.
I absolutely love this little BaBylissPRO Nano straightener for traveling. It’s only 0.5” and is the perfect size for throwing in a suitcase. I’ve used it for years and it’s great for everyday use as well because you can get all the way to the root of your hair with it’s compact size. While it’s not the flashiest and doesn’t have setting options, it will do the job for a few days while I’m away from home. It gets plenty hot and cools down quick as well. Because it’s so small it also won’t take up much of that precious counter space in your hotel room. I tend not to pack my own hair dryer for space reasons, so it’s nice to have a reliable little straightener that doesn’t eat up my suitcase packing space.
Airline travel can get really uncomfortable, really fast if you’re not careful. When I’m flying somewhere, especially for long periods of time, I tend to pack a lot of “just in case” items. I’d rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. But I also have to remember to use my space wisely!
These little travel pillows are awesome. They’re small enough to fit two very easily into a backpack. And the best part is, if you don’t want to use them as a pillow, they unzip into blanket (because airplanes are always cold right?!). When you order them this way, they come in a pack of two, so if you’re a solo traveler, you could have one pillow and one blanket to use.
So there you have it! When you’re getting ready to pack into the car for a road trip, or heading to your nearest airport for an exotic destination, packing correctly can make or break a vacation. I hope that you can learn from my mistakes and find some of those lifesaving items to pack next time!
