I’m getting ready to travel again. I’ve really enjoyed having the past year with my family. I must confess I had a bit of a dilemma deciding whether to travel again or to stay put in a comfortable apartment home close to my family and friends. But in the end, I chose the travel my soul craves over the comfort my heart craves.
I have been out of that apartment for a few weeks now and I have my ticket to fly to Europe.
Here’s what’s in my travel bag — and why. I’m always on the lookout for items I’ll take on my next long-term travel. This is my constantly updated report on what I consider, what I take, and how it works.
Traveling or not, how do you stash your cords, cables, and wired earpieces? Here’s my favorite solution of all time — the Cord Taco by This Is Ground.
I have four great ones to recommend.
For many cables, Cord Tacos by This is Ground.
For larger cables such as one to plug in your laptop, Gear Ties by NiteIze
For larger items and hanging items, Pixi by Blue Lounge or perhaps Bongo Ties.
Meet the Cord Taco, a durable, remains-beautiful, premium leather cable wrap that keeps your cables untangled better than anything else I have ever tried, and I have tried pretty much all cable organizers. This is on of the original Cord Tacos. I have been using it since January 2014, almost 3.5 years. This size is approximately 3.25 inches in diameter. And meet Gear Ties, a new and very welcome addition to my travels.
AirScale sounds promising but it failed on me at the start of my trip. It’s not worth the gamble. I now have only a too-heavy, too-large battery. Sadly, I must I recommend skipping this product.
As I have said several times, I have happily been using my sarong as a beach blanket, picnic blanket, or as a sheet at times. But recently, I realized that a larger length of ripstop nylon would be handy for the outdoors and not impact me greatly. I planned to get some next time I’m downtown LA. But then I met the Matador folks at the International Travel Goods Show — and they showed me their Pocket Blanket 2.0. I actually had no intention of considering the Pocket Blanket when I came to see Matador for their NanoDry Shower Towel. But then they pulled the corner out and handed it to me. When I first touched this pocket blanket, I just smiled. I couldn’t believe how thin it was. In a life of travel, that’s a major joy. The Matador Pocket Blanket 2.0 is brilliant. It packs tiny and light (98 […]
This is for those of you who do leave your home empty as you travel.
SimpliSafe, a new style, low-cost alarm system and company, created this pre-vacation checklist to give you — or remind you of — ways to protect your home while you’re out traveling. These are very basic but wise. Maybe it will get you started building your own list of ways to take care of and protect your home while you travel.
As you travel, it’s important to do all you can to keep yourself healthy. Flossing is not romantic but it’s an easy part of this and floss has a very low impact on your travel bag’s size and weight.
For flossing ease and the maximum efficiency, Cocofloss brand floss can’t be beat!
Have a read, have a look, then give it a try.
Aluminum foil to prevent scanning of RFID cards. I covered my sleeves with aluminum foil tape. Here’s my what, how and why.
You might laugh at this now but during your travels, you well might curse the size of your gigantic space-wasting mascara and you’ll wish you had that extra space. So you might as well read this and start considering your mascara now. Even if you won’t be traveling for a year.
Safety pins are small items that can do much for you as you travel. As they take up so little space, there are no-brainers to bring along on your trip.
Here are some real ways they might help you out as you travel.
When staying someplace for a few days or more, it can be really nice to get some of your clothes out of your backpack or wheelie bag and let them breathe.
These two tips may help.
As I have traveled outside of the USA, I noticed that eggs are not sold in the refrigerator section of any market and that people didn’t tend to put eggs into their fridge when the get them home.
Have you noticed this and wondered why? Or wondered if you have to refrigerate your eggs? Here’s the answer.
Either Vicks VapoRub or Tiger Balm should be in your bag as you travel, especially when you travel long-term. Either will likely turn out to be one of the best values for its weight and size.
Both of these similar ointments are helpful for a wide range of medical conditions.
Both are available in my counties.
It can be difficult to leave luxuries behind. Fortunately, in some cases, you don’t have to. There are often alternates to those nice things.
I’ve already written about how many things a sarong can do.
Here are some more of my substitutes. My goal is to take up very little space and weight.
Don’t worry: I am not going to tell you to cut a neck and arm holes in a plastic garbage bag to make a rain coat.
I’m back to living in my adopted hometown for a while, so you might not call that traveling. But LA is a major travel destination — and I am traveling within it this weekend! From Friday – Tuesday, I’ll be a guest of a friend in Redondo Beach. I get to show her all the tricks of the iPhone, see friends, and enjoy the beach air and all that Redondo Beach and the Redondo Beach Marina and Pier have to offer.
Wondering how I packed?
If you’re ever stuck and need to start a fire, this trick may help. I didn’t come up with it. You’ll find it all over YouTube, as I did. But I’m sharing it here to help you know about it.
The Crystal Body Deodorant Stick is the perfect deodorant to take traveling! It is small, pure, long-lasting and doesn’t contain anything that can clog or otherwise damage your body.
Images of my Crystal Body Deodorant Stick over time shows this is a top choice for deodorant for travel.
2018: Sprouts now has a mineral salt stick that’s just as good!
I’ve traveled so many years, for years at a time, that you’d think I knew the best packing. I think I do — but we all make mistakes…
These shoes were not a good travel item.
While a nice sandal, the Columbia gave me no ankle support, so they were not a good choice. They were also very heavy. Heavy in my backpack — and heavy to lift on my foot with every step so walking in them made me tired.
Nothing will change that I loved my Safe Skies Cable Lock — but sadly, I now have to report that this lock has failed me. It reached its limit, so I have a use warning for you now.
The lock still looks almost brand new, even after using this lock daily for about 1 year and 5 months and even more when you add intermittent low use, for about 9 months after that heavy use.
However, one day months ago, during the low use time, while sliding the lock open, it failed me and it is no longer usable.
This time 4 years ago I lived a typical American life in a two-bedroom condo. It was home to my furniture, photos … two dressers full of clothes…. kitchen full of fine appliances…home office.
Now I’ve virtually been living out of a 65-liter backpack. If something fit into that backpack, I don’t take it with me.
Sometimes I miss my old stuff but If I still had it I would need to still have a place for it to — and I would not have had the freedom to be in whatever country I happened to be in at that moment.
The truth is, we really need very few physical items to be well-dressed, clean, well-groomed, and comfortable. And your perception or definition of “very few items” will even change as you live the downsize.
This is for all the Americans backpackers and other Americans who are traveling to Israel and love our Peanut Butter.
As you shop for Peanut Butter in Israel, you’ll find plastic jars with screw tops like we’re used to in the USA — but you’ll also find a solid plastic contain with either a green or red lid.
It’s not the same as the stuff in the screw-top containers. See how liquidy it is.
The other day my friend Rachel called me. She was staying at Ascent as was my backpack (while I traveled more of Israel) and she wanted to know if I had any cold medicine. “Yes, I do!” I replied excitedly. “It’s yours, actually. It’s the same package that you bought me the week we met and you wanted to help me get over being sick. It’s in the original box. You should be able to find it in…” You may wonder why I was so excited that she was asking if I had this. There are several reasons why: 1) I love that I had something to help a friend. 2) I love that something she bought for me turned out to be able to help her or to help her help someone else. 3) There will be two fewer items in my backpack. No matter how light or how small something […]
I bought 3D Slick paint that works on fabric. My intention was to use it on my backpack. But as I started to practice using this paint, decided to give my equipment a nicer looking identification than just my name written in permanent marker
I love that I have a unique identification method. Plus, it’s fun to take an artistic break once in a while.
When you travel, you don’t get to control the darkness in your room. There’s always that gap in the curtains or a room is pretty but not pretty dark.
So I did sought out the best possible mask and best value for the money. My choice is the Nidra Deep Rest mask. Light-blocking, but lightweight. (You know I love that!) MOLDED so it lets me sleep in darkness but be able to open my eyes fully. And best yet, it doesn’t create eyebrow wonkiness.
Another Packing Tip: Ladies, that lace undie you love… Leave it unless you can weave it. Lace undies are beautiful. They make us feel good. And best for a traveler, they are light weight. However, lace is fragile and the garment won’t last long when worn and washed every two weeks or more as will be the case as you travel. So don’t count on fragile threads lasting. If you bring that lace, be ready with your sewing kit to reweave the pattern or pull the connected sections together. Buying new undies in various countries, especially outside of big cities, is a challenge and sometimes not even possible if your size and shape is not common wherever you happen to be so don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll just replace it. [This post was inspired as I sat sewing a thin bit of lace on an otherwise durable garment that I […]
