10 Travel Essentials We Never Leave Home Without

When going on any trip, be it long-term backpacking or just a short weekend away, packing the right items is key. Ensuring you have a few key travel essentials in your bag or suitcase allows you to travel lightly, stress-free and focus on maximising your experience.

With 18 years of travel experience, including two long-term trips of more than 12 months each, we have a lot of experience packing and making sure we have all the right gear for any trip. Whether we’re road-tripping in Thailand or spending the weekend in the Canadian Rockies, here are our 10 travel essentials that we won’t leave home without.

Travel Essential #1: Good backpack

Considering you’ll be living out of it and carrying it around for most of your trip, one of the best investments you can make is a good backpack. 

You can’t do any better than Osprey. Their bags are of the highest quality, backed up by their All Mighty Guarantee – they’ll repair any damage or defect for any reason free of charge, for the lifetime of the backpack. 

Want proof? My old Osprey backpack was run over by a truck in El Salvador, crushing the hip belt clip. Osprey sent me a new component all the way to San Salvador.

Dotti uses the Aura AG 65 and Zandy uses the Aether 65. They both include Osprey’s legendary anti-gravity system, which trust us, makes a huge difference when you’re carrying them for hours on end. For our daypacks, we use the Daylite. 

Travel Essential #2: Steripen + Water Bottle

Travelling with a portable water filter is a game-changer. The convenience of having water on demand pretty much anywhere is unbeatable. We camped for a week on a remote Thai island and never once had to worry about having enough clean water to drink. 

Not only do you have access to clean, potable water anywhere, but you’re also saving the planet. In 12 months of travelling, we can count on two hands the number of times we’ve had to buy a bottle of water. That’s a lot of plastic we’ve saved. 

We love our Steripen. It’s rechargeable, the battery is great and, as an added bonus, it’s a great conversation starter. People are always curious about us waving our little magic wand in our water bottle. 

A 1L wide-mouth Nalgene is the perfect companion to the Steripen. They’re durable, they last forever and they’re super easy to carry around. Let’s also not forget the great colour combinations they come in. 

Make sure you get the wide-mouth version though, as you’ll need it to fit the Steripen in.

Travel Essential #3: Earplugs and eye mask

When on the road, you never know what kind of conditions you’ll be sleeping in. Walls can be thin, or maybe you’re stuffed in a dorm with 10+ other people. If you’re like us and do a lot of camping, you have to contend with noises and the potential for 4.00 am sunrises (thank you Pakistan). 

To deal with these, and still ensure we get some rest, we never travel without a good set of earplugs and an eye mask.

We both use the Sea to Summit Eye Shade and couldn’t be happier with it. It’s soft and padded, plus there’s a nose bridge to ensure extra light doesn’t sneak in from below. 

For our earplugs, we prefer the wax version. We can mould them into the specific shape of our ear canal, ensuring no extra sound gets in. Snore away!

Travel Essential #4: Camera and/Or GoPro

No matter where we’re heading, we want to capture good photos and videos, so we always bring along our camera and GoPro. 

Yes, phones do a lot these days, but there’s still nothing like the content captured via a camera or GoPro. The GoPro has the added bonus of being super durable and waterproof, making it a great item to take along for hikes or other adventurous activities. 

Travel Essential #5: Headlamp

A headlamp has been part of our travel kit since, well, forever. It’s such an essential item that I wouldn’t even consider going anywhere without one. 

Travelling to a foreign country? Well, you might have to deal with power outages. Your headlamp will come in handy there. 

Visiting an exotic, remote island? There probably won’t be street lighting, so you’ll need your own light to walk around at night safely. 

Going camping? You’ll need the headlamp to do anything outside after the sun goes down. 

Staying in a hostel? The headlamp will help you navigate around after lights out without pissing off your neighbours. 

Want to read at night? Headlamp again. 

Pro tip: choose a rechargeable model, like the Black Diamond Spot 400-R, so you never have to worry about stocking up on batteries. 

Travel Essential #6: Travel towel

A compact, quick-drying travel towel is an essential piece of travel gear. Whether we’re going on a weekend away, a camp in the mountains, or an extended months-long trip, we won’t leave home without one. 

Travel towels are like the swiss army knife for travel: you can use them camping, hiking, heading to the beach, backpacking, on road trips or even just for a weekend bed and breakfast getaway. 

Travel towels are super absorbent, fast drying and have anti-bacterial properties so they keep the smell away, even after repeated use. They get more packable each year and you’ll barely even notice the space they take up in your bag. 

Travel Essential #7: High-Quality travel clothes

Once you travel with high-quality travel clothes, trust us, you will never go back. We ensure to pack a few versatile items that work for every kind of adventure. 

What should you look for in travel clothes? Performance fabrics are essential. These are breathable, moisture-wicking and fast-drying. Tencel, merino wool and synthetics are the name of the game. Bamboo is okay, but it can be a bit heavy and take a while to dry. Whilst it’s controversial, I love travelling with a linen shirt and pants: they’re incredibly light and great for covering up in warm climates. The drawback is that they aren’t as durable as other materials and wrinkling can be an issue (but a light spritz of water will take those away). 

These clothes enable us to pack less, so our bags are lighter, making us more mobile. 

Some of our favourites? 

• The Icebreaker 260 Tech Merino Wool Base Layer Long Sleeve Half Zip (men’s and women’s). It’s perfect for everything from cool nights to over-air-conditioned buses and they’re stylish to boot. 
• Merino wool undies (men’s and women’s). These bad boys dry in less than an hour. We’ll never go back to regular ol’ cottons again. 
• Our Buffs. They protect your neck against the sun, are great to cover your face in the cold at altitude, are excellent headbands and can even act as a tube top in an impromptu situation (really). 

Travel Essential #8: Waterproof Sandals

A good pair of waterproof sandals is one of our travel essentials, and Tevas is our go-to brand. They’re super lightweight, durable and eco-friendly.

Lightweight sandals can be used in a wide range of settings, so whatever your destination, you’ll find a use for them. They’re great on the beach, but equally as useful to wear around camp during high-altitude trekking. They’re also fashionable to wear in big cities, making them a versatile all-rounder for your travel wardrobe. 

Dotti prefers the Women’s Original Universal, while Zandy likes the ruggedness of the Hurricane XLT2 Sandals.

Travel Essential #9: Power bank

In our digital age, we wouldn’t even consider leaving the house without a power bank. Actually, we travel with two power banks. 

For a lightweight, lower-capacity power bank, we absolutely love the TG90 6000mah External Battery Pack. It’s small, weighs very little and it comes with both a lightning and USB-C cable built in. You just pop it into your bag and you’re good to go. You can get a solid amount of charges from it – about 4 iPhone charges. We use this for day-to-day use, plus hikes of up to 3 days. 

When we’re going to be without power for longer, or need something a bit more powerful, then we use the Anker PowerCore 1300. It’s a real beast and will keep our devices alive for days on end. 

Travel Essential #10: Travel Insurance

One of the most important things to never leave home without? Travel insurance! 

While we all want to travel without incident, life happens, and it’s important to be prepared. 

We use SafetyWing, because they’re affordable, flexible and offer great coverage. 

Their Nomad Insurance Travel Medical Insurance starts at $45.08 USD per 4-week period and is one of the most budget-friendly options on the market. You can also take it out almost anywhere (it’s available for purchase in 180 countries), meaning you don’t have to be in your home country when you purchase. This is super convenient for those of us who don’t live in their home country, or need to add coverage on the road. 

Their Nomad Insurance is incredibly flexible, and unlike many other companies, you typically don’t need to purchase for a set period of time (you can elect to do this if you wish). A standard SafetyWing Nomad Insurance policy works like a subscription for 4 weeks, charged on an auto-renew basis. This means you can keep renewing for as long as you’re travelling and then cancel when you’ve finished your trip. 

SafetyWing also stands out for the number of countries it covers. They offer worldwide coverage as well as limited home country coverage (up to 30 days every 3 months).

To get a SafetyWing quote, click here, or simply fill out your details in the box below.

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