These are the 5 travel essentials I never leave home without. I have a little travel basket in my closet, and these items are in there and ready to be packed as soon as I have a trip planned.
1. My Patagonia Jacket (and No this is not sponsored in any way). Now hear me out. If you’ve read any of my posts, you know I’m super picky about where I spend my money. And when I first considered spending $200 on a jacket my first thought was, “That could be a plane ticket.” At the time, my now fiance had a job where he spent a lot of time outside no matter the weather, but still had to look professional. He had a Patagonia jacket and it went EVERYWHERE with him. And once I bought one for myself, I understood why. It is the perfect jacket! Lightweight, folds up into a tiny ball and can fit in any crevice of a bag, keeps you cool when unzipped and perfectly toasty when zipped up. Even if you choose a different brand, find a jacket that ticks these boxes.
2. Walking shoes–working shoes, tennis shoes, athletic shoes or whatever you want to call them. I have never owned a pair of actual hiking shoes. Mind you, the longest hike I’ve done at one time is twelve miles, but I’ve gone on several trips where I hiked around ten miles a day. I’ve hiked in mountains, up rocky terrains, in deserts, and in snow, and my typical running/workout shoes have always been just fine. Unless you are planning something extreme, and doing multiple days of consistent hiking, then comfortable shoes that are well worn will get you anywhere you need to go. But you should have a pair ready for any trip. You don’t want to be breaking in new shoes on a beautiful hike.
3. Cross-body bag. If you are going to be doing a lot of walking and exploring around a town, you want to have a bag/purse to bring along essentials. And especially if you are going to be exploring popular and crowded cities like any major city in Europe, you want a bag that deters pick pockets. A cross-body bag isn’t a complete obstacle to thieves, but it does create more of an obstacle. Cross-body bags are also easy to pull around to the front of your body so you can keep a tighter grip on them in super crowded places like metros or lines for major attractions. I also find that I’m more aware of a cross body bag than a backpack which I can kind of forget about when I’m in the thrills of exploring.
4. Universal travel adapter. Different areas of the world use different outlets. You never know where your travels will take you, so make it easy on yourself and purchase a universal adapter so you can blow dry your hair or charge your phone no matter where you are. And on that note, I would add a portable phone charger to this list. I’ve had a couple of situations where my phone battery died while I was traveling alone, and while I was slightly impressed with my problem solving skills when this happened, it could have created a real problem.
5. Copies of documents. In addition to your actual license/passport/visas, etc. you need copies of these as well. I keep a copy with me at all times and leave my actual items locked in the safe at the hotel. I also have one copy saved to my Onedrive so I can pull them up on any device if needed.