10 PRODUCTS WORTH BUYING
For a Trip Around the World
Whether you’re taking an adult gap year, a mini-retirement, a travel sabbatical, or have never heard of these terms before, you’re going to need to be thoughtful about what you pack when you travel internationally.
International travel is hard! But it gets much easier when you pack light and have the right travel gear. That’s why we don’t recommend hundreds of products for you to squeeze into the limited space you’ll have in your carry-on bag and personal item. (If you’re checking a bag, we’d really recommend you reconsider and read this. Packing light might seem impossible, but you can steal our travel packing list and learn to be a minimalist packer in an afternoon).
Instead of giving you a list of “must-have” travel items, we recommend just these 9 products. These, in our view, are travel essentials. This is NOT the list you should rely on if your toiletry bag is overstuffed or if you’re considering checking a bag for the extra space. Some things that are – arguably – really nice to have on a long-haul flight, like an eye mask and lip balm and an iPad mini – don’t make the cut for our list. That’s because we’re all about keeping our travel bag as light weight as possible.
So, if you’re traveling long-term (that means for more than a month!) and want to be thoughtful about what little space you have in your carry-on luggage, we strongly recommend checking these out:
Scrubba Laundry Bag
Of everything we packed on our own adult gap year, this was what we got the most street cred for.
Here’s the deal – If you’re traveling in Southeast Asia exclusively, you don’t need this. There are laundromats everywhere, and paying for a fluff & fold is cheap.
Everywhere else, this really pays off. It will spare you having to find a laundromat, having to wait around for hours while your laundry is getting done, having to worry about someone stealing your clothes, and it’s especially useful if you’re getting WAY off the beaten track (think: safaris in Africa), where you’ll have very few options for laundry.
This laundry bag packs down light, doubles as a hamper during your week, has little ridges to help get dirt out of clothes, and is generally the best solution we’ve found for doing laundry while traveling. We’re obsessed, and we even made a YouTube video to showcase the Scrubba. We also recommend packing some detergent sheets (which are easier to find in the US than while traveling) so you don’t have to carry any suspicious looking white powder through airport security.
Money Belt
Not just any money belt. We’ve seen some that really make no sense – like literal belts with secret stashes for cash. (You can’t fit anything in those! And what are you going to do? Take off your belt at the cashier?)
We recommend having a money belt that:
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Is very flat – Don’t buy one that expands. You want one that stays flat so you can wear it under your shirt, because that’s what we think offers the most security. If you wear a money belt over your clothes, thieves will see it and assume your most valuable items are in there (phone, cash, passport.) If you buy a very thin money belt that fits under your clothes, you can hide it away and prevent people from realizing you have one.
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Touches your skin – As we say above, we recommend wearing your money belt under your clothes. It should be touching your skin. That, in our view, is the best way to keep tabs on it and feel confident no sneaky fingers have taken your valuables.
You can find a money belt on Amazon for pretty cheap. This is a good example of one we think would work. (The best travel accessories don’t need to be expensive!)
PSA – This is worth buying before you leave the US. They can be hard to find once you’re on the road.
Farpoint Backpack
This is easily my favorite backpack on the market. And I should – and do – have a strong opinion about this, because I sprained my spine while traveling because the backpack I started with didn’t have great back support.
We talk in-depth about what we look for in a great travel backpack in our packing guide and list out all the reasons why we think this bag crushes it.
Here’s the TLDR:
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This bag has a clamshell design, so you can open it like a book and easily access whatever you need.
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It’s super adjustable – with adjustable shoulder straps and a waist strap.
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It has great back support – in part because of all the adjustments you can make with the straps but also because the back itself is firm and puts the weight of the bag on your hips when properly adjusted.
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It has compression straps to keep your bag looking tiny when the gate attendants are giving you funny looks.
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It comes in the right sizes – go for a 35L or 40L back instead of a 60L or 70L bag. Our minimalist packing list fits into a 40L bag (unless you include all of the additional items to consider… which you shouldn’t do), and you’ll thank us later for not letting you over-pack.
Packing Cubes
Packing cubes become a key to life when you’re traveling long-term. I strongly recommend at least 3 per person (in various sizes), and especially recommend compression packing cubes, which will help squeeze your clothes into the tiniest amount of space possible.
Packing cubes are critical for organizing your bag well. When you’re at the airport (or on a plane) and can’t easily sort through all of your stuff, it’s especially helpful to have everything nicely packed into packing cubes. Then, you won’t have your underwear flying out of your bag when you’re just looking for a phone charger.
We used packing cubes like these and these, and they worked great. I recommend getting multiple sizes for easy sorting (socks/underwear into the small size one; shorts/shirts into the medium size one; pants and light jackets into the large one.)
Satellite Phone
You might not need this. If you’re traveling in areas of the world where you can purchase an e-sim, you really won’t need it. But if you’re getting off the beaten path and won’t have reliable cell access, you can get a satellite phone to stay in touch with family.
One word of caution – unless you want to shell out for a very expensive satellite phone, you won’t be doing too much with your sat phone. No long phone calls or texts. Instead, you’ll keep it with you for emergencies and so you can send a quick “everything is fine!” text to your panicking parents.
These phones are expensive, so only get one if you’ll really need it, and keep in mind you might need to pay for a monthly data or phone subscription as part of it.
World Power Adapter (aka Universal Power Adapter)
Gone are the days of having a power adaptor for individual countries around the world. For those on adult gap years or who are just traveling long-term, it’s much more helpful to have a power adaptor that works for virtually every country in the world.
Good news – these are easy to find on Amazon. Buy two in case one plug adapter breaks while you travel.
Apple Airtag
Losing a bag sucks when you’re traveling long-term. It happened to me only once while traveling through 23 countries on my own adult gap year, but when you think about it… that’s a pretty bad percent failure rate.
Having an airtag in your bag can give you peace of mind that your bag is actually following you, if you have to check it (which on budget airlines you frequently will have to). It can also help in the worst case scenario that your bag is indeed lost and airlines don’t know where it is.
We bought these for each of our bags and were happy we had them.
Kindle
It’s easy to say you’re going to do a lot of reading while you take your sabbatical, gap year, or mini-retirement. Certainly, you have a few long-haul flights ahead of you where you may want some reading materials! We certainly caught up on a lot of reading ourselves – on long flights, on relaxing mornings by the beach, and elsewhere. But as much as we like the feel of turning the page on a physical book, physically books are heavy and take up a ton of space.
Instead, we used kindles while traveling, and they worked great. The battery life on a Kindle is like nothing else, and we didn’t need much wifi to download new books. Having a kindle with us let us keep up with all the reading we wanted to do, without having to haul a library with us.
First Aid Kit
The one area where I will never tell anyone to skimp in packing is in finding a great first aid kit. Buying a nice first aid kit with everything you need to travel safely is 100% worth it. One important word of caution – Be sure to find one that you can legally travel with. Certain medications that are OTC in the US (and certainly things like scissors) are banned in other countries and could get you into serious trouble.
So, my guidance is to find a great first aid kit, but to double check the contents to make sure you won’t get yourself into serious trouble.
Travel Pillow
I recommend packing several, light-weight travel pillows. Decathlon offers a great option. You can buy blow-up versions that will pack down easily into your day bag. That way, you’ll have easy access to them on a long-haul flight or if you’re waiting around at train stations. (An inflatable neck pillow is fine too, but less versatile for other purposes. You won’t want to use that pillow, for example, if you’re camping. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great option to have in your duffel bag or day pack for long-haul flights.)
On a long travel day, having something comfortable to cushion your back or rest your head on is invaluable. Having sprained my back on my own adult gap year, I’m a big believer in always having something in your travel bag to help support your back in a pinch. Long trips can be hard on your body. Plus, the pillows in some hotel rooms are… really bad.
Not sure what else to pack? We have you covered. Check out our world travel packing guide here. We cover everything you’ll need for your international trip from merino wool clothing to important documents to prescription medications.