Tag: travel packing essentials

Travel tips and travel hacks to make your life on the road easier

It sounds counterintuitive, but it feels great when you head out on the road with just a few things in a backpack — maybe a ukulele — and little else.

That said, there are a few more things to add to the list of what you really ought to pack, and some travel hacks that can make the process easier on you. Here are some must-pack travel essentials that will make your life on the road much easier.

1. Kindle

I’m amazed when I meet fellow travelers who are still lugging around hard-copy books. ‘Travel light’ is one of the mantras of intelligent travel, and packing books – plural, inevitably, because if you’re a real reader you’re going to want more than one – just seems silly when the alternative is readily, cheaply available.

Kindles come in all kinds of various sizes, capacities and price points, but even the bare minimum model is going to hold thousands of ebooks. Converting books from almost any format including PDF almost always works a treat, and reading on a Kindle is just as easy on your eyes as reading an actual book, since it has no LCD screen like on a computer or tablet.

They stay charged for weeks, plus, as a confirmed dirtbag, I can assure you that it is very, very rare when you can’t find a particular title for free online one way or another. In other words, a Kindle saves you money on top of everything else.

I get it, I get the argument that some people prefer the tactile experience of reading actual books. I do too. The feel and smell of old books is incomparable in its ability to transport you. But using a Kindle, especially as a travel hack, isn’t like a loyalty oath to Baron von Bezos or something. You’re still allowed to read real books, I promise.

2. Universal adapter/USB extension cord

There are some more or less universal adapters out there that go for like $12-$15 bucks. Some travel tips sites recommend bringing a lightweight power strip, but this kind of adapter works fine for me, since the only thing I really need an actual outlet for is my laptop, plus USBs for phone, tablet, etc.

I also have a really long USB extension that comes in real handy since the outlet is always, always going to be in the most inconvenient location possible, no matter where you go.

(Links are not recommendations, just to show style, price, etc. I know, I know, it’s fucking Amazon. So’s the Kindle and I hate that it is. Fact is, I’ve bought exactly two Kindles from them in the past decade, and maybe half a dozen books total, so.)

3. Plastic bags/Laundry bag

Gotta hate plastic bags, and I try to avoid them whenever possible. But since we end up with them anyway, I reuse them to death. I have a Sainsbury’s bag that I still use for grocery shopping and I haven’t been in the U.K. in four or five months.

And when you travel, plastic bags come in handy since you’re going to have stinky or wet clothes that you’ll want to keep separate. Also, extra bags come in handy for packing delicate or spillable items like shampoo, lotion, or bottles of booze. Won’t necessarily save you from some clean-up on Aisle Backpack, but it could help minimize the trauma.

As far as laundry goes, it might be worth the investment in an actual laundry bag, but again, I’m a dirtbag, so I just use and re-use a plastic one.

4. Super glue/Duct tape

Shit breaks, and when it breaks on the road you’re often going to be forced to buy replacement shit at stores you’re unfamiliar with, and you’ll have limited time to seek out the best bargains. A suitcase with a busted zipper is a nightmare, but paying three times the regular price to buy a replacement at the airport or in the first shop you find is pretty horrible too.

So while slapping some duct tape on there might be the whitiest of white trash moves (white trash is the inbred, toothless second cousin of the noble dirtbag, but we are not the same, just so you know) it works as a temporary fix until you have a chance to shop frugally for a replacement. Or a split raincoat, or a shoe, etc. etc.

Again, I’m not saying I’m walking around London or Madrid with duct tape all over me for weeks at a time, wearing condoms for shoes like the Crack Fox or something. We’re just talking about a temporary, emergency fix until a better solution that isn’t a complete rip-off presents itself.

Now, super glue. Here’s a travel hack I’ve used to temporarily fix sunglasses, phone cases, and all kinds of things while on the road. But the best reason to pack some superglue is in case you get a cut or other small wound and have no bandaids.

This might sound like some action movie shit, but the truth is, if you have a minor cut or one of those splits you get next your fingernails due to dryness or whatever, if you clean the wound then slap a bit of superglue on it, it won’t bother you anymore. It closes and protects the wound so you’re not forever banging it on something or poking it, and thus it heals faster, at least in my experience.

*Disclaimer: I think it should be clear by now that I AM NOT A FUCKING DOCTOR, lol. There is such a thing as actual, medical-grade superglue that is likely less toxic, but the regular stuff is apparently okay to use occasionally too. Given all the other chemicals we put in our bodies and breathe in every day, it’s probably not going to kill you to do this once or twice.

**Again, NOT a qualified medical opinion.

5. Hand Sanitizer

Oh dear lord, may the old gods and the new help you if you travel without hand sanitizer. As travel tips go, bringing hand sanitizer may be a bit of a cliché or already known by everybody who reads these kinds of things, but I see far too many people on planes, trains and buses who don’t use it. All you have to do be convinced, in my opinion, is take a moment to feel the sort of grubby, grungy, greasy feel of the handles and straps on a city metro.

No, really. Really take moment to run your hands over the surface of the metal. Reeeeally get in there. Brushed aluminum is supposed to be smooth, isn’t it? Not pebbled? Or abrasive? Or sticky?

And then think about how we talk about the recirculated air on airplanes causing colds and worse: WTF do you think the bathroom door handle on an airplane – or any other surface for that matter – is doing??

When I first came to Santiago and started teaching English as a second language, I had to pick up lots of classes that were all over the city, so I rode the metro and bus a lot. But I found shortly after I arrived that I got super crazy sick with a nasty cold that lasted forever.

This part is strictly speculative, but I think there is something to be said for the idea of your immune system not being equipped to deal with strains of germs and viruses that are not common where you’re from when travel a long way. Even after I got over that initial nastiness, I found I kept getting sick on the regular.

Then I noticed two things: those grubby handholds on the metro and buses that I mentioned before, and the fact that there is almost never soap in Chilean public restrooms, and hot water literally never.

It all came together one grim winter morning on the metro when I saw this old guy sneeze into his hand – thank you for the courtesy on that – but then immediately grab the hand-hold metal pole again after a perfunctory wipe on his pants leg.

Presto change-o, once I bought and started RELIGIOUSLY using hand sanitizer EVERY TIME I got off the bus or metro, my frequency of colds plummeted.

Anyway, hope these travel hacks/travel essentials help you on your next trip! Thoughts and comments welcome as always.

Cheers,

K