Must Have Travel Essentials

Back in March I shared my 8 favorite travel essentials, but now that we have been on the road for a YEAR now, my list has grown quite a bit! While on the road, there are some things that just make your life easier, more conformable, or simply more entertaining! Here are some more must have travel essentials!

Panda Planner

My new favorite planner is the Panda Planner! This this is just the best! Yes, I agree, it is old fashioned to use a paper planner, but I just have to use one! For me, the act of writing things down makes it more concrete for me. I spend all day on the computer, so it is a bit cathartic to use an old-fashioned planner. But this planner is unlike any other planner I have used!

Each day, you write what you are grateful and excited for, your focus, exercise, projects and hourly planner. Each month and week, you identify your goals, projects, and focuses to accomplish those goals and projects. At the end of each month, week and day, you reflect on how things went and how you will improve. I look forward to writing in my planner every single day, and it really keeps me productive, accountable, and motivated!

 

Luggage Scale

One MUST HAVE item for anyone who travels, is a luggage scale. Save yourself the ridiculous luggage fees or the embarrassment of shuffling clothing around at the airport. Instead, know the weight of your luggage before you even get there! Since we didn’t want to have to worry about getting another device needing batteries or charging, we went with an easy analog scale. You simply put the hook around your luggage handle, lift it up and place down carefully to get its weight. We have been told many times by airline agents that we are “pro packers.” This is because we normally hit the 50 lbs on the head! The rest of our weight is in our carry-on bags or mailed back home.

 

Waterproof Phone Cases

If you are traveling anywhere where you might get wet, but want to take photos, you need one of these! Think boat ride, waterfall trip, or even just taking photos in the water! On our trip to Thailand, we attended the new year festival called Songkran, which essentially is a big water festival where people dump water on you all day. This was too fun not to document, so I made sure we brought waterproof cases to bring our phones so we could take pictures and videos. We were also able to take some cool underwater videos while snorkeling too!

Anker Power Bank 

There’s nothing worse than wanting to take photos, use your GPS or call an Uber and having your battery run out of juice. While traveling we have taken many videos and pictures, and are often away from the house for my hours on end, causing our phones batteries to drain pretty quickly. We purchased these power banks, which have been absolute lifesavers! The last thing we wanted was our phones to die, and not be able to order an Uber https://www.uber.com/invite/io9jv to get home! Also, it helps having a fully charged phone for using google maps for navigation or research on Yelp and Google for places to go. Never be dead again with these banks!

 

Amazon Fire Stick 

Most Airbnb hosts are just like us, and have cut the cord for cable. Some places just have basic cable, so we have found our Amazon Fire Stick super handy with being able to keep up with our favorite shows on Amazon Video, Netflix and Hulu.

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As long as we had internet and a TV with an HDMI input, we were able to watch our stuff! It has also come in handy to watch sports, and other live video that might be available on YouTube.

 

Kindle Paperwhite 

Being on the road for a whole year means you need to pack very lightly. This also means you cannot lug all your favorite books around, so this is where the Amazon Kindle comes in handy! After damaging my original Kindle, Amazon was nice enough to send me the Paperwhite to replace my other device. I love my Kindle because I ONLY use it for reading books. If it were a tablet, I would get too distracted on Facebook or other sites that have nothing to do with reading my book. I also love the backlight on it, which makes reading on the beach or outdoors much easier.

 

Here are some of my favorite e-books I have read on the road so far!

Vagabonding

This book was very inspiring for us, as this man left his regular 9-5 job to travel and shares all about his secrets for having such a great experience traveling as a vagabond.

 

Boys on the Boat

This book was recommended to me by my mother in law and I really enjoyed it. It is the true story about the 1936 crew team from the University of Washington that makes it to the Berlin Games, during the time of the Nazi Regime. This is a well written book about the trials and tribulations these boys went through to get to the games.

 

Handmaid’s Tale 

With the hype of this book becoming a television show on Netflix, I decided to read the book before watching the show. The dystopian book came out in 1985 but it takes place in a sort of fantastical society that feels like a community from 100s of years ago. It is a frightening society to think about, and makes you wonder if a society like that could ever exist today.

 

Orphan Train 

This book was another recommendation from a friend that really drew me in. This is about a teenager going through some rough times. She ends up meeting an elderly woman during her community service who changes her life. The old lady tells her stories of her childhood over the course of her service hours, which helps put life in a new perspective to the young lady.

 

Audible Membership

I subscribed to Audible for our first road-trip to Kentucky, since we would be in the car for 12-14 hours. Listening to music only goes so far, and after that we are looking for a new source of entertainment. I love Audible, because you are able to be entertained in a car, plane, or even just taking a walk. If you are anything like me, I get car sick easily reading books, so this is super helpful. Their service is really great because you get credits for books each month, as well as discounts on additional books. I was able to suspend my membership because I had such a backlog of books to listen to! Try it out for FREE today!

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