First of all: I hate packing! I honestly think it’s the most (and only) annoying thing about travelling. If you feel like me, I’ve created a packing list to make packing SUCK LESS for you.
Backpack or suitcase?
The first important question you should ask yourself is HOW are you going to travel? If Blake and I are going on a road trip in our own vehicle or in a rental car, we’d usually go for suitcases, mainly out of comfort.
It’s easy and you can cram in a lot of stuff (not that you’re actually going to need all of that on your trip, but girls will be girls; note how I chose a photo of Blake here – so fitting ;-)) and if the suitcase(s) stay in your trunk most of the time, it doesn’t need to be handy.
But if we are going on a trip to a third-world country where we are a dependent on a lot of (night) buses (I’m talking about you, Vietnam!), we always go for backpacks. I can highly recommend packing cubes as you can fit so much into them and you always have your shirts, pants, etc. all together. They are definitely a must!
Backpacker or flashpacker?
To be totally honest, being both over 30 and having done a lot of backpacking in VERY low budget hostels, we still like to pretend we are “backpackers” but technically we are “flashpackers” now: our hostels have turned into hotels/ airbnbs and our instant noodles have been replaced by dinners in restaurants.
BUT: we still get excited about special offers, we love street food and we’d never turn down a happy hour – some things never change. So which one are you?
What to pack?
To make packing suck less, I have created my personal packing list for summer and for winter that I always take out before a bigger trip. This way I’m not always starting from scratch and I only need to tick off the different items on my list. So here it is:
Note: I use affiliate links for the underlined blue items. If you klick on them, it will lead you to amazon but it will NOT cost more for you when buying through this link!
Summer and winter packing list
- headphones (always handy on planes and public transport)
- day bag
- book (you can get second-hand books on medipops)
- journal (I love reflecting and writing down about past experiences on my travels; usually I use a blank journal, but you can also use a six-minute-diary to self-reflect and practise gratitude)
- gopro and drone (for us wanna-be vloggers ;-))
- a universal adapter
- water bottle (especially great for road trips or hikes)
- important documents (such a passport, visa, now vaccination passport, flight tickets in case the phone battery dies – it has all happened before so maybe you can learn from my mistakes and don’t have to make them yourself anymore)
- toiletry bag
- travel pharmacy bag (eg. for stomach pain, headache and in my case antibiotics for a UTI; what fun times to run to the emgerncy clinic in Bali when I didn’t have them with me)
- rain jacket (in case we are in countries with a wet season)
- travel pillow (to be fair, I never carry one but I often “borrow” Blake’s)
- bikinis/ bathing shorts
- sandals/ flip flops
- sunglasses (I usually take more than one pair in case they break or I lose them; I usually get cheap ones)
- sunscreen
- touque/ bini
- gloves/ mittens
- ski underwear
- boots
I really hope this could give you a good overview for your next trip!
