Packing for International Travel
At the Colosseum in Rome on our honeymoon.
My husband and I love to travel. Traveling is someting we agreed to do when we got married. We decided we wanted to see as much of the world as possible. We've travelled to 5 out of 7 continents, with only Austrailia and Antarctic left. Our goal is to hit both of those before 30. Our first trip was our honeymoon where we went to Rome, Florence, and Paris. Our second trip was to Peru where we hiked Machu Picchu! Our third trip was to Southeast Asia, where we travelled around Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Our fourth trip was back to Europe this past December where we traveled around Spain, Portugal, and went back to Italy to visit Venice (I just can't get enough of that pasta or gelato!) We've done half of our trips with G Adventures, an adventure travel touring company that provides a variety of travel tours ranging from Yolo travel for the younger demographic to Family travel tours offering higher quality amenities. We really enjoy traveling with a tour company like G because of the convenience as well as the connections we make. We've met a lot of friends from all over the world through G. (Hi guys!)
Michael hanging with The Pope at the Vatican.
Lock bridge in Paris.
Machu Picchu!
My BFF Al in Peru!
In Vietnam.
Seeing the amazing Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
Freezing our tails off in Venice.
We are gearing up for our fifth trip together right now. We're headed to Ecuador TODAY (I'm actually working on this blog from the airport lobby!) We will be traveling around Ecuador for a little under three weeks. We will be doing another G Adventures basic tour. We will be moving around a lot so we're traveling a lot lighter and a lot more efficient this time around. We've purchased one Osprey Farpoint 55 pack and plan to take that and one very small Delsey rolling carry on along with our Camelbak.
I'm going to give you an inside look at what we're bringing and how we've packed it. If you love to travel or plan to travel in the future, these tips might be helpful for you!
My clothing:
- 5 t-shirts
- 2 v-neck shirts
- 2 tank tops
- 1 pair of jeans
- 4 pairs of workout pants
- 1 bathing suit
- 1 nice "going out" outfit
- 1 sleep outfit
- 3 sports bras
- 1 regular bra
- Underwear
- Socks
- lightweight Columbia raincoat that packs into a pocket
- heavier Northface jacket
- New Balance tennis shoes
- Mayari Birkenstocks
- Hat
Michael's clothing:
- 3 moisture-wicking collared shirts
- 2 t-shirts
- 1 nice "going out" shirt
- 3 pants (from Peru!)
- 1 pair of jeans
- 1 sleep outfit
- Bathing suit
- underwear
- Darn Tough socks
- Keen Men's Newport H2 sandals
- Teva Men's Cedar Canyon Waxed Leather Sneaker (no longer available on Amazon.)
- Hat
Toiletries: All travel size if possible
- Make-up
- contacts
- contact solution
- toothbrushes
- toothpaste
- shampoo
- bar of soap
- Paul Mitchell hair product
- Dry shampoo (duh)
- Gold Bond lotion
- deodorant
- Qtips
- nail clippers and file
- Febreeze
- Kleenex
- Burts Bees chapstick
- bandaids
- Pepto
- Headache medicine
- Traveler's Diarrhea meds (we've been traveling with these since we went to Peru and haven't needed to use them yet, so fingers crossed.)
Misc. Items:
- Camera and equipment
- Clothes line for hanging clothes that we wash in our rooms
- Microfiber towels (these are super quick drying and anti-microbial)
- Travel pouch (this holds our passports, money, airline tickets, etc.)
- Passports
- Any travel documents we might need
- Kindles
- iPad
- Phones
- Chargers for all da technologies
Snacks (because you can't travel without snacks!):
- Rx Bars
- Clif bars
- Vital Proteins collagen peptides travel packs
- Epic Bars
In our Osprey, we each have a packing cube that we've used to store all of our clothing, minus one outfit each, which we will pack in our carry-on. We are clothing rollers, meaning we roll outfits together and pack them in our cubes. I find that this is a pretty efficient way of packing more clothing into a smaller space. We also packed all of our toiletries in our Eagle Creek Pack It Wallaby Toiletry Organizer. We've just purchased this but we're excited to try it out. One of my favorite features of this organizer is it's ability to hang, freeing up counter space! We've also packed most of our Misc. items in our Osprey. Most of these items are relatively small so they'll fit on the sides and in any "leftover space."
Our rolling carry-on is pretty empty at this point, except for one outfit each. We will use this to store a lot of our dirty clothes or any items we purchase throughout our trip.
Our Osprey has a zip-off daypack that we will use as one of our personal items on the plane. It is pretty small so we will use this as our main "plane bag." We will put anything in this bag that we might need while flying. Michael will put this at his feet for easy access. Our Kindles, iPad, medicine, some snacks, chapstick, lotion, etc. will be in here.
Stuff in our plane bag.
In our Camelbak, we will have other carry-on items that we might not need. This will be stored in the over-head luggage compartment.
The final product!
Pro packing tips:
- If you're planning on checking a bag, make sure you pack one to two complete changes of clothes in your carry on in case the airline loses your luggage.
- Always remember, pack less than what you think you'll need. We all tend to pack way too much when traveling, most of which we won't need. This just turns into a burden of having to carry around so much excess junk that you wish you left at home.
- Bring a couple different size bags (ziploc gallon, quart, maybe a grocery bag.) These pack easily and come in handy when you need them!
- Always have a copy of your passport in your checked bag and a picture of it on your phone.
- Invest in a traveling pouch to hold your passports, airline tickets, money, etc.
- Relax, take a deep breath, and enjoy!
So there you have it! What we're bringing and how to pack it! I hope you find this post helpful.
I plan to blog throughout our trip (if we have wifi) so follow along on our journey through Ecuador! You can also follow me on Instagram and Facebook!
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With love,
Emily
