Travelling needs nice and proper planning. It may take a day, week and to some people, months to put everything in place. The duration depends on the equipment you’ll need to carry along. Those going on abroad distant travels are likely to carry more equipment than those visiting the next town nearby.
Every trip requires specific and different kinds of equipment. For instance, you can’t carry the same gears when going for an outside hike/camping with when visiting a friend or relative in another country.
However, some gears are important regardless of your destination and you can’t shun them off. These gears give you an easy time in case of an emergency
So, next time you are planning for a trip, ensure that you have these items on your checklist.
1) A good backpack
Obviously, you need a backpack to pack everything you want to take along with you. For long distant trips, a suitcase is convenient as it has the room to pack whatever you need. For shorter journeys, a carry-on backpack is perfect for general essentials.
Travelers make one mistake though; they carry heavy and large backpacks that give them hard time.
If you are six foot tall and weighs fifty kilograms, what’s the essence of carrying a backpack weighing 20 kg?
It’s recommended that your backpack should not be more than 20% of your total weight. This is perfect to withstand your body weight. Also to avoid pains on your shoulder, choose backpacks that are in level.
For kids, don’t burden them with backpacks (less than ten years). If they are big enough, look for cute animal or wheeled backpacks for easy carriage. TRAVELING BABIES need not carry anything.
2) To-go Utensils
To many travelers, dining in exquisite restaurants is what makes the holiday perfect and keeps their spirit high. Most likely when you are traveling to China, you want to have breakfast in the ancient restaurant that served the Ming Dynasty to have the feeling of royalty.
Are you in this category? Then your bills may be piling up. Arming yourself with utensils on-the-go opens up a new world of possibility. From the comfort of your hotel room, you can have your snack, fruits and yogurt while still saving some bucks.
However, to some people, this may seem as being a miser. If you can, do it. You’ll save some money that you can use to tour the animal orphanage. Live your life, I guess.
3) Money Bag
Some people are quite forgetful. It may be a medical condition, a habit or it just happens. If you are not in these groups, you may never know how it happened. It just strikes and you forget something unexpectedly. That’s why the money bag was created, to prevent this from happening.
It’s a headache when you forget your wallet, passport or other important documents on the hotel while you are miles away touring your host city. It causes you a fortune and time on the process of returning back to the hotel.
To avoid the stress, why don’t you use the money bag? Some people see this as a bulky and weird bag but it comes in handy. With everything secured under your belt, you have nothing to worry about.
The bag has multiple pockets to organize different currencies and your passport without the fear of losing them. The protection layer it has provides extra security in case of pick-pocketers. In addition, the bag is very light so it won’t be an extra burden.
4) Passport Photos for Everyone
Passport photos have become a must in every government institution today. So, you may need a couple of them, more so when traveling abroad.
For instance, some countries require passport everywhere. They’ll need a passport photo for your entry visa or animal orphanage. You, therefore, need multiple passports.
To meet the specific photo standards, it’s important that you visit a licensed photo studio. They produce a perfect photo that’ll not be rejected (common to the USA citizens)
Why I’m I saying this?
Some people tend to rely on DIY passport photos that they take using their smartphones. They are in form of selfies and they don’t make good passport photos.
For every member of the family, you need at least four photos for a one-way trip. So, you’ll need a total of six passport photo size.
5) Protect your eyes with Sunglasses
Sunglasses are great in covering your eyes when having a view of the physical features from the plane or during a tour drive.
Choose sunglasses with a neutral tint color like grey or brown. Optometrists recommend that glasses should be no darker than 80% absorption. The glasses need to be a bit dark at the top of the lens and lighter to the middle.
The glasses should have frames that are well fitting and be large enough to allow sufficient protection from sunlight.
The perfect glass needs to have impossible-to-break arms. Some glasses, in case broken, will only need to be snapped back in.
This does not mean that you have to go for eye testing to determine the kind of lenses your eyes are compatible with unless you have an eye condition. Any glasses that can protect your eyes are good to go.
6) A Medical Kit
A medical aid kit is the first thing to keep in mind because you care for the safety of your family. It’s normal to get a headache, minor injury, nausea while some people contract diseases due to the change of climate. You should be prepared and leave nothing to chance.
If you’re traveling abroad, ensure that you’ve checked if everything you’ve carried is allowed in your host country. Some items are not allowed in some countries and you can land in unnecessary problems with the authorities.
In your medical kits, have these;
· Insect repellants like DEET, Picaridin, OLE and 2-Undercone
· If you have a medical condition, pack your prescription medication and the generic names of the medicine.
· Bed nets you if certain that the place you are going is infested with mosquitoes.
· Basic first aid items like bandages, antiseptic, tweezers, cotton, moleskin and a digital thermometer.
· Mild sedative or any sleep aid in case of insomnia attack.
The medical kit should be light. Put it inside one of your biggest wheeled luggage. Upon reaching your destination, ensure that you’ve checked everything and confirmed nothing is missing. Purchase whatever is missing it as you’ll not have the time during the return journey.
7) Water Bottle
To every traveler, water is to die for. Traveling dehydrates your body and you can do anything to get a drop of water on your tongue, more so when traveling to arid and hot places like the Middle East.
Re-usable water bottles are great here as you pack enough water for the whole trip. It’s advisable that every member of the family have his/her own water bottle to avoid killing each other when the thirst becomes unbearable.
You can get great water bottles from Amazon that are long-lasting, ultra stylish, clean and will never break.
It’s not necessary that you only carry water on these bottles. The content you carry is not limited to the name. Maybe you have your favorite juice-mix that you’d want to carry along; store it on the water bottles and sip it from time to time as you enjoy the beautiful scenery of the outside world.
8) Engage your Mind
Long distant traveling may be monotonous. For instance, you may be traveling from Tokyo, Japan to Toronto, Canada, the whole journey is tedious and you can get bored midway.
Traveling by sea is another thing by its own. The cruises have swimming pools, casinos and evening parties hence getting bored is not likely to happen. It, however, will take some months to cover the same distance.
Since most people prefer air travel to sea travel, you’ll need some things to carry with you to keep you from going to ‘’monotony-land.’’ These are;
· Reading Books
It can be guidebooks, novels, comics, storybooks or just the monthly magazine; these are good to keep your mind engaged.
Guidebooks will give you a little history of the country you are visiting. At least you’ll know their culture, tradition and history. You get to know the interesting places you’ll visit and the awesome facts you can get there.
On the other hand, magazines, comic and novels are just to entertain you and to keep your mind off traveling. You can learn a thing or two like a new vocabulary. Don’t forget the kids too, a general travel books for kids is good to keep them going.
· Video Games and Cross Puzzles
There is nothing that engages the minds like games. These are good for older kids but you can also give it a try.
Download the games on your tablet/smartphone or buy a newspaper with puzzle games before leaving home. Other people prefer chess games which are also good.
These games will keep your minds busy and you’ll arrive at your destination sooner than expected.
· Music
You don’t need a whole stereo system to enjoy music. Via Bluetooth, pair the songs you love to your phone before leaving home.
When boredom starts knocking on your door, take the earphones or headphones that are much better and plug them into your phone. Within no time, you’ll be nodding to every bit of your favorite jam.
9) Travel outfits
This is not a business trip hence there is no need of wearing a tuxedo. You just have to make it simple. A casual trouser with a long sleeved shirt is perfect.
According to travel fashion, ladies need a sleeveless top, cardigan ballet flats and a hat. This is just enough to cater for all the activities you’ll be involved.
Designers prefer putting on the perfect outfit for the occasion which is fun. They advise that it’s good to wear jeans or khaki pants. These are not sophisticated and are good in regulating temperature on your body.
For those that may be visiting the sandy beaches of Hawaii, duster cardigans and flip flop for shoes are okay. You can decide to interchange denim pants for maxi skirt.
Traveling by air? Then you should know that planes are not good in temperature. The temperatures are in constant shifts. It can be freezing at this moment and the next moment it’s stuffy and hot. To tackle this, put on a soft material t-shirt, ankle boots and comfy leggings.
10) Portable Chargers and Adapters
You don’t want your phones, laptops and tablets to switch off? Carry portable chargers mostly known as power banks.
Before the invention of the power banks, passengers in planes used to cuddle at every corner charging their phones. This was very uncomfortable and even brought quarrels in the planes that had fewer booths between passengers.
To avoid going back to the ‘’old age,’’ a power bank can be of great help. These handheld devices charge your phones twice once they are full. To ensure they are charged fully, put them on power for at least 6 hours before leaving home. Today, there are fast charging power banks that can take half of the time to be full.
If you don’t have the power banks, the other option is universal adapters. These are not sources of power though. You can plug them on the charging booths on the plane or bus and extend the wires to where you are sitting.
It’s advisable that you use your own adapter that is compatible with your electronics. You can purchase the wrong one on the roadside shops and end up destroying your electronics.
Ensure that the adapter has multiple holes that will allow you to charge all your electronics at a go as they evenly distribute voltage across all of them.
Final Point to take Home
Okay, that’s a lot to chew and swallow. I Hope that it’s of great help.
But before I go! Note this final point.
Traveling is great and it becomes greater when you do it together as a family. As much as getting all these together before you travel, it’s always good that you be wise. You can decide to buy each of these some months prior to the trip so that you don’t feel the weight when it all descends on you when the day reaches.
The key is to always plan early.