Traveling well can be one of life’s great pleasures, whether you’re alone or with family and friends—and this is true now more than ever. But what does it mean to travel well? Along with, of course, traveling safely, we’d say it involves avoiding hassle, packing a single bag if possible, and bringing only the necessities. “Traveling well is a fine balance between finding inspiration in the unknown while being grounded in something,” said Wirecutter founder Brian Lam. “Sometimes that is a memory of home, a family, a significant other, friends, etc. Sometimes it’s just the familiar, reliable stuff in your bag.”
Over the past nine years, we’ve spent hundreds of hours researching and testing dozens of products to find the most dependable items to help you travel well. On top of that, we sought the advice and wisdom of Doug Dyment, the author of OneBag; he’s logged millions of miles as a traveling businessman and public speaker over the past few decades. We also ran our picks by travel gear reviewer Eytan Levy, the Snarky Nomad.
And we relied heavily on Wirecutter staff experiences, since this is an especially mobile group that has worked remotely from every continent except Antarctica—the five most frequent flyers among us travel about a half-million miles in any given (normal) year.