I like to pack a glue stick and kid scissors, and buy a blank book of some sort in the place I'm traveling and then I paste ticket stubs and whatnot into the book with some commentary. Makes for a great set of memories (and also helped me recently confirm that someone I saw playing music here in town was, in fact, someone I had seen in England in 1996!). Also avoids coming home with a mess of brochures and paper.
I’m interested in finding out about noise cancelling headphones for travel.
My vacation trip is to change your sheets & lay out the clothes you’ll wear the day after you return home. It’s nice to get back from vacation to clean sheets and not thinking about what to wear.
I bought Bose noise canceling headphones a few years back. Obviously they are NOT cheap, but they make so much difference on the plane itself. You don’t realize how loud it really is until you don’t have to listen to it. Highly recommend!
I got a pair of over-ear Bose noise cancelling headphones that were great, but I'm completely in love with the Bose noise cancelling earbuds that I bought on a whim a couple of years ago. They're much more travel friendly, and seem to work nearly as well. (Also, spendy as anything, but worth it, IMHO.)
You probably don’t need to vacuum the way home stuff, not if you can spend a bit of time smushing/rolling the stuff - like burping the last bit of air out of a ziplock. It’ll hold long enough to stuff it into the suitcase and seal it up.
Other than that my key for an international/long flight is: wearing leggings with slash pockets, and putting the 5 random things you’ll actually want on the plane (charger, the cable to hook your noise canceling headphones to the seat back entertainment, tissues, lip balm, that lavender eye pillow you supposedly use to relax after yoga) into a pencil bag in your carryon so you can grab it easily at boarding and stash the bag with your spare socks/underwear/toothbrush/deodorant in the overhead bin
Totally agree.....packing cubes are terrific and you can make your own sort of vacuum set up by using a large ziploc bag. And a little bag for chargers makes things very easy, too.
For me it's all about the delight of what you pack in your 'personal item'. I save magazines for a month or two before (yes, I still get a few magazines), read them on the flight and then ask if the flight attendants want them (they always say yes, I don't want to know if they throw them away! I feel like I've passed along gold!). I also pack a pile of old newspapers to read in the hotel, and a few books just in case. What can I say, I'm a reader!
I pack enough snacks for me and my family to get us through the flight and the next day or two: no one is going hungry or asking for a $5 granola bar at the airport on my watch (meals and drinks are ok). We went to Europe for the first time in decades last Spring, and at the last minute I threw in a few rehydration packets, and I really think it helped with the jet lag. I'd also suggest bringing US cold meds and throat lozenges. I had brought therm but gave them to my son who was studying abroad. Of course I got sick a few days later, and had to navigate a Spanish pharmacy and bought extremely expensive lozenges while mourning my Ricola.
I don't do a lot of in flight skincare, just hand sanitizer, face wipes and lip balm. I also did compression socks but don't know if they helped. I used the giveaway eye mask and earplugs, I just needed to dull the environment, not be in blackout mode.
You can get ziploc-style vacuum bags that don't need a vacuum - they've got one way valves and you sort of roll the air out. I've used them for my last few trips and they work pretty well. (also help keep things organized.)
I've used both the Ziploc and the Travelon bags. The Ziploc are larger and seem to stay closed a bit better. (Neither is as fully vacuumed as a true vacuum system, of course.)
If you are going anywhere in Europe, and you are physical able to do so, do everything you can to not use a rolling bag and take a (large) backpack. My mom and I went to Italy earlier this year and she didn't believe me, but when she saw other people struggling to roll their bags over cobblestones, she thanked me for making her take only a (large) backpack. In order to fit into just a (large) backpack, I pretty much have a travel uniform, which is the same pair of Prana pants/shorts/joggers in different colors, an array of tanks and t-shirts, and if going to a cold place, an LL Bean vest, and either a winter North Face jacket or a spring rain jacket. For the Italy trip, where the weather had some pretty wild temperature swings, I also packed arm sleeves, which I use when running in cold weather. If it was cold in the morning, I put them on. If I warmed up, I took them off. And if I wasn't sure, they didn't take up too much space in my bag.
Doing laundry will depend on where you are. In Europe, I've done it in sinks and dried clothes on a heated towel bar. I've also splurged on the hotel's laundry service. In London, I dropped my clothes off at a laundromat and paid for their wash and fold service, and picked them up on the way back to my hotel.
For US road trips, my two big ones are to, before the trip, start squirreling away quarters in an empty prescription bottle, which then goes into your car. A lot of places still have meters that take change only; and a lot of hotel self-service laundry rooms are quarters only too. Also, second, bring scissors. You would be amazed how many times you might need them.
And for any travel......well, don't forget to eat fiber. I start road trips with a bag of apples. It's just the worst to have GI problems when you're traveling, and if you're out trying new foods (which you should!) you might, ah, forget that important part.
This is GOLD. Thank you, Jen! Seb has their eye on a really good-looking large backpack that completely unzips flat, maximizing space within. I'll share a link later; it looked very promising.
If your vacuumable cubes are the kind that seal shut but also have a one-way valve, you can approximate the sucking-outness of the vacuum by applying gentle pressure on the cube/bag--much like deflating an airmattress by lieing on it just so.
Absolutely get little bottles and jars from muji or similar and decant your beauty products into them. Also if it’s a red eye flight, those squishy silicone ear plugs are fantastic
I love those little bottles -- I have a 3-pack from Muji and also hang onto the ones for generously-portioned samples and reuse them for travel. So handy!
Oh also packing: I Marie-Kondo-fold my clothes and then use packing cubes. Anything I pack has to match at least two other items. I’ve read about this 3-3-3 method (3 tops, 3 bottoms, 3 shoes) and then mix and matching but I haven’t tried it yet. And I usually stick some sort of change of clothes in my personal item — leggings in winter, a caftan or jersey dress folded super small in summer, and extra underwear or socks. You never know what’s gonna happen. And I take a travel diary, to remember those little moments you might forget if you don’t write them down.
I used to travel a lot for work so I have applied a lot of what I learned from that experience to vacation travel. My tips:
• Get a good suitcase in a color that sticks out so you can wheel easily through the airport and if you check a bag, you don’t grab someone else’s
• Similarly, I have this shockingly capacious weekender I got from Amazon that is waterproof, expandable, fits A LOT, and has a pocketed trolley sleeve
• Pre-check. Cliche but worth it
• If I’m heading somewhere warm and it’s cold at home, I take a blanket scarf or my cashmere blend wrap instead of a jacket. Fits in my carryon, keeps me warm on the flight and taxi to the airport
• Download podcasts / music what have you the day before you fly. Also use the Libby app from your library for audiobooks
• I always bring an empty Hydroflask — use it for water or coffee and it keeps it hot / cold for a long time
• Stick socks, underwear, etc into any shoes you pack to maximize space
• if you need to pick up snacks or razors or liquids that you can’t take on a plane, schedule a pickup order at the nearestTarget or CVS etc closest to your destination
* Bring a reusable bag, esp the ones that fold up into a tiny square. It can be a beach bag, a grocery bag, a hamper, a place to stick wet clothes, whatever you need. I once bought wine and olive oil abroad and needed to check my bag as a result, but didn’t have space for my dirties. So I stuffed my dirties in my Baggu and took it as my personal item
• Stick a small crossbody or belt bag in your suitcase so you aren’t carrying a backpack every wear you go. I got a clear one so I can use it for stadiums, bc I go to concerts or sports events when I travel and they make security easier
• Get actual maps if you’re going somewhere rural or off the beaten paths. Your phone will fail you, but maps never will. And they’re often free at rest stations or visitors centers when you cross state lines.
You can take just the number of trays you need. You can take one tray in your day bag without having to lug the whole thing around. I can fit two days of pills in one tray, so one of the stacks holds TWO WEEKS for me. But if that doesn’t work for you, you can buy a second stack and they still screw together as one. I love it so much.
I like to pack a glue stick and kid scissors, and buy a blank book of some sort in the place I'm traveling and then I paste ticket stubs and whatnot into the book with some commentary. Makes for a great set of memories (and also helped me recently confirm that someone I saw playing music here in town was, in fact, someone I had seen in England in 1996!). Also avoids coming home with a mess of brochures and paper.
I’m interested in finding out about noise cancelling headphones for travel.
My vacation trip is to change your sheets & lay out the clothes you’ll wear the day after you return home. It’s nice to get back from vacation to clean sheets and not thinking about what to wear.
I bought Bose noise canceling headphones a few years back. Obviously they are NOT cheap, but they make so much difference on the plane itself. You don’t realize how loud it really is until you don’t have to listen to it. Highly recommend!
I got a pair of over-ear Bose noise cancelling headphones that were great, but I'm completely in love with the Bose noise cancelling earbuds that I bought on a whim a couple of years ago. They're much more travel friendly, and seem to work nearly as well. (Also, spendy as anything, but worth it, IMHO.)
You probably don’t need to vacuum the way home stuff, not if you can spend a bit of time smushing/rolling the stuff - like burping the last bit of air out of a ziplock. It’ll hold long enough to stuff it into the suitcase and seal it up.
Other than that my key for an international/long flight is: wearing leggings with slash pockets, and putting the 5 random things you’ll actually want on the plane (charger, the cable to hook your noise canceling headphones to the seat back entertainment, tissues, lip balm, that lavender eye pillow you supposedly use to relax after yoga) into a pencil bag in your carryon so you can grab it easily at boarding and stash the bag with your spare socks/underwear/toothbrush/deodorant in the overhead bin
Totally agree.....packing cubes are terrific and you can make your own sort of vacuum set up by using a large ziploc bag. And a little bag for chargers makes things very easy, too.
For me it's all about the delight of what you pack in your 'personal item'. I save magazines for a month or two before (yes, I still get a few magazines), read them on the flight and then ask if the flight attendants want them (they always say yes, I don't want to know if they throw them away! I feel like I've passed along gold!). I also pack a pile of old newspapers to read in the hotel, and a few books just in case. What can I say, I'm a reader!
I pack enough snacks for me and my family to get us through the flight and the next day or two: no one is going hungry or asking for a $5 granola bar at the airport on my watch (meals and drinks are ok). We went to Europe for the first time in decades last Spring, and at the last minute I threw in a few rehydration packets, and I really think it helped with the jet lag. I'd also suggest bringing US cold meds and throat lozenges. I had brought therm but gave them to my son who was studying abroad. Of course I got sick a few days later, and had to navigate a Spanish pharmacy and bought extremely expensive lozenges while mourning my Ricola.
I don't do a lot of in flight skincare, just hand sanitizer, face wipes and lip balm. I also did compression socks but don't know if they helped. I used the giveaway eye mask and earplugs, I just needed to dull the environment, not be in blackout mode.
You can get ziploc-style vacuum bags that don't need a vacuum - they've got one way valves and you sort of roll the air out. I've used them for my last few trips and they work pretty well. (also help keep things organized.)
This is exactly what I was needing to know -- thank you! If you use them, is there a brand you particularly recommend?
I've used both the Ziploc and the Travelon bags. The Ziploc are larger and seem to stay closed a bit better. (Neither is as fully vacuumed as a true vacuum system, of course.)
If you are going anywhere in Europe, and you are physical able to do so, do everything you can to not use a rolling bag and take a (large) backpack. My mom and I went to Italy earlier this year and she didn't believe me, but when she saw other people struggling to roll their bags over cobblestones, she thanked me for making her take only a (large) backpack. In order to fit into just a (large) backpack, I pretty much have a travel uniform, which is the same pair of Prana pants/shorts/joggers in different colors, an array of tanks and t-shirts, and if going to a cold place, an LL Bean vest, and either a winter North Face jacket or a spring rain jacket. For the Italy trip, where the weather had some pretty wild temperature swings, I also packed arm sleeves, which I use when running in cold weather. If it was cold in the morning, I put them on. If I warmed up, I took them off. And if I wasn't sure, they didn't take up too much space in my bag.
Doing laundry will depend on where you are. In Europe, I've done it in sinks and dried clothes on a heated towel bar. I've also splurged on the hotel's laundry service. In London, I dropped my clothes off at a laundromat and paid for their wash and fold service, and picked them up on the way back to my hotel.
For US road trips, my two big ones are to, before the trip, start squirreling away quarters in an empty prescription bottle, which then goes into your car. A lot of places still have meters that take change only; and a lot of hotel self-service laundry rooms are quarters only too. Also, second, bring scissors. You would be amazed how many times you might need them.
And for any travel......well, don't forget to eat fiber. I start road trips with a bag of apples. It's just the worst to have GI problems when you're traveling, and if you're out trying new foods (which you should!) you might, ah, forget that important part.
This is GOLD. Thank you, Jen! Seb has their eye on a really good-looking large backpack that completely unzips flat, maximizing space within. I'll share a link later; it looked very promising.
If your vacuumable cubes are the kind that seal shut but also have a one-way valve, you can approximate the sucking-outness of the vacuum by applying gentle pressure on the cube/bag--much like deflating an airmattress by lieing on it just so.
Absolutely get little bottles and jars from muji or similar and decant your beauty products into them. Also if it’s a red eye flight, those squishy silicone ear plugs are fantastic
I love those little bottles -- I have a 3-pack from Muji and also hang onto the ones for generously-portioned samples and reuse them for travel. So handy!
Oh also packing: I Marie-Kondo-fold my clothes and then use packing cubes. Anything I pack has to match at least two other items. I’ve read about this 3-3-3 method (3 tops, 3 bottoms, 3 shoes) and then mix and matching but I haven’t tried it yet. And I usually stick some sort of change of clothes in my personal item — leggings in winter, a caftan or jersey dress folded super small in summer, and extra underwear or socks. You never know what’s gonna happen. And I take a travel diary, to remember those little moments you might forget if you don’t write them down.
I used to travel a lot for work so I have applied a lot of what I learned from that experience to vacation travel. My tips:
• Get a good suitcase in a color that sticks out so you can wheel easily through the airport and if you check a bag, you don’t grab someone else’s
• Similarly, I have this shockingly capacious weekender I got from Amazon that is waterproof, expandable, fits A LOT, and has a pocketed trolley sleeve
• Pre-check. Cliche but worth it
• If I’m heading somewhere warm and it’s cold at home, I take a blanket scarf or my cashmere blend wrap instead of a jacket. Fits in my carryon, keeps me warm on the flight and taxi to the airport
• Download podcasts / music what have you the day before you fly. Also use the Libby app from your library for audiobooks
• I always bring an empty Hydroflask — use it for water or coffee and it keeps it hot / cold for a long time
• Stick socks, underwear, etc into any shoes you pack to maximize space
• if you need to pick up snacks or razors or liquids that you can’t take on a plane, schedule a pickup order at the nearestTarget or CVS etc closest to your destination
* Bring a reusable bag, esp the ones that fold up into a tiny square. It can be a beach bag, a grocery bag, a hamper, a place to stick wet clothes, whatever you need. I once bought wine and olive oil abroad and needed to check my bag as a result, but didn’t have space for my dirties. So I stuffed my dirties in my Baggu and took it as my personal item
• Stick a small crossbody or belt bag in your suitcase so you aren’t carrying a backpack every wear you go. I got a clear one so I can use it for stadiums, bc I go to concerts or sports events when I travel and they make security easier
• Get actual maps if you’re going somewhere rural or off the beaten paths. Your phone will fail you, but maps never will. And they’re often free at rest stations or visitors centers when you cross state lines.
I’m ride or die for this particular pill organizer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S1FKGZ8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You can take just the number of trays you need. You can take one tray in your day bag without having to lug the whole thing around. I can fit two days of pills in one tray, so one of the stacks holds TWO WEEKS for me. But if that doesn’t work for you, you can buy a second stack and they still screw together as one. I love it so much.