Useful Travel Nonessentials
I traveled through India for three weeks with a duffel bag and lived in Italy for three months out of a carry-on suitcase, so you’d think I could have done a week in Australia with a schoolkid’s backpack. Unfortunately, I had to bring the larger carry-on. That’s the bother of business travel — cramming blazers and silk tops and a decent pair of shoes into a duffel bag just doesn’t quite cut it.
Even though I prefer to travel light, over the years I’ve run across a few nonessentials that seem worth taking with me, depending on where I’m going and how much moving around I’ll be doing once I get there. None are must-haves, but they have all been very useful in the past.
I find an inflatable, U-shaped pillow easier on the neck than a folded jacket, and it can be used in planes, trains, dubious-looking hotels, and waiting rooms. Yes, they look stupid, but they’re comfortable and they deflate into compact bundles when not in use.
I found some vinyl-soled, net-topped slippers that are great for walking around airplanes and hotel rooms. Because they’re waterproof, I’ve even, on occasion, showered in them, when I’ve stayed in places where I was reluctant to put my bare feet on the shower floor.
I absolutely must bring paperbacks. At the beginning of my trip I’ll be staggering under their weight, but I leave them behind as I finish them, so my pack gets lighter over time. I’m not much of a TV watcher, so if I can’t sleep on an airplane, I might finish two or three novels in the course of an international flight.
Earplugs and sleeping pills are must-haves both on the flight and in hotel rooms. In fact, I’d almost call these “essentials” rather than “nonessentials,” since I’m very sound-sensitive.
I have mixed feelings over taking my iPod; it’s compact, so I usually toss it into my bag, but I don’t use it as often as some do. If weight is no problem and I’ll be staying in decent hotels, I like bringing my laptop for writing, internet access, music, and downloading/editing travel photos. If I’ll be on the go all the time or staying in insecure places, I usually leave the laptop at home and settle for notebooks and an occasional visit to an internet cafe.
Some of my more experienced traveling friends used to make me laugh when they’d pull baggies of licorice, crackers, sugar, tea, and cocoa out of their backpacks, but over time I’ve come to appreciate the convenience of having extra food around when you want it. When you’re in a strange country at night you might not always find a restaurant open, but you can almost certainly get some boiled water from someone to brew up some instant soup or cocoa. Most dry convenience foods will pass through Customs, although my unopened beef jerky didn’t pass muster in Australia.
I’ve also come to appreciate the sheet bag. It doesn’t take up much room, and if you’re going someplace where sheet cleanliness might not be up to your standards (I tend to stay at hostels and cheap hotels when I’m abroad, to save money) or you expect to be couch-surfing or sleeping on trains, having one of these is pretty handy. I don’t pack it all the time; it just depends on where I’m headed.
I also use small backpacker stuff sacks for organizing things and those vacuum bags you can roll up manually, which can save you a few inches in a heavily packed bag. On longer trips, I pack a flat sink drain cover and small packs of Woolite for doing sink laundry. I use small TSA-approved locks for my suitcase and daypack to deter inquisitive cleaners and pickpockets, and I carry one of those locks with a metal cord you can loop through suitcase handles and around bench legs to help keep my luggage walking off while I’m napping on a train or away from my hotel room.
Travel inventions I’ve tried but abandoned: Inflatable seat cushions, personal air purifiers, personal alarms, a manual hotel door jammer, and two-part baggage alarms.
I can pare down my packing to the essentials when I must, and for the most part I’d much prefer to travel with nothing but a carry-on. However, there are times when packing a little extra can make the entire travel experience a lot more pleasant!
drupagliassotti @ August 8, 2008