Your gear is everything on the road. I travel now with carry-on luggage only, all over the world and it’s a great decision. I will admit, I usually am chasing summer which does make packing light a bit easier. This post will go into detail about the bags I use and what goes inside of them.
Please note: this is my personal list. Obviously, this will vary from person to person, but this is a question I am asked frequently.
The backpacks
After doing a day worth of research online that included reading Reddit threads and every travel blogger that exists posts till my eyes bled, I finally made my decision on Tortuga Travel backpacks. When I made my decision, version three just came out which dropped the price of version two to more affordable price.
For my main bag, I bought the Tortuga 44 Liter travel backpack, which is the perfect carry-on size.
The day pack, I went with Tortuga 20l Daypack, that is packable, which means it folds into itself!
What’s in the bag?
As you can see, I don’t have a ton of room to pack for my trips, so we only want to pack the essentials. I can’t stress how important it is, and easy, to pack light. I even leave room for souvenirs to bring home!
Clothes
- 7 pairs of crew black socks
- 7 pairs of boxer briefs
- 4 t-shirts
- 1 bathing suit
- 1 pair of jeans
- 1 pair of shorts
- 1 baseball cap
- 2 tank tops
- 1 Windbreaker
- 1 hoody/sweater
- 1 long sleeve (flannel)
- 1 dress shirt
- 1 pair of all black tennis shoes – all black so I can use them as “formal shoes” for going out
- 1 pair of flip flops
- 1 microfiber towel
- 1 pair of cheap sunglasses
Toiletry Kit/Medicine Kit
- 1 toothbrush
- 3 pairs of spare contact lenses (sucks being blind)
- 1 chapstick
- 1 bottle of prescription antibiotics
- 1 small bottle of shower gel
- 1 small tube of toothpaste
- 1 pair of foam earplugs
- 1 sleeping mask (usually take from the flight)
- 1 travel size deodorant
- 1 box band aids
- 1 bottle of hand sanitizer
- 1 pack of Imodium
Gear
- 1 iPhone 6(at the time of this post)
- 1 15″ Macbook Pro early 2016
- 1 rechargeable battery
- 1 universal power adapter
- 1 encrypted thumbdrive with my personal documents
- scan of passport
- scan of vaccination papers
- scan of birth certificate
- travel itenary
- copy of plane tickets
Miscellaneous
- 2-3 different size combination locks
- 10 zip lock baggies
- 1 couple yards long rope
- 2-3 plastic grocery bags
- 1 book
- 1 Nalgene canteen
Packing Tips
I start by separating my clothes and rolling what I can to fit into zip-lock baggies. So all of my boxers, socks, and t-shirts, are rolled into a zip lock bags. You can find packing cubes online that are the same concept as what I do.
Remember, you can buy everything on the road. Shoes may be the only difficult item, but the rest will be pretty easy.