Packing essentials when traveling abroad can be daunting. You suddenly start to see everything as an essential item, your backpack only has so much space, and everyone you know wants you to bring back a souvenir. These are the packing essential you should get for traveling abroad.
While you should have a large backpack with plenty of space for all your clothing, other packing essentials, documents, and entertainment items, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a smaller, more compact one. Wherever you go, you’re going to want to walk about town and see the sights. Having a second backpack will allow you to go about your day without having to haul around all your heavy clothing. Additionally, be sure to have other bags, for dirty clothes and your toiletries.
What many people don’t realize is that many countries each have different types of adapters; how an adapter in Germany is laid out is completely different than an adapter in Spain. A packing essential for those that like to bring electronic devices with them is an adaptable converter. You’ll still have to bring the cords for all your devices, but you don’t have to worry about all the different adapters. (I recommend buying one that’s suited for multiple countries, as there are some that only apply to one.)
Wherever you backpack to, youth hostel, hotel, b&b, even if you aren’t backpacking, it’s important to have a lock for your bags, briefcases, and whatnot. You always have the risk of someone trying to open your zippers and sneak away your money or clothing, all your packing essentials. Whenever you leave it alone, you have to have a sturdy lock, preferably one with a retractable wire, so that you can loop it through all the zippers and around something that prevents people from taking the whole backpack.
When traveling abroad, you’ll undoubtedly have tickets for planes, trains, and boats, not to mention hotel reservations, tickets for attractions, and your passport. Before going abroad, it’s important to have at least two copies in addition to the original of any and all papers and vital packing essentials. I personally recommend having a folder for your papers, and if not, a pocket for the foldable papers and your passport, with a lock of its own in addition to the main one.
When traveling abroad, it’s a given you want to bring along some movies to watch or some books to read on long treks. Thanks to advancements in technology, downloading services like VRV and Netflix make watching entertainment a breeze. Additionally, what many novice backpackers may not realize is that there are plenty of apps that allow for online reading as well. Wattpad, Amazon Kindle, Goodreads. Being able to read entire novels from your phone saves up a lot of space when you don’t have to bring the actual books along.
Nowadays, apps can and are a great resource for those traveling abroad. There are apps for train schedules, currency conversion, finding hotels and hostels, storing all your videos and books; long before you go on your trip, a packing essential you should have would be whatever apps you think will be useful on your trip.
This is an especially important section to pay attention to. While you might have a nice, sanitized bathroom when staying with friends abroad or in hotels, in hostels, hygiene is something for you to be very careful about. In most hostels, there is a communal shower area, much like certain college dorms. Packing essentials concerning the bathroom? A shower caddy, to hold all your travel bottles (which should be refillable), a washable micro-towel, and most importantly: shower sandals. I cannot stress how important it is to protect your feet in communal wash areas. In some places, infection is the least of your worries.
When traveling abroad, while it’s important to have packing essentials, it’s also important to keep certain ideas in mind. Two pieces of advice I have always kept in mind, thanks to my old man, when traveling are these:
1. Something will always go wrong. Always. It’s important to be cool and collected when that happens. 2. Money solves a lot of problems. It’s important to always have an emergency fund to have.
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