Top Travel Tips for Packing - Part 2
Last week Roam the Earth shared it’s top tips for packing. Here is where you can find the top tips that I shared.
While compiling the original list, I quickly realised that there were far too many to share in a top ten list. So here is part 2!
1) Take a Bag for Dirty Laundry
There is nothing worse than having to repack your bag, mixing clean clothes with dirty ones. Last week we mentioned zip lock bags being a great tool to organise your packing and waterproof your belongings. They are also great for use as a laundry bag, but really anything would do. This is especially useful if you are travelling around, unpacking and repacking, or even just as a way to keep your hotel room organised. Store away your dirty clothes as you go along and you'll spend less time packing at the end of your trip. I’ve also found it useful to have a bag like this in case you need to pack dirty shoes!
Better still, if you have access to a washing machine, do your laundry before you pack, especially if you're going home. You will be glad of it after than long flight!
2) Jewellery and Socks - Saving Space
There's nothing worse than wasting half an hour untangling the chain of your favourite necklace. Us travellers and holiday makers have better things to do! Feed your necklaces through a straw to keep them untangled and keep earrings through the holes of an extra button to keep jewellery safe. Another top tip, to use up every available corner of your bag or suitcase, pack your socks and undies into your shoes to save space. Sometimes it is useful to leave packing your underwear till last as you can squeeze these into any unfilled gaps in your case.
3) Noise Cancelling Headphones - Or Old Fashioned Ear Plugs
If you can afford the headphones, these will be the best investment a traveller can make. Silent plane journeys, no screaming babies, no annoying neighbours chatting through your movies and no engine rumbles. If you are a budget traveller and staying in large hostel dorm rooms, you will appreciate the ability to cut out your noisy fellow travellers too. Sleep uninterrupted - a great investment!
If you can’t afford the noise cancelling headphones, at least pack a decent pair of ear plugs. It's the staple of any backpacker, but anyone can make use of these beauties. You’ll be thankful you did when there's a screaming baby on that overnight flight or bus journey, or you find that your hotel room is next to a building site or lift shaft!
4) Pack a Small Mirror
Have you ever checked into your hotel room and found that the plug sockets are a million miles away from a mirror? Or perhaps the only mirror in the room is in the bathroom. Or you are staying in a hostel and your room simply doesn’t have a mirror? Ladies, pack a small handheld mirror! It's not vanity, it's necessity!
Here's a top tip for anyone who needs a mirror but is without one. Like most people these days, I usually travel with my tablet or laptop, or at the very least my smartphone, which when put in camera mode or the FaceTime app, can also double as a mirror, and you can take it with you!
5) Extension Lead
You have to charge your phone, your tablet, your laptop, your camera and you need to dry your hair and have the lamp plugged in, but there is only one power socket in the room. (Why?!? - this happens a lot!) Pack a 4 socket extension lead and you will only need one plug adaptor and you won’t have to share your plug socket between accessories all day long. It also means that you can charge everything over night so that you don’t have to leave anything plugged in while you’re not in your room! In some countries, the power sockets and electrical wiring can be less than safe so be aware of overloading your power socket and don't leave anything plugged in unattended.
6) Take Your Own Water Bottle in Your Hand Luggage
Invest a few pounds and buy yourself a sturdy and lightweight water bottle and save yourself the cost of buying bottled water on airplanes (you can ask your steward to fill your water bottle), at airports and in countries where tap water is safe to drink. Not only will you save money on not buying bottled water and keep yourself hydrated, but it is much kinder to the environment too!
7) Pack a Spare Camera Battery and Extra SD Cards
If you’re a happy snapper like me, you will be glad of the extra SD cards. There is nothing worse than being outside of a city, merrily clicking away only to find that you have no space left on your memory card or your camera battery is about to run out. I now have a large collection of SD cards that I carry in my camera bag for such emergencies thanks to continuously running out of memory while travelling last year. But I probably overspent while stocking up. Buy your batteries and SD cards online before you travel to find the best deals.
8) Wear Your Heaviest and Bulkiest Clothes on the Plane
Airlines don’t care how big or heavy you are, they only focus on your luggage. So if you want to take your coat, a hoody and big boots or walking shoes with you on your trip, wear them and save luggage weight and packing space in your case. Aeroplanes can be quite chilly anyway so you’ll probably be glad of the extra clothes! You can also use any spare pockets to carry anything you can’t fit into your hand luggage!
9) Buy Your Toiletries at the Airport
If you’re going on a short trip or city break and you aren’t checking luggage, you will always have to pack your liquids into a clear airport approved plastic bag and more often than not, there isn’t room for everything. You would be surprised what is considered to be a liquid and your plastic bag soon fills up! I use my plastic bag for things that I wouldn’t want to be without but that I don’t want to replace, like foundation and mascara, the face toner that I love, a small bottle of moroccan oil and my perfume. I pack make up remover pads and face wipes in my hand luggage to save on my liquid allowance and space. If you are travelling from the UK, boots at any airport always have deals on travel sized bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, even dry shampoo. So once you are through security, stock up on toiletries at the airport. It doesn’t matter what size you buy and they won’t need to fit into your plastic bag. Buy them and put them straight into your hand luggage. If you’re brave enough to stray away from your favourite brands, don’t forget that you’ll be able to find all of these products at your destination too, and possibly a lot cheaper!
10) Don’t Panic!
My last trinket of advice would be that there are only three things that you truly need to remember to pack. You will definitely need your passport, your travel confirmation and a way of accessing money (credit or debit card). These days your flight confirmation is usually attached to your passport so in many cases, you don’t even need that. Everything else, you can buy when you get there if you need to!
Why not read some of our other Top Travel Tips?
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