There will be items in your around the world backpack that never found their way into your standard one-week vacation backpack. When you are packing for an around the world trip, there’s a small set of basic amenities you will repeatedly use over the length of your trip. Those basic amenities fall into three categories. The first category is your preferred health and beauty brands. The second category items fall into a “coping with life in a hostel” theme. The third category is electronic accessories and a catch-all for other items that share the characteristic that if you lost the item during the trip, you would replace it.
HEALTH AND BEAUTY ITEMS
You’d think, with all the multinational healthcare corporations, there’d be consistency with healthcare items across countries. That’s not the case. Other than toothpaste, it was difficult to find the U.S. brands I prefer when traveling internationally. In my experience it was better to stock up on the U.S. brands than purchase the local equivalents.
Contact Lenses and Contact Lens Solution: There’s a brand of contact lenses and cleaning solution I like. I stocked up on a year’s supply of contact lenses before I left. I ran out of contact lens solution during my travels and cycled through brand after brand never finding a solution that worked as well as the one back home. I also traveled with two pairs of eye glasses.
Razors: All shaving cream is shaving cream. All shampoo is shampoo. All soap is soap. I can easily switch from brand to brand. All razors are not razors. When it comes to razors, the Gillette Mach 5 is in a class of its own. I picked up a 12-pack at BJ’s Wholesale Club for $40 that lasted for my entire travels.
Aspirin / Tylenol: I did not leave home on the first leg of my trip with a bottle of over-the-counter pain relievers. I thought that like in the U.S., I could walk into a convenience store or pharmacy and pick up a bottle when necessary. Internationally, these bottles were more difficult to find than I expected. In many countries the pain relievers are behind the counter and require a conversation with the pharmacy staff. It’s easier to pick up a bottle of Tylenol before you leave than to describe you want a pain reliever in a foreign pharmacy. If you really want to know why it’s difficult to purchase Tylenol outside the U.S., read what it does to your liver. Maybe Tylenol should be more difficult to purchase in the U.S.
Neosporin: Neosporin is another item that’s easier to purchase in advance rather than search for when you desperately need it. It doesn’t matter what foreign language is on the box, a Band-Aid looks like a Band-Aid—but trying to determine what ointment is in a tube? That’s not as easy.
Only in India: Carry toilet paper and hand sanitizer in your backpack when traveling through India.
Feminine Hygiene: These healthcare items are written from the perspective of a man. If you are a woman, with brand loyalty to feminine healthcare products, consider stocking up on those items before leaving.
LIVING IN A HOSTEL ITEMS
There’s a difference between staying in a hostel for a week and living in a hostel for a year. There are certain headaches you tolerate for a week that that left untreated will drive you crazy over the course of a year. These are the comfort items that made hostel living easier.
Travel Pillow: This is as much a cleanliness decision as a comfort decision. I rarely had issues with the quality of a hostel bed or pillow but felt that sleeping with a travel pillow on top of the hostel pillow kept me cleaner. The travel pillow also helps with sleeping on planes, trains, and buses or as a back support when you are awake. I prefer the Therm-a-Rest compression pillows because they have more versatility and are more comfortable than inflatable travel pillows. The trade-off is the Therm-a-Rest is clunkier and uses more space.
Sleeping Sheet: A similar cleanliness rational as the travel pillow but I also thought sleeping sheets helped for a more comfortable night’s sleep. Sleeping with a sheet helps to remove environment and condition variables of the hostel being too warm or too cold and the bed cover being too heavy or too soft. The sheet packs extremely tight so it doesn’t take up much space in your bag.
Ear Plugs: I opted for a slightly high-end, reusable pair of ear plugs over the disposable versions. The higher upfront expense saved money and space in my bag over the course of a year. The better product also didn’t place as much pressure on my ear cavity.
Eye Mask: I was late believer in eye masks. I tried eye masks in the past and found them uncomfortable to the point I thought they were delaying my sleep. Over time I learned to sleep with a mask, thought it improved my sleep, and I continue to wear one since I’ve returned.
Laundry Sack / Foldable Bag: You’ll need a way to keep yourself organized when you are spending a week in a hostel and need to separate your dirty clothes. REI sells a sack that stuffs into itself to a size that’s smaller than a fist. In a pinch this also provides a third bag to carry your belongings. My sack wasn’t the best quality but made it through a year on the road.
Flatware and Utensils: A year in a hostel means multiple meals in a hostel. Cheerios for breakfast and a salad for dinner help to keep costs down. Those meals require kitchenware items. I saw fewer hostels providing bowls, plates, and utensils. Even when they do, if you are traveling for a year, it’s a nice luxury to have your own kitchenware. You can stack items inside and around a bowl, so it takes up less space in your bag.
Travel Towel: I listed a travel towel originally and then removed it. Then brought it back. I used a travel towel when I was trekking through Patagonia and the Himalayas. It’s not a necessity, unless you are in those areas and looking to save space. There’s one major downside—these towels tend to produce a distinct bad smell. It’s a stink you’ve never smelled before. And it’s not because you packed a wet towel before letting it dry. The towel’s material produces an offensive odor. You can wash it, then dry it, it doesn’t matter—the bad odor never leaves. If you find a towel that doesn’t stink after you use it, let me know, I’d like to give it a try.
REPLACEMENT ITEMS, ELECTRONICS, AND EVERYTHING ELSE
The final category of basic items to pack is a catchall with the mindset that “if you lost the item, you would need to replace it.” That mindset came from my personal experience. I managed to lose something in every country I visited. A camera battery in the United Arab Emirates. A fleece in Singapore. A travel pillow in Myanmar. A Los Angeles Dodgers hat in Thailand. An iPad charger in Sri Lanka. These are items I replaced as soon as I knew they went missing. Although I needed to wait for a return to Los Angeles before I purchased a new Dodgers hat.
Fleece: The piece of clothing with the most utility. Good for early mornings. Good for late nights. Good for planes and trains. It dries quickly and packs light in a day pack. Hooded sweatshirts are too bulky and take too long to dry.
Electric Converter: The first of two items on this list that isn’t up for debate. Now picking a good converter. I’ve never had much luck. I’ve never found an all-in-one option I like at a reasonable price. I prefer the single pieces that can be carried in a pouch. If you lose an electric converter during your travels (which will happen), they are relatively easy to find.
TSA Travel Lock: The second item on this list that isn’t up for debate. You need a travel lock. If you lose one, you will immediately purchase a replacement. Use it to lock your bag when you check your luggage before a flight and use it to lock your items in storage at the hostel.
SD Card Reader: For $10 these devices are an easier option to share and upload your photos to the cloud than connecting your camera to your laptop.
Extra Camera Battery: Purchase the generic, off-brand version. It will work fine.
Passport Holder: I’m a big fan of a passport holder with a lanyard. My wife looks at me funny when I have the passport holder around my neck at the airport. Other travelers look at me like I’m some sort of novice who has never traveled before (I think). I don’t care.
When I traveled around the world, I constantly showed my passport to people. To enter the airport. To obtain my plane tickets. To pass through airport security. At the hotel’s front desk. To train conductors. On train rides, I liked sleeping with the passport holder on my body. After showing my passport to the conductor I rolled back to sleep rather than stuff the passport in my bag. I become nervous with constantly handling an important piece of identification. I liked having my passport in the same spot every time—around my neck. When you return home, the holder serves as protective storage container for your passport.
I did not include a pocketknife/Leatherman or a flashlight in the basics because I rarely used either of these items.
Add your electronics. Add your clothes. The bag is packed and it’s time to go.
You’d think, with all the multinational healthcare corporations, there’d be consistency with healthcare items across countries. That’s not the case. Other than toothpaste, it was difficult to find the U.S. brands I prefer when traveling internationally. In my experience it was better to stock up on the U.S. brands than purchase the local equivalents.
Contact Lenses and Contact Lens Solution: There’s a brand of contact lenses and cleaning solution I like. I stocked up on a year’s supply of contact lenses before I left. I ran out of contact lens solution during my travels and cycled through brand after brand never finding a solution that worked as well as the one back home. I also traveled with two pairs of eye glasses.
Razors: All shaving cream is shaving cream. All shampoo is shampoo. All soap is soap. I can easily switch from brand to brand. All razors are not razors. When it comes to razors, the Gillette Mach 5 is in a class of its own. I picked up a 12-pack at BJ’s Wholesale Club for $40 that lasted for my entire travels.
Aspirin / Tylenol: I did not leave home on the first leg of my trip with a bottle of over-the-counter pain relievers. I thought that like in the U.S., I could walk into a convenience store or pharmacy and pick up a bottle when necessary. Internationally, these bottles were more difficult to find than I expected. In many countries the pain relievers are behind the counter and require a conversation with the pharmacy staff. It’s easier to pick up a bottle of Tylenol before you leave than to describe you want a pain reliever in a foreign pharmacy. If you really want to know why it’s difficult to purchase Tylenol outside the U.S., read what it does to your liver. Maybe Tylenol should be more difficult to purchase in the U.S.
Neosporin: Neosporin is another item that’s easier to purchase in advance rather than search for when you desperately need it. It doesn’t matter what foreign language is on the box, a Band-Aid looks like a Band-Aid—but trying to determine what ointment is in a tube? That’s not as easy.
Only in India: Carry toilet paper and hand sanitizer in your backpack when traveling through India.
Feminine Hygiene: These healthcare items are written from the perspective of a man. If you are a woman, with brand loyalty to feminine healthcare products, consider stocking up on those items before leaving.
LIVING IN A HOSTEL ITEMS
There’s a difference between staying in a hostel for a week and living in a hostel for a year. There are certain headaches you tolerate for a week that that left untreated will drive you crazy over the course of a year. These are the comfort items that made hostel living easier.
Travel Pillow: This is as much a cleanliness decision as a comfort decision. I rarely had issues with the quality of a hostel bed or pillow but felt that sleeping with a travel pillow on top of the hostel pillow kept me cleaner. The travel pillow also helps with sleeping on planes, trains, and buses or as a back support when you are awake. I prefer the Therm-a-Rest compression pillows because they have more versatility and are more comfortable than inflatable travel pillows. The trade-off is the Therm-a-Rest is clunkier and uses more space.
Sleeping Sheet: A similar cleanliness rational as the travel pillow but I also thought sleeping sheets helped for a more comfortable night’s sleep. Sleeping with a sheet helps to remove environment and condition variables of the hostel being too warm or too cold and the bed cover being too heavy or too soft. The sheet packs extremely tight so it doesn’t take up much space in your bag.
Ear Plugs: I opted for a slightly high-end, reusable pair of ear plugs over the disposable versions. The higher upfront expense saved money and space in my bag over the course of a year. The better product also didn’t place as much pressure on my ear cavity.
Eye Mask: I was late believer in eye masks. I tried eye masks in the past and found them uncomfortable to the point I thought they were delaying my sleep. Over time I learned to sleep with a mask, thought it improved my sleep, and I continue to wear one since I’ve returned.
Laundry Sack / Foldable Bag: You’ll need a way to keep yourself organized when you are spending a week in a hostel and need to separate your dirty clothes. REI sells a sack that stuffs into itself to a size that’s smaller than a fist. In a pinch this also provides a third bag to carry your belongings. My sack wasn’t the best quality but made it through a year on the road.
Flatware and Utensils: A year in a hostel means multiple meals in a hostel. Cheerios for breakfast and a salad for dinner help to keep costs down. Those meals require kitchenware items. I saw fewer hostels providing bowls, plates, and utensils. Even when they do, if you are traveling for a year, it’s a nice luxury to have your own kitchenware. You can stack items inside and around a bowl, so it takes up less space in your bag.
Travel Towel: I listed a travel towel originally and then removed it. Then brought it back. I used a travel towel when I was trekking through Patagonia and the Himalayas. It’s not a necessity, unless you are in those areas and looking to save space. There’s one major downside—these towels tend to produce a distinct bad smell. It’s a stink you’ve never smelled before. And it’s not because you packed a wet towel before letting it dry. The towel’s material produces an offensive odor. You can wash it, then dry it, it doesn’t matter—the bad odor never leaves. If you find a towel that doesn’t stink after you use it, let me know, I’d like to give it a try.
REPLACEMENT ITEMS, ELECTRONICS, AND EVERYTHING ELSE
The final category of basic items to pack is a catchall with the mindset that “if you lost the item, you would need to replace it.” That mindset came from my personal experience. I managed to lose something in every country I visited. A camera battery in the United Arab Emirates. A fleece in Singapore. A travel pillow in Myanmar. A Los Angeles Dodgers hat in Thailand. An iPad charger in Sri Lanka. These are items I replaced as soon as I knew they went missing. Although I needed to wait for a return to Los Angeles before I purchased a new Dodgers hat.
Fleece: The piece of clothing with the most utility. Good for early mornings. Good for late nights. Good for planes and trains. It dries quickly and packs light in a day pack. Hooded sweatshirts are too bulky and take too long to dry.
Electric Converter: The first of two items on this list that isn’t up for debate. Now picking a good converter. I’ve never had much luck. I’ve never found an all-in-one option I like at a reasonable price. I prefer the single pieces that can be carried in a pouch. If you lose an electric converter during your travels (which will happen), they are relatively easy to find.
TSA Travel Lock: The second item on this list that isn’t up for debate. You need a travel lock. If you lose one, you will immediately purchase a replacement. Use it to lock your bag when you check your luggage before a flight and use it to lock your items in storage at the hostel.
SD Card Reader: For $10 these devices are an easier option to share and upload your photos to the cloud than connecting your camera to your laptop.
Extra Camera Battery: Purchase the generic, off-brand version. It will work fine.
Passport Holder: I’m a big fan of a passport holder with a lanyard. My wife looks at me funny when I have the passport holder around my neck at the airport. Other travelers look at me like I’m some sort of novice who has never traveled before (I think). I don’t care.
When I traveled around the world, I constantly showed my passport to people. To enter the airport. To obtain my plane tickets. To pass through airport security. At the hotel’s front desk. To train conductors. On train rides, I liked sleeping with the passport holder on my body. After showing my passport to the conductor I rolled back to sleep rather than stuff the passport in my bag. I become nervous with constantly handling an important piece of identification. I liked having my passport in the same spot every time—around my neck. When you return home, the holder serves as protective storage container for your passport.
I did not include a pocketknife/Leatherman or a flashlight in the basics because I rarely used either of these items.
Add your electronics. Add your clothes. The bag is packed and it’s time to go.