Necessities
by Jenn Lopez
What are the necessities when you’re traveling? There are so many websites, blogs, and amazon categories given to travel items, ideas, and hacks to help prepare you for your next trip. It can feel overwhelming when looking at all the things out there that you think you could, maybe should implement in your travel and packing. I’m here to tell you it’s different for every person, different for every family and there is no right way.
For instance, how long you’re on your trip and if you have any medical conditions can hugely change your packing and travel plans. I have fibromyalgia and chronic migraines and Edgar has asthma. Between us, scents and pollutants are a nightmare. Oh and our little one and I also have sensitive skin. So I tried to pack everything unscented that we had in the house and ended up with the max allowable toiletries for each of us. We had 30 - 100ml bottles of stuff between us, and that’s not including soaps and other solids. I can admit now, I went a little crazy. I wanted us to have everything we needed for as long as we could, even though there was no way those bottles were going to last 9 months.
Then in our first month of travel, I became a little hoarder of any product that were unscented that wasn’t a liquid. At one point, the products I was lugging around were more than the clothing I had in my suitcase. So ya know, there is always an adjustment period when you’re traveling for longer than your toiletries bottles will last you.
I’ll save what I bought, packed, and regretted for another post, but for now I just wanted to give you a little overview of what we considered necessary so you can consider these for yourself and see if it helps or if you think I’m crazy.
Most of the necessities that were hugely successful and have saved our butts have been actions and things implemented before leaving on our trip and not the list of “amazon travel must haves.”
Getting any prescriptions that you need are obvious, but if you’re going for several months, you may need to check how many refills you have left, in case you need to get another prescription from your doctor and start getting them from the pharmacy. Some pharmacies will only allow you so many per month, so ya know, check out what your specific situation is and act accordingly. We started getting organized with medications and prescriptions about three months out and it was plenty of time for our 9 month trip.
One HUGE lifesaver was to update your banking information and credit cards to include your email address and not just your phone number for receiving your 2-factor authentication codes. If your cell phone provider does not have a global plan or plans for the specific country you’re traveling to, not to worry, just set up the email verification on your banking. Use an e-sim provider or buy a local sim and you’re gold. Whatever floats your boat. Just do yourself a favor and add your email as a method of sending the codes. You’ll thank me later.
Another thing we did and actually saved us!! Having access to our banking login on each of our phones. Normally I just have my banking login on my app on my phone. But before we left, Edgar added his banking login on my phone app and mine to his. When my phone was pinned downtown Puerto Vallarta, it was a kick in the stomach for sure, but I was able to login to my banking on his phone and lock all my cards so at least if they were used, nothing would work. A little control and piece of mind in a horrible panicky situation.
Speaking of horrible panicky situations, battery banks, air tags, and e-sims. Just to mention a few of the items that have saved our butts more times than I would like to count at this point in our travels. We originally bought a little battery bank for our trip to the Orlando parks a couple of years ago. It was nice and small and compact and worked for several charges. It worked so well that for this trip, we bought a second one. There’s always one in my purse and one in the backpack in case we need anything charged on the go. Oh and we also bought for cheap on amazon, the short cords to connect our iphones and other electronics to the battery bank. Originally, I had a regular iphone charging cord in the little bag it came in, but soon realized it was a lot of space for just one cord, so we bought short cords and now can charge multiple devices at the same time with less room than the one cord took up. It doesn’t sound like much, but all combined, makes a difference.
The Airtags were also an Orlando purchase. Yes I was that parent that tagged their kid. We didn’t realize the security that was in place and hadn’t been to the parks in well over 10 years, so we went by worst case stories and thought, what could it hurt. Well with that trip done and realizing we were a little panicky, we started to hear about all the bags that were getting lost in Toronto airport and thought, we should tag our bags. And we tagged each of our suitcases in case they needed to be checked. Our backpacks with our electronics would always be with us under our seats so we weren’t too worried. But then we had two extras, so we tagged the little chest bag I wear with our passports in it on travel day, and Nora’s little chest bag with her gopro in it. And that saved her gopro. When at the Gruta in Mexico, we left her bag at the table and were so busy, we didn’t realize it was gone for weeks. We called and they said we didn’t have it. Thankfully, we were able to confirm that it was still there due to the Airtag, and sent them a photo. We told them where we had sat during our amazing dinner there, and sure enough, they found it. Airtag for the win!! That was around $800 of gear that could have been lost.
Another thing that seems like an obvious one is travel adaptors. We have two adaptors and they are smaller than any of the block ones and work great.
E-sims are also a life saver for sure. Being connected in this day and age is everything. Getting information and being able to present information, say your ticket for your flight or train, is important. The two companies we’ve been using are Airalo and Nomad. They work great and have 7 - 30 day packages that cover from one country to a group of countries. When we left LA, we bought the EU package, and it worked when we landed in Spain, and in Greece. We didn’t have to worry about changing countries or trying to get a sim right away. Even in Mexico when I did have a local sim, I started with a small data package just to get us where we needed to go when we got there. Now yes, if you read my blog on our arrival, it didn’t go smoothly, but I can tell you right now, that was user error. I was boozy and left it up to Edgar, who was also boozy. What?!? We were celebrating! They’ve worked perfectly since. Go figure.
So again, depending on where you go and for how long, you might not need any of these things. But out of all of the things we did buy and pack, these actions and items have been the difference between having access to our money, purchasing things like plane tickets, as well as keeping us connected to people, places, and things we need. You always hope you never need these items, but they’re a lifesaver when you do. Consider if you need them and go plan your next adventure.