10 Items You Must Pack for Extended International Travel

In the weeks leading up to our initial departure, there was one question that continued to circle around in the back of my mind. How was I going to pack everything I would need for an entire year into a single backpack and duffel bag?

When it comes to clothes, gadgets, and essentials, there are several things that we have already come to appreciate in just two months of travel. There are also a few things that we will be sending home at the next opportunity. This post will cover our top 10 items for extended travel, as well as some other thoughts for packing for a sabbatical.

Here we are leaving the US with our travel gear for an entire year!

Packing Assumptions and Requirements for Extended Travel

Out list of essential items was assembled with the following assumptions. Although we are traveling for a year, many of the items and lessons we share can be used to improve the packing of even a casual traveler heading away for a week of vacation.

The questions that every traveler should reflect on before they start packing are:

1. What seasons will you be traveling in? Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer?
2. How many days will you plan to go between washes?
3. How are you planning to spend most of your time? Are you going on a world-wide bike trip, or will you be casually touring different spots?

For our travel, the general assumptions we started with to guide our packing were:

1. Primarily summer clothing – with 1-2 light jackets and jeans for cooler weather in the Scandanavian summer.
   1. We planned our trip to mostly travel in places that will be experiencing summer. This helped greatly to both reduce weight, since we didn’t need heavier winter clothing, and keep our packing more streamlined since we only needed one season’s worth of clothes.
2. Two weeks between loads of laundry – enough clothing to support 10-14 days between loads of laundry, primarily driven by our first cruise.
   1. We do wear pairs of shorts, jeans, and certain shirts several times before washing.
   2. Note: we both would have packed fewer clothes if it hadn’t been for the cruise.
3. Two bags each for casual touring – the ability to fit our life in to one Osprey backpack and one carry-on sized duffel bag would allow us to easily move around the cities and make it from each location to the next, carrying everything with us.
   1. This allows us to each only need to check one bag when flying, and gives us the flexibility to get into smaller spaces when required, vs. having a larger roll-on bag.

Other than those basic assumptions, it was personal preference and space that dictated how many pairs of shoes, how many nice outfits, how many workout clothes, and how many other items we decided to bring.

Now, let’s look at our top 10 items we wouldn’t be traveling without.

The Top 10 Travel Items for Extended Travel and Sabbaticals

OK, so besides passports and money, what other items have we found important for extended international travel?

The top 10 essential travel items for extended international travel include:

1. A lightweight computer
2. A Google cell phone using Project Fi
3. A decent camera
4. A sturdy backpack with hip and chest straps, with detachable day bag
5. A power converter with multiple outlets
6. An E-Reader or tablet
7. Travel towels
8. Compression packing bags
9. Vagabonding by Rolf Potts (book)
10. A credit card with no foreign transaction fees

We focused on items that would potentially be much more expensive or much harder to find if you realized you didn’t pack them before hitting the road.

We also didn’t include certain mandatory items in the above list, such as passports/IDs, prescriptions, and money (if not using credit cards), since those are table stakes to travel – so make sure you don’t forget those. Most other items, such as toiletries, clothing, and other consumables are easy enough to pick up at the local store as you need them.

Detailed Gear Recommendations and Rationale

There are many options for each of the broad categories that we listed, so we’ll provide our recommendation for each item. These recommendations are based on our personal experiences with each item while traveling, as well as optimizing for packing efficiency and cost.

Note: The below recommendations include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. This is at no additional cost to you. Each of these are items that we personally use, and the opinions are solely our own. If you have questions, check out our Affiliate Disclosure page.

Item	Balivin Recommendation	Reason
1 – Computer		Brian: I don’t do any gaming on my laptop and do all my photo/video storage in the cloud with Google Photos, so the 8GB RAM, Core i5 version with a 256GB SSD is more than sufficient for my needs, and it saved me several hundred dollars vs. the Core i7 version. I also got it with the Microsoft Surface Pro Type Cover. I use this Surface Pro several hours a day, and love how it is extremely lightweight, has phenomenal battery life, and includes a touch-screen and a pen that allow me to use it as a notebook or do hand sketches. I pair this with a Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse and my Bose QC15 headphones. Alyssa had a MacBook Pro that was a few years old but still functioned well, so she has been using that while on trave.
2 – Project Fi Cell Phone		Brian: Until 2018, my prior phone was a 7-year old Galaxy S3 that I had paid $0.99 for brand new. I don’t usually splurge on new electronics, but boasting the best built-in camera on a cell-phone was one of the big selling points of the Pixel 2 for me. This meant I wouldn’t need to carry around a second camera. I love everything about the phone, and running it with Google’s Project Fi ($20 referral link) means we get free SMS texts, low-cost voice calls, free WiFi calls, and cheap data all around the world. Alyssa is currently running Project Fi on the Moto X (4th Generation), since it was much cheaper and she planned to bring a nicer camera with optical zoom (see next item). While she came from an iPhone 5 previously, she loves the Android phone.
3 – Camera		While my Google Pixel 2 has a phenomenal camera, we decided it would be good to have a camera that also provided an optical zoom capability, as well as some more professional features, so we went with the PowerShot SX620HS. The WiFi capability makes it extremely easy to quickly download photos after a day or more of touring.
4 – Travel Backpack		Brian: Osprey Farpoint 55 Men’s Backpack – we wanted a bag that would be comfortable, rugged, and that could have a detachable day-bag for shorter trips. This bag has been excellent so far, providing everything we were looking for. Alyssa: Osprey Fairview 70 Women’s Backpack – similar to Brian’s bag, except for being the lady’s version and 15-liter additional capacity. Both of our Osprey bags have exceeded all our expectations thus far.
5 – Power Converter		Although the power converter may seem like a trivial item, having a high-quality, multiple-outlet power converter will prove key. This is something that you will use multiple times every day, so you don’t want to skimp on something to save a few dollars. The BESTEK power converter we have includes 3 US-style outlets, as well as two high-current USB ports and two lower-current ports on the side, meaning we can charge a lot of our devices at the end of a long day all at once and wake up with full charges.
6 – E-Reader		Brian: Kindle PaperWhite – this is low-cost, lets me read in the sun, and allows me to carry around an entire library of books in the palm of my hand. The battery life is fantastic, and for anything that I need color or tablet functionality for I simply use my Google Pixel 2 or Surface Pro. Alyssa: Amazon’s Fire HD 8 – for more tablet functionality and also acting as a mini laptop when paired with the Fintie Slim Keyboard Case for Amazon Fire HD 8, this has functioned well as both e-reader and tablet.
7 – Travel Towels		In all honesty, I still haven’t had to open my travel towels yet. Every Airbnb and hotel we have stayed in has provided towels; however, when the time comes that I need them, these super-absorbent, yet extremely light and compact towels will come in handy. They also function well as beach towels according to the reviews. Plan on bringing these if you plan on staying in lower-cost hostels, will be going to beaches, or are unsure of your lodging plans in advance. They are relatively cheap and don’t take up much space, and it would be difficult – and more expensive – to buy these once you are already on the road.
8 – Compression Bags		Another item that you may think you can do without, but compression packing bags serve two critical spaces for your travel. They allow you to easily compress and organize your items, such that you will have more space available and can reduce the size of the bags you will need. The airtight seal will protect your clothing from rain while you are walking around, but also protect it from dust, mildew, or other pests when storing your bag in areas that may be less than ideal.
9 – Vagabonding by Rolf Potts (book)		For the long-term traveler, the book Vagabonding by Rolf Potts is a must. Rather than being a detailed guide of how to plan or carry out your travels, Potts takes a more introspective look into the learning, growing, and spiritual side of why Vagabonding – i.e. long-term travel – can be beneficial for the traveler. Read from the author’s personal accounts of traveling, as well as key insights from many others that have ventured on a long-term trip.
10 – Rewards Credit Card with no Foreign Transaction Fees	Chase Sapphire Reserve (50,000 point sign-up bonus – up to $750 in travel, for using our referral link!)	Both of us use the Chase Sapphire Reserve as our primary travel rewards credit card. We have no foreign transaction fees, get 3% back on all dining and restaurants, and then get a 50% bonus when redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards points for travel. We’ll be doing more future posts about how to pair this card up and boost your other credit cards’ earning potential.

In addition to these physical items, no traveler should be without certain apps to provide privacy and security while traveling, as described in our post covering the three must-have apps and tools to protect your data while traveling.

Runner’s-Up and Special Items for Our Travel

While a few of the items mentioned below may not need to be on every traveler’s wish list, we have found these items to be either invaluable due to our personal preferences, or hard to find on the road.

1. Hand Blender
   1. If there’s one thing I miss from home, it’s my amazingly healthy and tasty smoothies. While I don’t always have all the ingredients, several places we have stayed have had small hand blenders. They would be easy to pack, lightweight, and would allow me to make smoothies anywhere on the road!
2. Laundry Lines
   1. Especially in Europe, they don’t use dryers like we do in the states. We typically hang our clothes on racks, but having some cheap laundry lines to hang clothes on as a backup is useful.
3. Travel Locks
   1. We purchased some small travel locks for our bag. This is useful for when we’re moving between locations, especially if we need to leave our bags at a bag-check to be able to venture around for the day and pick them up later.
4. First Aid Kit
   1. I was raised as an Eagle Scout, so I believe it’s good to always be prepared. You don’t need an expensive or elaborate first aid kit, but having a few antiseptic wipes, band-aids, and other simple supplies can help to keep any minor injuries on the road from becoming infected and turning into a much more expensive bill.

Items that We Will Be Sending Home Soon

Although we are only two months in, there are several items that we’ve either used only once, or in some cases, haven’t used at all. They are taking up extra weight and space, so we’ll be looking to send some of these items home, and would definitely re-consider whether we need them the next time we pack.

• Extra bottles of toothpaste, soap, batteries, etc.
  • We thought it would be wise to save a few dollars, buy some items in bulk before we departed, and bring toothpaste, contact lens solution, and other bulk items. Wrong. For how quickly these items get used and how much they weigh, just plan to spend an extra dollar or two on the road and buy these types of consumables as you need them.
• Men’s Suit Jacket
  • I brought a suit jacket almost exclusively for the purpose of the formal nights on the cruise. Not only is it large, hard to pack without creasing, and added weight, but I likely could have gotten away without it on the cruise.
• Oral Rehydration Salts
  • Fortunately, we haven’t needed these yet. However, especially for those traveling to parts of the world where the water isn’t potable and risk of food poisoning is much higher, these are a good backup option to get you rehydrated and back on your feet after an upset stomach.
• Travel Neck Pillow
  • We started with one of these thinking we would use it, but it was an added nuisance to carry around for the slight chance of needing it once a month.
  • An alternative option that may be a good substitute is a blow-up neck pillow, which would be lightweight and reduce in size much more for packing
• Extra Clothes!
  • In general, we both brought too many clothes. We packed for two weeks to get by on the cruise without doing laundry. Now, since we have weekly access to washer machines, we would both bring fewer clothes in the future.
  • It is also perfectly OK – assuming the clothes are clean – to wear the same outfit several times within a week or two while traveling. The cultural norms we adhere to at home of not wearing the same shirt each week don’t necessarily apply while on the road.

In the end, every traveler has unique plans and preferences that will require a variation in packing; no two traveler’s packing lists will ever be the same. However, with some insight from our experiences thus far, we hope to make your next packing experience or future travel to be much more enjoyable.