Things to remember?

Question

I'm going away for a week. I always always forget something. 10 points to the person who can give me the best list of things to bring!

Answer 1

u can forget everything but not your credit card / money

Answer 2

wallet

Visa

passport

hairbrush

dvd player

dvds

cd player

cds

sansa

umbrella

Flashlight

Batteries

ipod

clothes

toothbrush

Cellphone

book

Swimsuit

toothpaste

Money

tampons

pads

underwear

sunscreen

camera

camcorder

Mini Sewing/Repair Kit

PRE-DEPARTURE  

   Get your FXCheatSheet

  Read the Travel Advisory for your destination

  Passport

  Visa

  Health Documentation

  Transportation Tickets

  Emergency Information

  Insurance

  Hotel Reservations

  Traveler's Checks

  Currency

  Credit Cards

  Guide Books and Maps

  Trip Cancellation/Medical Insurance

  Personal Identification

  Photocopies of Documentation

  Special Event Reservations (art, popular festivals, sporting events)

BASICS

  Luggage/Travel Pack

  Travel Clothing



  Rain Protection

  Travel Footwear

  Visor or Brimmed Hat

  Camera, Film

  Video Camera, Tapes

  Radiation Shield for Film

  Water Bottle

  Language Books

  Reading Materials

  Address Book

  Travel Journal

  Scarf/Bandanna

  Games/Playing Cards

  Binoculars

  Travel Lock

  Luggage I.D. Tags

MAINTENANCE ITEMS

  Flashlight Batteries/Bulb

  Matches or Lighter

  Camera Batteries

  Mini Sewing/Repair Kit

  Duct Tape

  Portable Lightweight Travel Iron or Steamer

  Travel Clothesline & Clothespins

  Sink Stopper for Hotel Sinks

  Mesh Bag for Dirty Laundry

  Zipclose Plastic Bags

MEDICATION

*Please consult your local health center or personal physician for help in planning your trip's medication needs.

  Aspirin/Pain Reliever

  Cold Medicine



  Contact Lens Preparation

  Diarrhea Medicine

  Laxative

  Insect Repellent

  Sunscreen

  Sunburn Relief

  Antibiotic Cream

  Malaria Pills

  Motion Sickness Medicine

  Personal Hygiene Items

  Personal Prescription

  Water Purification System

  Vitamins

TOILETRIES

  Comb/Brush

  Toothbrush/Paste

  Dental Floss

  Deodorant

  Soap: Personal and Laundry

  Skin Care Lotions/Creams

  Make Up

  Mirror

  Manicure Articles

  Shampoo

  Sunscreen/Lip Balm

  Towelettes

  Shaving Cream

  Blow Dryer

  Towel/Washcloth

  Nalgene® Bottles (for shampoo & laundry soap)

HOME CHECKLIST

  Stop deliveries

  Have Post Office hold mail

  Arrange for care of pets, lawn and house plants

  Set-up a timed lighting system

  Check timed night lighting system

  Notify local police of your absence

  Leave house key and trip itinerary with a neighbor

  Empty refrigerator

  Eliminate possible fire hazards (unplug appliances, etc.)

  Turn down thermostat

  Turn off water heater

  Store valuables in a safe place

  Lock all doors and windows

10 ESSENTIALS



Everyday Bag: In transit it will hold all of the valuables you want to keep close: tickets, mini-camera and reading material.

First-Aid Kit: A compact travel health kit is a must for every traveler.

Passport/Money Carrier: It is absolutely essential to keep your passport and money secure.

Travel Watch or Alarm: It should be quartz or battery operated, lightweight, water resistant, shock resistant and reliable.

Pocket Knife: Travelers might find the following features handy: A basic blade, can and bottle opener, scissors, tweezers and corkscrew.

Electrical Converter/Adapter: This allows you to use your personal appliances abroad.

Flashlight/Head Lamp: Light a hallway, read in a train compartment, or study a map under the stars.

Sunglasses: Protect your eyes from harmful ultraviolet and infrared radiation, especially if you are traveling at higher altitudes.

Travel Organizer: The ultimate in convenience for carrying identification, tickets, trip itineraries, receipts and addresses.

A Positive Attitude: Travel sometimes means expecting the unexpected: delays, detours, unfamiliar surroundings, strange languages and funny money. So, remember always to take along a big smile.

Absolutely

Here are things that it is difficult to imagine not packing:

Toiletries

Toothpaste

Toothbrush

Contact lens equipment and spare glasses

You might also wish to consider extended-wear contact lenses, especially if you are going to be going somewhere with poor water supplies (e.g. camping).

Makeup (for business trips)

Razor

Hair care equipment (brushes, comb, blow dryer)

You might wish to consider growing a beard, letting your leg hair grow out, and/or getting a crewcut (yes, women too!) if you are going on a long, low-budget trip.

Condoms

These might be unavailable or difficult to obtain where you are going, especially in Catholic countries.

Business/calling cards

If you are traveling on business, the utility of business cards should be obvious. Small cards with your name and address can be very handy for tourists as well, to give to the people you make friends with along the way.

If you are doing a low-budget trip, you should also bring cleansing products:

Soap (in a plastic bag)

Shampoo (or shave your head and use bar soap)

Towel

If you will be looking at ceilings (like on a castle or church crawl), bring a small mirror so that you won't strain your neck.

Clothes

My rule of thumb is to take enough underwear for one week, or for the length of the trip plus two days, whichever is shorter.

If you are traveling on business, you can probably take two suits and rotate between them. Try to take different colors of shirts/blouses; mixing and matching might fool people into thinking you brought more clothes than you did.

If you are going on an extended trip, pick one color and stick with it. If you are part of Generation X, rejoice, as black travels very well. You can get horse slobber all over your black jeans, and as long as nobody stands too close, you'll look fine.

Plan on inclement weather. It will happen, and everybody there will say, "Oh, it almost never rains/snows/hails/blows/floods like this! This is very unusual weather." In particular, be prepared for it being colder than you expect. A polypropelene shirt is a wonderful thing to take traveling with you: it is light, very warm (even when wet), and dries quickly. Packing a Gore-Tex shell is another good way to save a vacation; Gore-Tex rain pants wouldn't hurt.

(Californians and other desert denizens, take note: what will dry out overnight in California might take two days to dry out in wetter climes!)

I also recommend bringing a pair of flip-flops (also called thongs or shower slippers). Not only can they come between you and the strange things that are growing in the bathroom of the scummy dive you ended up in, but if your shoes get wet, this gives you something that you can wear while they dry.

Miscellaneous

Day pack

If you are doing any sort of sight-seeing, take some sort of small backpack or f***y pack. You will want to carry maps and perhaps phrase books, guidebooks, water bottles, sunglasses, and so on.

Neck wallet or money belt

This is especially important on the hostel/train circuit. Keep most of your money hidden away underneath your clothes. If you are as paranoid as I am, you might even want to go to a two- or three-level system: keep passport, airline tickets, and the bulk of your money in a money belt, about US$50-100 in a neck wallet, and about US$5-10 in your jeans pockets.

Tiny flashlight

This is optional, but you can get really tiny flashlights, and they can come in very handy.

Tape and magic marker

This is very useful if you are shipping a bicycle or anything else in a box.

Earplugs, waterbottle (with water!), chewing gum, food

These can make your plane trip much more enjoyable. Aside from being noisy and prone to pressure changes, airplane cabins are very dry, and you will tend to dehydrate if left in one long enough. The gum helps with depressurization, and airline food is, well, about as good as airline food.

Phone Numbers

Imagine that you got rerouted to Omaha, Nebraska because of the weather, and then got all the runways were iced over. You really want to have the number of Aunt Martha, who lives in Omaha. You won't care that you haven't seen Aunt Martha for seventeen years - anyplace with a bed is better than the airport floor.

Passport

Even if you are inside the country, it is a good idea to take your passport with you. It is light and you never know when your company is going to want to send you to China, the Feds (or Mafia) are going to catch up with you, you're going to fall in love with a s**y Italian, or your rich great-uncle in Ghana is going to die. At a trade show in Dallas, I bumped into some former colleagues who asked if I'd like a quick contract that would involve leaving for Paris the next day. Had I had my passport with me, I would have gone.

Passports can also act as identification if your wallet gets lost or stolen.

Watch with alarm

A cheap digital watch with an alarm is small, light, and very useful.

Outside Your Country

Phone beeper

If you have an answering machine or voicemail to check while abroad, you will probably need a small electrical device to generate the appropriate phone tones for your country. (In the US, you can get these devices cheaply at Radio Shack.)

Electrical transformers/plug adaptors

Most places in the world have different plugs and different power supplies. If you want to use your computer/modem/electric razor/alarm clock abroad, you will need to get equipment to translate from "your power" to "their power".

Bicycles

Hex wrench

You can get sets of wrenches that all fold together.

Spoke wrench, tire irons

Unless you are certain that your wheel will never become untrue and your tires never puncture, take along these small tools.

Crescent wrench

(Only needed if your pedals can't be removed with a hex wrench.)

Patch kit

These come in little boxes and take very little room.

You might also want to give serious consideration to Kevlar tires. They are heavier, but much much much less prone to flats.

Leave It Behind!

Do not pack camp fuel or even an empty fuel container. In some countries, the airlines get upset about even the SMELL of fuel. (I am not joking. See my New Zealand Trip Report for a discussion of all the hassles we went through.) If you plan on camping, bring a stove that does not have an integrated fuel canister and leave the fuel at home.

It is a very good idea to avoid controlled substances. You probably do not want an extended vacation in another country's jail system, even if room and board is free.

If you are traveling internationally, be very hesitant to take anything for anyone else, especially if you do not know them well. At best, the airlines will ask you lots of questions about what you are taking. At worst, the airplane will explode and you will die. (The Lockerbie crash, if I recall correctly, was caused by an explosive device carried on by a passenger for her fiancee. Nice guy.)

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See also Diana Fairechild's How Should Jet Travelers Pack?.

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Go to Tips For Travellers

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Ducky

Copyright, Kaitlin Duck Sherwood, 1994

You may reproduce this document in whole or in part without my permission provided that you do not receive money for it, you do not alter it, and you attribute the author (me). You are enthusiatically encouraged to link to this page, but please email me if you do so.



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