Since I’ve had a lot of experience traveling at this point in my life, I decided to do a mini series about my travel favorites. This is the second of three posts in this series. See my first post on travel tech here. Today I’m sharing my favorite packing gear and accessories. I’m sharing what we used to pack for our Europe backpacking trip, but I’ll also be sharing a couple of my favorite things I’ve used to pack for other types of trips.
REI Grand Tour 80 Travel Pack
This was my backpack for our 2.5 month trip around Western Europe. I had never done any trip like this before, so I really didn’t know what to expect. My husband, on the other hand, takes a backpacking trip every year on the Appalachian Trail, so I definitely had him help me figure out what I needed to look for in a backpack. This bag is about as large as you can get for something you plan to have on your back for extended periods of time. However, I’ve never been a light packer, so preparing for packing in this bag before the trip was a challenge.
The bag is 78.5 liters and its dimensions are 26 x 14.5 x 10 inches. One important thing to note is that this is too big to be an airplane carry-on. That was fine for me because we only traveled by plane three times on our backpacking trip: from the US to London, from Dublin to Brussels, and from Rome to the US. The rest of the time we traveled by train, and this bag was perfect for that type of travel.
My favorite part about this bag is the mini, detachable daypack attached to it. This was perfect to carry around on its own for exploring during the day. I found the main backpack too heavy when I kept the daypack attached, so I mostly carried it by hand whenever wearing the larger backpack. I actually found this to be a more secure way to carry my valuables since I had them right in my hand rather than attached behind me. Also, the daypack has a slot for a laptop, so I was able to safely carry my Macbook Air around Europe.
Another major perk to this backpack is that the main compartment is side loading as opposed to top loading. This is beneficial because you can access your things like a normal suitcase, rather than having to reach through the top.
At first this bag felt too heavy on my shoulders, and I thought I had made a mistake as I walked to our London Homeaway apartment from the train station. But, with Daniel’s help, I figured out that I wasn’t tightening the strap at my hips enough, so once I got that down and got used to carrying a backpack everywhere, it was just fine! I’ll share a packing list soon to show how little (or how much depending on your packing style!) I brought with me in this backpack.
Eagle Creek Pack-It Cubes
These little guys are amazing! I love how they make a bag look put-together without much effort. They kept my backpack organized even though we were packing and unpacking many times a week while on our trip. I brought two full-sized cubes and one quarter-sized cube in my backpack. I used one full-sized cube for shirts, one for pants, and the quarter-sized cube for socks. My husband used and enjoyed them too. [This is an Amazon affiliate link.]
Orla Kiely Wild Meadow Toiletries Kit
I decided to buy a hanging toiletries bag for our Europe trip anticipating that some of our accommodations would not have much counter space. I enjoyed using this Orla Kiely one from Target (this specific one is no longer available online, but Target has similar Orla Kiely cases here). It kept all of my toiletries organized, and I loved how there were two mesh compartments and one plastic one to prevent liquids from spilling into the whole bag.
Luggage Lock
I’ve started locking my bags with a TSA-approved lock any time I check a bag while flying. While I know a very determined thief could still break in, it makes me feel better to know there is some security that could protect against a spontaneous thief or even prevent the zipper from getting caught on another bag and being pulled open.
Lo & Sons Catalina Canvas Weekender
While I didn’t take this bag with me to Europe, I did take it to with me to Peru for a week last August, and I take it with me on pretty much any weekend trip we go on now. I love it! It has a compartment at the bottom that is perfect for shoes, and it’s just the right amount of space to pack for a weekend or for a very minimal week-long trip. The color is also a nice neutral that somehow hides dirty spots well despite how light it is. As a bonus, it is also machine washable!
That’s it! I hope you find this list useful for your upcoming travels! Please comment below if you have any other travel gear favorites. I’m always looking for new ideas!
{If you’d like to see my re-caps and travel recommendations for the places we visited on our 2.5 month trip across Western Europe, click here to check out all of my posts from this adventure!}
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