Packing a few little things can make a big difference when you’re travelling long term. You already know about noise cancelling headphones, packing cubes, portable chargers. But here are a few things you won’t find on every generic list of packing essentials: post-it notes, S-hooks, a Google Chromecast, a multiboard, and a length of rope. Here’s why they’re long term travel packing tips I needed to share.
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5 game-changing things to pack for long term travel
These five little items are so easy to pack but make a huge impact on your quality of life when travelling long term. They’re so useful you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of them yourself. (I certainly wish I’d gotten them years ago.)
Post-it notes
Post-it notes are the best reminder to take stuff with you! This is probably my favourite one.
If you’re in the same accom for a month, it’s easy to forget you put your extra cables in that small desk drawer. Or when the hotel safe is tucked away at the bottom of the closet, you might overlook it when you’re rushing out the door for an early flight.
I use post-it notes at every single place we stay so I don’t forget my expensive Wegovy GLP-1 in the fridge. I put one on the outside of the fridge and one at the front door as a last-minute reminder. You stop “seeing” the post-it notes on the day-to-day, but you’ll notice them when you go into pack-up mode.
Read more: Travelling with Wegovy Injections
S-hooks
We’ve stayed at too many places where there aren’t enough (or sometimes any?) spots to hang your towels. We got a little four-pack of S hooks that hang over a glass shower wall, door handle, patio fence, or whatever. They cost nothing, weigh nothing, and take up no space. But when you need them, they’re sooo nice to have.
Make sure you get the kind with the little rubber ends so they don’t damage your stuff.
Google Chromecast
This lets you stay signed in on all your apps — Netflix, Apple TV, Disney, YouTube, Crave, TVNZ, BritBox — you name it. Which is huge because once you’re signed out, it’s sometimes hard to sign back in if you’re not on your home wifi network or able to receive a confirmation text.
Carrying a Chromecast doesn’t make sense if you’re just on a short vacation. But if you’re travelling long term, it’s nice to actually use the TV at your accom. And this way you don’t have to remember to sign out of your Netflix account on a stranger’s TV. It even come with its own little remote, which means no fumbling around with the 3 miscellaneous remotes your host left you with no instructions.
This doubles as another example of when we use post-it notes. I always stick one to the wall next to the TV so we remember to unplug the Chromecast before we go.
Multiboard
In case the hotel/Airbnb doesn’t have enough plugs, pack your own multiboard. The benefit is two-fold:
- More plugs
- More of your home plugs
If your toothbrush charger, hair straightener, laptop charging block, etc., are all North American plugs but you only have a few adapters, you constantly have to switch things out. But with a multiboard, you just need one adapter and then the rest of the plugs are your home plugs. Genius, really. You can even get universal multiboards for optimum plug flexibility.
Side note: It’s also super helpful to have a long cable for when there’s only one plug and it’s across the room. I use one that’s 2 metres, which feels excessive but it has come in handy more times than I can count.
A length of rope or a long strap
This is just useful when you need to MacGyver something. Hang stuff up at the beach, create a makeshift laundry line, a DIY bag strap — you can get creative.
It’s another thing that takes up literally no space but will come in handy for long term travel more than you might expect.
On the boat, it’s a DIY strap for our dry bag. Later, it will become a laundry line to hang our swimsuits on our hotel balcony.
Naomi Lai
Naomi is a Canadian travel editor and writer with 13 years of international travel across Southeast Asia, Europe, South America, New Zealand, and beyond. She covers everything from budget backpacking to luxury travel — always from personal experience.
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