9 Essential Travel Items I Wish I Had on My First Trip

When I first left home to go gallivanting around the globe in 2015, I had little experience, no time horizon, a tiny budget, and no set plan. How I miss those days! I booked a one-way flight out of the UK and spent the next few years in Europe, Asia, and Australia. I went wherever my fickle curiosity pointed me, without researching any place beforehand, to discover it naturally and at my own, slow pace. I was also woefully unprepared.

Setting off without a plan led me to many memorable experiences (and some bad ones) that I never would’ve had if I’d planned ahead. What was initially a one-week trip to Delhi turned into three months of exploring India. Hopping on a bus to Cambodia resulted in me running a bar in Sihanoukville. I wound up trekking the Himalayas after making new friends in Kathmandu. I even ended up somehow becoming a teacher in Vietnam.

Me with my new friends in the Himalayas!

Yet, as thankful as I am for having so many unexpected adventures due to my lack of preparation, there are still some life-saving travel items I wish I’d had along the way, just to make it all that little bit easier. I had the usual backpacker garb and hiking boots, some water-purifying tablets, books, a tablet, and a phone. But there are crucial traveler items that would have barely taken up any space in my bag and would’ve only improved every part of my journey.

I’ve put together this list to share what I now consider key parts of my traveler kit. Nine years into my world exploration, these are the essential items that I’d struggle traveling without today. Could that just be because of my (older) age? Maybe. Regardless, I’d strongly advise any traveler to pack these things for their next big trip if they haven’t already.

So, if you’re wondering what items to bring backpacking or what things to pack for traveling long-term, read on.

This list contains affiliate links. I don’t have partnerships with any of the businesses, and the list is legitimately of items I own. It’s simply a way for me to try to make a bit of extra income from sharing my thoughts. If any of the items take your fancy, using my links is greatly appreciated!

The images used are AI-generated.

1. Universal Travel Adaptor

In the UK, we have one of the least common – and most annoying – plug types, type G. These are only used in a few countries, so even traveling to a neighboring nation like France or Germany means I need to pack an adaptor. In just my first year of travel, I had to buy multiple adaptors for Europe, Asia, and Australia. With multiple devices to charge, I must’ve bought six adaptors in that year alone! Not only was it terribly wasteful – it was also far from budget-friendly.

Only when I was leaving Australia, two years into my journey, did I learn about the universal travel adaptor. This little tool is so amazing that I’ve ended up buying it as a gift for friends and family who love to travel!

Firstly, it lets you insert plugs from anywhere in the world into its many holes (oh grow up!), meaning you can use it for devices bought anywhere. Secondly, it has multiple prongs that you can eject by sliding a switch, so it can fit into just about any plug socket globally whether in China, Venezuela, or Iran. And, best of all, it has 4 USB sockets, so you can charge up to 5 devices at once!

I genuinely couldn’t live without my universal travel adaptor. Sitting here in London as I write this, I’ve got my Vietnam-bought laptop plugged into it in a UK socket, while my phone and headphones charge in the USB sockets.

They’re pretty cheap too, and take up only slightly more luggage space than a standard adaptor. The one that I bought, which has lasted me several years, is the Worldwide Travel Adapter with USB C and A Port. If you’re more technologically advanced than me, however, and need two USB-C ports rather than one, there’s the AUNNO Universal Travel Adapter, International Travel Plug Adapter with 2 USB-C and 2 USB Ports.

2. Pocket-Sized Torch

I know what most readers will be thinking with this one – “I’ve already got a torch, it’s called a phone!”. While I could hark on all day like an old man about how phones used to be just for phone calls, the truth is I love using my phone for absolutely everything, including lighting up the dark. I use my handy phone torch nearly every day.

However, when you’re out in the wilderness, taking treks in the mountains, or going on long incursions into the jungle, your phone battery just doesn’t cut it. Especially not when you’re creating memories by taking photos and filming it all, draining your precious battery percentage. By the time night falls after a long day of exploring, your phone battery will likely be close to red.

That’s why it’s always handy to have a pocket-sized torch on you. Mine has saved me from walking blindly through the pitch-black darkness on multiple occasions. Whether it was at the tail-end of a 22km trek to an Argentinian glacier, or after an earthquake in Nepal turned out the power for nearly two days, having a compact battery-powered torch to hand saved me.

It’s important to get a battery-powered one. You never know when you might fall victim to a power cut and have no place for charging when you’re in less developed countries. And with a decent torch and set of batteries, you could have light for hours.

Torches are such a basic technology, but I’d never go traveling without one now!

3. Padlock

A padlock might seem an obvious item to pack for most backpackers and travelers, but I managed two years without one. Most hostels I’ve stayed in did not provide a lock for personal storage spaces – that was the guest’s responsibility. My younger self would carelessly leave most of his belongings lying on the bed, or in his backpack on the floor, and hide valuables under his pillow. Maybe I was just lucky, but I never had anything go missing.

Nobody will find it here!

Although fate seemed to be kind to me, other travelers I met weren’t so lucky. I heard nightmarish stories of local thieves entering poorly guarded hostels and ransacking dorms, posing as staff. I met people who’ve had iPads, laptops, and cameras stolen, all worth $1000s of dollars.

While I never traveled with anything worth nearly that much, the stories were enough to scare me into action, and I bought my first padlock. When staying in hostel dorms filled with 20 strangers using storage with no lock, it’s better to be safe than sorry and padlock your valuable belongings while you’re out taking in the sights.

Having a padlock gave me a certain peace of mind that I didn’t know I needed, and I no longer had to worry if someone would see my laptop hidden under my pillow or find my camera at the bottom of my bag.

These days, I opt for a more advanced padlock. I’m pretty bad at losing little things, so a padlock with a key is a no-go for me. A simple 4-digit coded padlock like the TSA Luggage Lock has served me well over the years. And there are two just in case!

4. Inflatable Neck Travel Pillow

I used to think that those wearable neck pillows that people use to sleep on planes and coaches were for ‘flashpackers’ or rich people. Now, dozens of uncomfortable budget flights later, and with a slowly aging body, I can’t think of a single good reason to not own one.

I used to use hoodies wrapped around my neck to rest my weary head. While that’s a pretty ingenious way to not destroy my neck getting a few hours kip in a cramped seat on a plane, train, or coach, it wasn’t ideal, and certainly looked a bit silly.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with traveling the world comfortably – particularly if you’re going to be spending much of your travel time actually traveling. And if you’re concerned about luggage space, there are inflatable travel pillows to solve that issue!

The neck pillow that I use which has saved me from countless exhausted days after many a long-haul flight, is the FLOWZOOM AIR Inflatable Travel Pillow. It’s a bit more on the pricey side, but the material feels so smooth on my skin compared to the cheaper inflatable pillows I’ve used. Plus, it comes with a hood to block out those bright reading lights of other passengers onboard.

If you’re willing to sacrifice some comfort to save costs, I started off with the TALLGO Inflatable Travel Pillow, which does much of the same for less than a third of the price.

5. Sleep Mask

Now we’re on the subject of sleep, seems like the right place on the list for this next indispensable travel item – a sleep mask.

Getting a decent sleep is one of the hardest physical aspects of traveling. Whether it’s sleeping late in a busy dorm filled with people flicking lights on as they come in and out, or recovering during the daytime following a biological-clock-ruining, cross-time-zone flight, the lack of darkness can interrupt your much-needed beauty sleep.

An eye mask is a simple fix for any sleep issues you might encounter on the road (along with the next item on the list). Just chuck one on your face and you’ll be able to easily sleep through any fellow traveler sticking a torch in your face as they drunkenly look for their bed in the middle of the night.

There’s no need to go expensive or fancy for this item. Any eye mask will get the job done. You can usually find cheap masks in your local shops. Or if you want to combine some noise-drowning ambient sounds with your light blockers, you could opt for this awesome eye mask with built-in headphones. I must confess, I’ve only used mine twice in two years. But loudly playing the sound of rain to drown out the humming of the plane engines let me pass out in bliss.

6. Earplugs

This next item on the list is often forgotten yet so essential – earplugs. They’re simple, dirt cheap, and take up no space in your bag, yet will transform your sleeping experience wherever you are.

As I write this, I’m getting haunting flashbacks to multiple nights in my early travel days when I was woken up by things no person should ever have to wake up to. Some of the worst memories were; two roommates bumping uglies at 4 AM in the bunk above me, one (quite large) guy snoring so loudly that it took three of us to roll him over and stop the sound, and someone who’d had way too much to drink and was puking into a bin for over an hour.

To think, I could’ve remained blissfully ignorant of all of that, and saved myself from some of the more traumatic experiences (imagine having to look two people in the eyes after hearing them horizontal jogging), with something as simple as some earplugs! Even if you’re not in a hostel, a lot of cities, especially in the more built-up parts of Asia, are incredibly noisy.

Now, I get to be the chill guy in the hostel who doesn’t get annoyed when roommates come in late after a night of partying – because I’m none the wiser. With my eye mask and earplugs, the world could be ending around me, and I’d sleep through it, delightfully unaware!

You can usually find earplugs in any pharmacy or supermarket, super cheap.

7. Portable Charger

I honestly can’t believe that I ever traveled without this item – a portable USB power bank. All those times that I got lost in alien cities due to my phone dying could’ve been easily prevented if I’d just had one of these!

It seems most people these days already have a portable charger. For me, it took being severely hungover on a flight from France to the UK with a dead phone to impulsively buy one from the in-flight shop magazine. There’s something about being hungover that makes long stretches of boredom even harder to bear.

Since buying my Anker Power Bank I’ve rarely gone out without it. It charges my phone wirelessly, and usually gives two or three full charges. It even lasts up to 1500 hours on standby so if I forget to charge the power bank for several weeks while its in my backpack, I can still use it.

8. UV Water Sterilizing Bottle

When I first set off on my travels, my mum insisted I take some water purification tablets with me, going so far as to buy them for me and pop them in my backpack. It was a good few months until I even remembered I had them, while I was trekking the Annapurna Base Camp trail.

The river water in the Himalayas is already drinkable for the most part, but just to be safe I used a water purification tablet. The result was something that tasted a bit off. It didn’t taste bad, in fact, it had almost no taste at all, but it was missing that regular water taste that we all know and love. Needless to say, I never used them again.

Fast-forward to a few years later and I’m again trekking through mountains (the Chilean Andes this time), when a new travel companion pulls out this gadget I’ve never seen before, and sticks it in his freshly filled water bottle. I had no idea what this wild technology was at the time.

It turns out it was a UV water purifier. Call me out of touch with modern technology but I was seriously impressed with what it can do. Turns out, it can effectively kill bacteria, molds, mites, and viruses, turning water from almost any source into clean,- fresh, and drinkable water. And best of all, it didn’t end up producing that water purification tablet taste!

I ended up buying a UV water bottle before my next long trip to Asia. A lot of cities in Asia, particularly in the developing parts, don’t even have drinkable tap water. Having my Ninuo UV-C Sterilization Water Bottle handy meant I no longer had to seek out a vendor or café every time I got thirsty in the sweltering heat. I could just fill up at any tap and sterilize the water with ease!

The price tag is a bit steep for a water bottle. But in the long run, the amount I’ve saved from having to buy bottles of water everywhere has already paid for itself. That’s not even mentioning the sickness I’ve likely avoided!

9. Laundry Bag

When you’re living out of a backpack, stuffing dirty clothes back into it after they’ve been worn, your clothes get stinky. What’s worse is your supposedly clean clothes start to catch the musk of the dirty ones that they’ve been haphazardly squashed in with, leaving you with a whole backpack that smells like the inside of a shoe. Or is that just me?

Just picture it. You walk around all day exploring a city in the baking sun. You get sweaty. Your clothes get wet. And then at the end of the day, you take them off (and maybe if you’re smart, you dry them) and then chuck them back in your bag with all your other clothes. Of course your other clothes are going to catch some of that musk.

The solution to that problem is simple. Use a laundry bag!

I used to just put dirty clothes in a separate compartment in my backpack. But when it came to laundry day, I’d have to pour them out onto the floor and scoop them up in my arms, pungent musk an’ all, to carry them like a newborn baby to the laundry room.

Why oh why didn’t young me just get a laundry bag!? They’re fairly cheap and incredibly useful. I got the OTraki Dirty Laundry Travel Bag Waterproof Bag, which was particularly handy when I suffered through weeks of torrential rainfall in the Cambodian monsoon season. Now I’m an organized and clean little backpacker, with my dirty clothes ready to be popped in the washing machine in seconds with my fresh clothes stink-free.

So there you have it, my list of essential travel items, especially for long trips. Although you could definitely travel without each of the items I’ve mentioned, they will undoubtedly only improve your travel. So next time you’re packing that backpack for an adventure in some far-flung part of the world, come back to this list! I promise you you won’t regret bringing any of these crucial items with you on your travels.

Jason Law