Hi there, I’m travelling around Europe for three months from the middle of september until the middle of december. me and my travelling partner are starting off in alicante and ending up in brussels, taking in portugal, spain, morocco, italy, greece, turkey, eastern europe, germany and france on the way.
my question and plea for help is: can you give me your travel essentials? i’m making packing lists at the minute and i can’t shake that feeling i’m missing something essential. any ideas would be greatly appreciated and treasured. thank you!
I would say DEFINITELY cutlery, even if it’s just plastic. A pocketknife would help.
A sleep mask and earplugs. I lost my sleepmask about 3 weeks into a 9 week trip and it SUCKED.
This may sound stupid, but I really recommend multivitamins. 3 months is a long time and you won’t be eating your normal diet and getting your regular amount of sleep. Traveling is super draining and if you get run down it’s really hard to get back on top of things again.
If you’re doing budget traveling (in hostels etc) a clothesline and pegs are useful, but not essential – it saves money on laundromats all the time and you can wash things in the sinks if you need to.
- hair dryer (if you usually use one)
- towels
- flip-flops/slippers that you can use in the shower
- needles and thread of main colours to use in case some of your clothes need stitching
- cell phone/batteries chargers (with adapters if needed)
- windproof jacket (mine is very thin and folds into one of its pockets, saved me from freezing or catching a cold a LOT of times), even better if it’s rainproof as well
- band-aids and medicine for most important pains/illnesses: head/tooth/tummy aches, coughing, sneezing, sore throat, stuffy nose
Have a great time! :)
windproof ajcket is something i hadnt thought of – thanks so much
The big question is: what’s your budget? If you’ll be eating in restaurants all the time and staying in two star hotels, you’re already covered on a lot of “essentials” that a backpacker would desperately need. I’ll assume, though, that you’re backpacking since 3 months is a bit of a stretch.
-A pack towel (a quick-drying, compact towel). If you’ll be doing any camping or any hostel stays, one of these will be very handy. They cost about $20.
-Like the poster above said, get sturdy plastic cutlery. The Rick Steves store (travelstore.ricksteves.com) has very good plastic cutlery for $5.
-Small travel alarm clock. Get the most compact one you can find. They’ll run you about $20. However, if you’re taking your cell phone, you can nix this idea and just use your cell phone as an alarm clock.
-Plug adapter. Most chargers for electronics (like cell phones and digital cameras) can handle both 110 & 220, so all you’ll need is a simple plug adapter.
-Money belt and locks for luggage. Don’t lock the luggage before you get on the plane, though, or the TSA will kindly remove it for you.
-And don’t forget Pepto Bismol tablets and small packets of handi-wipes, which are indispensible when on the road.
Regardless of my travel budget, those last four items on my list are ALWAYS packed.
pepto bismol tablets are a god send…i need to remeber to pack those for my trip too
our budget is miniscule. we will doing everything as cheaply as possible! thansk for the advice, it seems like you have a lot of knowledge.
i have no idea what the hostel experience will be like and i’m getting really good advice from online communities such as this.
thanks again xxx
If you’re hostelling then you’ll also want a sleep sack (somebody already recommended one). Definitely take the time to shope around a bit and get a good lock for your luggage, and maybe even get a second lock for hostel luggage lockers. If your budget is really that small, any amount of theft could really set you back, so it’ll pay to be a little extra careful.
Since you won’t be in hotels, go to your local supermarket or drug store and look for the aisle with “sample size” toiletries. Everything there is ideally sized for travel…travel-sized toothbrushes & toothpaste, shampoo, shaving cream, and travel toilet paper…all sorts of stuff.
also, if you’re staying in hostels, you could save a lot of money buying a sleepsheet. i think i got mine at REI, but it’s basically a sleeping bag liner that gets pretty small, that way i didn’t have to pay for sheets or sleep on sketchy ones…. other people have suggested just sewing a sheet (or even just folding one over) works well too.
definitely earplugs and an alarm clock.
i’d also bring a small padlock as most hostels have lockers but then you have to rent the locks.
Yay to everything mentioned above.
Also…. a couple of small bottles of purrell hand sanitizer. Most places in Europe are sketchy on the soap.
If you wear glasses, bring eye glass cleaner.
And definitely remember bandaids!!!