What should I bring on Vacation? Travel Essentials

Trying to figure out “what do I bring on Vacation?” is super overwhelming! After traveling for the last 15 days it became clear what was essential and what wasn’t. These were the things on our trip that we used repeatedly. Some were even LIFESAVERS when it came to traveling with a toddler.

1. Calpak Luka Duffel Bag – I LOVE this bag. It feels like it can expand or contract based on your needs and fits underneath the seat in front of you on the plane. It has a separate compartment for shoes and tons of pockets inside. Plus it has my favorite feature, the luggage trolley sleeve. Makes it so easy to carry through the airport.
2. Calpak Luka Toiletry Bag – I bought this to match my duffel and when I travel I keep my $$, passport, chapstick, airpods, etc. It’s great because it makes it a one stop shop for anything I need to access frequently and keeps it all organized because it has many pockets. I don’t think I would use it as a toiletry bag because the one linked below is so much better!
3. Toiletry Bag – This bag will change your traveling life! Say goodbye to the mismatched gallon sized ziplocks (or was that just me?). It holds all my skincare, hair products and makeup. I got the smaller size but the larger one is big enough to fit all your full size beauty favorites.
4. Small Travel Sized Jewelry Organizer – This is perfect for packing the jewelry essentials. I never like to bring too much jewelry on vacation because I am afraid that I will lose it, but this is perfect.
5. Packing Cubes – When you are sharing a big suitcase with other people in your family I think these are essential. I packed my underwear in one, my swimsuits in another, all of my sons clothes in one. It just makes things so much easier to find verses digging through a giant mountain of clothes every time you need something.
6. Portable Phone Charger – You never know when your phone is going to die either on the airplane or down at the beach. This is great to have so you don’t have to worry. This battery will charge my entire phone TWICE. I also like that I don’t have to worry about bringing along a separate cord because it is built right in.
7. Luggage Weight – I never travel without one of these! It makes the whole getting to the airport experience so much less stressful. You go in knowing what you bags weigh and it makes packing so easy.
8. Sleeping Face Mask – How else will you sleep on the long haul flight? I like these because they have a contour spot that fits your eyes.
9. Ear Plugs – I have to have these when I travel because you never know what kind of weird ambient nose your hotel will have. Plus they are nice on the plane. I have tried a million different kinds and these are my favorite.
10. Air Pod Pros – Gotta have headphones to listen to your shows! On sale right now for $169.
11. Airfly Headphone Connector – This will make any bluetooth headphones hardwired, plus you can connect multiple pairs of headphones. So if you all want to watch an airline movie together or watch a movie from the same iPad this is awesome.
12. Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen – I am a total convert to this brand after our trip. My goal whenever I travel is to NOT tan. I used Unseen SunScreen, Glow Screen, Everyday Play Sunscreen and the Glow Stick. Loved them ALL. The Glow stick made putting sunscreen on my sons face SO SO SO easy.
13. Snail Mucin – This stuff sounds gross… but if you want the dewey vacation glow this is IT. We also used it at the end of the day on our sunburns and I swear it was so hydrating. I slathered it all over everyone in our family!
14. Pill box – Perfect for Advil and all the other things that would be nice to have on vacation so you don’t have to go to a pharmacy in another country and take your best shot at figuring out what the heck the label says.
15. DAE wavy hair spray – The perfect beach vacation addition. After a show I could spray my hair and scrunch and I had perfect beach hair.
16. Amazon Kids Kindle – You have to have movies and TV downloaded to entertain the kiddos. We use Disney+ and Amazon Prime to stock up. For this trip we had all the Cars movies, Mickey Mouse, and Scooby Doo all ready to go.
17. Kids Headphones – These can be hardwired or bluetooth, plus they have built in volume control so even at the highest setting it won’t hurt your kiddos ears.
18. Fun Snack container – This was a hail mary right before a meltdown on our flight from Dallas to London and let’s just say… it WORKED. We kept refilling it all week and bringing it down to the pool. All the kids loved grabbing a snack from it.
19. Kids Scooter – This stroller/scooter combo SAVED us in the airport. My son thought it was so fun and we didn’t have any of the normal stroller drama with him not wanting to get in. It folds down super small and can fit in the overhead compartment on the airplane which is so nice because I have had many strollers injured by gate check baggage.
20. A dirty laundry bag! We needed one desperately because we were staying in a small hotel room for so long. It looks like most packing cubes come with this now, but ours our old so we didn’t have one! I ordered this one to have on hand for next time
21. Tide Pen – with limited clothing options and no easy way to do laundry, a way to spot clean our clothes would’ve been really helpful to elongate their wear
22. These Birkenstocks. My slide bit the dust shortly into our trip and my mom had these. They were super comfy and perfect for beach/sand.

Things I forgot that are also essential!

1. Portable Sound Machine – Our son sleeps with one of these at home so having a portable one for travel is a  must!
2. Megababe Thigh Rescue – During the summertime, THIS SAVES ME. My thighs rub together and normally at the pool for days on end it becomes a little painful. This eliminates all of the friction and rubbing. We all used it on this last trip, even Michael!
3. Travel Black Out Curtain – We have used this many times. Perfect for when you are staying at a airbnb or family members house and don’t know what the window covering situation is going to be like. Hotels are pretty good about having black out shades.