Top 5 Travel Must Haves

A few weeks ago I was on a trip with a friend and he was writing a post about travel must haves. Here’s what I always have in my suitcase

Beauty Items:

If you’ve ever worn nail polish you know it peels eventually. There’s nothing worse than being on vacation (or on a business trip for that matter) and having half peeled nail polish.  I’ve tried all kinds of nail polish wipes and they all seemed to smell and dry out quickly.   Last year I found these Bare Naked Nail Wipes by Josie Maran at Sephora and was hooked.  These wipes are oil based, not acetone based, so they don’t dry out quickly.  With the lid sealed tight, mine lasted about a year before they started drying out.  That’s a small miracle ladies!  These wipes have a very pleasant smell and they’re nourishing for the cuticles.   You have to try these to believe how good they are, but once you do, prepared to be hooked.   They sell for $9 in a travel sized container which includes 20 wipes.

After a long flight or a day outside, it’s nice to be able to wipe your face.  I personally don’t like anything too scented, so it can be hard to find a face-friendly wipe sometimes.  I found a 3-pack of Ole Henricksen face wipes at Sephora and out of the three packs I found I really liked the Grease Relief Cleansing Cloths in oil free.  They had a very mild minty scent and left my face feeling very clean.  The other two were scented, one with lavender and one with citrus, and were a bit too strong for me, but they all felt nice on my skin.  These sell for $15 each or $18 for the 3-pack (the 3-pack has much fewer of each type of wipe than the full-size packs.)

My lips dry out when I travel, heck, my skin dries out when I travel too.  But I have a great solution for dry lips.  I discovered Malin + Goetz Lip Moisturizer onboard a Delta flight and haven’t put it down since.  This gloss is thick, but not goopy. It stays put, even when drinking. It has a nice shine and always makes my lips feel better.  I have tons of them now – in my purse, in my wallet, in my backpack, in my toiletries bag, and on my nightstand.  I can’t get enough of them.  This gloss will run you $12 but it’s totally worth the cost.  They have a Mojito scented gloss as well, and I like it, but not as much as the good old standard gloss.

Travel Accessories

Travel Accessories are those little things that you pack because you might not find it at your destination or it’s just something you can’t live without.  For me, a good nights sleep requires a dark room.  I can’t tell you how many times I have battles with hotel drapery trying to get them to close all the way or finding things in the room to keep the small gap closed.  Now I carry along with me a clothes pin for just those situations.  A clothes pin keeps the pesky drapery closed and allows me to get a good nights sleep (or at least gives me a dark room to try to sleep in.)

Scotch tape is a travel must. You just never know when you’ll find a use for some tape.  I often find carry-on liquid containers are leaky and a bit of scotch tape keeps them closed.  Last minute issue with your hem?  If you don’t have time to sew, or can’t find the needle, a little tape will keep your hem up for a short time. There are dozens of uses for scotch tape that I never would have thought of…but now that I have it, I always seem to think of new ways to use it.

Ziplock bags are a staple in any suitcase these days, I think. I always have a few extras tucked away in my suitcase. For the same reason I carry scotch tape, extra bags are essential. Things leak and cleaning out a soapy baggie is a pain. If I need a new, clean bag, I’ve got it.  On that occasional trip where something gets wet and doesn’t dry before it has to be packed, a spare bag can save you (I also use the hotel plastic laundry bags for this type of thing as well.)

I have flown around the world literally dozens of times. I’ve clocked almost 3 million miles on airplanes and have occasionally had issues with swollen feet.  I often had to laugh because I’d fly to London from New York and find my feet swollen and then a month later fly to Thailand from New York and have no problems at all with swelling.   I had a very scary incident following a flight from Lima to Atlanta when I developed a small blood clot (there were some very unusual circumstances that led up to that.)  But now I always make sure I have compression socks with me.  I use a brand called Bondi Band which has a lot of styles, these aren’t your grandmas compression socks!  Now I use these as a preventative measure on long flights and I’ll continue to use them as well.

So what are your travel must haves?