It’s no secret that Tucker and I love to travel. I’d say it’s definitely one of our main hobbies, and like most hobbies, it takes up its fair share of our time and surprisingly comes with quite a bit of equipment. Travel equipment? What? Hear me out! I recently started thinking about this when my parents gifted us yet another small suitcase, one of, I’d say, about 20 that we currently have in our “luggage closet” (don’t judge – we move a lot!) But in addition to our ridiculous collection of bags, we’ve actually collected lots of travel items over the years that make our lives on the road so much easier! Travel items that have absolutely been run through the gauntlet on a variety of trips at this point, so I can confidently vouch for them, and since it’s just about gift-giving time, I’d thought I’d share some of these things in case they might help you or your traveling friends on future trips. Just call me Santa’s little travel enthusiast!

Microfiber towels

Our time in Mexico (plus our most recent trip to the Caribbean) really helped us to perfect our beach travel, and one of the BEST things we bought specifically for beach/pool time were some microfiber towels. They fold up to be about the size a book, they’re super light, incredibly absorbent, quick-drying, basically everything you could ever ask of a towel. We got two large and two small and have used them on countless occasions (one of the small ones is now Jenn’s personal mat for when we take her out on the town, so they’re dog-approved as well).

Foldable, reusable bags

We originally got one of these foldable, lightweight grocery bags specifically for restocking our hotel/hostel fridge on longer trips, but now we keep one or two in every backpack/bag we take with us when we leave the house because you just never know when you’re going to need an extra bag! Wet shoes, surprise shopping, separating dirty laundry, cumbersome leftovers – they’re extremely useful no matter where you find yourself, and unlike the normal reusable grocery bags, these are never forgotten under the sink or in the trunk of our car.

Battery bank

This next item is completely commonplace in China, which is where we became converts, but I think maybe the rest of the world is catching on now too. Another travel item we absolutely can’t live without is our battery bank. It ensures we’re never desperately searching for an outlet or stranded somewhere with no way to get the information that we need. Ours is 10,000mAh, which means one charge of the bank is good for several cellphone (or kindle) charges. This one is also great for long car trips because in our experience the GPS sucks battery power faster than a car charger can keep up with!

Reusable bottles

I waited SO LONG to buy some good reusable shampoo bottles because I used to just refill whatever travel-sized ones we had. We had a few Polish brands for years, and I remember a particularly old Head & Shoulders bottle, but once I bought the real thing, I realized we should have done it sooner. They’re larger, they’re so easy to clean/refill, they have suction cups, so they can stick anywhere you need, they’re designed not to leak…I could go on. Trust me, they’re absolutely worth it.

Lightweight shoes

Shoes are another thing we consider to be a travel expense. I think combined Tucker and I only have something like 20 pairs of shoes, but of those 20, there are several repeats. For example, I have three or four pairs of Toms because they’re my preferred warm-weather shoe. They’re light/small enough for me to shove two pairs in my duffle bag, and that way if they get completely soaked one day, I don’t have to suffer in wet shoes the next. If you have a favorite pair of travel shoes, buy more. You also never know if/when they might be discontinued; I will forever mourn the loss of my last pair of Rocket Dogs. RIP.

Portable speaker

Fun in the car (especially if you’re like us and have no working AUX port), but also great for just hanging out in the hotel or on the beach, we use a Bluetooth speaker either for music or for listening to trivia podcasts together on most trips because it’s really so much better than our phone speakers. A single charge usually lasts us the whole trip, and I honestly just like the excuse to listen to more music when we’re on vacation!

Collapsible dog bowls

Another super useful (and inexpensive) item that has specifically made our dog-travel lives so much better is a collapsible dog bowl (or two). I think we got ours at Five Below, and we use them ALL THE TIME. Long walk on a hot day, we bring the water bowl. Going away for the weekend, we bring both bowls, which we immediately set up in the hotel or Airbnb for our well-traveled pup. It’s really so much easier than disrupting her normal bowls not to mention finding room for them in our bags, plus they’re really easy to pop out and use in the car in case she gets thirsty along the way. :)

Passport pocket

A somewhat surprising thing that we’ve ended up relying on in our travels is what we call our “passport pocket”. I think it actually came with my laptop case as a separate place to keep the charging cable, but whatever its intended use was, it now houses all the documents we need to access while traveling. On this last trip it held our passports, vaccination cards, immigration/customs forms, boarding passes, temporary driver’s license for Anguilla, and often my phone and ID as well. It’s SUPER convenient to have all that stuff collected and in one easy-to-grab/hold “pocket”.

A good backpack

In addition to all our suitcases, which of course include soft-sided, hard-shell, duffle bags, totes, and probably several other styles, our most-used bags continue to be our backpacks. If I was writing a Christmas list to Santa this year, a new and perfectly-suited backpack would be number one on the list. Tucker thinks the more pockets, the better, whereas I’m more of a simple two-pocket JanSport kind of traveler, but whatever your preference, a comfortable, durable backpack is one of the best travel investments you can make.

Shadow box

And last but not least, something for after you come home: a shadow box to collect all your mementos. My dad and I made the one we use years ago by cutting a slit in the top of a normal shadow box, but I know I’ve seen ones made explicitly for this purpose now. Every time we come home, we add our entrance tickets, public transit stubs, or any other little papers we collected throughout our trip. It’s a collection of free souvenirs and a work of art all in one!

So that’s my list of travel items that I think any function-focused traveler would be happy to get as a gift, and if you’re shopping for yourself (like we usually are), remember Boxing Day is a great day to get a lot of these things on sale! Happy shopping, happy travels, and happy December!