My travel equipment
Mount Fuji, 2025
My wife and I have traveled to over 20 countries. After one of our first trips together, we realized that carrying large suitcases didn’t fit our style of traveling. So we made our first dedicated “travel” purchase: Osprey backpacks. That eventually led us to discover the “Onebag” community, a group of people who do all kinds of travel with a single backpack as overhead cabin baggage. They also share their packing lists, which can be great inspiration. Learning from others helped us a lot in refining our own style. We added our own flavor too, bought new gear, experimented with different setups, etc.
At this point, I’d say we’re proficient one-and-a-half-baggers.
For me, travel equipment is either something I bought specifically for travel or something I bring on most trips. We don’t impulse buy often, so I’d like to think there aren’t many “useless” items on this list (although who knows).
This has been our main “onebag” for years. We use it as overhead cabin baggage. If you’re used to large suitcases, a single bag can feel small, but I assure you, 40L is a massive amount of space. Its solid structure, combined with the sternum strap, makes carrying heavier loads fairly easy. It’s also compliant with most airlines’ overhead baggage size requirements (though always check your airline’s specific limits). That said, this bag is big and heavy. It weighs roughly 1.5 kg by itself, which can be a problem since many airlines (especially in Southeast Asia) enforce a 7 kg cabin baggage limit.
We recently bought this after running into issues with the 7 kg cabin baggage limits on Southeast Asian airlines. IMO, this is the perfect onebag backpack (also ranked #1 in the r/onebag tier list). It’s 26L by default but expands to 32L, while weighing only around 800 grams. It works great as overhead cabin baggage, but also as a personal item since its dimensions are relatively compact. It’s also affordable compared to similar options from other brands. I don’t really have major downsides for this bag, but coming from a backpack with a waist strap, this one definitely feels heavier on the shoulders. If you plan to carry your bag for extended periods, it might not be the best fit.
We bought this bag early on our travels, but didn't use it for quite some time. However, after trying a lot of different bags, we've finally settled on this as our favorite "daypack", and half bag (as in one-and-a-half-bag) It can fit a lot of stuff in it, and when not used, you can just pack it.
We used these compressions packing cubes for a long time, however flying more frequently to Asia where 7kg limitation is the norm, we slowly stopped using them because the entire set is several hundred grams. However, if weight is no concern they are pretty solid. It's really easy to compress stuff with them, they are sturdy, and they offer a separate space for dirty laundry which is awesome.
We bought these because they are extremely lightweight. The entire set is less than a hundred grams. I usually use the smallest bag as a tech pocket, and the bigger ones for clothes. After experimenting with travelling without packing cubes IMO they are a must, especially if you are changing places often.
This is an amazing crossbody bag, and I've used it in a couple of my trips. However, I've realized Osprey Ultralight Stuff Pack to be better fit for my use case. It really, really is an awesome bag though.
Not much to say here, Steam Deck rocks.
My iPad is my (current) favorite travel companion. I play games on it (some favs: Planescape: Torment, KOTOR 1 and 2, Civ VI and VII) read books, watch stuff. I bring a Type C -> HDMI cable and connect it to the hotel TVs. I use it for lightweight programming via Cloud services.
Is a must :-)
This product turns any bottle into a bidet. Although, it is a great product, we just couldn't get used to it.
Since we pack light, we usually have to wash our laundry when travelling. IMO, this is the best way of bringing detergant with you.
Scrubba is a portable "washing machine". It is esentially a drybag with some bumps inside that help with cleaning the clothes. It makes a great combo with the magic leaves above. However, after travelling for a while we've realized that the hard part of washing clothes without a washing machine is not the washing part, but the drying part. So we often don't bring it with us.
Microfiber towels are amazing, they absorb well, dry significantly fast, and they are highly compact. That being said we usually don't bring them along nowadays as we usually don't need towels, and when we do we just use a Turkish bath towel.
- Turkish Bath Towel
Turkish bath towels are super absorbant and lightweight. IMO they also serve well as thin blankets. We have "high quality" and generic ones, and IMO they are both fine, so I wouldn't bother buying expensive ones.
These are phone holders for the plane. While they work very well, I usually don't bring mine along anymore. Nowadays planes have decent entertaintment systems, and if that's not enough I usually use my iPad.
This is a great strap for securing your phone while taking photos. Definitely a must bring for us.
Uniqlo Airism Tshirts have been my "travel" tshirts for a while. Great breathability, affordable prices, decent look. However, I'm a bit concerned a bit their build quality.
These are my favorite shorts of all time for travelling. They are very comfortable, with a breathable fabric. The pockets have zippers, which gives you an ease of mind when travelling. Since they come in basic colors, they are also a great fit for capsule wardrobes.
Light, comfortable boxers. They dry quickly after washing. Great product overall.
Comfortable, lightweight, water repellent, packable jacket. They are not very warm though, so you might want another layer. We don't bring them along as much anymore, as we'd like to bring more "stylish" jackets.
These **slippers can pack flat, dry really fast, and are non slippery. They are one of my fav purchases.
- Crocs
I think Crocs are great and very flexible. However, they are also very bulky. I'm thinking about replacing them something with more lightweight.
Ok, I didn't buy by AirPods for travelling, but I couldn't travel without them. I love them overall, they pair well with my other products, are lightweight, comfortable, and have decent ANC.
Great wireless microphone. Works well with cameras and phones.
We never fly without our plane socks from Sockwell. The compression feels a bit strange eventually, but after countless flights, I could wear them all day long.
One of the best purchases we've ever made were these water bottles. They are super lightweight, and take little to no space. They are so good people asked us where we bought them.
Great, lightweight electric brush suitable for travelling. However, looking at recent comments apparently they've replaced the USB-C port with something else which would make me reconsider.
- Generic Travel Adapter
A travel adapter is a must when abroad. Ours is a generic one with some sockets and USB ports.
Brew Buddy is a portable brewing device for making coffee/tea. I think it is a decent product, but I usually don't use them anymore.
- Generic Inflatable Neck Pillow
I know some people using them and are content, but inflatable neck pillows just didn't work for us. So we bought different products.
Good quality, affordable neck pillow. Works very well.
These are decent neck pillows that can be mounted on the plane seat, further stabilizing the pillow. I think they are a bit overpriced though. The pillowcase has stitches coming out after handwashing it (more like soaking it) once. The pillow itself is comfortable, but doesn't justify almost the triple price.
We've used generic sleepmasks before (that came out of travelling sets) and these are definitely an upgrade. They are way more comfortable and the pressure helps.
After getting caught in a rain in Prague we bought these covers and never looked back. It's been more than 3 years and tens of travels, and they are still holding well.
Simple bag covers for water protection.
Great, hight quality rain jackets. We now realized our way of travelling doesn't often require rain jackets though.
It's a tough job picking a "one shoe" as our travel setup has limited space. I have three main criteria for my use case: decent and flexible style, nice to walk on as we walk ~20km some days, water resistant.
I know some people prefer quicky drying shoes instead of water resistant, but this works well for me. Cloud 6 fits my critera, but so would many other shoes.
We don't have this particular bag, but one that is very similar. These are great for organizing, and using in anywhere thanks to their hooks, but they are also bulky and somewhat heavy.
Lovely water shoes, served us well so far.
I love my Beryl AX! Best travel out there.
Philips OneBlade makes a great travel trimmer/shaver. It's smaller than similar products, and the battery lasts long time.