I would like to consider myself at least somewhat good at knowing what to bring while traveling for someone barely 18. My family loves going to national parks and while that is only about once a year with the recent additions of college visit trips my sister took and a couple family gatherings, I've traveled quite a bit. I've flown across the country three times, two of those times by myself. My trips were not particularly long but I did learn a lot about airports and transferring planes. By the way, Detroit Airport is not small despite what my dad told me. There is literally a train on the ceiling that takes you down the concourse of 128 gates.
In addition to my travel experiences, last fall I spent over a month living out of a duffle bag and large reusable shopping bag. If that doesn't teach you what you do and don't need I don't know what does. Some differences are that I was camping so hygiene wasn't as important and it was also completely off grid. It's pretty easy to compensate for that, though.
This is what I brought with me for those 5 weeks. Some of it was useful and some of it wasn't and I did acquire a few more things by the end of the trip, like a manga book that my crewmates loved.
Here are my general packing tips:
1. You do not need as many clothes as you think you need!
I cannot tell you how many trips I have taken where I come home never having worn half the clothes I packed. If your trip is longer you are going to have to do laundry anyway so there is no need to bring a set of clothes for every single day. Also, let's be real, you are going to wear some pieces of clothing more than once before washing them. This fact alone makes packing much easier. Bring clothes that can be worn multiple times and with multiple things.
2. Bring clothes for all weather!
Yes you can check the weather reports but weather is weather and therefore completely unpredictable. For example, my family took a trip to Utah and it snowed on our drive in but by the time we left five days later it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit/27 degrees Celsius. No matter what bring at least one coat and at least one t-shirt/shorts set.
3. Roll your clothes!
Little trick from camping: roll your clothes so they take up less space. The physics of this makes no sense because a shirt is a shirt but it works. It's also just a smaller packing unit to work with.
4. Wear your biggest shoes!
When I travel, I usually bring two pairs of shoes. Either hiking boots and normal shoes or nice shoes and light shoes. Hiking boots are huge so I almost always wear those to the airport/train station/whatever because it leaves more space in your suitcase. While this does go against the easy to remove shoes recommendation for airports, that extra space can be invaluable (coming from the person that wore her giant work boots to the airport so we could bring a box of avocados back for my mother).
5. Bring three or so forms of travel entertainment!
If you are traveling with someone you don't need to bring as many because of that thing called talking (I've had awesome conversations while stuck next to friends and family in cars), but if you are traveling alone most likely you will be silent and bored. My standard options for entertainment while traveling are knitting, music (bring headphones), dumb games on my phone, books, writing letters, and playing cards. You will get bored of an activity after about 30 minutes so keep in mind how many cycles you are going to go through while in transit and bring a variety of activities according to that.
6. Bring snacks, especially the chocolate kind!
Depending on how and where you are traveling, you may or may not be able to sit down to eat a proper meal. Snacks are important to have in case you get hungry in the middle of transit. I particularly recommend any snack that has chocolate in it because travel is tiring and you have to be awake enough to get to the next step of your journey. Also a sweet treat can make sitting in a cramped seat that much better.
7. Pack your carry on so you can get to what you need easily!
This is mainly for getting to your stuff during transit. Don't be an idiot like me and put your books under your laptop when you know you are going to want to read on the plane. Put things like phone, headphones, books, and other activities at the top of your bag or in a smaller pocket so you can actually get to it without awkwardly digging through your bag while sitting in the middle seat of an airplane.
8. Make your baggage unique!
This is a bit more important for checked baggage but it's important for all baggage really. Basically make your baggage something that you can spot easily and know it's yours. For example, do you really want to be standing there trying to figure out which black suitcase in the overhead is yours while half the plane is standing behind you wanting to get out? Heck no! Last trip I took I used my old completion bag from gymnastics which is a small duffle bag with my name on it in pink letters so when it was my turn to get off the plane I just grabbed the strap and was on my way. As for checked bags, my family has a plethora of black suitcases as well (with the exception of the one orange suitcase and my red suitcase) but my mom ties a piece red fabric with white polka dots on it to all of our suitcases so it is easy to spot them on the carousel. This can also be achieved with luggage tags (Etsy has a good selection).
I'm probably going to make a part two but this is all I have for now! Hope you found it helpful! 😁
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