Glitter Spice’s Travel Essentials

I am currently in the process of packing for our 10-year anniversary trip to Santorini, Greece! I can’t believe that a trip that we have been talking about for so long is finally here. I also can’t believe that Derika and I are getting ready to celebrate our 10 year anniversary AND our 3 year wedding anniversary! Where has the time gone!? As I have been running round like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get organized for the trip, I began to throw together a collection of things that will definitely be underneath the seat in front of me on the plane. This list is a combination of things that will make my flight more pleasant, in addition to things that would be a pain in the butt to try to purchase when I got to my destination.

I have to admit that I am a TERRIBLE packer; I just want to bring ALL of the things! I am really trying to work on it and with each trip I get a little better…baby steps. As a rule, Derika and I try to not check our bags (unless we are forced). We keep our travel bags on the smaller end, which helps me from getting carried away. I find that the bigger the bag, the more stuff that I cram into it. I have not been out of the country in 3 years, so I admit that I am a little out of practice. Since I am constantly struggling with what to pack, I figured that other people must struggle with this as well. So I thought that I would share some of my travel essentials with you. I am hoping that by walking you through my essentials, it will help me to streamline things a bit.

Here is my current list in no particular order.

• Sun Hat – I have super fair skin, so whenever I travel to a sunny location I try to bring at least one sun hat. I don’t want to end up 18 shades of magenta before I have even started my vacation. Also nothing is worse than a crispy scalp that you fried in the sun. It is not that I cannot buy a hat when I get there; I just prefer to have at least one hat with me that I know I will feel comfortable in.

• Playing Cards – Whether you are on the plane, in the hotel bar, or hanging out in the airport terminal. It is always nice to have some playing cards to help pass the time.

• Sarong– Derika has 4 sarongs from her college days that have become a very valuable travel companion. The sarong is great, because it acts as a super thin easy to pack towel for the beach. It can also be used as a quick bathing suit cover up. I hate putting dry shorts over a wet bathing suit. The sarong solves this problem, because you can easily wrap it around you on your short hike back to your car for dry clothes.

• Trail Mix – I LOVE snacks! As some of you may already know, I think that having the right travel snacks are key to winning any trip. Read my tips and tricks here.

• Gum – Gum is a must for me when I am flying, and fresh breath will make you and your neighbor a happy camper. I once got on a plane and the woman next to me asked if I had just gotten done eating garlic!? I hadn’t and yet I was totally mortified.  It was probably her shoeless feet that were causing the smell, but I popped a piece of gum in my mouth just to be sure.

• Bathing Suit – I don’t care where I am going; I always bring my swimsuit. There is nothing worse than getting an unexpected opportunity to frolic in some water and you don’t have your bathing suit. I don’t know about you, but I am not a huge fan of swimsuit shopping, so it is always nice to know that I have one on hand that I feel comfortable in.

• 3oz Travel Flask – A couple of years ago I discovered the most amazing thing. YOU CAN BRING YOUR OWN FLASK ON THE PLANE!!! I really don’t need my flask for this trip since we are flying internationally, but I like to bring it when we are traveling in the US. The great thing about this flask is that it is 3 ounces. I can fill it up at home with my favorite alcohol, and then put it in my toiletry bag with all my 3 ounce travel bottles. You might get questioned at airport security, but I have always been honest when they ask if there is alcohol in my flask and I have never had it taken away. This will save you ALL of the money on the plane! 🙂

• Reusable Bag – I love the teeny reusable Chico bags that have a carabineer attached to them, and can fold up into a convenient little traveling sack. I have one of these bags attached to my purse at all times. You never know when you are going to need a bag, and once you get use to carrying this around with you, you won’t even notice that it is there.

• Face Wipes – These Rodan and Fields face wipes have been a game changer for when I travel. They are called eye wipes, but you can use them on your face, neck, hands etc. They even have a moisturizer in them that leaves your face feeling clean and refreshed. These are just a nice added bonus to help you freshen up after a long flight.

• Julia the MTU – Oh, Julia the Mystical Traveling how I love you so! Julia is always in my purse whenever I leave the house, so it only makes sense for her to come with me when I leave the country. She is a great travel companion who LOVES to photo bomb.  She also enjoys long walks on the beach and twinkling her hooves in the sand…

• Perfume – I like to have a teeny travel bottle of perfume with me when I travel, so that I can use it to help me freshen up between the airport and the hotel. You can usually find a smaller version of your favorite scent right next to where you purchased your full-sized perfume.

• Sunscreen – We made the mistake of not bringing sunscreen with us on our last international adventure. This mistake forced us to buy a $23 bottle of spray sunscreen when we were in Tahiti, that did not even work when we got it back to the hotel! That was the first time I have ever returned sunscreen. We didn’t think about how far the sunscreen had to come in order to get to the island and were not prepared to sell our first-born in order to keep me stocked up on sunscreen for the trip.  I want to make sure that we can go to the pool right when we get to our hotel, so having some sunscreen on hand will help to make this happen.

• Deodorant – So fresh and so clean clean! I don’t really need to explain why deodorant is a nice thing to have after a long flight.  However, I am currently in the process of testing out a handful of natural deodorants and I am currently in love with this one LAVANILA The Healthy Deodorant. 

• Light Weight Scarf – The temperature can change so quickly when you are traveling. You can go from sweating your brains out in the taxi to freezing your tush off in the airport. The scarf is a quick fix to an unexpected temperature change, and it also is great to have as extra cover just in case you get seated by the window and forgot to put on your sunscreen. Scarves also make me feel fancy 🙂

• Travel Brush– I am not lucky enough to have curly hair like Derika. So it is nice to have a teeny brush with me when we land, so that I can try to tame the weird airplane bed head until we get to the hotel.

• iPad – I load my iPad with all of the movies that Derika does not want to watch and have a movie marathon on the flight. I also download a handful of books for long flights to help the time go by. Watching movies on the plane is amazing, because they make the flight go by so much faster.

• Sunglasses – I always forget, break or lose my sunglasses when we are traveling, and I usually end up buying a pair while we are traveling. I enjoy picking up the random sunglasses on our travels. However, it is really nice to have a good pair on you for your travel adventure.

• Light Jacket – Once again the temperature tends to change pretty quickly when you are on the plane, so a light jacket is always nice to have. Even if you don’t put on your jacket, it acts as a great pillow when you need one. I am currently obsessed with the Lululemon jackets (see photo below). They are lightweight and you can get a lot of wear out of them before they look like they need to be washed. They also make me look very very fast 🙂

Thanks for helping me get ready for my trip! I hope that this post helped you as much as it helped me. Surprisingly, I still have room in my bag! I am probably going to try to squeeze in a crochet project and some haribo gummy bears (my guilty travel pleasure).  Now I just need to figure out what sunglasses I am going to bring…

Happy Traveling!

Posted by Danielle Heckman & filed under Uncategorized. This post has 2 comments.