Trying to figure out the best packing gear for international travel before your next trip? You’re in the right place. Here are the 28 things that have actually earned a permanent spot in my bag after years of packing for flights, backpacking trails, and everything in between.
I’ve traveled to more countries than I can count at this point, and there’s still nothing worse than that feeling of realizing you accidentally missed something, especially when you’re that far from home. You want your comforts. You want to be able to freshen up before you land. And you want everything you actually need within reach in your carry-on, not buried in a checked bag somewhere under the plane. That’s the whole point of this list: knowing exactly what earns a spot in your carry-on versus what can ride in checked luggage, so you’re never the person digging through your bag wishing you’d packed differently.
A decade of living in Chiang Mai and moving through Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, and beyond will teach you fast which gear is worth the suitcase space and which is just something an ad convinced you to buy. This list is the stuff that survived. No filler, nothing I haven’t actually seen hold up on the road, and nothing here just because it’s popular on Amazon this week.
This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through one of them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I only recommend things I’d tell a friend to pack.
This post is all about the best packing gear for international travel.
These days I’m a rolling suitcase person, though I’ve done plenty of trips with just a backpack too. It really comes down to where I’m headed. If I know a destination is going to be cobblestone heavy, a backpack wins every time. If I know I’ll be relying on Grab, Uber, or Lyft to get around, the suitcase comes out, because it’s so much easier to maneuver through an airport and I’m not dealing with sore shoulders by day two. It really is a preference thing. If you’re doing an actual backpacking trip, or you’re a student flying budget airlines with strict weight limits, go with the backpack.
1. Osprey Farpoint 40 Travel Backpack This is the backpack every long-term backpacker eventually recommends to a friend, and there’s a reason it shows up in nearly every “what I packed” post on the internet. Forty liters fits in an overhead bin on almost every airline, the separate daypack that clips on is genuinely useful for day trips, and it’s built to survive being thrown into the back of a tuk tuk more times than you’d like to admit.
2. Away The Carry-On If you’re more of a wheels person than a straps person, this is the one that made hardside carry-ons a whole personality on Instagram for a reason. The compression system genuinely buys you extra packing room, and the build quality holds up to years of baggage handlers who are not being gentle with your bag.
3. TSA-Approved Luggage Cable Lock A five dollar item that TSA can open without cutting and everyone else can’t. Not exciting, but it’s the difference between “my bag was searched” and “my zipper is broken now.”
4. Compression Packing Cubes (Full Set) When you’re unpacking and repacking every few days, organization stops being optional. One cube per category (tops, bottoms, underwear, tech) and you can find anything in your bag in the dark, in a hostel dorm, without waking up your roommates.
5. Sea to Summit Hanging Toiletry Bag Hooks onto a shower rod, a door, a nail, basically anything, which matters a lot more than it sounds like it should when you’re dealing with a guesthouse bathroom with zero counter space.
6. GoToob+ Silicone Travel Bottles (Set) The ones that actually don’t leak in your bag, which after enough ruined t-shirts from cheap dollar-store bottles is a genuinely low bar that most bottles still fail to clear. Squeeze them empty for TSA carry-on rules, then refill on the road.
7. Digital Luggage Scale Fifteen dollars to never again do the airport shuffle of pulling items out of your suitcase in front of a check-in line because you guessed wrong on weight. Worth it every single time.
As a nomad, I’m pretty open when it comes to tech recommendations, but there are two things I genuinely never travel without. The first is my laptop. I can’t work from anywhere in the world without it, since I run my own design agency no matter what country I happen to be in. The second is headphones, and I’ll get into why below.
8. MacBook Pro This isn’t optional gear for me the way it might be for you. I run my agency from wherever I am, so I need a laptop that can actually keep up. If you’re doing any kind of remote work on the road, budget for one that can handle it rather than trying to make an old laptop stretch across a whole trip.
9. Anker PowerCore 20,000mAh Portable Charger For overnight buses with no outlets, full sightseeing days running Google Maps, and the airport gate that’s somehow always the one without a working power strip. Go bigger than you think you need.
10. Epicka Universal Travel Adapter One adapter, every plug type, built-in USB ports. The single item that makes “which countries use which outlets” a problem you never have to think about again.
11. Apple AirTag (4-Pack) Drop one in your checked bag and one in your daypack. Airlines lose bags. Knowing exactly where yours is sitting on a tarmac in a layover city is worth the twenty minutes it takes to set up.
12. Anker Soundcore Life Q30 Noise-Cancelling Headphones Airports are loud, flights are loud, and sometimes you just want to block out the entire world for a few hours. These are the pair I actually reach for, and they’re the budget pick that consistently gets recommended over headphones twice the price.
13. Kindle Paperwhite An entire backpack’s worth of books in something that weighs less than a paperback and doesn’t die on a beach in direct sun the way your phone screen will.
14. Trtl Travel Pillow Not the inflatable horseshoe kind. This one’s a scarf with a built-in support brace, it packs completely flat, and it’s the pillow most long-haul frequent flyers switch to after the traditional kind stops working for them.
15. Silk Sleeping Bag Liner / Sleep Sack Budget guesthouses range from perfectly fine to situations where you’re genuinely relieved to have your own layer between you and the sheets. Weighs almost nothing and packs down to the size of a fist.
16. Eye Mask and Earplug Set A ten dollar purchase that improves sleep quality on every overnight flight, bus, and thin-walled guesthouse for the rest of the trip. Buy two sets so you’re not the person asking your seatmate for theirs.
17. Compression Socks Not glamorous, but anyone who’s landed after a 14-hour flight with swollen ankles becomes a compression sock believer immediately. Cheap insurance against the worst part of long-haul travel.
18. LifeStraw Filtered Water Bottle Tap water isn’t safe to drink in a lot of the world. Buying single-use plastic bottles every day for weeks is expensive and genuinely grim for the environment. This lets you refill from basically any water source and filters as you drink.
19. Hidden Money Belt The single most overlooked item on most packing lists, until someone’s standing in a crowded market wishing they had one. A flat, under-clothes belt for your passport, emergency cash, and backup card.
20. RFID-Blocking Wallet or Card Sleeve Contactless card skimming is a real issue in busy tourist areas. This costs almost nothing and takes up no extra space in a wallet you’re already carrying.
21. Compact Travel First Aid Kit Blister plasters, antiseptic wipes, basic pain relief, and rehydration salts. You’ll either never open it or be extremely glad you have it, and there’s no way to know in advance which trip that’ll be.
22. DEET Insect Repellent Mosquito-borne illness is a bigger deal in a lot of popular destinations than most first-time international travelers realize. A 30 to 50 percent DEET spray is the one your doctor will actually recommend before a trip.
23. Reef-Safe Sunscreen SPF 50 Regular sunscreen abroad is either expensive, hard to find in a high SPF, or full of whitening agents that aren’t what most Western travelers expect on their skin. Bring a full tube from home, especially anywhere with coral reefs.
24. Packable Rain Jacket Folds down to almost nothing and will save you more than once, monsoon season or not. Weather abroad doesn’t care what your itinerary says.
25. Quick-Dry Microfiber Travel Towel Budget guesthouses are hit or miss on towels, and this one dries in under an hour, packs down to nothing, and doubles as a beach mat when you need it to.
26. Sarong or Lightweight Travel Scarf Temples across a lot of the world require covered shoulders and knees. This means you’re never turned away at the entrance, and it doubles as a beach wrap the rest of the time or a blanket on a long-haul flight!
27. Teva Walking Sandals Flip flops are fine for the beach and nothing else. These handle a full day of walking, city streets, and the occasional river crossing without falling apart on you halfway through a trip.
28. Travel-Size Laundry Detergent Sheets Weigh basically nothing, take up no space, and mean you can sink-wash a shirt in a hotel bathroom instead of paying guesthouse laundry prices every few days on a longer trip.
What’s the one thing you should never travel internationally without? Travel insurance isn’t gear, but it’s the one thing on this entire list that actually matters more than any item above it. I wrote a full, honest review of the one I use after years abroad if you want the details: SafetyWing Nomad Insurance review.
Do I really need all 28 of these items? No. This is a full list to pick from, not a mandate. If you’re doing a week in Europe, you can skip the mosquito repellent and money belt. If you’re backpacking Southeast Asia for months, you’ll want closer to all of it.
What’s the most underrated item on this list? The hidden money belt and the digital luggage scale. Neither is exciting to buy, and both save you from an actual bad day on the road.
Can I buy all of this cheaper somewhere other than Amazon? Sometimes, but Amazon’s return policy and Prime shipping speed make it the easiest place to actually get gear before a trip, especially if you’re buying last minute.
What should I pack differently for a beach trip versus a city trip? Swap the packable rain jacket and compression socks for more sun protection and swim gear, and lean harder into the sarong and reef-safe sunscreen. Everything else on this list works for both.
This is the list I actually go back to before every international trip, not a list I put together for a blog post. Bookmark it, come back to it before your next flight, and skip the stuff that doesn’t fit how you actually travel.
This post was all about the best packing gear for international travel.
Save this guide to Pinterest so you have it the next time you’re packing for an international trip.
Hey there, I'm Angelique!
I'm a Filipina-American, Chicago native living abroad and running my online design agency from Chiang Mai, Thailand. Over a decade of traveling in, and yes, I still pinch myself. With family split between the US, UK, and SE Asia, travel has always been part of my story. This blog is where I share the honest side of living and traveling abroad, the places I explore, and the little hacks that make this life actually work. Glad you're here, friend!
Ang Around The Globe is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
I share what I'm actually doing, where I'm going, and the things I wish I'd known before I booked the flight. No spam, just the good stuff that you'll actually enjoy reading.