Vegan Voyage Travel Packing Guide
Luggage, Makeup, Miscellaneous and Packing Tips
Vegan Voyage
We are off on a 21 country Vegan Voyage to connect the vegan community and eat delicious food from around the world. Read all about it in our Vegan Voyage blog! Hence, we need a Vegan Voyage Packing Guide.
Packing
Packing for a big international trip can be quite daunting. That’s how we felt when we started figuring out what items to bring on our 4+ month, 20+ country trip around the world. Nearly 20 weeks is a long time to be away from all of the comforts of home. So to decide what to bring and what to leave at home is a daunting process. We looked at items in two different categories with different guidelines:
- Bulky items: only bring what we really need (fewer the better or buy a lightweight version)
- Lightweight items: take what will keep us healthy, use often, or would be difficult to buy abroad.
Note: This post was not sponsored by any of the brands in it, except for a few items that were given to us to try out to see if they would be good travel options. However if you click through our links to purchase, most of the time, we will get a tiny commission for the item being sold, even though you won’t pay a penny more. So if you like something in this blog, please use our links to find it 🙂
First up: LUGGAGE
Most millennials embarking on trips to other continents choose to backpack, and for good reason. Many places around the world make it difficult to roll your luggage because of uneven and rough roadways and it’s quite convenient to throw your gear on your back when you get in a pickle such as needing run up stairs to catch a train. The big downside to a backpack is being forced to carry the weight of everything on your back between destinations. If backpacking doesn’t scare you, go try on bags at your local REI to help guide your purchase. For the wheeled luggage fans out there, like us, we have a great solution for you!
Meet Osprey’s convertible bags. Their Ozone, Sojourn, and Meridian bags are very high quality and not only come with big, smooth wheels but they can also be converted into backpacks. This allows you to wheel your luggage whenever you are blessed with smooth sidewalks, escalators, and elevators but switch over to a backpack once you hit rough roads or stairs. This versatility is crucial on a long trip with many different destinations and unknown situations.
The Ozone:
The Sojourn:
The Meridian:
Waist Strap Notes
We decided against the Meridian due to the lack of a waist strap. Carrying bulky luggage on your back is difficult enough that we didn’t dare buy a convertible backpack without a waist strap. If you buy a convertible backpack, make sure to check for this feature as it’s come and gone on the different models and sizes over the last couple years. You’ll be grateful to have the added comfort of a waist strap for anything longer than a short walk with 30-50 pounds hanging from your back.
First up, the Ozone pack. The only convertible size with a waist strap that suited our needs was the 50 liter. You should be able to sneak the 50L as a carry-on for most of your flights even though it’s technically oversized for most non-US airlines. The awesome thing about the Ozone pack is the included day pack that zips on to the main pack with ease. Getting two bags for the price of one is great, please it doesn’t get easier than an integrated zipper when it comes to combining your two packs.
The Sojourn packs are another great alternative. The big downside to this pack is the lack of a second daypack, unlike the Ozone. However, where this pack makes up for it is in the durability and size. The Sojourn 45L pack is actually larger than the 50L of the Ozone if you exclude the volume of the daypack. This little extra volume may go a long way if you want the extra space but need to stick to a carry-on size. It also comes in an 80L size if you know you’re ok with checking your bag. We went with the 80L as one of our packs mainly because we had a lot of film equipment to carry on our trip.
Ultimately, both the Ozone and the Sojourn are great bags. If you want the integrated day bag, then go with the Ozone. If that feature isn’t valuable to you or you want a larger bag to check, go with the Sojourn.
Makeup:
I brought a small bag with my favorite makeup items. Check out my blog on cruelty-free vegan beauty products to see the items I love.
Miscellaneous items:
- USB Wall Charger: this 4 port charger is small and compact for travel. Instead of figuring out how to rotate all of your devices through the limited number of outlets or power adapters, make sure to bring a charging hub with at least four ports to charge all of your units at once. This is a gamechanger.
- If you’re bringing a DSLR or mirrorless camera, finding a good tripod can be difficult. They are bulky and expensive. We are excited by this one by Dolica because it’s very compact and was affordable, especially the used one we got off Amazon!
- If you are a light sleeper, like white noise, are easily woken up by outside noise, or want to have a portable speaker with you, get the LectroFan Micro Wireless Sound Machine and Speaker. It provides deep ambient noise to help you sleep and can also be paired with Bluetooth to listen to tunes on the go or in your lodging.
Packing tips:
- For long trips out of a single bag, a key trick is to utilize packing cubes. These cubes can fit about 8 shirts or 6 pairs of shorts/pants each. The different colors help you keep track of what’s in them so you can quickly and easily get to what you need to without getting your bag all disorganized.
- Another great tip is to buy a pack of carabiners to clip gear on to your pack. They are useful for carrying bulky items, or wet items that need to dry on the outside of your pack. They are lightweight and have saved the day many times for me in the past. It’s also critical to clip your water bottle to your bag so it can’t fall out while moving around.
- Footwear is a frustrating thing to pack so find a good travel shoe bag that can fit all of your shoes (less one pair for wearing) and clip it to the outside of your pack with one of your carabiners.
Packing (part 2) blogs coming soon:
- Clothes ( Women’s Vegan Travel Clothes & Men’s Vegan Travel Clothes )
- Footwear ( Men’s Vegan Travel Shoes & Women’s Vegan Travel Shoes )
- Pillows/Sheets/Towels
Thanks for being on this journey with us!
Xo,
Seyka & Brian
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