May 10, 2026
by Raistlin van Spronsen
As someone who not has traveled numerous times with my family, solo leisure trips along with many sports trips you tend to learn a thing or two.
Today I’m going to walk you though what I usually bring with me when I travel. Whether I’m headed to Fort St. John for a BCLT weekend or to Europe for a month, these things are my ‘must haves’
There will be links in this blog post, they are not affiliate links, rather links to products I’ve used and recommend.
There are a few factors to consider before packing right away. As soon as you’ve selected your travel destination and booked your tickets. You can see how I plan, research and book my trips here, take into consideration a few factors
The weather and climate are crucial for a trip as you don’t want to be underdressed or overdressed. Where I live it can get up to -30 Celsius, now you don’t want to be showing up in shorts, t-shirts and sandals in that weather. On the contrary you also don’t want to show up in California wearing parkas, ski pants and full winter gear, no matter how many Americans ask you if you’re cold when it’s 25 Celsius
Another factor is the length of trip, for short weekend getaways a small backpack or carry on suitcase is enough. When I took my trip to Prince George in 2020, I had my skating backpack along with a suitcase for my clothes.
Longer trips (3-6 days) a carry on suitcase is also enough as they can hold alot of items. I had my 3 days of clothes, laptop bag and skates in my carry on and still had room for more things on my trip to PG in 2020.
Longer trips more than 6 days more than often require a full suitcase to pack all of your belongings, my trips to Vancouver were often up to 10 days away.
Trips can vary depending on the reason for travel can range from recreational, sports, business, missions and other reasons. This is something to consider while planning your trip
There many different types of luggage to choose from including carry on, checked and personal items. One thing to keep in mind with your airline reservation make sure to check what size you need to bring, I never bring all 3, I usually have a checked/carry on and personal item so I’m always wearing a backpack and pulling a suitcase during my air travel.
Carry on is a suitcase or backpack you carry onto the aircraft/bus/train with you. This item would have everything you need for the journey or items you don’t want in the checked luggage (for example I’m not putting my expensive camera gear in my checked luggage) along with important travel documents, wallet (with valid ID and credit/debit cards)
My recommendation for a great travel backpack is the
YOREPEK 50L Backpack on Amazon
for my photographer followers, if you are traveling specificly for photography reasons (photo tourism) I recommend my favourite
Your checked luggage is home to everything else for your trip and goes into the belly of the plane or bus, or the luggage car of the train you’re traveling on. This suit case is larger and comes in hard or soft shell (I like either or), the one thing I require is 4 spinner wheels so it’s easier to transport when walking as it’s like walking beside it compared to pulling it.
I usually have a luggage set which includes a carry on, checked luggage and personal bag
Travel accessories are must haves as they help reduce losing items.
Our lives are all on mostly devices from our smartphones, tablets and smaller electronic devices. There needs to be a place to store all of those chords, so we don’t lose them. A travel organizer is essential to keep chords, fully charged battery packs and other travel accessories. I have one for my personal use and one for photography where I keep extra SD cards, batteries and lens covers.
If you are traveling to Europe or Asia, you’ll need a travel power adapter so any thing that requires to be plugged in can be plugged in (think laptops, medical equipment and other needs if required. These have the plugs for US, Asia, UK and Australia built in and can be easily switched to another region’s plug type. They also have a couple of USB A and USB C for easily charging your devices
A travel first aid kit is essential especially if you plan on doing outdoor activities and in the wilderness. This first aid kit has many of the common bandage types. The meds side can have Advil, Gravol, Tylenol, cough drops. (be sure to check local and international regulations about importing over-the-counter medications to international destinations)
Meds can purchased at any major pharmacy (Shoppers Drug Mart, Save On Foods, Walmart in the pharmacy area)
In the world of smartphones, data and access to information in our pockets knowing which apps to use is a must. Here’s a list of my go-to travel apps
Having the airline app you’ll be flying allows you to check in, pay for your bags, and get your boarding pass all in one spot. This is benificial for large international airports as they may have dedicated bag drop areas apart from the check in counters. Smaller airports may not be set up in the same manner and still may need to stop at the check in desk if checking in luggage.
Having access to your locations’ maps without having data is essential, this is why Google Maps has the offline function to download local maps to your device and being able to access them when needed.
A notes app or Google docs is good for jotting down notes of key moments of your trip especially if you like to create blog posts about your trip
A weather app is must have for any trip, while our phones come with a default weather app built in. I personally use The Weather Network, a Canadian weather service that provides a lot more information off the bat without having to open an external browser (the default ones use a service called The Weather Channel based in the US; I guess they tried to copy The Weather Network)
As someone who relies on public transit, having a transit app is essential and a must have. The one I use daily is one called Transit and allows real-time time tracking (if the system allows it) or scheduled timing of the bus, train or ferry. It is very intuitive as it can give you stop-by-stop directions even when playing music in the background.
In a world of digital music streaming serivce there are many to choose from; Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal and others to name a few. I personally use Spotify and have for years. I’ve tried some of the others, and Spotify has been my go to. If you have the Premium, don’t forget to download at least 3 playlists before leaving.
For non-Premium users, get Premium as it’s worth the cost.
