Top Carry-On Essentials: Must-pack items for air travel

I'm going to share with you the list of my top carry-on essentials that I've learned over 12 years of flying and hundreds of flights. While this list is mainly for people who are checking a bag, it's still relevant for all carry-on luggage. And if you enjoy travel advice like this, don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit that bell so you don't miss out on any future videos. Paperwork. I know it's the age of everything being on our phones and digital, but when it comes to travel, it's still a very good idea to have physical printed out copies of pretty much everything. So this is my passport case that I keep all my important documents in. It contains my passport, obviously. Any vaccine records I have. And then inside here, I will have printouts of all of my confirmations. So these are my return flights, my hotels, any tours I'm taking, pre-booked transportation, or any e-visas. Now there are a few reasons for this. There's been times that I've been waiting in line for customs or waiting in line for a shuttle, thinking I've downloaded what I needed onto my phone to only find out that I didn't. And I'm struggling to either connect to the really crappy Wi-Fi or I don't have a cell service yet. And then I can't get the documents I need. And it's just, that's not the situation you really want to be in. Also, I just don't like handing my phone over to customs agents or anyone else. I would much rather hand them a piece of paper that says everything it needs to on it. Another thing is shuttles or pre-booked transportation. A lot of times they want a printed out copy of your confirmation booking that they will then take when you get onto the shuttle and then they won't give it back to you. So print it out. And a pen, an essential item that you will need when you're filling out paperwork on a plane or during customs. So you don't have to borrow someone else's. And never keep personal information in your check luggage because it's not always that the airline loses your bag. Sometimes someone else could take your bag. Whether that is by accident or maliciously. It happens. It's happened to me before. Someone's mistaken my bag for theirs because they were the same looking bag. Comfort items. Now, I traveled many, many years in my early 20s without bringing a neck pillow no matter how long the flight was or my travel day. But now that I am older and in my 30s, I appreciate a good neck pillow on any flight that is longer than five hours. Neck pillows are definitely something you have to know you're going to use if it's worth bringing such a big bulky item with you on your flight. A good eye mask for any red eyes or overnight flights that you're taking. And I like to bring a light sweater because it is always cold on planes. It is always cold. Electronics. I never like to put my electronics in my checked bag. Not only are they expensive items so they can be more of a target for theft, but they're also fragile items. So rough baggage handling, which does happen, can end up unless I'm going to pad these really well, they could get broken in transit. But the main concern is that the lithium batteries in these devices can spontaneously catch fire, which when it's in the cabin, they can be caught quicker by the crew that is trained to extinguish fires like these. But if it's in the cargo hold, then it can be a lot harder to deal with. I also like to bring either a book or an e-reader with me because a lot of times if I'm flying budget airlines, they don't have entertainment screens. And for those budget airlines, I always like downloading their airline app before I board the plane because sometimes their entertainment system is through the app. But if you wait until you're already on the plane, then you might not have Wi-Fi or cell connection to download the app. Sunglasses. This is an item that you might not think to put in your carry-on, but I always do. Just like electronics, they are fragile and can be expensive. So they're more likely to be prone to theft or damage during transit. It's also handy to have a pair of sunglasses when you are coming off a red-eye flight and it is far too bright at the airport for you at that moment. Or if you have a long layover and you have time to actually leave the airport and go explore and it's a beautiful day, an empty water bottle. So you keep your water bottle empty as you go through security and then you fill it up after before you board your plane. In most modern airports, they have water bottle refill stations. They're typically located near the washroom or sometimes just in random spots around the airport. So if you just kind of look around, walk around, you can find a spot to refill your water bottle. And that way, you're not having to use any of those plastic cups that they give you on the plane or any water bottles that you have to buy after you get through security that you're probably going to pay like $5 for. And if you are limited on space and can't fit a whole water bottle in your bag, then there are foldable ones that you can just kind of collapse down and pack one of those with you. Moisturizers. Plane air is so incredibly drying. So for my own personal comfort, I like to bring a little container of hand and face moisturizer as well as some lip balm and eye drops. Having good moisturizer is even more so important now that we're using hand sanitizer all the time. And I'll just put all those into my clear plastic bag. Personal medication. These are any kind of prescriptions that I might have as they can be very time consuming and difficult to replace when you are overseas. As well as I like to pack any kind of supplements that I'm taking at the time. And I usually contain it all in a handy dandy traveling pill case. I've never had any issues having any of my pills or supplements in a case like this that is unmarked. I know that might be a concern to some people, so you can bring the full bottles if you like. I also like to add in some sort of headache medication. Travel can give you headaches sometimes, so I like to have something for that. Headphones and earplugs. If you are someone who travels a lot, you need to get yourself a pair of noise cancelling headphones. It is night and day how much nicer it is flying with noise cancelling headphones. They definitely can be pricey and take up a lot of your luggage space, but in my opinion, if you have a long travel day with a lot of flying, these are worth bringing. The other option is earplugs. I mean, this is mostly for like if you plan on sleeping on a plane, but they're just such a small item to have with you and planes are just so loud and there's like speakers and people are loud, so it's just a good idea to kind of have a set with you whenever you're flying. Charging cords and power banks. I know it can be tempting to save space and put all of your charging cords and bricks in your checked luggage, but if your flight is delayed or if your checked luggage is lost, then your electronics that you brought with you are going to be pretty useless after that initial charge wears off. So you kind of need to keep all of the extra batteries or cords or chargers that you need for the electronics that you are bringing with you in your checked bag. There are many reasons to invest in a power bank when you are traveling because like even though airports and airplanes nowadays have charging stations or plugs, they're very hard to find and are typically always taken if you have any kind of luck like me. The convenience of being able to charge anywhere at any time just really cannot be beat. So our largest one is 20,000 milliamp hours and that is the typical maximum size that you could bring on most international airlines. If your luggage is lost, if you travel a fair bit, there is a good chance this will happen to you at some point in your travels. So prepare yourself. Or if you're just traveling in a post-COVID world because baggage claim and handling is a bit chaotic at the moment. So it's a good idea to have some basic comfort and hygiene items to kind of just bridge that gap and take you through a couple days on your own without your checked bag. These are things like a toothbrush and toothpaste, some deodorant, maybe a little bit of makeup, as well as like a spare pair of underwear and clothes. But that's kind of like up to you just depending on like how comfortable you are being dirty. So then I will just add all of those other toiletries into my bag. That would be my complete toiletry bag for my carry-on luggage. Well, there you have it. Now you're an expert in packing a carry-on bag. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up. It would help me out a lot. See you guys and gals again soon. Bye.