7 random things you should pack on your next overseas backpacking trip
A list of things you might not have thought to add to your packing list
After three months of backpacking across three different continents, I have taken note of everything I packed and decided that these 7 random things are a must-have for long-term travel.
Now this is a list of RANDOM things, so if you want to know what the best pair of sandals to buy that aren’t going to give you blisters from walking 30,000 steps each day, then you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Games (of some sort)
Games are an essential travel item. Whether you want to kill some time at the train station, or play something while waiting for your dinner to arrive, a game is a must-pack item on your packing list for your next trip.
While I always pack a deck of cards with me on every adventure, on this trip I decided to also bring Yahtzee, and boy am I glad I did. Cards are always good to have on hand, but not always possible to play if it’s windy or wet or if there’s no place to put them down. A great alternative I discovered is Yahtzee.
For those who are unfamiliar Yahtzee is a game involving five dice and a score sheet. I couldn’t tell you how many games of Yahtzee my partner and I played over three months but it was A LOT. It is such a fun game and you can play with as little as two people, and up to six. This was a great game to bring as it takes up such minimal room in a bag (it’s only five dice, some sheets of paper and a pen - I’m sure there’s also an online scoresheet somewhere!) and you can play it on top of a book on a train, at the beach, in a restaurant, pretty much anywhere!
Of course, choose your poison with a game that suits your fancy, but I personally found Yahtzee to be a great one.
Carabiner
When someone mentions a carabiner you may automatically think of rock climbing, or something to keep your house keys on, but take my word for it when I say you should bring one on your next trip. I brought one along with me and it came in handy for a range of things. Clipping my water bottle to my bum bag, attaching my damp shoes to the outside of my backpack, and to clip up a speaker in a tuk tuk we’d rented (probably not a super relatable example but you get my drift). There are plenty of other things it might come in handy for and it doesn’t take up much room or weigh much so no harm in packing one or two.
Offline maps
While it’s not a physical item, offline maps were a lifesaver for me. Sometimes your internet overseas just won’t work, or you’ll be out of range and offline maps will be the only reason you manage to find your way back to your hostel that is nestled at the top of a steep hill you can only reach by weaving through a maze of roads. Make sure you download maps for each place you’re going to before your trip so you don’t forget. Also, remember to delete them after you’ve left as they are quite large files and take up a bit of room on your phone.
Pack some form of slide-on shoe
My mistake on my most recent trip was not bringing a slide-on shoe. Whether it’s a pair of thongs or plastic slides, they are a must. You can wear them in the shower if you’re staying at a hostel, down to the beach, or to slip on if you need to duck out to grab something from the supermarket. Just make sure you’ve broken them in a bit before your trip so they don’t give you blisters.
An e-reader
As an avid reader, I knew I was going to be doing a lot of it on my travels. My only issue was that I was only taking carry-on luggage, and books can weigh a lot and take up quite a bit of room. I was also traveling in countries where English wasn’t the primary language so knew it would be harder to get my hands on books written in English. I decided the solution was to buy an e-reader. While I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy reading on a tablet, I took to it quickly and love it so much! I can carry an infinite number of books with me without having to worry about the weight. And it easily fits into my bum bag I carry around with me so that’s a bonus.
A travel cutlery set
If you’re a budget traveler who is eating from supermarkets a large chunk of the time, a travel cutlery set is such a necessity. I’d never taken travel cutlery with me before but I’m so glad I did. It was so useful to have a knife to make lunchtime sandwiches on the beach, a fork to eat two-minute noodles with at the hotel, and for breakfast yogurts from the supermarket. I have this set from Systema and it’s great.
Hair ties!
I always have a hair tie or two on my wrist, and they come in handy for a lot more than just tying up my hair. I have used them to tie up half-eaten packets of biscuits so they didn’t spill in my bag, and once, on a trip years ago, my sandal broke while on a night out so I used a hair tie to hold the sandal on my foot until we got home (sorry for the feet pic! As you can see the shoes were very much on their last legs anways).
I found all these random things so handy to have on my latest backpacking adventures and will definitely be packing them again for future trips. If you also have any random things you like to pack for long-term travel please comment them below as I’d love to hear what other people have found useful to have!
Weekly update
We had yet another lovely week in Portugal! We watched lots of Olympics, I went along to a cute little craft night at a local bookstore, and we went over to Setubal for an afternoon which has some stunning beaches.
On Saturday we headed to Peniche, which is a popular surf town about an hour drive north of Lisbon. My friend Kiara, who I grew up with on the same street in Alice Springs, was working at a surf camp there so we went to visit her for the weekend and check out Peniche.
One of the small towns near Peniche happened to be having their annual donkey race (!!) on Saturday so we went along to watch that. Turns out donkeys aren’t very good at racing so it was mostly just the jockeys having to get off the donkey and pull them around the track. A very random yet interesting tradition, that’s for sure.
There was also a little fair set up in Peniche that we checked out in the evening and went for a few rounds on the dodgem cars, which is always fun.
We explored a few of the beaches around Peniche, as well as doing a beautiful hike around the coastline, before heading back to Lisbon on Sunday evening.