The Ultimate Travel Bag Essentials
Whether it be a weekend break with friends, or a big adventure with your family, summer has sprung upon us and many of us have exciting holidays booked. While we all look forward to such plans, a holiday also means the dreaded process of packing. Although there are some discrepancies depending on the trip type (which we will delve into later in the article), there are some universally-agreed one bag travel essentials for every holiday. For those who tend to find themselves in a last-minute fluster and forever forgetting that one crucial thing, we have compiled our very own travel bag essentials list to clarify what the necessities are and help you prepare for your next trip.
Three Ps of Travelling
As both a forgetful person and a lover of faffing, in order to avoid the heart-sinking feeling of having forgot the items that make travelling the least difficult, I developed the ‘Three Ps of Travelling’ – Phone, Purse and Passport. Knowing that you’re leaving home with at the very least these three items means that you can be sure that you are able to get somewhere. Furthermore, should you remember ‘phone’ this ought to prompt you to remember additional accessories related to it such as your phone charger – both portable and plug. Our Noble Macmillan portable phone chargers with leather sleeves coming in 3 bright colours which can be personalised make a fantastic gift for the friend whose phone is always running low before they head on their travels. Equally, this USB charging unit can be used for other electronics too including laptops, cameras, and even some electric toiletries.
The second of my three Ps is for the all-important ‘purse’ – or for that matter, wallet. There are extremely few situations in which you would wish to go somewhere without your purse or wallet. When travelling abroad you may want to expand what you view as your ‘purse’ or ‘wallet’ to something larger – something in which you can keep all your important documents and cash in one place. In this case, the Noble Macmillan Travel wallet is extremely useful. The travel wallet – available in three different colours and can be personalised – is the perfect size to hold boarding passes, bank and identity cards, and any foreign money if travel abroad. For shorter breaks or staycations, you may wish to travel more compactly, in which case a simple Card Case or Wallet like those in our luxurious selection of accessories are perfect and slide straight in your pocket.
The last of the three Ps is for ‘passport’ – a particular essential when travelling internationally, or at least a simple reminder for whatever form of ID that you may want with you where you go. Similar to our portable phone charger case, we have a beautiful selection of colours of Passport Cases to aid you in finding them in your bag as well as to protect your passport, which can of course be personalised.
Toiletries
Toiletries are an essential wherever you are in the world however some are more important than others depending on whether or not you can by the item where you are going. For example, although bringing all your make up is not always necessary (particularly if your collection is vast), given that make up tends to be expensive and specific to your skin etc, it is worth carefully selecting your key items to get you through your trip. This will also help to avoid unnecessary space being used up in your bag. The Noble Macmillan Cosmetics Case is the ideal size for your essentials and will slide neatly into your handbag or hand luggage. However, should you wish to squeeze more in, we suggest you look to our luxurious Men’s Wash Bag.
Not quite a toiletry but a stone’s throw away in the accessories department, is your sunglasses and their case. Whether it be a hot holiday (where they really are essential) or a cold holiday, sunglasses are never a bad idea. Unfortunately, like many small items we like to bring with us everywhere, sunglasses are often the first thing to be forgotten or lost – a particularly sad occurrence for something known to cost a pretty penny. Hence, as well as to protect them from scratches, we always bring a brightly coloured case for our sunglasses when travelling to avoid leaving them behind. Check out our gorgeous selection of Luxury Leather Sunglasses Cases perfect for your next holiday.
Entertainment
Travelling can be long and sometimes even boring… that, or perhaps unpredictable weather may scupper your plans for a day’s activities… In these situations, it is important that you have something to entertain yourself to avoid any of your trip being spoiled – and, the first port of call for such entertainment is… A good old-fashioned game. Although, not strictly speaking an ‘essential’ – whereby, you can still very much travel without it – a traditional packet of Playing Cards will forever sit firmly at the top of my list before a holiday. While not taking up a great deal of space, a packet of playing cards can supply hours of entertainment with the various games that can be played pretty much anywhere and by any number of people. Whether it be for yourself or a cute gift for a loved one going away, our Noble Macmillan Personalised Playing Cards which can be personalised with a photo, name or initials of your choice, are sure to be a success.
Similarly, for the avid gamer we have a multitude of other games available in both standard and travel formats. For example, our Backgammon sets come in three sizes of various colours – Large Jubilee Backgammon set, Small Jubilee Backgammon set and Lazy Days Travel Backgammon Sets. Naturally, all of the aforementioned sets are portable, however it is the Lazy Days Travel Backgammon Set which takes a close second place to our packet of Playing Cards when on holiday. This travel set come in 4 different colourways; turquoise, indigo, fuchsia and tangerine. Our other games which are great for travelling include our Mini Tumble Tower, Dominoes and Racing Demon.
In equal measure, a notebook or journal and pen is a good thing to bring for both entertainment, practical reasons or an amalgamation of both. For instance, a great way to spend time while travelling is journaling or keeping a diary. This allows you to recapture special moments, thoughts and feeling from your day and hold onto them to revisit in the future. You can read more on how to do this by visiting our previous blog post, ‘How to Write a Travel Diary’. Moreover, having some paper and a pen on you could save the day should your mobile phone or tablet run out of battery (which of course it shouldn’t if you remember your Noble Macmillan Phone Bank!).
