Family Travel Unpacked: Make the Most of Travel With Kids

What's in My Carry-On? Travel Essentials for Your Next Trip

• Melissa Conn • Season 1 • Episode 43

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My carry-on has evolved over years of family travel - and at this point, it's pretty dialed in. This episode breaks down exactly what's in my bag, from the backpack I choose to the credit cards I pack and why. A few of these might surprise you!

In this episode:

  • How I choose the right backpack for every trip
  • The power adapter I use every single day — at home and abroad
  • Why I think carefully about which credit cards to pack (and make a list)
  • What I bring to actually get some sleep on overnight flights
  • The carry-on essential I'm still experimenting with

Timestamps:

  • 00:00 Welcome and summer travel updates
  • 01:25 Choosing the right carry-on backpack
  • 03:00 Power adapter and plane outlet hack
  • 04:13 Cables and battery packs
  • 05:23 Laptop and camera gear
  • 06:32 Sunglasses and the beach rule
  • 07:19 Snack strategy
  • 08:06 Picking the right travel credit cards
  • 10:38 Water bottle and hydration
  • 11:30 Plane comfort essentials
  • 12:41 Sleep tips and wrap-up

Resources:

Backpacks:

Tech & Power:

Camera set:

Sunglasses:

Earbuds:

Water:

Don't miss this inspiring, practical travel with kids podcast hosted by family travel expert Melissa Conn, founder of The Family Voyage, certified Child Passenger Safety Technician, and mom of two who proves family travel is achievable for everyone.

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Melissa

Hey there, and welcome back to Family Travel Unpacked. I'm your host, Melissa, and in case you're new here, you can find tons of detailed destination guides, travel tips, hacks, and more on my website, thefamilyvoyage.com. And if you've been enjoying the show, be sure to hit follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode, and drop a five-star review, 'cause it really helps other families find the show. Before I dive into this week's topic, I wanna share a quick program note. Summer's officially in full swing, and I have an awesome set of trips lined up. But obviously, that makes it tough to keep up with a regular podcasting schedule. I'll be pre-recording a few episodes and giving you some shorter recap episodes after each trip just to whet your appetite. Once things calm down at the end of summer, I'll be back with in-depth episodes about a lot of the places we hit over the summer, plus some more helpful topics that I already have planned. And if there's something you want me to add to the schedule for the fall, hit me up on social media at The Family Voyage, or drop me an email at melissa@thefamilyvoyage.com. Now for our regularly scheduled programming. Today, we're going through my carry-on. It's evolved into something that's pretty consistent at this point. Obviously, there's gonna be a little variation from trip to trip, but the core of what goes in there stays the same. This'll be more of a quick tip episode, but I promise there are a few things in here that you might not have thought about. I'll also have links down in the show notes for everything that I'm talking about. And this is great timing for me because I'm gonna be gone for more than half of the next month and I'll be hitting four totally different destinations. Wish me luck. First, the bag itself, because at least for me, the carry-on isn't always the same. I almost always travel with a backpack rather than a tiny roller bag or one of those one-shoulder weekender styles that are so cute but not practical for me. A backpack keeps my hands free, it fits under the seat in front of me, and it's easier to maneuver through airports and cities, and most importantly, I can carry it without booking time at the chiropractor. But which backpack I bring depends completely on the trip. If I just need something small, like a day bag that doubles as my personal item on a quick domestic trip, I like my Travelon anti-theft backpack. It's compact, it has locking zippers and slash-resistant straps, and for city travel especially, it just gives me that little extra peace of mind. I got this one last year right before our Italy trip, And it made me feel so much more comfortable, especially since my son and I were doing a decent amount of train travel just the two of us. I'll also bring this one when we head to London soon. Thankfully, the price has been cut in half since I bought it last summer, but the biggest downside is that it is pretty small. I can fit my laptop in the sleeve, but the overall capacity is low, and you'll see that reflected in some of the reviews on Amazon. But for a small bag, it's great. For bigger trips where I need to carry more day-to-day, or if I'm flying with a lot of fragile stuff, I reach for one of my REI packs. We have the REI Flashpack and the REI Trail 25, and I go back and forth between them depending on how much I'm hauling and what I'm doing. Both packs are comfortable to carry all day, which matters more than you think when you're navigating airports or doing a walking tour. For my upcoming trip to Alaska, I'll definitely bring the Trail 25 because that'll give me plenty of room for my camera, a hydration sleeve, extra layers, and even some sandwiches Okay, let's talk tech because to be honest, this is a lot of what goes in my carry-on these days. Number one, without question, is my TESSAN 100-watt multi-country power adapter. I've linked to this in the show notes, and I recommend it in basically every packing list I write on the blog. I use this thing every single day, not just when I travel. It lives next to my nightstand at home. It charges my phone, my laptop, and whatever else needs charging, and it does it all from a single device. No awkward USB wall adapters necessary. It's got one regular plug on the front, two USB-As, those are the older rectangular ones, and three of the newer USB-Cs, and it pushes enough power to charge everything at the same time. When I travel internationally, it's obviously essential. It's got pop-out plugs for the US, Australia, uK and a few others. But here's a tip I don't think gets talked about enough. It's also really useful on planes, even domestically. A lot of planes have power outlets at the seats, but the US plug is just the two-prong style, and sometimes those outlets are super loose. Your plug might wiggle around, you get a bad connection, and your device doesn't actually charge. But if you plug in an EU or UK plug, which is a lot sturdier, a lot of times it'll stay put better. That's been a game-changer on long flights. Now on to charging cables. Obviously, you need cables for everything, but I always bring at least one extra phone cable that's specifically designated for my rental car. I leave it in the car for the whole trip, so I'm never scrambling for a charger when I need navigation. It sounds so simple, but once you start doing it, you'll wonder how you managed before. I also recently got a small clip-on battery pack. This is great for trips when we aren't renting a car. It clips right onto my backpack strap, and it has a tiny built-in cable for charging. The capacity isn't huge, so it's not gonna fully recharge your phone from zero, but it's enough to keep you going when you're low. The trade-off is the size and weight, which is basically nothing. For me, that's the right call. Your mileage may vary if you want a really big power bank, but I love having a little one always attached to my bag. For a trip like Italy and Portugal when we're out and about all day and might not ride in a car at all, I usually throw a second portable charger in just in case. Actually, I got a new phone right before we went to Italy, and I couldn't find the one charger I had that worked for the new plug, so I didn't have it. And I'll be honest that there were a few times in Rome my phone completely died, and I had to plug it in at some random restaurant. So learn from my mistake and bring at least one but maybe two portable batteries. I almost always have my MacBook Pro in my carry-on. It's a few years old now, and I'll be honest, I kind of miss my really old one, which was thinner and lighter. But now my whole workflow is on this one, and it runs more smoothly, so here we are. If you're a blogger or content creator, you probably understand the dilemma. If I wasn't running my own business from my laptop, I'd probably just leave it at home for most trips. But honestly, at this point, I don't feel like I can afford not to have it in case something goes wrong with my website. Now a big camera is one of the few items on the list that doesn't come with me every time. But when I do bring it, it's definitely in my backpack instead of a suitcase, just in case I end up having to gate check. I try to stick with a pretty current model of iPhone since the cameras have gotten really good over the years, perfect for city photography, and that lets me reserve the camera for trips where I'll be doing primarily wildlife photography. So places like Alaska, Iceland, and Costa Rica are perfect examples. My big camera, and that's big in quotation marks, is an Olympus mirrorless that I'll link to down in the show notes. The body's a lot smaller and lighter than a digital SLR, but I pair it with a pretty substantial lens that covers the equivalent of twenty-eight to three hundred millimeters. So plenty of zoom for most wildlife, but again, it's smaller and lighter than some other options. Moving away from tech, I always have at least one pair of sunglasses, but a lot of times I bring two. I have light eyes, and I find that I'm really sensitive to bright sunshine, so I'm always wearing them. Right now I'm really into Knockaround sunglasses. They're affordable, they look great, and I have zero guilt about throwing them in my bag in just their little pouch rather than a bulkier hard case. I've also collected a lot of Goodrs over the years during their sales, and I love them too. There are some really fun color options, and these are especially great for my teen and tween. But here's something I've learned the hard way. I always bring a pair that's already beat up if I'm going to be in the water at all. Saltwater especially can seep between the lens and the lamination layer on some sunglasses and leave this cloudy residue that you can never get out. I found that out with a pair of Goodrs. So now nice sunglasses are for land and old sunglasses are for the ocean or the pool Okay, I wanna talk about something that might be slightly embarrassing: leftover airplane snacks. We fly Southwest a lot since we have companion passes, and we usually manage to get extra legroom seats a few days beforehand, thanks to our credit cards. One fun change that's come along with the new assigned seating arrangement is that now Southwest gives you premium snacks if you're sitting up front. These days, the options are Wonderful Pistachios and Siete gluten-free cookies. Guys, if my kids don't finish their pistachios or cookies on a Southwest flight, I am not throwing those away. They go right in my bag and come with me into the trip. Pistachios have protein, they keep basically forever, and on a long travel day when everyone's tired and slightly cranky, having something with actual nutritional value that I can pull out of my bag is worth its weight in gold. I'm choosing to frame that as resourceful rather than a red flag Okay, next up I wanna talk about credit cards. And yes, I know I talk about these a lot, but I'm not gonna tell you about opening credit cards this time, but which ones you should bring with you. I think a lot of people don't really consider this enough before a trip, and I can tell you that a local friend just messaged me the other week kicking herself because she got to a resort in Mexico and didn't have the cards she planned to use. Around town we usually default to something simple like the Chase Freedom Unlimited or Capital One Venture X Personal. They're solid everyday cards. They earn well, no fuss. I also have a million options in my Apple Wallet if I'm trying to hit a spending threshold or optimize for a certain category. But when I travel, I really put some thought into which cards I'm bringing and why, and I even make a list before every trip. Sometimes it's just in my head, but sometimes it's a note on my phone if things are getting complicated. The thing is that there are way more travel situations than you might realize when you need the physical card, not just a digital one. A few things that I'm personally considering. First, does my hotel have a branded card that gives me a benefit at check-in or extra points or something like that? In most cases, you still have to present the physical card at hotels. I can only think of a few times when I've been able to tap and use my digital wallet, whether it's for the room itself or for incidentals. It could be that one of my Chase cards has a ten percent back credit for Marriott, or I want to use the fifty dollar quarterly Hilton credit on my Amex Platinum card, or one of the fifty dollar credits on my Hyatt business card. Whatever it is, unless it's something like a prepaid Expedia reservation, I try to think strategically about which card I'm gonna wanna show at check-in. Next, if we're renting a car, which card has primary rental car coverage in the country I'm visiting, because that does depend on the terms and conditions. And do I need a different card than usual for that? This is another one where you usually have to swipe or insert your physical card, not just a digital copy. Also, which lounge access cards do I have, and which airports are we connecting through? Thankfully, you can do a lot of this through the bank apps now or the Priority Pass app, but there have been a few times when I wanted to use my Amex Platinum card to get into a lounge, and it was super inconvenient not to have it with me. Another thing is that we tend to eat out a lot on vacation, So I wanna think about what's gonna earn well on food for this trip, and does it need to be a personal card or a business card? And if it's international travel, I have to make sure that I'm only bringing cards with no foreign transaction fee because that 3% can add up really fast and it's just not worth it when there are so many good options that don't charge that fee. It sounds like a lot, but it takes maybe five minutes to think through and it can save you real money and unlock major perks. It's definitely worth doing and I just find a really secure interior pocket in whatever backpack I bring to tuck the cards into. Of course, since it's 2026, I always bring a reusable water bottle. I feel like there are a million options out there and some of them honestly seem like overkill. These giant 40-ounce things that weigh more than a pound empty, which is what my daughter usually brings. So for travel, I think a half-liter insulated bottle is the sweet spot for me. It's enough water to actually be useful and small enough not to add a ton of weight to the bag. Plus the one I use is narrow enough to fit in most rental car cup holders. I just refill it constantly, especially once I'm through security. I'll link to my favorite one down in the show notes in case you wanna give it a try too. I am gonna add a little asterisk to this. For outdoorsy trips when we're gonna do a lot of hiking, I try to slip a Camelback bladder into my carry-on backpack too. So that pairs really nicely with something like the REI Trail 25 I mentioned at the top of the episode. That has a dedicated hydration sleeve and there's even a little hook at the top to hang the bladder so it doesn't scrunch down when it's full. And always, always, always, I've got a hoodie or a light sweater in my backpack. Even in the middle of summer, I get cold on planes. I know there are people who sit through a four-hour flight in a T-shirt, but I am not that person. A hoodie could also double as a neck pillow substitute in a pinch. It works as a layer in a cold museum or an over-air-conditioned restaurant, and it doesn't take up that much space in my bag There are a few more things in that comfort on the plane category. First, earbuds. These days I have the Anker SoundCore X20 noise-canceling earbuds. I actually got these for my son Jacob for Hanukkah, and I ended up loving them myself. I talked about them in episode six, the Teen Travel Gift Guide. What I really like about them is that they hook over the ear, so they're super secure, and I'm not constantly worried about one falling out and disappearing somewhere on the plane when I fall asleep. And they're really affordable, which is nice when you're buying something that's gonna get thrown in a bag constantly. I use these every day while I walk the dog, and they've been great. The noise cancellation is a real sell for airplane use. Airplane cabin noise is loud, and without noise cancellation, you end up cranking your volume way up just to hear anything. With these, I can listen at a comfortable level. I mostly use them for podcasts- yes, I do listen to other people's podcasts- and on night flights I'll put on a deep sleep playlist and try to get some rest. Speaking of night flights, I do really struggle with sleep on planes. We haven't had any luck booking business class on points because our travel dates are tied to the school calendar, and we just don't have the flexibility in terms of our departure airport or our dates. So we're usually in economy or maybe premium economy. I almost always pack Tylenol PM in my bag for overnight flights. I take it a few minutes after takeoff. It helps me sleep, and since I tend to have back pain on long flights, it does double duty, takes the edge off the discomfort, and helps me drift off. It's not glamorous, but it works for me. I don't bring an eye mask. They've always kind of bugged me, but I've been curious about the 3D contoured ones where the mask doesn't actually touch your eyes. I haven't tried one yet, but if anyone has thoughts on those, I'd love to hear it because as I said, sleeping on planes is still my biggest travel struggle. So that's what's in my carry-on, and I'm curious, what am I missing? If you have a carry-on essential you swear by, I'd love to hear it. Find me on Facebook or Instagram at The Family Voyage, or leave a comment on this episode. Bonus points if it's something I haven't thought of. Thanks so much for listening to Family Travel Unpacked. If this episode was helpful, a five-star review goes a long way. It really helps other families find the show, and I'll be back next week with more. Until next time, safe travels.