5 Smart Travel Essentials I Never Travel Without | Brighde Reed

Link for the show notes

In this episode of The World Vegan Travel Podcast, Brighde shares five smart travel essentials she never leaves home without. From cozy travel slippers and a reliable coffee mug to an upgraded eye mask, digital security setup, and a favorite navigation app, these are the practical items and simple hacks that make life on the road smoother, safer, and more comfortable.

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Transcript

Today, we are diving into a fun topic: five things I never travel without.

So now, when you travel for a living and spend months out of the year scouting and running trips and traveling for fun, you learn very quickly what actually works and what just takes up space in your suitcase. The items I'm sharing today aren't your typical generic packing list suggestions.

Instead, this is a highly curated mix of everyday comforts that solve the ick factor of hotel rooms, a couple of clever hacks for the fellow coffee obsessives out there, the gear that saves our relationship when we're sharing a hotel room, and a digital safety net that gives us total peace of mind while managing a business on the move.

So whether you are an avid adventurer or a casual weekend traveler, these are the non-negotiables that eliminate the friction points of being on the road, so you can actually enjoy the journey.

Item number one: the packable travel slippers.

This is something I never used to pack, but it has completely changed how I travel. I'm talking about travel slippers.

Now, if you look at the exact ones that I have up on Amazon, they are called Snoozies Skinnies. They are packable, foldable travel slippers that come with a little zipper pouch. They're described as soft Sherpa-lined slipper socks with a non-skid bottom. I ended up choosing a very cute little kitten pattern, and they have something like 50 to 80 different designs to choose from. They've got a 4.7-star rating with over 3,000 reviews, so clearly I'm not the only one obsessed with them.

For the longest time, I never was a slipper person while traveling. But once the idea popped into my head that this could be something that could really make a big difference, I searched and searched until I found these. Essentially, they're like thick, cozy socks with a grippy bottom. And while the Amazon title says Sherpa-lined, don't worry, these aren't actually lamb's skin. Gross. It's just really cozy, soft fabric lining.

I use these for a few key reasons. First of all, Seb and I have completely different preferences when it comes to room temperature. He always wants the bedroom icy cold, and my feet get absolutely freezing. I've always been a cold-feet person.

On top of this, and this might be a little bit too TMI, my feet get incredibly dry and calluses build up fast. So I put on a foot cream every morning and every evening, and if you're walking around barefoot right after applying lotion, it wipes off and never actually absorbs. It also attracts dust and grossness in the hotel room or wherever it is that you're staying. So these let the cream actually do its job while keeping my feet warm.

The second reason is the ick factor. Now, I am not a germophobe by any stretch, but hotel carpets can be a little bit gross. I did a little bit of research for this podcast, and it turns out that hotels only shampoo their carpets every six to twenty-four months.

So think about what has been on them. If you walk around barefoot or in regular socks, and then you track whatever is on that carpet right into your clean bed, it's kind of a little bit gross.

Now, don't even let me get started on airplane bathrooms. I absolutely love to have these little slippers for long-haul flights, especially for those mid-flight bathroom runs. There is nothing worse than walking into an airplane lavatory and seeing drops of liquid on the floor, not knowing if it's just water splashed from the sink or, let's say, someone with bad aim. I definitely don't want that on my regular socks.

Plus, a lot of airlines will give you these cheap disposable slippers in your amenity kit sometimes, but I hate using them because they just get directly thrown into the landfill after just one flight.

With these, they fold into that tiny little pouch that I mentioned. This pouch is absolutely key, and I absolutely wanted a pouch with any travel slippers that I bought. It means that you can pack them away knowing that any grossness they picked up from the hotel carpet or the airplane floor is completely contained.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to wear slippers to keep things clean, only to throw them back into your main bag where they can contaminate the rest of your clothes and the stuff you're actually trying to keep clean. And because we travel so much, I'm constantly doing laundry during our trips, so I just toss these right into the washing machine at the laundromat whenever they get dirty.

Oh, and a little heads-up: if you look at them online, the product photos on Amazon make them look a bit more structured and padded than they actually are in real life. But they are completely fine for my needs, and I don't leave home without them.

Item number two: the heavy-duty travel coffee mug.

This one might be considered absolute overkill by some of you because it's a pretty large item that does take up a decent amount of space in a suitcase, but Seb and I always bring ours. No exceptions.

Seb and I very, very rarely only do carry-on. I know I am very different to most people, and maybe I should do a podcast about why I dislike just doing carry-on. But that's another episode.

So Seb and I are big coffee drinkers, and having a reliable large mug is a non-negotiable part of our travel rhythm. Seb already does so much, and one of my official jobs every single morning, if I'm up earlier than Seb, is to make sure Seb gets his coffee. He gets great joy from having it on his bedside table when he wakes up.

So even if our hotel stay doesn't have breakfast included, I'll often take down the 16-ounce mug to the hotel restaurant and ask them to fill it up, of course with some soy milk or some oat milk. Sometimes they charge me for this coffee, sometimes they don't, but it's cheaper and more convenient than finding a local cafe every single morning.

Plus, it's also worth remembering that the massive coffee-to-go culture we're used to in North America just doesn't exist everywhere, so having your own reliable cup is incredibly helpful.

And I will say that both of our cups are well insulated and keep a coffee hot for absolutely hours. It also does not spill either. Even when it's full and very hot, it does not spill once it is locked.

I also have a brilliant little hack to share with you. Our coffee orders are a little bit complicated. We want them full, we want oat milk or a non-dairy milk. Seb wants to have an Americano with a splash of cold milk. I want to have a double shot latte with oat milk, if that's available.

So I actually print out a label with my preferred coffee order and stick it right onto the side of the mug. If you're traveling to a place where you don't speak English, you can easily use Google Translate to print a label of your coffee order in the local language. I haven't reached that level yet, but you could.

And I will tell you, when I walk into a cafe, say my order, and then point to the label on my cup in a place that doesn't speak a lot of English, like Japan for example, you can practically see the barista's stress levels go down knowing that they don't have to understand my spoken word. They can read along, and if they aren't quite getting it, they can just glance down there and see the order.

Now, of course, a lot of hotel rooms have their own coffee setups these days of different qualities. Sometimes it's instant coffee, which is a hard no for us. Sometimes you'll find a little Nespresso machine. My only issue is they usually only leave you two or three coffee pods, and that's not going to cut it. Usually we need at least four for the morning.

So my strategy is to either ask the staff for several more — I sometimes do this when I check in and I do a scout of the room and see what they have available — or I pop into a local supermarket to buy a sleeve of pods. In fact, I just did exactly that yesterday while we were scouting in France.

I also have another cheeky little trick where I hide the leftover Nespresso pods in a drawer before housekeeping comes, so they think we've used them all and replenish the entire supply. It's the perfect way to build up a little coffee stash for the room if you're there for quite a few days.

The only real downside to traveling with my Contigo mug is keeping it clean. Because the Contigo lock is very effective, it's also quite high-tech with springs and all of this kind of stuff, and it's leak-proof. So if you forget to rinse it out and you have a non-dairy milk in there, it can get pretty gross and funky.

My advice is to rinse it out immediately after you finish your coffee. Put some hot water in there. I even put some body wash in there as well and give it a really, really good shake. And if you happen to be staying in a place with a dishwasher, toss it in there for a deep clean whenever you can.

Item number three is an upgraded eye mask.

Like I said, it's not a standard eye mask. I specifically use a Manta Sleep mask that has built-in headphones. Seb uses a regular Manta Sleep mask. He doesn't use the headphones; he uses different headphones with that regular Manta Sleep mask.

Now, using an eye mask for travel isn't exactly groundbreaking. In fact, Seb and I use eye masks all the time, even when we're at home. We live in a rental apartment where the blinds aren't very good, so we've just gotten used to relying on them for complete darkness to get a good night's sleep.

But these Manta masks are next level. They are designed with contoured cups that sit around your eyes rather than pushing flat against your face, which means you can actually open and close your eyes completely normally with the mask on, which is a total game changer for comfort. You can also take off the cups and put them in the washing machine.

The version that I use has built-in Bluetooth headphones that lay flat inside the band. So you can move around and it doesn't feel like you've got headphones digging into your ears at all. The downside of this, of course, is that these eye mask headphones don't have active noise cancellation, but it's what works well for me.

Aside from flights, the real reason that this is a non-negotiable travel item for me comes down to the reality of sharing a hotel room with one other person. At home, I always wake up before Seb, and when that happens, I can just leave the bedroom, close the door, go into the lounge, open the curtains, and do whatever I want without disturbing him.

But when you're traveling and sharing a hotel room, and you are stuck in that one small space together, it's not great.

So because Seb has his mask, I don't have to tiptoe around in the dark. I can open the curtains, let the morning light in, read or work, knowing he won't be bothered at all. On the flip side, I usually go to bed a little earlier than him when we're on the road, so he likes to watch his shows in bed. At home, he'd just watch TV in the lounge while I slept. But in the hotel room, that screen glare would irritate me a lot if I didn't have my mask to block it out.

So it really solves all those tiny friction points of sharing a small space. I highly recommend the Manta Sleep mask. They are a bit on the expensive side, and I know there are cheaper options out there, but for the sheer comfort and built-in audio, it is worth every penny.

Item number four isn't actually a physical product that you pack into a suitcase, but it is easily one of the most critical things that I bring with me on every single trip. It's with me everywhere I go, and that is a digital security emergency kit.

When you travel, you are often far away from your physical paperwork and your home base, yet you do need to manage your online accounts to manage your life or your business while you're on the road. And because you're traveling, your digital security needs to be as tight as humanly possible.

Honestly, every six months or so, I do a full audit of my security setup just to see where I can tighten things up or make improvements.

Now, I really hope that everyone listening to this already has a secure password manager. I use one religiously, and I have everything backed up with two-factor authentication, or 2FA.

Here is an extra tip that a lot of people miss. You need to actually make sure that you can access that 2FA when you're abroad. So if your 2FA relies entirely on SMS text messages sent to your home phone number, and you switch to a local SIM card or you don't have international roaming active, you are going to lock yourself out of your own accounts.

So always making sure you have an authenticator app set up or backup methods ready before you leave is a good idea.

The reality is, the risks are just higher when you're on the move, and I'm not just talking about getting hacked over public Wi-Fi. Think about the physical dangers: a lost device left in the back of a taxi, a bag snatching or pickpocketing at a busy train station, or opportunistic hotel room theft.

If someone runs off with your phone or your backpack, they haven't just stolen a piece of hardware; they've stolen your digital lifeline.

Even if you're a more casual traveler who isn't running a business from the road, this is still incredibly relevant. If you suddenly lose your phone to a bag snatcher, you instantly lose your flight confirmations, your hotel vouchers, and your tour itineraries. If you get locked out of your banking app, you are suddenly stranded without a way to manage your money or communicate with family back home.

So here is my solution. I think I've already shared quite a few tips here, but a lot of people don't realize that your password manager usually has a secure notes field. I have an incredibly unique, highly complicated master password for my password manager itself, which I have actually memorized. Inside that password manager, I keep a master note that contains all of my emergency recovery codes.

That way, if my phone gets stolen or if I lose access to my Google account or Dropbox — these are things where it would be an absolute disaster if I was not able to access them because somebody has somehow managed to hack in — I can just go into my password manager. I go into that secure note where I have those recovery codes listed, and I will be able to recover my accounts.

On top of that, I make sure that Find My Device tracking is fully set up on all of my tech, so I can remotely wipe it or track it if stuff is stolen.

This tip might actually sound a little bit like overkill. I keep a step-by-step "what to do if my security is compromised" checklist as a note in my Google Keep. I've created it because I know that if I were to ever have these accounts compromised or I lose my device, I would probably completely panic. So I have a checklist to follow, which means that I know that if I follow this, I've got all of my own pre-written instructions to help me.

Finally, because I am always connecting to public Wi-Fi at airports and cafes and hotels, a VPN is non-negotiable. I actually have mine configured so that my phone and laptop automatically prompt me to connect to the VPN the second I join a public network.

The best part about this whole digital kit setup is that you really only have to do it once, and then you have total peace of mind for all of your future travels, whether you're traveling for work or just a weekend getaway.

Our fifth and final item is an app that I absolutely love, and it's something I think every traveler should have on their phone, and that is AllTrails.

If you aren't familiar with AllTrails, let me give you a quick breakdown of what it actually is. It is a massive community-driven database of outdoor trails, and it is completely free to download and use for most of its standard features. It acts as a digital trail guide that helps you go out to exercise, walk, and safely discover new areas without fear of getting lost.

I actually recently upgraded to the paid Pro version, but honestly, I don't think the average traveler needs to do that. I only upgraded it because I use it specifically when I'm running our group trips, so I need the advanced features like downloading offline maps for areas without cell coverage.

What makes AllTrails so incredible for travel is the powerful filtering system. You can search an area and filter by walks, serious hikes, or bike rides, but my favorite feature is that you can filter by popular, nearby, or my personal favorite, lesser-known trails. It can help you discover stunning nature spots that you would completely miss otherwise.

I was reminded of just how fun this app can be during our recent group tour in Japan. One of our lovely frequent travelers, Lise, posted some photos on Facebook before she met the group of a walk that she had taken. She had used AllTrails to find a route right into the hills behind Kyoto. She ended up discovering the most beautiful, peaceful scenery, and she hardly saw another person.

And if you've ever been to Kyoto in the cherry blossom season, you know how massive the crowds can get. So being able to escape that completely just by pulling out this app is a total game changer.

So whether you want just a safe scenic path for a morning run while you're away, or you want to get completely off the beaten track, then AllTrails is an absolute must-have.

So there you have it: the five things I never travel without, from the cozy slippers keeping my feet clean and warm, to the digital security keeping our entire lives intact on the road.

It's funny when you look at a list like this, it's a real mix of high-tech and the incredibly simple. But every single one of these items serves a really important purpose for us when we travel. They eliminate many of those tiny annoying friction points of travel, so you can focus on what actually matters: experiencing and hopefully enjoying the destination.

So whether you are packing your bags for a weekend getaway or prepping for a massive international expedition, I hope a few of these tips and hacks help make your next journey just a little bit smoother.

If you love the idea of travel that is seamless, thoughtful, and completely taken care of for you, we would love you to consider joining us on one of our upcoming World Vegan Travel group departures. We pour this exact amount of detail, curation, and obsessiveness into every single trip we run. Check out our trips on our website, worldvegantravel.com.

As always, thank you so much for hanging out with me today. Let me know in the comments or over on Instagram what your non-negotiable travel items are. I'm always looking for new items to test out.

Safe travels, and we'll see you next time.