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Travel has been a love of mine since I was a little girl. Exploring new cultures, taking off and landing in a plane, trying new foods, what more could I want? Flying is something that I have a love-hate relationship with. I always have terrible jetlag when flying for more than a few hours. As an American living in the Netherlands, I travel to the USA several times a year to visit my family. I also love traveling around Europe and the rest of the world. My partner Kevin joins me pretty often as well. The world is opening up again, and that means a lot of us will be traveling. Here are some things that I cannot travel without.

1. A Good Pair of Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds

I love listening to music when I’m traveling, when I’m cycling, and even when I am cleaning. It gets quite annoying when I have to connect a cable to my phone and try to run through the airport or something. In addition, I found that wearing noise-canceling earbuds on the plane helps me get over my jetlag a bit faster because they block out most of the background noise. I bought these a while back and absolutely fell in love with them.

2. A Sturdy Carry-On Suitcase

Spending money is something that doesn’t come easily to me. But I grew up in a home where we always had suitcases that were falling apart. Having your suitcase not work because the wheel fell off or something is not a fun thing. I didn’t want to continue that tradition when I moved out on my own. So I found a hardshell suitcase on Amazon. It wasn’t crazy expensive, and it had great reviews. My carry-on has traveled the world with me and hasn’t given me any issues.

3. Some Good Ole Nourishment

Snacking is one of my favorite things to do. I love trying new snacks, especially when I am traveling. Trying the local snacks is such a treat. When this isn’t possible, I just load up on some things that I have lying around the house. I typically carry some delicious Clif bars and some sort of nuts with me. I love pistachios. My guilty pleasure is jelly beans. I can never get enough of them.

4. World Travel Adapter

If you’re anything like me and frequently travel to many different countries, a good travel adapter is essential. How else would you plug in all of your gadgets? Kevin and I have both had this travel adapter for a while now, and it works great. It’s compact and super reliable.

5. Light or Heavy Reading

Books are a great way to get out of the rut of watching YouTube or Netflix. They are a way for you to get out of your world and travel to a new one. Sometimes it hurts my eyes to watch movies on a plane, so I just read instead. One of my favorite books of all time is called A Daughter of Two Mothers. It’s a true story and phenomenal. I recently read a mystery novel that I really enjoyed. I didn’t expect to enjoy it, but I did. The novel is called You Can’t Run by Hope E. Davis.

6. My Super Fast, Lightweight Laptop

I used to have the bulkiest, heaviest, most annoying laptop. As a small business owner and writer, and as someone who’s worked remotely for over 2 1/2 years, having such a laptop was incredibly irritating when I traveled. It was so extremely heavy. I finally caved and bought a new lightweight laptop. Not only is it very lightweight, but it works really well too. Buying something new is very difficult for me because I don’t like spending money, my new laptop was well worth the investment.

7. Shut Off The Lights

As someone who’s pretty sensitive to light, I can’t really sleep if there’s any light. My bedroom is typically pitch dark. When I travel, I never know what I am going to get. Sometimes, the places I’ve stayed didn’t even have proper curtains. I am so glad that I always carry an eye mask with me when I go away from home.

8. Turn Off the Noise

In the same way that I can’t sleep with light, I also have trouble sleeping with noise. Sometimes I’ll travel to New York City or Paris. Those are extremely noisy cities. I’ll always pop some earplugs into my ears when I am going to bed. Earplugs always help me block out sound. This works really well when trying to sleep on a plane as well.

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The featured photo was taken by Ioana Hariga.

What is something that you can’t travel without? Where are you headed to next?