A list of all the non-essential travel essentials I take with me when I’m traveling internationally with kids.
There are so many packing lists available online designed for families and kids. However, I find most of them usually stating the obvious, including passports, clothes, and charging cables—things we all know we require for travel. When I travel, I find that it’s the less conventional items that I often wish I had packed when I find myself without them. Over the years, I’ve compiled a random packing list that has proven effective for our family. While I do think others might consider certain items on my list as non-essential, I’ve found them to be indispensable when traveling internationally with children. Here are some of these important yet unconventional items that I pack in my carry-on.
A permanent marker. I always carry a pen on me when traveling to fill out forms. After having kids, my writing tools have become a pen + permanent market duo. I use the marker to mark water bottles, swim gear, floaties, and other personal items. This was especially useful during our Bali trip when everyone in our resort has the same swimming tube from the hotel water sport shop, so it was impossible to tell which belonged to whom.
Bottle brush and dish soap. For longer travels, particularly when I’m staying at hotels without kitchens, I always make sure that I bring along a bristle brush and dish soap for cleaning the kids’ water bottles.
Headlamp. I will never stop talking about the virtues of the headlamps. It comes in handy for literally any situation. Just in our last trip alone, I needed this in the middle of the night when I was trying to use the restroom and Ajeossi had turned off all the nightlight so it was impossible to see. I use a basic battery-powered Petzl headlamp, similar to this one, at home and on the road.
Indoor slippers for kids. Because we don’t wear shoes indoors at home, we also prefer to leave shoes near the entrance when traveling in hotels. At the same time, most hotels aren’t clean enough to walk around barefoot and they only provide adult-sized slippers. For our most recent travels, we got these fun dinosaur and rabbit rubber-soled, fabric-lined children’s indoor slippers from Coupang.
Tiny scissors. One thing that that I love traveling with, but is always at risk of being confiscated or taken out of our bags and measured by TSA is a pair of scissors (they’re always in our carryon because don’t usually check bags). We find scissors to be indispensable in our home and on our travels. We’ve used them during our most recent trip to cut open impossible shrink wrapped products and also to cut out a hair tie that can become entangled in my kid’s long hair. To avoid checks during security screening, I found that tiny nail scissors or nose hair scissors will do the trick—and they’ll serve their primary purpose fine as well.
Bar shampoo and conditioner. Most hotels and lodges we stay at have shampoo and conditioner in the bathroom, but some I find are unsuitable for children. Either they’re too harsh or the scent is too strong. Our pool villa in Bali, on the other hand, had shampoo and body wash, but no conditioner. Thankfully, I brought both in the form of a bar. I’ve been using the rice water shampoo bar and this super silky tea tree conditioner bar, which both lather up delightfully.
Plus, two digital essentials that won’t take up any space in your bag.
Personal email addresses. Whether it’s to help your kids get a head start in accruing frequent flyer miles, or it’s for your e-visa on arrival for Bali (yes, even infants need their own email and account, if you’d like to pre-register and pay to avoid the queues at immigration), everyone in your family needs their own personal email. (I personally find Gmail easiest because they let you check multiple accounts under one inbox view)
1Password. I’ve used a password manager for work for many years before starting to use one personally. Honestly, I can’t believe my brain was able to function with so many passwords and I was able to live without one for so long. Between the four of us, our email accounts, our multiple physical addresses, personal ID numbers, airline rewards, and more, it’s getting harder to keep track of accounts and passwords. I find 1Password to be great for storing sensitive and personal information and travel documents like scans of passports as well.
These are some of the most important non-essential items we travel with as a family that tends to pack and travel light. I’d love to know what’s in your luggage that others might not think to pack. Please share some of your non-essential travel essentials in the comments!