Travel items you can't live without
 

Some people can't travel without their inflatable pillow - for others it's a book, walkman, thermos, hot water bottle or corkscrew. What's your item?

My Clif Bars!

1. crossword puzzles - I buy those NYT books of crosswords and rip out a few pages to take with me<BR><BR>2. short wave radio!

Two things:<BR><BR>1) Water bottle. I am simply never without one.<BR><BR>2) As silly as it sounds, pen and paper. When I carry a very small purse with me, I carry a very small notebook!<BR><BR>Seriously, I can't live without the above. <BR><BR>Jennifer

4 inch Ace bandage (I used it on my own badly sprained ankle in Egypt and for a friends broken ribs in rural Mexico. Tiny drip coffeemaker-dual voltage so all I need is the right plug. Though I'll be trying out the French press metal cups from Starbucks using an immersion heater. Starbucks coffee. Shortwave radio/clock/alarm/ with world and home time. Born to Shop book. Rick Steves and etc. guidebooks. Swiss army knife with corkscrew. Zip top heavy weight freezer bags. For a car trip foldable cooler bag with shoulder strap, picnic food, plastic utensils, paper towels. Scotch tape, and some duct tape. Combination locks for all luggage zippers. Money belt. Black leather fanny pack that looks like a decent purse in the city slung over the shoulder. List of grocery items to bring home (for example in Mexico: coffee beans, chocolate, dried peppers, limons (limes that you CAN bring back)...Italy: huge chunk of high quality Parmesan cheese, bottles of Mostarda di Frutta...London: great English cheeses from Neal's yard, tea, candy, preserving sugar) It's a fair amount of small things other than the cooler, but indispensable time after time.

Definitely a good book.

Earplugs for the plane!!!!!!!

Are husbands "items" :)<BR>If so that is at the top of the list.<BR>Then there are the zip locks for spillables,dirty laundry,packing to keep things neat.<BR>Although it worries some people, I like to take a little candle for the hotel room.Makes it a little more homey,sweet smelling.Trapp candles smell good.<BR>My journal.<BR>Water.<BR>All my pills :) I am not sick but always want to have my meds with me just in case~<BR>Small photos of my children<BR>And I always try to take a sense of adventure and humor~c

A satin pillow case, candle, and matches.

For the airplane I take my elastic-back eyeshades, an inflatable neck pillow, and earplugs. For the hotel room, I have a little fan(powered by battery or ac current). This fan is powerful enough to provide a breeze and keep the room from being stuffy, and the hum provides some "white noise" to drown out the sounds around us. It weighs 14 oz, and is only six inches tall. I got it at Brookstone and have really been glad to have it on more than one trip. Can you tell I'm a light sleeper?

The esoteric: sense of humor, ability to still be amazed, sense of adventure.<BR><BR>The down-to-earth: teeny battery operated alarm clock (with light up dial), camera and more film than I'll ever use, extra socks, NYT crossword puzzle book and TWO mechanical pencils (does anyone besides crossword nuts know the words "ort" and "esne"?).

Yes, Scrabble nuts know them, too!

How about etui?

Egad, Sir Gernaint's wife, bodkins in your etui.

Definitely a good selection of OTC medications, as you never know!<BR>Water,yes.Books - I read like wildfire and they're so expensive when abroad.<BR>Swiss army knife.<BR>Flashlight- a weeny minimaglite - for finding the bathroom at night.<BR>My little packet of "lucky" stuff - the wooden finger rosary from Costa Rica, piece of coral from the Gulf of Mexico, a pebble from Jasper, a tiny shell with mother-of-pearl from Portugal, and a small amethyst crystal. I never go anywhere without this little bundle!!<BR>Asthma inhaler - again, goes everywhere with me.

I always take a cd player. Last year I took an mp3-cd player that had something like 10 hours of nuttin' but the best damn crank it up rock and roll ever made.<BR><BR>After a long days hike, I'd come back to the hotel, get a frosty cold un and listen to some ACDC, Ted Nugent, Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Guns and Roses and many many more *real* rock and roll bands. <BR><BR>Kick back with a frosty cold beer that I buy in the Coop markets in Switzerland and listen to my own radio station of rock.<BR><BR>"You know you shook me baby, yah shook me all night long"<BR><BR>Led Zeppelin

1. A portable sound machine: a tremendous help for sleeping in noisy hotel rooms. Mine comes with a built-in alarm clock. <BR><BR>2. My Eagle Creek convertible daypack: It can be worn as a shoulder bag or (when I want both hands free) as a backpack.

1. My L.L.Bean down travel pillow, rolls/scrunches up and fits in my backpack, saves me from "brick" pillows in the cheap (excuse me, I mean inexpensive hotels). I don't travel without it.<BR><BR>2. A "real, serious" flashlight . . . a Streamlight stinger. You can have your teeny minimags, when I'm out in the jungle at night or even in the city at night, I want a light that will light farther than my knees. My stinger is very light and small (about 6"). They are pricy but worth it. I have given them to all my traveling friends and they love them, too.<BR><BR>3. Earplugs . . . for those ch*** hotels I stay in!

A chordless curling iron feuled buy butane.

Chocolate - for my daily fix!