What to Bring: An Overview

When you decide to travel for a significant period of time, I’ve heard people say the hardest thing to do is to commit to it.

I disagree.

I think the hardest thing to do is pack for it.

Telling ourselves and everyone else we were going away was easy. In fact, the more people we told, the harder it would be for us to back out of it.

We started planning well in advance and made a very big “to do” list. But after we took care of most of the big stuff, like buying plane tickets, renewing our passports, getting vaccinations, etc., we kind of slacked off for a bit. After all, we weren’t leaving for a few months and at the time, it seemed like a long ways away.

But as our departure date quickly approached, we realized how many decisions still had to be made, with the big one being “what do we bring?”

And that’s where it got hard.

After all, there were a lot of things to consider:

- We’re travelling for a year.

- We’re visiting a number of different climates – tropical areas, mountainous regions, deserts and Great Britain in March.

- We’re visiting First World nations and Third World nations.

- Some areas will have all the amenities we need, while others will be pretty basic.

So thank gawd for our list.

At the time it wasn’t perfect, but it was a good start. Some days we’d add to it. And other days we’d scratch things off.

We revised it and revised it and revised it.

And on the day of our departure, we revised it again.

But in the end, everything fit.

And since a lot of you have asked about it, I’ll share it with you.

I’ve broken it down into six categories – Necessities, Clothing, Gear, Toiletries, First Aid and Entertainment – with a list of what & why.

Obviously it’s up to the individual(s) travelling, but if this helps to make your job easier, then I’m glad to be of service…

Enjoy!