My 5 Essentials for Travel

Now that summer is in full swing, I know that many of you will be traveling during the summer break. Last month I was in Park City, Utah – which I hope to recap for you later this month. As I was packing for our vacation, it got me thinking, what are my 5 essentials for traveling?

Cute Carry-on Luggage
I love me some Hello Kitty! Someone saw me wheeling this in the airport once & asked me if it was my daughter’s. Nope, it’s all mine! 🙂  As much as I had hoped to pass on this love of Hello Kitty to my daughter, unfortunately she grew out of it by the age of 6. On the other hand, I am hoping to attend Hello Kitty Con later this year!

Good Books
I love to read books while on the airplane or at the hotel before I go to sleep at night. I brought two books with me to Utah – a fun, fiction novel called Scared Scriptless that I received at a recent book signing event. The other book is non-fiction & written by Tony Horton. It’s called The Big Picture: 11 Laws That Will Change Your Life. I should have a review of this book on the blog later in the month.

Magazines
It is imperative that I have at least 1-3 magazines with me on the plane. No matter how long or short the flight, I just have to get one of the latest pop culture magazines that you often find at a nail salon. You know what I’m talking about…US Weekly, In Touch or OK magazines – these weekly mags are the equivalent of the online TMZ or E! websites. Yes, I do recognize that these are gossip-filled rags. However, when you want to zone out on a flight, then these magazines filled with photos of celebrities taking out the trash, walking their dog or going on a Starbucks run is just plain ole amusing to me.

This time around though I brought a few magazines that I had stacked by my nightstand at home. I’m one of those people who read People, as well as The Oprah Magazine. In fact, it was that issue of the O magazine that inspired one of my latest blog posts where I asked myself “What do I really want to do all day?” You can read about it here.

A Set of Extra Clothes
We’ve all heard the horror stories of airlines losing someone’s luggage. So I’ve gotten in the habit of always packing an extra set of clothes for me & my daughter in my carry-on luggage. Hubby does the same with his carry-on as well.

One great clothing item that I recently discovered is Hipknoties®! What I LOVE about this item is that it’s one garment that you can style in 30 different combinations! It’s something that you can dress up for dinner, wear it by the pool like I did in Park City & also in Scottsdale and then throw over some leggings when you need to go run an errand.

What I also like about this item is that it takes up very little room in your carry-on. Not only that, but it doesn’t wrinkle! I could literally throw my pretty blue Hipknoties® in my handbag, take it out when I arrive at my destination & put it on. Whoo hoo…no wrinkles on this outfit!

I met Sarah Yonover, the owner & creator of Hipknoties® last month at a children’s event. She is so engaging, has a great product & I just want to help promote this woman owned business as much as possible. Sarah has many YouTube videos that demonstrate how to style your Hipknoties®. Just check out the website for ideas. How cool is that?!

Neosporin
During our travels in Park City, my daughter got a scrape on her arm. In fact, while I was wheeling my luggage in the LAX airport, I scratched my hand on a broken part of my suitcase (not the Hello Kitty one). So before we even got on our flight to Park City, I was washing my hand in the restroom & applying a band-aid to it. However, before I put that band-aid on, I applied some NEOSPORIN® Neo to Go! Spray on my hand. Fortunately I had packed band-aids & the small Neo to Go! Spray in my purse. Of course since it is a liquid spray, I had to put it in the plastic baggie to show the TSA Agent while going through security check-in.

I have to say that this handy dandy antiseptic spray was used several times during our trip. We were very active in Park City – horseback riding, hiking, zip-lining & my favorite activity…shopping (lol!). Since we were outdoors a lot, I knew that NEOSPORIN® Neo to Go! Spray was an essential item for our vacation.

So those are MY five essential items for travel. Tell me, what are your must-have items for vacation travel?

Disclosure: No monetary compensation was received for this post. I purchased the Hello Kitty luggage & magazines on my own. I received complimentary copies of both books for review purposes. I purchased the Hipknoties® at a discounted price. I received a complimentary sample of the NEOSPORIN® Neo to Go! Spray from Influenster Inc. as part of their #TLCVoxBox program. All images/photos are mine unless otherwise stated. My thoughts & opinions are 100% mine.