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Whether you are planning a trip to Asia, America, or Europe being prepared for your travels is important, especially for the backpacker planning on longer-term travel. Being fully prepared and having the perfect backpack full of resources will make your trip more functional and enjoyable. In this article, we will provide you with all the information you need to get ready for even the most ambitious of trips.

Preparing for an Extended Travelling Exhibition

It is important to be prepared for a trip abroad especially if you are planning on country-hopping affordably long-term. When planning out your long-term travel plans it is important to have a rough idea of where you will start and where you will visit along the way. Get a route planned and some transportation ideas in mind before you leave. Are you renting a car for a road trip? Travelling by bus, train, and plane? Assess your options and account for costs prior to leaving.

Once you’ve assessed your transportation costs you need to get an idea of how much your accommodation will cost. Will you be camping or staying in hotels and hostels? If you’re camping find out the laws in the country you are travelling to and make sure you are camping legally, you don’t want any trouble with the law while in a foreign country! If you’re planning to keep costs down by staying in hostels, then have a look at some options on your route and look at reviews. Build a price list to add to your transport costs and then you can start to gauge your main living expenses.

Once you’ve got a rough cost for travel and accommodation for the duration of your trip add 20% so you have a buffer for any emergency, unexpected overnights, or transport needs. Next, it’s time to figure out roughly how much you will be spending on food and drinks for your trip. A great way to assess the cost of food and drink in the country is by looking at the big mac index. This may seem ridiculous, but this chain of restaurants is a great way to look at how the cost of food in each country differs and will give you an idea of how much you’ll be spending per day. Think about ways you can make things cheaper for yourself, perhaps eat cheaply from markets and street vendors so you can save money for a nice meal on the weekends.

Add these costs together to get a budget for your travels. This price is what you want to aim to take with you unless you’re a travelling freelancer or have work lined up in your destinations. On top of this budget make sure you always have enough money for a flight home! You never know what can go wrong down the line and it is of high importance that you have money for a flight home in case of emergencies (this is also true for you freelancers and travelling workers out there).

Once you have assessed your budget and structured a plan it is time for the fun stuff – making the ultimate backpack full of essentials specific to your travelling needs. A good backpacker will pack light and minimalist while still having all the important necessities that are required by modern travellers.

The Most Important Part to the Traveller’s Outfit – The Backpack

Every travelling backpacker needs a backpack of course. This is the most important piece of kit that needs to last you for the entirety of your travels. Your backpack should be big enough to support your needs but small enough to be manageable for extended travel periods.

If you’re planning on exploring the natural environment and getting outdoors a lot then the Berghaus Trailhead 65L Backpack is the best option for you. Its lightweight and breathable design make it ideal for hiking and long-distance walking as it offers tailored support for extended use. It also has plenty of room for trail essentials such as stoves, pans, and other camping equipment. This hiking bag provides exterior tags that you can use to attach a sleeping bag, roll mat, or tent if your planning on a multi-day hike.

If you are the general traveller looking to explore what the world has to offer, then the Mountain Warehouse Traveller 60 + 20L is the perfect backpack for you. It is compact but has plenty of space for all your essentials, it offers a 60L main body with a divisible compartment at the bottom to separate dirty clothes from the clean. What I love about this backpack is the attachable 20L compartment that zips on the front of the main body. This 20L rucksack gives you more space for all your essentials and will unzip for use as a day pack when you have the option to leave the larger part at the hotel or in a locker. This is two bags in one and offers everything you need in a robust, durable, and comfortable package.

If you are the travelling freelancer that needs to carry their laptop with them everywhere you go then there a couple of options for you. The best option for you really depends on how much time you will be spending with your rucksack per day.

The BonClare Duffle Bag is the bag I use when I’m travelling via plane and train and staying in hotels and air bnbs. I can’t fault this bag at all, and it comes equipped with many features fit for the freelancer, however, it wouldn’t be good for someone expecting to wear a rucksack for many hours a day. This duffle bag has plenty of pockets, one for shoes or dirty clothes, an all-important laptop pocket, a mesh pocket, a waterproof wet pouch for bathroom essentials, and inner pockets within the main compartment. The BonClare Duffle is ideal for the travelling freelancer that is staying in private rooms or apartments. Using this duffle is my personal preference and I couple this with a lightweight day pack when travelling for long periods.

If you’re the freelancer that expects to have your rucksack on with your laptop inside all day then you want something comfortable, durable, with great protection for your laptop. For these uses, I recommend the Matein Laptop Backpack. Although personally I haven’t used this bag, I have friends that have travelled through southeast Asia with their laptop in this bag and they rate it highly. This bag provides you with a well-padded laptop pocket and plenty of room for travelling essentials and even has an awesome exterior USB port so you can charge your phone while the backpack is zipped up.

Organisation and Space optimisation

Bringing enough clothes for your trip is important when packing your rucksack ready for long-term travel. So how can you save space and organise your clothes in a way that will suit an average-sized backpack?

The cheapest and simplest solution to this is by using Travel Compression Bags. These bags allow you to fold your clothes neatly and then roll them up tight, effectively vacuum sealing them without the use of a vacuum. This both saves space in your bag and keeps your clothes fresh and un-creased throughout the duration of your journey. The pack in the link above provides you with 10 compression bags (5 medium and 5 large) that will give you more than enough room to store your shirts, shorts, jeans, and underwear. This is one of the best and most cost-effective storage solutions for the travelling backpacker and a must-have in my opinion.

With these handy little bags, you will free up space in your backpack for other essentials and keep your clothes clean and dry no matter where you end up. At only £8 you really can’t go wrong and they will make fitting your favourite clothes in your backpack a breeze.

Travellers Phones? Something You May Not Have Considered

The best phone for the traveller in my opinion isn’t a high end, expensive one. This is a phone that I would never have thought of before I ended up stuck in Sweden with a smashed high-end Samsung. Just over a month ago I was cycling through a typical Swedish forest and slipped off my bike smashing my Galaxy Note10 that I stupidly didn’t insure for overseas use. I took it to the Samsung store in Stockholm to get fixed however it would’ve cost me £650 to fix both the screen and mainboard!

After contemplating getting it fixed for a while, I decided to look at the lower-range phones they had on offer and found a phone for less than £160. I purchased the Samsung Galaxy A20e with the intention of using it temporarily until the borders opened up again so I could travel back to England to get the Note10 fixed. Now I’ve used it for over a month I am thoroughly impressed and i am in no rush to get my old phone fixed!

The A20e is the perfect phone for the traveller because it’s cheap, much more robust than Samsung’s high-end phones, and offers many features that are useful for travel. I was amazed to open the sim card slot on this phone and find space for duel sims and a memory card! This is extremely useful for me as I have both Swedish and English numbers and useful for any traveller looking to spend a bit more time in the country they’re visiting.

The Camera isn’t spectacular, but it takes good enough photos (see gallery below) and the memory is only 32GB which I quickly filled up, however, with room for two sims and a memory card this is easily overcome. The battery life is much better than any other samsung phone i have owned, lasting all day while using maps and the camera. The thing that I love most about this phone is its simplicity and robustness. Although I’ve only owned the A20e for just over a month I must have dropped it at least 5 times outside without a case and it is still completely damage free! It makes me wonder why they build these high-end phones with such poor damage protection.

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If you’re looking for a cheap, reliable, robust phone for your travels that has duel sim and room for memory expansion then look no further than the Samsung Galaxy A20e. This phone is ideal for any backpacker and if you manage to break it or lose it you won’t be as heartbroken as I was when I dropped my old overpriced phone!

The Powerpack – The Backpackers Best Friend

A good powerpack is essential for any traveller/ backpacker looking to travel remotely or long term. When you are stuck in a foreign country with no way to charge your phone you will be grateful that you have a powerpack in your rucksack. The ideal powerpack suited to the traveller is something light with a large power capacity. The Kedron 25000mAh Power Bank is small enough so it doesn’t take up too much room in your backpack and powerful enough to charge an average smartphone up to 6 times. It offers three USB charging outputs and a wireless charging option along with an attractive display that shows how much power you’ve got left.

If you are a freelance traveller that needs constant access to your laptop then you probably want something that holds a little more power and is compatible with higher voltage charging. The Litionite Hurakan 120W 41600mAh Power Bank offers the user an article that is powerful enough to charge a laptop up to 3 times (depending on your laptop’s specs) and has three spare USB sockets at that allow smartphone charging at the same time. If you’re anything like me and enjoy working on your laptop from a rural location or a beach with a sea view, then the Hurakan Power Bank is an essential piece of kit for your backpack.

Conclusion

That concludes part one of our guide. We hope this has given you an insight into how to prepare properly for your next set of travels and given you some ideas of essentials to bring with you when you go. Although we may be stuck within our countries at the moment that doesn’t have to stop you from making travel plans for once the borders open again. Making the perfect backpacking outfit will surely get you excited for finally jumping on a flight and exploring again!

Look out for part two because in the next installment we will go over some more essential items to make your trip more enjoyable and functional. We will be looking at shoes and clothing ideal for travel, setback-saving essentials, essentials for the nature lover, and ideal kit for the digital nomad/ travelling freelancer. Stay safe and healthy everyone!