How to pack for long-term travel

A guide to help you pack for your next long-term travel, specifically if you’re going to tropical-weather countries.

I’m gonna start by saying that packing for a long-term trip was a challenge for me! 

I already don’t pack light for short vacations. So imagine the struggle to pack for a year-long trip, to multiple countries, and have no idea what to really expect when I got there.

So to be honest, I probably definitely packed way more things than I needed. But I assure you I packed EVERYTHING I thought necessary to pack for long-term travels, whether than turned out to be true or not. And thankfully, I plan on living in warm tropical weather, so most of the items I brought and bought can be used for every country I’m going to visit, and I don’t need many bulky items to protect me against the cold.

Ultimately I ended up packing 1 big suitcase, 1 carry-on, and 1 backpack for my long-term travels through Southeast Asia.

Below I’ll go into detail on everything I packed in my suitcases, and which items definitely weren’t necessary. 

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Items I brought with me

Clothes:

Shoes:

• Sneakers: 3
• Sandals: 3
• Heels: 1
• Water shoes: 1

Accessories:

• Hats: 4
• Jewelry bag: necklaces, bracelets, rings, hair accessories, and earings

Toiletries:

• Toiletry bag with: toothbrush, toothpaste, sanitary pads, Q-tips, a few makeup items, makeup remover, body lotion, face wash, nail clippers, bobby pins, scrunchies, razors, etc.
• Small bag with lipsticks and lipglosses

Electronics:

Others:

That’s basically a full list of all the items I brought with me, for my long-term travels, from Los Angeles, not counting items I’ve bought while traveling, which I’m going to mention below.

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Items bought on the trip (so far):

• Fannypack (I use it almost every day and loooove it!)
• A pair of sandals
• 2 pairs of loose pants
• Sleeveless shirt
• Multiplug converter (when mine stopped working)
• Super long HDMI cable (to connect my laptop to the TV)
• Tiny broom and dustpan (for cleaning the floor in between housekeeping)
• A small bowl (mostly for cereal)
• Small utensils: forks (2), spoons (2)
• Small hairbrush (because I left mine behind)
• Shampoo and conditioner

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Now, out of all of the items mentioned above, these are the things I now realize aren’t really necessary, mostly because I haven’t used them at all, or I can easily find them abroad. So if you’re thinking of packing them, don’t. 😆 Especially things that you never use or wear at home! 

Items I regret bringing on my long-term travels:

• Most of my hats (1 sunhat and a ballcap were more than enough)
• Most of my cables, especially the ones I have multiples of.
• My Canon camera (haven’t used it at all)
• Drone (I plan on using it at some point but I barely know how to use it, to be honest). Plus it takes up a lot of space.
• A few of the shirts and dresses I brought that I haven’t worn at all
• 1 of my hoodies (1 hoodie is more than enough, and I brought 2 of them)
• Most of my sandals (the flip flops were more than enough)
• Small clothing iron (mostly cuz I haven’t really used it)
• Portable VPN (never worked and I ended up just subscribing to one online)
• Bag with lipsticks and lipgloss (I go through them too slowly and there are plenty of makeup stores if I need a new one)

With that being said, I’m probably gonna ship back (or donate!) most of these items I kinda regret bringing and make even more space in my suitcase, or even better, get rid of a whole suitcase altogether and travel lighter.

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I hope you found this blog helpful in helping you decide what to pack for long-term travel. And if you want more details on 12+ items I highly recommend bringing with you for long-term traveling (especially for female travelers!), check out this blog HERE.