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6 hours ago
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I'll never forget the first time I was told I'd be traveling out of the country for work. I was 23, had been all over the United States, but had never left North America. Now I was getting paid to fly to Wales and produce a video there. The first thing I did was call my fiancée, then my parents, to share the good news. The next thing? Find my passport.
I don't really recall what I brought on that trip to Wales, but I can say with some certainty that I probably overpacked. In the dozen years since, I've been to every continent except Africa and flown nearly half a million miles. Next week, I'll be heading abroad again, and my packing list has changed dramatically — with some exceptions.
These eight items have been with me on a boat in the Antarctic, on road trips in Japan and Iceland, and flown all the way to New Zealand and Australia. They've lasted an insanely long time — proof that some gear really is "buy it for life."
Back in the 2010s there was a website called eBags, which was eventually bought by Samsonite and shuttered in 2020. I'm not sure what black magic was involved in the making of its in-house brand packing cubes, but they've survived over a decade of cramming clothing and electronics in them without popping a single seam. While eBags is no more, Samsonite rebranded some of its products, so you can still snag these packing cubes today.
I was on a trip to New York City when my first set of hard-sided luggage cracked in half. Knowing I wouldn't be able to make it home without a serious duct tape job, I instead had Amazon ship me The North Face Base Camp Duffel. Since then, it has been thrown in the back of trucks, planes and ships, from Iceland to New Zealand, without more than a scratch.
I have traveled all over the world with these duffels. They've been thrown in the back of a truck on long road trips, rained on, snowed on and dropped onto the tarmac as they were being loaded onto a plane. While they have a scuff here and there, they still protect all of my clothing and gear like they did when they were brand new. The 40-, 70- and 100-liter versions are also fantastic options. If you prefer one with wheels, they make those too.
The backpack pictured above is a Sure Shot, one that I paid a hundred bucks for before heading off to college. This thing has been a beast, joining me on trips all over the world. The Borealis is the closest current model I could find to it. It can fit a 17-inch laptop easy, as well as swallow up more than a weekend's worth of clothes.
Nalgenes are built to last a long time. There are more than a few varieties; my favorite is the massive 48-ounce version, but that is hard to bring on a plane. Instead, 32-ounces will have to do. Some prefer the wide mouth, but I can't seem to use it without spilling, so I go with the narrow, which is a bit harder to clean.
I am a bit of a Yeti nerd, and this was my gateway tumbler. It's stainless steel, nothing special, other than its ability to keep beverages cold or hot for an insanely long time. In my backpack, one of my bottle holders is for my Nalgene, the other for my Yeti. This is the unadorned stainless steel version, but you can snag one in dozens of colors.
MLC stands for Maximum Legal Carry-On, and this bag fits the bill, and in pretty much every overhead bin, perfectly. Only once was I stopped before boarding at an airport in South America when I had it incredibly overstuffed. Unlike the Black Hole duffel, this bag has a bunch of internal pockets to keep things organized. I dare say you could skip packing cubes if you wanted (but I don't). Prefer something smaller? This also comes in 25L and 32L versions.
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