9 Magical Travel Accessories You Didn’t Know You Needed

Travel is exciting and enlightening — but for those not
adept at preparations, travel can also be stressful, chaotic, and rough on the mind, body
and spirit. Fortunately, brands have come up with a few
handy gadgets that make travel significantly easier for everyone, but
especially for those are too forgetful (or too lazy) to stay organized on the
road. Here are nine travel accessories that travelers can no longer vacation
without.

There is nothing worse than packing up your suitcase to
perfection — all your clothing neatly folded and looking crisp — and having to
throw in your grubby-soled shoes on top, flecking everything else with bits of
dirt and dust. Enter: shoebags, the footwear-sized zippered satchels that keep shoe grime and odor
sealed from everything else in your suitcase. Now you can trek through the
exotic mud to your heart’s content, knowing your clothes won’t be soiled on
the flight home.

There are so many toiletries that we need every day just to
look moderately presentable to the public: shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, body
wash, lotion, saline solution, etc. Travel-sized versions of our favorite products
are priced exorbitantly, and they always accumulate unfinished at the back of
our bathroom cabinets. Instead of throwing more money at tiny, prepackaged
bottles, we invested in refillabletravel tubes. It’s better for the environment and our wallets.

Smokers who need a nicotine break every couple of hours
fully understand the agony of shelling out inordinate amounts of money for
foreign cigarettes. In some places, even familiar brands will run a smoker as
much as $15 per pack. Traveling smokers would be much wiser to invest early in
a handful of disposablee-cigarettes, which can offer more than a full day of nicotine at a
fraction of the cost. E-cigs can’t be crumpled on the plane ride, and most
smokers rate the experience higher than traditional tobacco, which is why smokers have made the permanent switch to e-cigs.

With just about everything being digital these days, you know you
need a travel-savvy system of keeping your technology well-charged. Various
companies offer varioussolutions to charger organization, but to us, anything must be better than
the amorphous tangle of cords at the bottom of our suitcases.

Sometimes, we spend quite a bit of our vacations away from
wall outlets. When we venture into the wilderness but still want access to our
music, movies, and more, we bring a portablebattery pack that allows us to charge up any USB device. You can find power
packs in a variety of sizes and styles, so be sure the one you buy will satisfy
the needs of your devices.

On the other end of the spectrum, sometimes we travelers
need to avoid looking like we’re living out of our backpacks. When we travel
for business, we make sure to pack inflatablehangers, which take up almost no space in the suitcase unlike regular
hangers. Then, we can arrive at our meetings looking crisp and professional,
knowing our clothing lacks the rumples and creases usually caused by travel.

Similarly, a trek through the jungle probably doesn’t
require your best pearls, but a business meeting with foreign investors
probably does. Yet, keeping jewelry organized at home can be a hassle, so when
you need to bring a selection of necklaces, earrings, and the like, you need a
specially designed device. Many top designers have crafted travel jewelry cases
to keep your gems in order, but our favorite for style and function is thisportfolio from Pottery Barn.

For many, alcohol is an indispensable aspect of vacations.
However, in many places, like cruises or the Middle East, alcohol is so highly priced. Fortunately, travelers have been blessed with Rum Runners, which are lightweight,
collapsible flasks that can’t be detected by x-rays but can fit easily into
pockets and purses. They come in various sizes; some will even carry an entire
bottle of wine. We use these flasks all the time, for juice, water, and (yes,
obviously) alcohol.

Airlines are cracking down on the amount of weight allowed
on board planes — so much so that heavierpassengers are feeling the squeeze when it comes to ticket prices. Fees for
overweight luggage, which for most airlines means bags heavier than 50 pounds,
are growing every year, and a careless traveler could easily rack up hundreds
in excess costs. We always carry a digital luggage scale to ensure that our
suitcases stay underweight and our wallets stay full for our next adventures.