World Travel & Relocation Checklist

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If you’re going to travel the world, it’s important that you not overpack and take more than you need. Nothing is worse than being burdened with more freight than is necessary. You’ll need to carry this stuff around after all and less weight means less fatigure.

You don’t want to overpack, but it’s also important that you include the right things. Here’s what I’ve found to be the necessary basics for two types of travel. I actually got rid of everything I own and parred down to these items to travel the world Taking a trip. By this, I mean leaving your home base to visit somewhere and then return after some time. Typically this might be between three days and a month.

I think you can classify travel into two types. I’ll call one taking a trip. And the other I’ll call global relocation

Taking a Trip

When I say “taking a trip” I mean leaving your home base to visit somewhere and then return after some time. Typically this might be between three days and a month. After taking many trips in my life, domestically and globally, I can emphatically say that the best packing strategy to make a trip stress free, is pack as little as possible. This is especially true if you are traveling globally to low cost of living places where many items necessary for living can be bought at low prices.

When you travel, there is always the chance that your things could get lost or stolen, so packing more than is necessary is putting your belongings at risk. Additionally, carrying less is easier and makes you more portable.

These days if I take a trip, even for a month, I only use one backpack that is small enough to be stowed in an overhead bin. The benefits of this are, that I never have to check luggage or wait at the baggage carousel. My possessions never have to be far out of my sight. Having one bag that can be worn leaves your hands free.

Trip Luggage

After a good deal of research, I decided on an Osprey. I’ve had this bag for about four years now and taken it on several trips and can tell you it’s very sturdy, light and comfortable.

The Osprey Farpoint 40 is my go-to for short trips and fits in an overhead bin.

In addition to my main backpack, it’s helpful to have a very lightweight and cheap small bag that serves as a day bag. You can use this after you’ve checked into your hotel or hostel to carry basic items throughout the day. I guess this is sort of the same concept of how women use a purse.

You can also stuff a few items in the daybag after stowing your main bag in the overhead bin. things like snacks, headphones, a travel pillow, earplugs, pain meds or anything you would like to have within your reach while sitting on your flight, train, or bus ride. I found this tough super light and cheap bag for a day bag.

I found this “day bag” which is super light weight and great for taking a few small items when you are out exploring.

This Hopsooken bag weights virtually nothing. It’s ultra light, ultra compact and can be used as a daybag or personal item on a flight,

If you’re traveling abroad, it’s nice to protect your passport from being bent or damaged. For that I recommend a passport wallet. I don’t see any reason to spend more than is necessary for something that is affordable and basic like this.

This basic wallet should be suffice to take your passport and some backup credit cards.

Relocation World Travel

By this, I mean packing up all that you own to relocate and travel the world, slow travel style. You might stay in a place for three months or two years, but you’ll likely be traveling again at some point and packing everything you own up.

Relocation Luggage

After several years of travel experience, If I need to relocate myself and everything I own, I’ve settled on a strategy of four bags.

I take my main backpack and daybag I described above just as I do on a trip.
For relocating everything, I’ve found it sufficient to pack all my clothes in large luggage you check. Then one more duffle for shoes. Shoes are pain in the butt to carry.

A bag like this is sufficient to store a lot of clothes for relocating.

Other Travel Tools

When you are gone for long periods of time, there can be an issue with what happens to your old school physical mail. People still find the need to mail physical paper these days crazy eh? Well the solution to physical mail, while traveling abroad is a fantastic tool I found called “Traveling Mailbox”. They will receive your mail and scan it for you so you can view it anywhere you are online. And they will only open your mail if you give them permission to do an “open and scan”. They can also forward mail to anywhere in the WORLD!

Since, I’ve been traveling they have saved me a few times. I had to sell my car before leaving to the US. When the bank mailed the documentation to show my loan as paid off, my traveling mailbox receive it and scanned it for me. Nice right?

If you’re interested in opening an account with Traveling Mailbox, just click the link here and

When you hit the ground, it’s nice to have internet immediately. For that I recommend using Google FI. You’ll automatically have data and phone service in most countries as soon as you land. This is great if you want to travel to many countries and not have to always be switching SIMS. I would say that depending on your data needs, in some countries you might be able to find cheaper data by the gig. If so, it may make sense to get a data sim after you’ve landed. It’s still great to have service immediately after landing. If you sign up for Google Fi with the link below you’ll get a bonus $20 credit.

Get a $20 Credit for trying Google FI!

Sign up here for a $20 Google Fi credit.

I use Agoda for booking hotels and hostels. I’ve always found them to have competitive rates. Here’s a favorite capsule hotel I like to stay at when in Taiwan.