10 Travel ‘Essentials’ as a Digital Nomad working remotely
Uncover the Unconventional: 10 ‘Essential’ Items for Thriving as a Digital Nomad. Learnings from 3 years on the go.
After a couple of years working remotely in the tech industry, I transitioned to slow traveling and digital nomading in 2020. Fast forward to the summer of 2022: As I was getting ready to pack my belongings for an upcoming trip to Asia, I realized I had been accumulating learnings related to certain ‘essential’ items that have been life-savers when living abroad.
With every trip I added new things, but removed other items. When almost everything you own fits in just one checked 23 Kg (50 pound) bag, one carry-on and a backpack, you inevitably have to get picky about what is strictly necessary to make sure you don’t have to pay for extra weight during flights (note that ‘necessary’ is incredibly subjective, you’ll see what I mean as you read this list). This list I’ve compiled here applies mostly if you intend to live for at least 4 weeks in a given place. 4 weeks is completely arbitrary though. I’ll share more about the pros, cons and what led me to become more interested in slow traveling in another article.
The Basics - My essential objects when Slow Traveling:
1 - Ear plugs:
For a while, I joined the ‘Bring Your Own Pillow Movement’. If you follow Peter Levels (if you don’t follow him yet and you like everything related to Digital Nomads, you probably should), you’ll see he’s also tweeted about this.
I would carry a small pillow which did not take up too much space and helped me standardize some elements in my life as we keep changing the scenery every time we move to a new location. I’ve found that I need some elements to stay the same as we live in new places to give you a sense of home, to bring stability to my life and for a sense of belonging. Surprisingly, with something as simple and ordinary as a pillow, I felt I could achieve this. High quality restorative sleep is a priority for me, so experimenting with sleep while nomading has been a priority. After doing this for a while though, I also tried not traveling with the pillow and ever since, learned that it’s not really an essential item for me given how bulky it is.
That said, I also travel with earplugs and a blindfold. When you are staying in Airbnbs, stranger’s homes or hotels, sometimes the curtains let a lot of light in, and I have a hard time sleeping unless the room is relatively dark. Nothing that a good blindfold doesn’t solve though.
Earplugs I consider essential when traveling. As much as you try to read reviews and control noise levels, there are times when earplugs are the only way to guarantee you will get deep sleep in a new location. Studies investigating the ‘first-night effect’ have shown that it can take multiple days for the brain to achieve deep sleep when you are staying in a new location. Even if you have no recollection of waking up in the night, you might not be sleeping as well as you might think. I’ve found that earplugs help at the beginning or when staying at places where there can be a lot of noise. This is also another reason why lately we are orbiting more towards slow traveling.
2- Thermometer
Many times as we’ve been living in different countries I’ve felt like I am getting sick. Just as if you were in one location all year round and you can catch something, when Slow Traveling you might find yourself suddenly feeling a bit under the weather. Sometimes this might be fatigue, other times I reckon my body might have indeed been fighting something. And occasionally I do end up getting sick, but fortunately this is quite rare. That said, for those times when I’ve been unsure regarding if I am falling ill, one of the first questions that comes to mind is: ‘Do I have a fever?’. It’s normal to have this question, and many times I’ve felt like I might have one. An inexpensive digital thermometer has helped me track my temperature and feel much better knowing I don’t have a fever, as well as track my temperature when I have indeed had a fever. Thermometers are small, lightweight and their batteries last for years, making it a simple essential item to add to your bags.
3- Universal Travel Adapter
If you are doing serious traveling, a universal travel adapter is a must have so you can charge your electronic devices easily everywhere you go. We travel with many of them so we can have a bit of redundancy (e.g connect laptops, phones). My favorite ones lately are the ones that have multiple USB ports and bonus points if it has a USB-C port and fuse.
4- Extra toothbrush + Toothpaste
I like to carry an extra toothbrush in case I lose my luggage or if it gets delayed. One toothbrush and toothpaste fly with me in my carry-on, and another set of both goes in the checked bag. This way I can make sure I always have one at my disposal and I am not at the mercy of drugstores or local shops when I arrive (which has happened multiple times).
5- Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Music is a key part of my life, and I feel at home when there’s music in the background. I might not be able to travel with studio quality speakers, but I find that a good portable speaker should do the trick for me. Today they are compact and can sound surprisingly good, with rich bass and powerful batteries. I find that they help brighten up a rental property or hotel room when you play your favorite songs, bringing life to a place that you are just starting to recognize as your home for the next couple of weeks.
Additionally, I use this speaker to play White Noise at night while I am sleeping. This is key to regulating your sleep when you are changing locations because every place has different sounds that could wake you up completely, or simply interrupt your sleep. When we move to a new city, we can’t anticipate the noise that we’ll be exposed to. Garbage trucks, dogs or other animals, street noise, passing vehicles, people talking, a loud bar. Naturally I always try my best to stay in places that are quiet at nights, but White Noise helps stabilize things even further.
6-Security camera
A tiny IP Camera can help you monitor your Airbnb or Hotel Room. Luckily we’ve not caught anyone breaking in or anything unpleasant with our security camera, but these can help add an extra layer of safety when moving around. With a subscription you can also use these cameras as a simple alarm given that you can get a notification if a person is detected when you are not expecting anyone. Footage is uploaded to the cloud, which is really convenient.
7-Tote Bags + Ziploc bags
When space is limited and you have to pack all your belongings for everything you’ll be doing in just 1 checked bag, you need to prioritize items that ideally serve multiple purposes or are super lightweight. Tote bags fit in both of these categories.
When packing, we use them to put our shoes in. This helps keep your clothes clean, and your bag organized. Once you arrive at your next destination, these bags can help you bring groceries home and can serve for anything you can imagine when it comes to carrying items. Don’t forget to carry some ziploc bags for your liquids both on your checked bags and carry on bags. They help keep things contained in case any of your liquids happen to spill, and for your carry on they are a requirement in most airports (don’t forget that for any liquids you are taking in the cabin on flights they must be smaller than 100ml).
8-Backup phone + Yubikey
2FA Authenticator is of utter importance for you to try to stay safe online. But imagine if you lose your phone on a trip. You’d have to regain access to all of your services with your backup codes. When you work in tech, you tend to use so many services that this list grows and becomes quite sizable. For this reason I’ve created a backup of all my 2FA codes on a separate phone. As a rule: These 2 phones should never be together and should have strong passwords. If one is in a checked bag, the other will be in my backpack or pocket. This way, if I lose one, I can easily retain access to my accounts when moving. This way I minimize the chances of being locked out and minimize the potential impact that losing my phone would have on my productivity.
A Yubikey can also be used for 2FA. I carry one with me, and keep another one for backup that does not move with me.
9- Umbrella
After traveling to many beach towns and sunny destinations, it’s easy to forget that there are trips when you might encounter heavy rain and where you’ll definitely need an umbrella. When you will be nomading for months, you’ll be thankful you’ve brought one along. Even though umbrellas are super easy to find almost everywhere you go, I find it quite convenient to always travel with a small one. They also help with sun protection.
10- Portable battery
This one should be no surprise. A small external battery can be a lifesaver when traveling. When on the move, we tend to use the phone a lot. It’s where we keep information about our destination, important documentation that we might need to show immigration officers (e.g tickets, accommodation, proof of insurance), but it’s also used to take photos during the trip, the mandatory photos of the meal (that you’ll probably never share or do anything with but you end up taking any way), listen to music, and of course for entertainment. With existing battery technology, phones do surprisingly well, but for very long trips the external battery ends up helping a lot. In case you forget an adapter to be able to charge your devices in your new destination, or simply in case you run out of battery during the trip.
There are definitely other items that I travel with, but this list captures some that I thought would be interesting to share. Living as a nomad has been, and continues to be an experiment for me and many people around the world who are defining their own rules and needs . For this reason, this list is dynamic and is continuously changing as we learn more about our needs and as our lifestyle is transformed through all the experiences that countries from around the world do to us.
