Travel Gear | Hostels and Hot Rollers

Hello!!

Things are getting serious here on the packing front. With 3 days to go, I’m feeling fairly organized. Although I am still unsure of how things are going to go once I actually attempt to put all these glorious items into Tatonka! For those of you who know me well, it will come as no surprise that I’ve been Youtubing “packing techniques“. This link is likely how it will go down.

Lots of stuff to cover, so lets dive right in. First, let’s take a gander at my toiletry bag, and all the goodies that are inside.

This is my fabulous Roots travel bag that folds out into a toiletry case that you can hang on the back of a door. It makes it so much easier when you are staying in places with small bathrooms, as it clears up the counter space. Wanna see what’s inside??

Toiletry Case Goodies

So starting from the top left:

Makeup Case, for those of you who missed it, check out my post Makeup for Travellingl to see what’s inside!
Hairbrush
Toothpaste
Diva Cup and Diva Cup Wash. Won’t go into to much detail, but seriously a travelling girls best friend!
Shampoo, Conditioner, Facewash. The facewash has an exfolliant in it to help me scrub off all the suncreen, salt and sweat!
Body Glide- I use this when I’m running races in hot climates, and thought it might come in handy here. It basically makes sure you don’t end up chaffing during long sweaty workouts/hikes.
Next Row: Two pairs of earrings. Cheap, easily replaceable
Q-Tips
My uber cute travel electronic toothbrush and some replacement heads
Bug spray, a MUST! full size and travel size
Deoderant, another must!
Two containers of sunscreen, Shaun is also bringing some, because for some reason he’s not keen on my shimmery stuff!
Razor and Razor heads
Comb
Last row: Nail polish. Pedicure is happening today, and I’m planning on just slapping this colour on my toes continually for five mos!
Eye cream from Lotus. A recent Sephora purchase that I just feel I can’t live without
Hair Ties
Meds!! Have a mother who is an RN, I’m prepared for EVERYTHING. So, in no particular order I have Pepto, Gravol, anti-diarrhea pills, Benedryl for any strange reactions and to be honest, upon writing this, I have one set of pills that are a mystery to me. Note to self, seek clarification prior to departure!
Lastly, manicure stuff. Gotta keep those nails short, and those brows tweezed!

Things to help the hanger and other goodies!

This next batch of goodies include things that will help me cure a disease that effects both myself and my loved ones HANGER (Hunger+Anger). Once my blood sugar plummets, I am not a peach, and become senorita hangrypants!

Quest Bars-Oh how I love thee. You better believe I’ll be getting my mom to bring more of these babies down for me when she comes for Christmas
Almond Butter- I’m a nut butter fiend! This little jar will keep me going until I can find a suitable substitute down there.
The rest of it- Headlamp, clip to attach my water bottle, sunglasses, waterproof bags
What’s the stuff in the plastic bag?? Wellll, many of you know I paint faces as a part time job, so I’m bringing a couple supplies in case I get the opportunity to make some little gaffers into rainbow butterflies! (I guess they could be big gaffers too!)

Fitness Goodies

I guess these aren’t ALL fitness goodies but many are. Starting from the top.

Towel
Sleeper sheet, in case we run into any sketchy bed situations
Hats. I’m still debating the white one. I know I’ll get tons of wear out of it, but it doesn’t travel well, so it likely won’t fit in my bag.
Walking runners and workout runners
My band, I talked about this in my Staying Active While Travelling Post

Titty Tonka’s Trinkets

This is everything that I’ll be carrying in my daypack to start off with (and yes, I’m named her Titty Tonka, cause it makes me laugh everytime I type it!)

Sketch Book and Pens- I’ve been doing so much art lately, I couldn’t imagine not having something to draw with while down there.
Three starter books, they will undoubtedly be read within the first week.
Flip Flops to wear when we get off the plane
Charger and ear buds for Iphone (not pictured, since it was taking the picture!)
Notebook with all of our important numbers in it. I’ve also documented a whole bunch of workouts in it as well!
Our map
Extra meds and Quest Bars for the travel period
Our netbook, camera and their chargers. We bought the netbook used, and it’s pretty slow. Thanks to some magic from my favourite IT guy, it’s up and running slightly faster. In fact, I’m trying it out today for the first time writing this post! The camera is my moms. I use my iphone for everything, but it’s been acting up lately. I wanted to bring a camera to start off with to see if I get any use out of it. If I like it, I’ll get her to bring one down for me when she comes in December

PHEW! The longest post, on the smallest netbook known to man. I’ve love to hear your thoughts. What am I missing? What should I leave at home?

What are you travel packing secrets? Any tips on how I can fit all this in my bag?

Next post will be travel day!! hurray!

Pura Vida

Kate

Yes, it’s official, the backpack has been purchased. I’m pleased to announce the arrival of our new bundle of joy, Tatonka.

Finding a backpack was actually harder than I thought it would be. After a lot of research on backpacking websites, chatting with experienced backpackers, and multiple trips to MEC, I determined my backpack needed the follow two and a half things.

1-Side Loading: My current backpack loads from the top, and I’m always rummaging around looking for things. Undoubtedly, there are things that fall to the bottom that never see the light of day. If you are going to be staying in one place, a top loading pack would likely be fine (as I’m assuming you would unpack everything anyways), but, since we are bouncing around, I wanted to make sure I had easy access.

2- Two Compartments: While we are travelling, I plan on working out, running on beaches, and doing all sorts of things that will make my clothes smelly, and my shoes dirty. As much as I am opening my mind to the idea of “roughing it,” I’d rather not contaminate all my clothes with my stench. Hence the rationale of the two compartments. One side for things I’d like to keep clean, and one of the not so clean items.

2.5- My final criteria was having an day pack that attached to my main backpack. Why is this a .5 you may ask? I wasn’t actually completely sold on the idea at first. When I envision what our travelling style will be, I doubt that there will be many times where I would have my day pack attached to the bag itself. When we are on the move, I imagine I will be wearing my day pack on my front with my valuables in it. I figure that only time it would come in handy would be on our way home, when our bags are so full of junk, that I need to buy a new one to carry on. Then I could just attach the daypack and check it on the plane. Also, many of the bags with attachable day packs didn’t seem very well equipped for attachment. The ones I saw had a few buckles to attach it, leaving the back susceptible to being ripped off in an airport or theft. Yet, as I priced out the bags, I realized how much money I would save if I found an all in one unit that had both packs together, plus it would save me the hassle of starting pack shopping all over again. Ultimately, I was wishy washy about the whole idea.

Once I knew what I was looking for, the search began. Enter Pinterest. You may laugh, but I found that Pinterest was the best way for me to organize all the packs I found. I would cruise around online, and as soon as I found a pack that hit my criteria, I would pin it to my board for future review.

In addition to my social media savy search, I checked out a couple of stores here in Victoria. I spent lots of time in MEC, Robinsons and Atmosphere. I made sure I spoke with employees to get their opinions. It was great to hear first-hand experience about the packs.

After three weeks of searching, I was beginning to get a little anxious. Not only were there very few packs that met my criteria, the ones that did were tipping the scales at $400plus. On a fateful Friday afternoon, I made one last ditch effort and popped into Capital Iron (a local “we have everything” store in Victoria). I chatted with an amazing employee, and told him all about my plight. His reponse…”You need a Tatonka.”

Tatonka?

I’d never heard such beautiful words…and she was…beautiful.

I purchased the Tatonka Great Escape 60, which literally has everything I need and more.

Features:

– Two big compartments that can be converted to one if needed.

-A side loading zipper for easy access.

-A detachable day pack (which also has two compartments), that is secured by an industrial zipper.

-A protective layer that can be zipped over the packs straps for easy travel

-A duffel bag conversion, so the bag can be worn over your shoulder as needed.

-A semi-reasonable price tag. At $200 it was at the top end of my budget, but the fact I was getting the two bags out of the deal sold me.

So here we are. Tatonka and Kate, lifelong friends. Or at least for the next 5 months. I’ll do a follow up post during the trip, and let you know if all the trials and tribulations of tracking down Tatonka were truly worth it!