Mine is a small bottle of liquid bandage. It stays in my toiletries, can go through that, and is superior to most bandages!
My trusty bag, basically a small/medium duffel bag I can wear over my shoulder or carry. When I’ve traveled (been so long, I miss it), that holds everything. It makes travel so nice. I just carry it on the plane, shove it under my seat. One thing to worry about. No hauling luggage, no waiting for baggage claim (mostly). A single pocket for my passport. Just one bag.
Binder clips to bind the curtains together. Sometimes hotels have hangers with pants clips on them, for everywhere else? Binder clips.
Probably not the most unusual, except for how I never see any other adults with theirs if they have one probably because of how embarrassed they might be, but definitely my favorite stuffed animal. Gotta have some sort of comfort object. Especially in a hotel, if there are no bed bugs.
Liquid bandages?
I didn’t realize liquid got injured enough to have a product like this.
Yeah, they’re like bandages, only liquid.
Universal diffuser for hotel hair dryer.
A duffle bag that folds up to be very small. That way, I fly out with only carryons and have a laundry bag that acts as a carry on bag in case I buy too much on vacation and can’t fit everything back in my luggage.
Someone else mentioned a walking around backpack separate from my flying/train riding backpack.
Travel wallet with Passport ID card. That way I’m carrying valid ID and some cash but not all my ID’s and cash.
Water bottles with integrated Britta filters.
Shoe horn, thermoplastic.
A shoe horn is a good idea. What’s thermoplastic?
What’s thermoplastic?
Hot Glue
Ignore the thermo part of the word.
Thermoplastic usually starts as small pellets that you can heat up in boiling water and mold into shapes to repair things. Once cooled, it’s pretty strong. I just have a blob of it in my toiletry bag to fix whatever breaks.
Cool!
Do you know those supermagnets that can be found in old computer hardware? I take one of those, a particularly strong one, which my BF and his relatives found for me once during the advent of their metal detecting hobby. Good for things like getting stuff out of hard to reach places or determining the material of something, though I’m told it’s not so good for those who have put their phone or credit card too close to my baggage. I even once took a toy out of a grocery store toy machine this way (screw the rigged crane, especially when you have a kid who just went through a tragedy).
Does it cause any issues with airport security?
I’m not sure. I’ve never tested that out. Though I’ve heard that even just being made of metal risks extra vetting at the airport.
I always make sure I bring a nice towel on my carry on. We got some high quality cotton Turkish towels that double as blankets when traveling. Not sure if it’s standard outside the hitchhikers guide.
A towel, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with
You sound like one hoopy frood
I also bring liquid bandaid most places, it really is superior but you have to wait for the bleeding to (mostly) stop first
My travel kit includes way too many nails, mousetraps, an upholstery stapler, power drill, syringes/needles, and first aid stuff. Sideshow performer so it’s just par for the course. I also use the needles for medication.
What
Coffee making gear, so hand grinder, tiny scales, and either a tricked out picopresso or an aeropress or my wave dripper. I pick based on what sort of coffee beans I am expecting to be able to pick up where I go.
Get yourself a small hotplate and a moka pot if you like thick coffee. Add a milk frother and your choice of milk (I like oat milk in coffee), and sweeten with brown sugar and top with cinnamon.
It is heaven.
I use a foldable cone, and a dual voltage kettle. I’m thinking of adding a vial of electrolytes and minerals to add to distilled water. Many places I travel have absolutely terrible water, and water makes a big difference!
On the last camping trip I was on, someone brought a small coffee maker. Absolute genius. If you think that shitty instant coffee is a god-send when the local wildlife wakes you up after 5h of sleep, the imagine that with a real coffee.
My regular electric toothbrush instead of a travel one. I have found its just easier to just throw my toothbrush in a bag morning of then to deal with having a 2nd one for travel which is often disgusting
I used to do this before I worked in an airport. The sheer number of incidents that arise from accidentally activated vibrating things will surprise you.
All toothbrushes I have seen come with a hard case, so I don’t think that’s a big issue
Vaseline. Is that non-standard? It doubles as lip balm and for those really dry patches of skin that come around (currently in Japan and it’s been dry af). Or even for small cuts, or used as hand cream.
Also can be used as a fire starter (for camping, just to clarify!).
My grandparents ruined Vaseline for me. I will gladly carry multiple things to never use that stuff again.
Oh boy. Please explain. 😬
Chapstick, hand lotion, balms anything but Vaseline.
Why did your grandparents ruin Vaseline for you? Sorry, I wasn’t clear. Just wondering what kind of detriments I could be doing to myself by using Vaseline.
They put it on me. That was all it took i guess. Maybe it was just that i don’t like the stuff. It was like a jar of snot that smelled. Still gives me the ick. I’m 41.
I hear ya. I’m not a fan of the smell either, but for what I use it for, it works wonders. I also use Lucas Paw Paw when I can. It smells way nicer.
I’ve recently started to throw a mini screwdriver set into my laptop bag. I can even fit a small pocket knife and a bit of soldering tin into its case. Obviously not a good idea for flying, but it has been useful a few times.
I also keep some crappy headphones in that bag. Priceless if someone around you in public transport is being annoying.
Tea. A lot of hotels have tea and coffee making facilities, but a horrible selection of teas.
What out companies founder took along in his hotel bag had been interesting, too. He always had a 100W light bulb (back when they were common), as hotels used crappy, low wattage bulbs in the room. He just switched them for his own 100W bulb so he could actually see something. He switched it back when he left. The other important thing was a set of plumbing tools, so he could remove the pressure reduction from the showers.
I think this one wins the thread. Plumber tools are quite non-standard
As was the old boss.
