What I Use: Sony A6300 Mirrorless Camera: $998
The previous generation is also the tits, and you will probably not notice a difference in image quality: Sony A6000 Mirrorless: $648 (I went for the a6300 only because it was weatherproofed/the frame is more durable and I wanted it to survive Alaska life)
I list a few of the best non-Sony choices out there in my post explaining why you should go mirorrless instead of sticking to a DSLR.
Like I talk about in that same post, I afforded this camera with a 12-month interest free financing plan from Best Buy.
- Lenses
Sony E-Mount 35mm *Fixed* Lens, F 1.8: $448, New
Samyang E-Mount 12mm *Fixed* Lens, F 2.0: $289, New
I spent days trying to figure out why this killer was so cheap, and it turns out that most photographers would rather light their first born on fire than manually handle their lenses.
I bought both of these on Facebook marketplace for at least half the cost listed above. In general, these are not expensive lenses to begin with, but don’t be afraid to buy used!
- Peak Design Camera Gear or just *Make Your Own Photo Bag*
The Backpack: 20L, $259
Peak Design gear is a pretty heckin big photography investment, fren. It was on sale at Best Buy when I bought my camera, so I got an additional 25% off their already clearance pricing (and then had 12 months to pay for it).
Their backpacks/satchels are extremely intuitive to your needs if you’re hiking or traveling with gear other than photo stuff. I use this as my carry-on bag when I travel because it fits all my camera stuff plus so much more.
Peak design also makes lots of other cool shit, but I love feeding my dogs more than I love buying extraneous camera supplies. **If you want to just turn any bag or purse you have into a camera bag, just buy an Ape Case Insert: $10.**
I think most classic camera bags are gigantic, bumbling wastes of space unless you really need to take 6 dicking lenses with you into the wilds of the Amazon to track gorillas. I bought the small Ape Case to just fit my a6300 and the two lenses I use, and its perfect for traveling. It fits right inside my regular cross-body purse for day-to-day use.
- Travel Tri-Pod
MeFOTO Backpacker Air Tripod: $125
This tripod is extraordinarily lightweight at only 2lbs, is cost efficient (holy balls nice tripods are expensive), and is so easy to use. It fits right in the side pocket of my backpack like a water bottle. I inexplicably want them in every color.
- Birkenstocks
Mayari: $99
HEAR ME OUT FAM. I love these. I love these. The first time I went to Europe everybody and their mother was wearing them and I was like lord help me those things are hideous. Throw me out of a moving vehicle before you try and put those on my feet.
HOWEVER. These are the perfect travel shoe and I was wrong and a sinner and I don’t care what you have to say about it. I have never worn a more comfortable shoe in my life. I went through at least half a dozen ~cute looking~ travel shoes before I caved and bought these. You can wear these for miles and miles and your feet will feel great. The base slowly molds to your feet specifically, and makes them even more comfortable over time.
I have worn these hiking through Greece, swimming, up and around mountain trails, through national parks, and back again. They are durable, weirdly look good with everything, and may I just say 85 more times that your feet will thank you. I only pack these and one other pair of shoes now when I travel. Amen.
- Pocket Earth and Google Translate Apps
Props to my map nerd/Eagle Scout houseboat for this one. This app lets you download maps of major cities for free (in English) and is basically an interactive way to navigate you through major tourist spots, the public transit systems, notable restaurants, and more. We mainly use it for getting our way around on the trains. It does not need cellular service to work! It will track you using the location of your phone, but it does not use any data to do this. So far we have used it in Paris, Rome, Florence, and Berlin without any issues.
The Google Translate app is a given, mainly because you can use the camera function to take pictures of entire signs, menus, advertisements, etc. that you need translated. It is absolute witchcraft.
- RFID Blocking Wallet
Multi-purpose RFID Blocking Travel Passport Wallet: $10-20
RFID scanners are those weird things thieves from the future use to scan the chip on your credit card without you knowing. They download your credit card info this way and then try and spend all your money while you’re traveling. This especially blows because your bank can’t alert you unless you have roaming data or until you hit a wifi hotspot and your phone works again. This actually happened to me just at home when I was at a gas station. A simple fix is to buy an RFID blocking wallet.
- Power Converter
LOOP World Adapter Plug: $18
Do not be the tourist who forgets one of these, because you will get sold a cheap one and it may or may not explode on you/ charge your shit very slowly. If you explode it will probably ruin your vacation.
- Back Up Power
Anker Power Core Portable Charger: $26
I have been out in a foreign city countless times in the single digits of power. I’m surprised I haven’t had to ask a stranger to borrow their charger at this point (opening up avenues of being murdered, I’m certain), because I’ve done my fair share of following my phone map home on 2% power. Avoid this problem and just take a charger of backup power with you. You pre-charge this magic stick (not to be confused with your vibrator, equally as important) with almost 4 complete battery charges before you head out for the day.
- Space Saver Bags
Roll Up Compression Storage: $17.95 per pack
The houseboat laughs at me when I pack these airtight bags, but I am obsessed with them and he can suck my vacuum sealed socks. You pack all your clothes into one of the bags, seal it shut like a zip-lock bag, and then roll out all the air. It saves SO much space.
I’d rather eat my own hair than have to neatly fold all my clothes responsibly into a suitcase, so this stuff n’roll method does right by me. I think they are especially fun to rub in his face when we’re going somewhere cold and they deflate all my gigantic sweaters and jackets down to a more manageable size.
- Dry Shampoo & Shampoo Bars
No Drought Dry Shampoo from Lush you can actually take in your carry on: $8.95 or $15.95 for the big ass bottle.
Shampoo Bars: $10-15
Lush Lush Lush Lush. How is no other beauty company keeping up with Lush. Their dry shampoo is brilliant: it’s physically a powder you shake out of a bottle and onto your head to soak up your greasy roots. I think I have tried every, wet, shaker bottle, sticky, spraying dry shampoo on the market, including the super expensive ones, and I still like Lush’s better.
I bought the big bottle and its lasted me THREE YEARS. I used to spend $5/bottle of the spray kind that would only last 3 or 4 good ‘washes’. Lush’s smells amazing, doesn’t leave your head sticky or feeling covered in residue, it works well, and you can actually get through TSA with it because it’s a solid. It is the perfect dry shampoo for travel. You just need to put in a little extra work shaking out the excess powder after you’ve brushed it through.
As for regular shampoo, Lush’s solid shampoo bars are basically are super concentrated shampoo formulas condensed down into a solid bar. This means they can last you up to 100 washes without all the weight of packing shampoo or keeping track of all those little travel sized shampoo bottles. In general, the quality is so much nicer than regular shampoo that I just use it every day now. There’s a ton of different kinds per your hair type. I recommend getting a bigger $1 travel-soap container than the one Lush sells only because the bar can get glued to the bottom and be hard to pry out.
- Specific Toiletries
Toms Unscented Deodorant: $4
Pore Strips: $6
Simple brand Cleansing Wipes: $4
Simple brand Hydrating Booster: $8
Simple brand Moisturizer: $10 They also have an SPF version which I highly recommend: SPF lotions help keep out much more than just the sun! SPF can help protect your skin from dirty airplane germs because the SPF creates a barrier to actually keep your skin cleaner.
I am team unscented deodorant 5,000%. I hate the smell of powdered lavender all over my clothes that just mingles with the scent of stank. It doesn’t make me smell better, it just makes me smell like both lavender and stank. It is confusing for everyone involved. Now I actually know when I just plain smell, I wipe up my pits with a face cloth, and put on more deodorant.
Do you enjoy getting zits? No? Do you think you would enjoy getting zits on your vacation you saved up and planned all year for? No? Invest in travel skin care.
Your face gets waterlogged with all kinds of nasty stranger danger garbage when you travel. I do a nose strip every now and then when I’m feeling oily, and I never see grosser things get pulled out of my skin than after I have been on an airplane. Holy skin boogers, Batman.
I make a habit of washing my face with an exfoliating wipe and putting on face lotion at some point. I need to feel human somehow when I’m sharing space with 200 mouth breathers all watching Batman vs. Superman.
I’ve used the Simple brand stuff before so I listed it above because I think it works, is cost efficient, and is the most all-encompassing brand for everyone’s general needs.
Bonus Round (Lady frens only):
Summers Eve Wipes $2 for 16 individually wrapped cloths
Are we going to just sit here and pretend that the main reason women feel gross after a flight isn’t because their downstairs mix-up smells like putrid cabbages? Girl. Pack these with you when you travel and thank me later.
- Polarized Sunglasses
MVMT Sunglasses: Polarized are usually $90 vs. Raybans $150-$200+
If you’re not wearing polarized lenses you are basically just letting the sun fry your pupils like little organic, cage-free grass-fed eggs. The UVA/UVB protection stuff is garbage because your eyes need more than that. Eyeballs are different than your skin. You need to invest in polarized lenses.
You will see much clearer, your eyes will not tire out from squinting (less headaches), and it will make a huge impact on your overall quality of travel. There’s a reason they are more expensive and its because they work and your eyes genuinely need them.
- Kindle Paperwhite
Used: $51-54
Certified Refurbished: $99
New: $119
Stop buying books at the airport. Mainly, I think they end up being a huge waste of space that you have to carry around for the rest of your trip. I know a lot of people are still very Team Real Book, and I was too/still am, but I am very in love with my Kindle and I also don’t hate myself. Also, nobody likes that person on the plane who turns on their overhead light to read next to the person trying to sleep.
It takes up no space, doesn’t murder a squirrel family living in a perfectly good tree, you can read it in the sun/in the dark, and kindle versions of books are cheaper. I could go on, but I’m several glasses of wine deep and you get it already: ya bish likes to read.
I went the certified refurbished route for the houseboat and the Kindle arrived looking brand-freaking new. The one I bought for myself was used in ‘Good’ condition because I don’t have standards. It had some small scuffs around the edges but I put a case on it and you can’t tell the difference between ours anymore.
- Vacuum Sealed Thermos
Klean Canteen: $20-30 for a 20oz, or $30-35 for a 32oz
Hydroflask: $35-40 for a 21oz or $30-70 for a 32oz
This is key. Do not start buying bottled water wherever you go, just get a good vacuumed sealed bottle that will keep your water cold. You will definitely want to be filling that up whenever you can, especially if you’re flying to Europe. European airlines do not hand out free water on planes or have water fountains in their airports — You have to go ask someone behind a counter to fill one for you or fill it up at your American starting point.
If you’re not savage enough to drink hotel sink water like me, because you have the aforementioned standards, get a water purifying straw: $19
- Tile Trackers
Tile Mate: $20 for 1 Tracker, or $50 for a set of 4 Trackers
These bad boys help you keep track of your most precious items. They make them in a few sizes so you can stick one on the back of your phone, on your key chain, in your wallet, in your purse or camera bag, etc. I think these can ease your travel anxiety if you are someone who is nervous about leaving things behind in hotel rooms or hostel lock boxes. If you think something has been stolen or you just can’t find where you last put something, you can track them if you put a Tile in it.
Now fucking, gooooo