“Travel Like a Pro: My Top Must-Haves."
- worththemilestrave
- Jul 2
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
It's about to be some people's favorite time of the year....
I mean yes to America's Birthday, but I am talking about PRIME DAYS (JULY 8th-11th, 2025) with Amazon. I mean someone has to pay for that gaudy 50-million-dollar wedding ol' Jeffy just had. So, let's get into what I recommend are must haves for trips.
If you don't want to end up rolling your pink and teal flamingo 49.5-pound suitcase down the beautiful Cobblestone streets of Edinburgh, Scotland like someone you may know (me). I cannot recommend this first product enough.
Packing Cubes
You can organize however you want but here are some ideas to help.
Sort by articles of clothing (shirts, pants, etc.)
Sort by day or activity
Color code the packing cubes if you are sharing a suitcase.
I even designate an in transit essential cube that I can take out to use for overnight stays and road trip pit stops, because I cannot stand messing my whole luggage set up for a pair of pj's and the next day's leggings. I like to think it turns my insane amount of clothes into a fun game of Tetris. You create little squares to all fit into the nice big square of your suitcase.
Noise Cancelling Headphones
Now I will admit, when I am traveling with my son, I am a bit more observant to everything and everyone around me. I mean what if someone tries to take him? (He's 13 and about 5'5 now) but a mom never stops worrying. I mean all it takes is a wine tasting sign in the hills of California and me and my mom will drive off the beaten path until we stumble upon it. (True Story, and it turned out to be the most beautiful vineyard and house shout out to Big Basin Vineyards.) So, I think I have a right to worry about someone coming up to him and leading him off. When I travel alone, you will not catch me without headphones on. I keep them on from Security to my destination. The problem is when you have long flights, those little ear buds can start to irritate after a while, so grab you some of these during prime days.
Bonus points: they are noise cancelling so you can ignore all of the crying kids. (Just kidding, if I see a mom in the wild struggling, I will always offer help, I once traveled with a 28-day old infant, and I wouldn't have made it without the kindness of strangers. He started crying and the whole plane was trying to make his bottle, just one more helpful mom tip when flying with little kids have them sucking on their bottles/cups on take-off and landing to help with their little ears.)
Portable Chargers
Technology is a blessing and curse. The one thing we can all agree on is we are always needing a charger. These 2 packs of chargers were lifesaving at Disney. We all know keeping the kids busy in those lines will drain every bit of battery you have on your phone.
STORY TIME:
My husband didn't start flying until he met me when we were 19 so he has never traveled without technology at his fingertips. (Just saying that made me feel young and old at the same time.) The first time I didn't go with him and my son on vacation it ended with me driving across the entire state of Louisiana and halfway into Texas. He called me in Fort Myers, NOT Fort Lauderdale where they were supposed to be connecting with news of a weather diversion and a dying phone on a plane with no chargers. I told him to call me from a fellow passenger's phone when they land in Fort Lauderdale, and I'll tell him what's going on with his flight into New Orleans. Since I was about an hour away from New Orleans airport, (a 4 and half drive from my house) I had all hands-on deck watching their flight. It was my lucky day, the flight to New Orleans also got delayed they were going to make it!!! The plane lands, I'm staring at my phone waiting for an unknown number to call me so I could scream RUN!
The minutes keep passing by, I can see his plane has landed and now it's at the gate, where is my phone call? The New Orleans flight is now boarding. My phone lights up, I am ready to embarrass myself in the Olive Garden by screaming you can make it GO! Wait, why is my husband's name lighting up my phone screen, isn't his phone dead? It's ok he got off the plane, stopped at a random charger and plugged his phone in waiting for it to charge before calling me.....COMPLETELY IGNORING MY INSTRUCTIONS.
Spoiler alert: they missed the plane.
After getting him taken care of now they will be flying into Houston, I have to call his cousins to pick them up because again, I'm across the state and won't make it in time.
Don't you just love a happy ending? They didn't make their flight, but you know what did make it.... their luggage. Just for informational purposes if your luggage makes it, you could have made it too.
No biggie, right just have the airlines put it on the next flight to Houston and all will be well. The most important missing piece of this story? My husband put frozen fish he had caught while on a charter trip, IN MY SON'S SUITCASE. You heard me, the same suitcase that is now on it's way to New Orleans, while they are not. I know what you're thinking Sam you were only an hour from the suitcase why didn't you just get it, because I was already driving the 3.5 hours, back to the house before driving another 3.5 hours to pick up my boys. We just knew the TSA dogs were going to flag his luggage thinking we were trying to smuggle things masking it with the lovely fish smell. We finally get the luggage, my husband heads to the bathroom to access the damage, and you can hear him in the lobby using some pretty choice words.
Sam, where is the happy ending???? This is an awful story. My son got a new suitcase out of this whole ordeal.
If you are ever in a situation with a dead phone and are trying to make a connection, ALWAYS go to your original destination gate.
The moral of this traumatizing story? It would never have happened with the portable chargers and don't pack fish.
CAN ONLY BE A CARRYON DUE TO THE BATTERY
Travel Pillows
One of the most controversial questions. Do you sleep on the plane? Now when I am in first class with the lay down beds the answer is absolutely. The rest of the time depends on how sleepy I am. The embarrassing story of me passing out in the middle seat on a 6am flight home from my grandparent's memorial and waking up to the 2 ladies next to me team chatting about me sleeping could have been avoided with this next product.
Passport and Document Holder
I don't know about you, but I am the default holder of all the things.
-Boarding Passes
-ID's
-Passports
-Luggage Tickets
Now I have written in previous blog posts about keeping up with your own information, but look at me not following my own advice, but I promise there is a reason for that. When I was traveling with my 28-day infant, we were heading back home, and I got asked where my son's birth certificate is. He wasn't old enough to even have one of those yet. Let the panic ensue.
I was standing in the airport thinking they were going to try and arrest me for stealing my own kid. I was pulling out my phone and showing Facebook statuses with his pictures and everything, I was one step away from showing my c section scar. Don't worry I didn't need to do all that. But that experience has stayed with me. I carry a copy of my son's birth certificate with me every time I travel now. When he got older the TSA worker asked him his name and that 20 second pause while looking at me, with those "are you sure I'm supposed to answer him mom" look also haunts me to this day. Needless to say, I keep a loaded up informational booklet with me when I travel with him now. It just makes it less heart attacky for me if I can just hold onto everything. So this next product sure does help keep all of that in one place.
I could keep going on with both the stories and the shopping, but I shall put us all out of misery now. I don't know what company says I know a few things cuz I've seen a few things, but that is the truth about me. I can recommend all sorts of products to help you travel like a pro, but the best thing I recommend you purchase is my services as your travel agent and you'll be traveling like a pro with a lot less traumatizing stories to tell. (Not a guarantee, because I can't control lots of things in this world.... legalities and all had to throw that in there).
As always
Take the Trip
-Samantha Owner/Agent Worth the Miles Travel
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