Packing Essentials

• Packing Cubes

• Hanging toiletry bag

• Microfibre Towel

• Universal Adapter

• Warm clothes for travelling - cold aircon

• First Aid Kit

• Shampoo and Conditioner bars - saves on space and weight

• Water Bottle - most hostels have refill machines

• Combination lock

• Cutlery set and pocket knife

• Waterproof Shoes - e.g. flipflops

• Portable Charger

• Bumbag

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Other things we found useful

• Snorkel and underwater camera - for The Philippines

• Amazon Firestick - bit of a random one, I packed this on a whim thinking we wouldn't get chance to use it but honestly we've used it SO much. Whenever you decide to treat yourself to a private room, a lot of the time there's a tv with a HDMI port which means you can plug the firestick in and watch Netflix on a big screen.

• Shower caps - to put your dirty shoes in and your bag doesn't get dirty.

• Buying a local sim card - if you do a little research before you arrive at your destination or ask a reliable local which network is best, it is usually very cheap to buy a sim. Make sure you go to a legit store and not a little shop on the side of the road as they usually end up charging you more.

• Starling - This was the bank card I opted to travel with, it has no overseas transaction fees and can all be controlled on the app. I had no problems whilst we were away and would definitely recommend.

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Best Apps

• Polarsteps - we found that after a couple of weeks we lost touch with sending photos to every group chat and we realised that not everyone has the same social media. Polarsteps is great because you can share the link with your family and friends and they can see where you are and your photos that you choose to add. It's also just a great app to download before you leave because it keeps a track of your route and it's great to look back on everywhere you've been.

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• 1SE - this app name is short for 1 Second Everyday, basically you upload a photo or a 1 second video everyday and it creates a video for you from all your days. You can also add a journal entry to each day which I've been doing because you rarely get time to sit down and write.

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• Hostelworld - of course it goes without saying that Hostelworld is up there with the best apps when travelling, it makes looking and booking accomodation so easy.

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• Rome2Rio - not sure how to get to your next destination? Rome2Rio helps with that, you input your starting and end point and the app finds multiple different ways to get there as well as the price.

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• Tricount - we didn't get this app until a month in but I wish we would have got it sooner. Tricount basically helps you to manage your money. For example, when you're travelling with different people who have different banks, it can get very confusing who owes who money. You can set up a trip in whatever currency you like and add participants. Each participant then puts on what they've paid for and the app shows the balance for who owes who money.

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• Express VPN - so this one isn't completely free, it's free to download and then the subscription is only $8 a month and it's completely worth it. Once downloaded you can switch your location to UK and watch all of your UK tv programmes. You can log in on multiple devices as well which means you can have it on your phone, firestick, ipad, etc.

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