In My Bag // Travel Essentials

Florida, I’m coming for you. Traveling always makes me anxious, but in a good way. Of course, I’m never truly at ease between taking off and landing ( safely ) from one location to the next, but prepping for a trip always brings about excitement for what’s to come.

I’m a big believer in getting the most bang for your buck in terms of a carry on. Go big or go home. For me, that means filling a large tote with all the essentials I’ll need on travel days as well as the rest of the trip.

I recently discovered the Rue La La Handbag Guide which describes totes as totally essential ( and the term tote is derived from a word meaning “to carry” – how fitting ), and I couldn’t agree more.

The three main features I look for in a tote are space, structure, and style. The perfect tote should be big enough to fit everything you need for a weekend getaway and be structurally durable – not too thin, but not overly stiff either – kind of like your favorite lived in t-shirt. Little details like textured fabric, studded trim, or funky zipper pulls take a tote from functional to fabulous.

Here’s a peek at some of my travel essentials. I like to keep things neat and organized with little pouches and try to minimize added weight by downloading books and magazines to my iPad instead of lugging around a stack of reading material.

Headphones are necessary as you never know who you’ll be seated next to. Lip balm, a healthy snack, and a notepad/pen are essential too. I also always fly with chargers and cords in my carry on because running out of juice on travel days is just not an option.