These are the travel products, websites and resources that we personally use and recommend to help you make travel easier and cheaper.
Our Products
Trail Wallet App
We created our iOS app, Trail Wallet, to track our travel expenses and help us stay on budget. It has now been downloaded by over 165,000 other travellers! It’s quick and easy to use and makes travel budgeting fun. You can organise your expenses by trip, set a daily budget, and see how much you’re spending in the categories you choose. Instead of just hoping you’ve got enough money, know. Available on iTunes.
The Carry-On Traveller: The Ultimate Guide to Packing Light
I share my tips and secrets to help you pack light and never check luggage again. We’ve been travelling with a carry-on backpack for over seven years and believe that packing light is the secret to stress-free travel. By travelling carry-on only, you’ll save time at airports, save money on checked luggage fees, and reduce the stress of hauling bulky bags. Available for Kindle or paperback on Amazon US, Amazon UK, or your local Amazon store.
Travel Insurance
True Traveller Insurance
True Traveller is the best value travel insurance we’ve found and we've used them for the last six years. They allow you to purchase insurance when you are already travelling and don’t require a return ticket, as many companies do, so they are ideal for long-term travellers and digital nomads. It’s only available for citizens of the UK and Europe, so for everyone else we recommend…
World Nomads
A very well-respected travel insurance company who also allow you to buy insurance when you are already travelling. We used them on our first round the world trip—they are great for long-term travellers. It’s available for most nationalities, so it’s our top pick if you can’t get True Traveller insurance.
Luggage
We travel with just one carry-on-size backpack each. See a full review of our backpacks here.
Outbreaker Travel Backpack
Designed by travellers for travellers, and it shows. The Outbreaker Travel Backpack by Tortuga is a spacious carry-on backpack that maximises the amount you can carry while still meeting airline size restrictions. It has excellent back and hip belt padding, a laptop sleeve, lots of pockets, and a simple neutral design. Simon loves it.
Gonex Packable Daypack
The Gonex daypack is inexpensive, light but strong, and packs down small to be carried inside our main luggage on travel days.
Eagle Creek Specter Compression Cubes
Packing cubes are the secret of carry-on only travel. They allow you to keep your things organised and fit much more in your luggage. I love the super lightweight Specter cubes. Simon uses the regular Eagle Creek compression cubes, which are heavier but open fully on three sides so it's easier to access your clothes. Also available on Amazon UK.
Clothes
Tieks
My favourite ballet flats—beautiful, ultra comfortable, and they pack up small. I love my silver lake vegan Tieks. They are pricey but worth it. Read my detailed Tieks review for the pros and cons.
Bluffs
The perfect travel trousers. Bluffs combine the performance of technical travel clothing with a smart look. They are lightweight, wrinkle-resistant, quick-drying, and have hidden zippered pockets for security. They are very versatile—Simon has worn his hiking, cycling, horse riding, to fancy restaurants, and to weddings. Read our Bluffs review.
Clever Travel Companion Tank Top
Clever Travel Companion makes travel clothes with hidden zipped pockets for storing your passport, cards and cash. On travel days I wear their cotton tank top with two pockets under the arms. It's much more comfortable than a money belt and keeps my valuables safe. The pockets aren’t entirely hidden so it’s best to wear it under another shirt. Available from Clever Travel Companion, Amazon US or Amazon UK.
ExOfficio Underwear
ExOfficio are the most popular travel underwear. They boldly claim, “17 countries. 6 weeks. One pair of award-winning underwear. (Ok, maybe two.)” While I wouldn't go that far, they are ideal for travel as they are lightweight, quick-drying, odour-resistant, breathable, and durable. Available for men and women in a range of styles.
Electronics
As digital nomads, being able to work from anywhere is essential for us. This is the equipment we use and recommend.
Macbook Air 11 inch Laptop
The perfect travel laptop—powerful and fast but ultra thin and light. Erin loves it.
Macbook Pro 15 inch Laptop
If you need more power than the Air, the Macbook Pro is ideal. Simon uses his for design and development.
iPad Pro
As a travelling artist, Simon loves his iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. The touch sensitive screen replicates drawing on paper, without having to carry around notepads and pencils. It has revolutionised Simon’s illustrations and using apps like the powerful Procreate, he has done some of his best work ever. The Pro is also a really powerful iPad with a beautiful screen—ideal if you want to leave your laptop behind on your travels.
Western Digital My Passport 1TB Hard Drive
Incredibly small and light yet sturdy, this is perfect for backing up when travelling (which you are doing, right?).
Olympus OM-D EM-5 mirrorless camera & 14-42mm kit lens
I switched from a Canon DSLR to a mirrorless camera in 2013 and reduced my gear weight by 33%. I haven’t missed the SLR at all. In fact, the EM-5 is a much better camera, especially in low light. I think mirrorless cameras are the perfect compromise for travellers between quality and weight. You can read more about my move from SLR to mirrorless here.
Panasonic 20mm f1.7 pancake lens
I love this lens. It’s tiny, light and great in low light, especially for food photography.
Kindle Paperwhite
A must for travelling bookworms. It saves a huge amount of weight and space in your luggage and gives you access to thousands of books, not just the John Grisham novels in the hostel book collection. Read our original Kindle for travellers review for more advantages and our Kindle Paperwhite review.
iPhone 7
We love it for the excellent camera, internet on the go, built-in GPS, and being a personal hotspot for our laptops when we don’t have internet. We bought it unlocked and buy local pay as you go SIM cards. See our favourite apps.
Toiletries
We travel with just carry-on luggage so all our toiletries need to be under 100ml. These products make this easier and mean we aren’t lugging around heavy bottles.
Lush solid shampoo bars
Toiletries are a big concern of many new carry-on travellers, as all your liquids must be in containers under 100 ml and fit in a single ziplock bag. The way to get around this is to take as many solid toiletries as possible. My favourites are Lush shampoo bars, which are small and light, work as shampoo and soap, last for ages, smell lovely, and you don’t have to worry about leaks like with liquid shampoos.
Shaving Oil
Unlike shaving foam, shaving oil comes in tiny bottles—a 15 ml (0.5 oz) bottle lasts Simon nine months shaving every two or three days. It’s miracle stuff.
Riemann Once a Day Suncream
Once-a-day suncream only needs to be applied once and is water resistant (great for water sports), so you use much less. We buy a 100 ml bottle of Riemann P20 when we’re in the UK and it lasts us months.
Mooncup
Ladies, if you haven’t already switched to a Mooncup (or DivaCup), now is the time. It’s a reusable silicone menstrual cup that takes up far less space in your bag than tampons or sanitary pads. It's also better for the environment, your body, and your wallet (it lasts for years).
Other Travel Gear
Yoga Paws
Yoga Paws are little yoga mats for your hands and feet. They are small, light, and very grippy so I can practice on any surface without packing a heavy yoga mat. I now practice every day wherever I am with Yoga with Adriene videos (free on Youtube but I've joined the membership site for extra content and to be able to watch videos offline).
AeroPress Coffee Maker
The perfect coffee maker for travel. AeroPress makes incredibly smooth, flavourful coffee and is compact, light, durable, and easy to use and clean. Simon loves being able to make a quality cup of coffee anywhere.
Our Packing List
To find out exactly what's in our backpacks see our carry-on packing list. Also, check out our tips on how to travel with only carry-on luggage and our guide to the best carry-on backpacks.
Accommodation
Booking.com
Our favourite website for finding hotels. It’s easy to use, has lots of great deals, and unlike many hotel search engines, there are no booking fees or hidden costs.
Airbnb
Our favourite site for renting apartments around the world. Renting a whole apartment is often cheaper than a hotel, and you have more space and a kitchen. If you sign up using this link, you’ll get $35/£25 credit towards your first stay. Read our Airbnb guide for tips on finding the best rentals.
TrustedHousesitters
Housesitting is a great way to save money on accommodation, get off the beaten track, and enjoy home comforts and pets for a while. If you want to give it a try, sign up with TrustedHousesitters, who have many listings around the world and will send you daily alerts with the latest house sits.
Flights
When I’m looking for a flight I always check multiple flight comparison websites as prices vary.
Kiwi.com
Kiwi.com is my first stop when looking for the best flight deals. It often comes up with routes that other searches don’t by combining different airlines. We found flights from London to Bali for half the price by going via Amsterdam. The map view is a handy way to see which cities would be the cheapest to fly to, and you can set any date range to find the cheapest day to fly.
Skyscanner
Skyscanner is easy to use, includes budget airlines, and you can search for “everywhere” as your destination.
Secret Flying
Find crazy cheap flight deals. It works best if you are flexible about your destination and travel dates.
Transport
The Man in Seat 61
The ultimate resource for train travel anywhere in the world including the best routes, timetables, how to book tickets, and even photos of the seats and views.
Interrail/Eurail Pass
The best way to travel Europe is by train. If you are planning to visit a lot of places, an Interrail (for EU citizens) or Eurail (for everyone else) pass could save you money. We’ve travelled with an Interrail one-month Global Pass three times and love being able to hop on trains all over the continent.
Japan Rail Pass
Japan rail passes make train travel in Japan easy and save you money, especially if you travel on a bullet train (which you want to do!). We saved $150 each on our last trip and wouldn’t travel in Japan any other way. You can't buy passes in Japan so buy it online before you leave. Read my Japan Rail Pass guide for everything you need to know.
Loco2
Loco2 is the easiest way to book train tickets across different countries in Europe and it doesn't cost any more than booking direct.
Rental Cars
We’ve found some really cheap car hire deals using Rental Cars which compares 800 car hire companies.
Kayak
Kayak is the other site I always check for the best car hire rates.
Uber
Uber is the easiest way to call a taxi. You can request a car with one tap, it arrives in minutes, costs less than a normal taxi, and is charged to your credit card. It has saved us a fortune in many parts of the world.
Rome2Rio
Find out how to get from one city to another by plane, bus, train or car.
Travel Technology
For more of our favourite resources, see 60 Useful Resources for Digital Nomads.
Backblaze
Backing up in the cloud is essential in case you lose your laptop and hard drive. We use Backblaze which only costs $5 a month for unlimited data and is really easy to use, automatically backing up everything on our laptops. The initial backup does take weeks (depending on your internet speed) but now new documents and changes are backed up quickly.
Dropbox
Another good option for backing up in the cloud, which we use for backing up our most important files. All our iPhone photos automatically get backed up to Dropbox using their camera upload feature. A free account gives you 2 GB of space and if you sign up with this link, you’ll get an extra 500 MB free.
Witopia
This VPN allows us to change our computer’s location so we can use Netflix and BBC iPlayer to stream TV whatever country we’re in, and access banned websites in countries like China. It’s also good for security, especially on unsecured networks. Sign up with this link and you’ll get a 15% discount.
Books
For our favourite travel books see our lists of the best travel memoirs, books about Japan, and books about South Africa.
Lonely Planet Guidebooks
I still find guidebooks the easiest way to research a travel destination and Lonely Planets are my favourite. I buy the Kindle versions to read on my Kindle or phone (using the free Kindle app).
The Rough Guide to First-Time Around The World
When we were planning our first round the world trip this guide was really helpful. It covers everything you need to know including visas, insurance, vaccinations, round the world tickets, and suggested itineraries.
Hammocks and Hard Drives: The Tech Guide for Digital Nomads
An essential read for anyone who works on the road (or who wants to). Dave Dean’s Kindle ebook covers everything from choosing gear, setting up a robust backup system, security, useful apps, and more. The section on improving a WiFi connection is gold.
