These are the travel products, websites and resources that we personally use and recommend to help you make travel easier and cheaper.
Travel Insurance
SafetyWing Nomad Insurance
SafetyWing provides affordable travel insurance for digital nomads and long term travellers from anywhere in the world. You can purchase a policy when you are already abroad and pay monthly. My SafetyWing insurance review has a detailed comparison with other insurance providers.
True Traveller Insurance
True Traveller is the best value travel insurance we’ve found for UK and EU residents and we used them for eight years. They allow you to purchase insurance when you are already travelling and don’t require a return ticket. We found making a claim with them easy and fast.
Luggage
Away Carry-On Suitcase
After 10 years of travel with backpacks, we switched to carry-on suitcases. We both love the Away Bigger Carry-On. I combine mine with the Away Everywhere bag for my electronics (it slides over the handles of the suitcase).
The suitcase is stylish, spacious, and durable. The smooth spinner wheels mean I can effortlessly roll it alongside me (no need to drag it behind).
Osprey Farpoint 40
I travelled with the Osprey Farpoint 40 backpack as my main luggage for years, and it's a great option if you prefer a backpack to a suitcase.
It has plenty of space, a laptop sleeve, a very supportive frame, and a comfortable hip belt. It’s a popular backpack with many travellers.
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.
Clothes
Bluffworks Travel Clothes
A large portion of Simon's travel wardrobe is made up of Bluffworks clothing which combines the performance of technical travel clothing with a stylish look.
Most items are lightweight, wrinkle-resistant, quick-drying, and have hidden zippered pockets for security.
He started with the fantastic pants which he has worn everywhere from an 80-mile hike to a wedding, and now also has their shirt jacket, dress shirt, t-shirts, jeans, and shorts. I love their women's t-shirts too.
Read our Bluffworks review for more details.
Electronics
As digital nomads, being able to work from anywhere is essential for us. This is the equipment we use and recommend.
Macbook Laptop
Simon has a Macbook Pro and I have a Macbook Air. They are both lightweight, powerful and durable.
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.
Sony Alpha A7 III Mirrorless Camera
Most travellers can manage with their phones these days, but for photography enthusiasts, mirrorless cameras are lighter than SLRs and still offer full control and take fantastic photos.
The Sony Alpha A7 III isn't the lightest mirrorless camera, but it's full-frame and takes very high-quality photos, especially in low light.
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.
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.
Mooncup
The Mooncup (or DivaCup) is 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.
Vrbo
Our favourite site for renting apartments and houses around the world. It's often cheaper than a hotel, and you have more space and a kitchen.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 $7 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.
Books
For our favourite travel books see our lists of the best travel memoirs, books about Japan, and other travel reads.
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).
