Gabriele Steindl: Professional Kitesurfer & Freelance Writer - Action, Lifestyle & Travels
7
Aug 08
Travel tip: PACKING (part 1)
When packing:
– Especially for the girls and as long as you don’t travel to a third World country: please reduce all cosmetics to a bare minimum. Shampoo, shower gel, all those things absorb ‘important kilos’ in your luggage that could be used way better as for kite-gear, spareparts and stuff that are not available locally. The only product that’s often of poorer quality abroad and thus better to be taken along from home is decent sunscreen, long-lasting waterproof and strong.
– same accounts for clothing: boardshorts, lycras, a few tops and/or t-shirts, bikini, trunks, perhaps one or two ‘party-outfits’, you won’t need more on your kite-trip! I’m sure you have some true ‘favorites’ in ur wardrobe, the ones you feel most comfy in, pick the favs of all favs, and of you go!
As I’m always traveling with about 50kgs of gear, I don’t have the option on bringing along many clothes, still every time I return home I’m truly surprised that there’s always some totally unused pieces of clothing, my favorite boardshorts, though, are already stand upright on their own 😉
– same for shoes: 1-2 pairs of sandals and one pair of heavy-duty/decent sport shoes. Way more important and often hard to get locally are: Booties (please note: n o t always only for cold waters, rather as protection against reef, corals as well in tropical places!!).
– never ever be missing in your luggage must be: a comfy, warm hooded sweater and a beanie !! yes, even at the most tropical destination, you will eventually get cold, after long sessions, cooler breezes in the evening, during boat-rides, in busses with air-con, etc a hoddie is sometimes worth more than gold 🙂
– torch: my magnite certainly is one of my most loyal travel-accessories and already has ‘lightened up’ my way through power cuts and dark nights during camping etc. around the globe.
– pocket / swiss army knife: just like above, no matter whether for emergencies or fun-stuff like sleeping on the beach, it’s always handy to have one. It goes without saying: knifes must not be carried in the hand luggage, thus don’t forget to put it into the bag or your quiver that you check in!!
– travel / voltage adapter: I always reconfirm power supply and voltage of the destination country before venturing on a trip. There’s nothing more annoying than arriving some place and having the wrong (or none) power and/or voltage adaptor and not being able to charge your phone, laptop, i pod, photo-, video-cam, or other electric devices. Not to even mentioning to wreck your stuff by feeding it the wrong voltage !!
– what you should always make room for: a relatively well equipped MEDICAL KIT. Though in some countries medicaments are cheaper than at home, however, when travelling beyond Europe I would advise in any case to bring along certain drugs to guarantee tolarance and quality standards. Plus a decent travel-pharmacy in your luggage (yet again checked in not the hand luggage!) will save you from the headache of an expensive taxi into the next town, wandering about in the streets, explaining the chemist with hands and feet what you’re after and guessing the instructions on the paper that comes with the drugs. What effectively goes into your medical.kit obviously strongly depends on the respective travel destination and on the kind of trip you’re planning on doing. Still there are some basics that must not be missing.
Last but not least: Put your name and the phone number of your destination on the inside and outside of your bag !! Don’t overstuff your bag. That makes it more likely to get damaged.
Please check out more of my travel tips on PACKING – part 2 on your travel pharmacy essentials, part 3 on spareparts & equipment as well as the intro and my thoughts on travel in general !