Our Carry-On Essentials || Carry-on Essentials for Travel Vloggers (that's us!)
As the awesome super human people that we are (ha! not!) we travel carry-on only. Three days. One week. Two weeks. It’s carry-on all the way!
WHAT?!
Yeah. We get that a lot.
We’re going to be sharing our carry-on suitcase packing guide next week, but this week we’re talking carry-on essentials but especially carry-on essentials for travel vloggers.
If you don’t want to read the ramble, we made a video!
First things first, our camera essentials. This is the bread and butter for travel vloggers and travel storytellers as we call ourselves.
Jenni uses the Canon 70D to film most of our videos that we post online. This even applies to events like weddings that we shoot when we’re not traveling. The 70D is just an all around great camera for people at any skill level.
When we use the Canon 70D to shoot travel films we’re either using the Sigma 10-20mm or the Sigma 35mm art. The wide 10-20 is the go-to because it can capture great landscapes and it’s super easy to vlog with. The 35 is an iconic portrait lens and it can capture beautiful detail shots for travel films. However, if our pack is getting heavy, the 35 is one of the first things to go.
Joanie B. shoots all of our travel photos (check out our Insta @joanieandjennib) on the Canon 5D Mark IV with the Canon 50mm AKA the nifty fifty. This is the combination she uses for EVERYTHING even commissioned portraits, wedding photography, etc. You name it. She’s using the 5D Mark IV and the nifty fifty. The 5D is a great full-frame options for those who want to take their photography to the next level. It’s pricey, but you can balance it with the incredible affordability of the Canon 50mm. It’s a great set-up.
If we don’t want to drag around the DSLR for filming, we’ll use the iconic vlog camera, the Canon G7X. It’s tiny, even smaller than my phone, and shoots really great video. It can even take a crisp Instagram photo if we’re in a pinch.
For some extra stability with our DSLR footage, we bring the JOBY Gorillapod. We have a smaller, less bulkier (not JOBY brand) tripod we bring sometimes, but if we have the room our go-to is always the Gorillapod. It’s tough and great for any situation we find ourselves in whether it’s vlogging, getting a time lapse, or just some more stable walking shots through the city. It’s a handy little guy.
On that same note, we always bring our mini Manfrotto tripod. This predominately holds up our G7X to make vlogging a little bit easier, but we also bring an adaptor so that we can use it with our phone. This gives us the opportunity to capture great video for our films or even just a few unique Instagram shots.
We can’t go anywhere, not even down the street, without our phones. Honestly, this is the most powerful tool a travel vlogger can have these days!
The cameras are amazing, especially in this iPhone 11 Pro Max. If you need some quick footage on-the-go and don’t want to pull out any of your actual gear, there’s no shame in using your smartphone to get the shot. A little bit of color grading and no one will even know! I bet you didn’t know that part of our carry-on essentials video was filmed with our iPhone.
An important part of bring a phone with you when you travel is protecting it. To do that we use an Otterbox case. The one pictured is the Otterbox and Pop Symmetry series Build your Own case in the color Mint to Be. Jenni has the succulent pop top on it, but it comes with a matching pop top and there are no limits to how many you can get to switch between. Joanie B. has the same case in Mauvelous.
It’s adorable and it has the same protection value that Otterbox is known for. It also feels amazing! That may sound weird, but the way a case feels has always been so important to us, especially since we can be holding it for hours at a time.
If you’re going to pay the big bucks for a phone, make sure you don’t skimp on the case! Thank you Otterbox for gifting us these cases.
In order to capture usable audio for vlogs, foley sounds or any part of our travel films, we pack our RODE Videomic Pro.
It’s fairly affordable, works great and is easy to use. The only downside is that it runs off of battery power, so make sure you pack an extra 9-volt or you could be out of luck! There’s no battery gage, so you just have to pay attention!
Obviously we also need our laptop. Usually Jenni is the only one who brings one since she’s the editor. For all of our videos and photos, we edit on the 13 inch, 2015 Macbook Air. Yeah, it’s a little old, but it runs like a champion!
Our desktop background is an original photo we took in NYC two years ago. You can download it here.
We can’t leave the house without earbuds.
Some people are a-okay with the Apple earbuds that come with your phone, but we’re not huge fans. They never fit right in our ears and we like a little more bass. The Apple buds tend to sound a little tinny.
Our go-to wired earbuds are the Skullcandy Ink’d. They’re affordable and so comfy to wear, even for 8+ hour flights. We often travel with only earbuds, because our bags are so stuffed that our over-ear headphones don’t fit. Jenni’s Skullcandy earbuds have been going strong for over four years.
One of our absolute must-have carry-on essentials is an external charger. We use the Mophie Power Station AC because not only can we charge USB-C and USB-3.0 devices, but we can also charge AC devices (i.e. laptop). It’s really changed the game for us.
We can usually get one computer charge and two phone charges out of one full Mophie charge.
We bring a selfie stick.
Ewww! I know. Selfie sticks can be so tacky and annoying, but when you’re a travel duo and both need to be in the picture, selfie sticks are sometimes the only option. We picked ours up in the Target dollar section for about three bucks, but we’ll link an affordable one from Amazon.
PRO TIP! Say sorry to the trees and print out your travel documents. When you have an extensive trip like a 10-day cruise down the Rhine with Viking (we leave Nov. 27th!) there are a lot of documents you’ll have. There are boarding passes, emergency numbers, hotel and ship information, confirmations, and more. We print them out and toss them in a folder. It helps us know we have absolutely everything together.
Also. Your passport. Don’t forget your passport.
We bring a pair of sunglasses! Seems pretty basic, but we used to always forget these. Joanie B. has a pair she loves that she picked up in Corfu, Greece. Jenni sticks with her functional, yet stylish, prescription sunnies. They get the job done!
We also pack some little odds and ends like gum, hand sanitizer and chapstick. We also recommend a snack, especially Goldfish! They’re delicious and they don’t stink when you open them in recycled air!
Now, this next carry-on essential is a little unconventional.
We’ve been trying to find ways that we can save the turtles but that can be hard when you’re on-the-go and in the air 80% of the time.
We rarely have room for the bulky reusable cups. We don’t live a plastic-free lifestyle (far from it!). Normal reusable straws get tossed in our bag and that’s just gross.
But a few months ago we stumbled across Final Straw and fell in love with their product. It’s a stainless steel straw that collapses into its own carrying case. The straw is great, because even though it’s stainless steel, there are silicon tips on each end. That makes the sipping experience so much better!
It’s also easy to clean because the brush has it’s own tiny compartment in the carrying case.
Overall, it’s just a really handy product that you can throw into or attach to your travel bag. Then you can save the turtles in a small way while you’re on-the-go.
Thank you Final Straw for sending us your Final Straw 2.0!
Finding the perfect cosmetic bag is shockingly difficult.
A lot of them just aren’t made for travel because they’re too bulky or shaped oddly. Since we travel carry-on only we like something that folds pretty much flat. We also need something waterproof, just in case there are spills! We found all of that in EMME.
But we don’t toss the whole bag into our backpack. That would take up way too much room. So, lucky for us, EMME has a TSA approved liquids bag included in their large cosmetic bag. It comes with the cute tiny bottles and everything.
That way you can remove the clear quart-size liquids bag and place it in your backpack but leave the bigger (yet still compact) cosmetic bag in your suitcase. Next week when we do our post all about packing our suitcase, we’ll tell you more about the product EMME gifted us with! But in the meantime, you can use the code CRUISE for 20% off on your order at EMME.
Now, this may be the most important part of the post! What bag do we put all of this stuff in?!
Back in March we partnered with Travelon and they sent us some of their super cool travel products. One of those was the Anti-Theft Heritage Backpack and holy guacamole, this thing has changed our travel lives!
The one downside is that it’s not specifically made for camera gear, but we can deal!
It’s the perfect size because it fits everything and still fits under the seat in front of us (in economy and business). The fabric is slash proof, so we don’t have to worry about someone slicing and grabbing our expensive gear.
All of the zippers lock for safety, which has given us so much peace of mind in heavier traffic cities like Rome. We had the comfort of our backpack without the worry of pickpocketing.
It’s also just an overall really well-made bag! We have stuffed this thing to the brim for two international trips and a few domestic ones and it doesn’t have a single imperfection yet (knock on wood!).
Plus, it’s not ugly like a lot of other anti-theft travel bags.
If you have any questions about the products we mentioned, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments! We respond to every single one!
Also, very special thanks to the sponsors and patrons who made this post possible: Sylvia Vasquez, Final Straw, EMME, Otterbox and Travelon.
If you’d like to support the content we make here on Trippin’ then make sure to read our last post and, if you want, consider pledging on our Patreon.
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