Travel Tuesday: Week 8

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Travel Tuesday! (I hope you all look forward to today's posts as much as I do!) Today's suggested topic: What is one item you absolutely cannot travel without? What is one thing you’ve packed before but never will again? As always, you are free to write about anything travel-related; don't feel obligated to answer my prompt. And, of course, don't forget to link up below!

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Obviously, my answer would differ between long trips and short trips, domestic trips and international trips, trips when I'm staying in hotel and trips when I'm staying with family or friends, etc. For the purposes of this post, I'm only going to mention the items I consider to be necessities on every single one of those trips.

First, there are always three things (or sets of things) I check for obsessively on my way to the airport and before I get out of the car:

1. Driver's license. I'll admit, I used to lie and say I was under 18 when I was too lazy to get my I.D. out, but I'm afraid that won't work anymore.
2. Phone. I'm always nervous it fell out of my pocket on the car seat or something and I won't notice until I've gone through security.
3. Chargers/cords. I'm constantly checking to make sure I have the following chargers (in order of importance): phone charger, laptop charger, iPod cord, camera battery charger, camera cord, Kindle charger.

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That being said, it is extremely difficult for me to travel anywhere without my laptop. I know, I know: it's pathetic. I should be able to take a nice weekend trip without needing to lug my computer along, especially because I have a smartphone. But I have to admit; I think I would have a hard time knowing I didn't have complete access to all my social media sites. Even last weekend, when I met my dad in Albuquerque for one overnight stay, I brought my laptop. (I mean, my book challenge was going live! I had to make sure it turned out okay!) I think I have spent the night at a friend's house a couple times without my laptop, and subsequently been very proud of myself, but that's a small victory, in my opinion.

I can't say I've ever packed an item that I severely regretted taking later, but once when I was in elementary school I had some scissors taken from my bookbag by the TSA agents. Whoops. I never packed scissors again. :) I would say I would never pack liquids that are more than 3 ounces (I have cheap little plastic containers from Target that I refill with bath products whenever I travel), but I will probably take full-size toiletries with me when I travel as a Leadership Consultant this fall, so that would be a lie. I really just included this question in the prompt to see if anyone had any funny stories to share.

If you're interested in reading some of my packing tips, check out my first Travel Tuesday link-up post, in which I described how I packed for a six-week internship in Atlanta and a three-week trip to Africa in a carry-on.

Next week's topic was inspired by this article. In it, the writer questions whether traveling domestically is really traveling. I definitely think it is, so I'm curious to know: What are some great day trips that you've taken? What has been your favorite domestic travel experience? Do you think domestic traveling is really traveling? I can't wait to hear your thoughts. See you next Tuesday!