Categories: Travel

Essential Items To Pack For A Weekend Trip

You’ve decided to head out on a weekend trip, either on your own or with some friends or family. Here are some essential items to bring along to ensure everything goes smoothly and you have a great time. 

1. Entertainment Options

If you’re taking a plane, or if you’re not the one driving, bring something fun to do along the way. If you have one, maybe bring a Nintendo Switch on your weekend trip, so you and your friends can play some games together, even if you’re traveling alone. Games I’d recommend include Super Smash Brothers, Mario Party, or even Monster Hunter.

Other great entertainment options include crossword puzzles, board games, or party games. Audiobooks or playlists of your favorite music are also great ways to stave off boredom while traveling to your weekend getaway. Making sure that you have a good time while traveling is key to any trip because if the ride there is miserable, that will color the whole experience. If you’re traveling with friends, just make sure it’s something you all enjoy. After all, nobody likes being forced to listen to music or books that they hate. 

2. A Little Extra Spending Money

If you’re treating yourself to a weekend trip, you should bring along a little extra money. If you see something you’d like to buy, or maybe want to try out a new restaurant in the area you’re traveling to, feel free to treat yourself. You should make sure that your spending money is kept track of separately from your travel expenses, and make sure you have enough money to spend on yourself and your friends.

If you’re traveling with friends you should keep a little of your own money to spend too, so you don’t need to rely on your buddies to pay for your stuff. Maybe you could even treat them to a nice dinner or some souvenirs. Spend responsibly, and your trip will go just fine. As an aside, I recommend making sure to have at least some physical cash, in case you need to use a laundromat or something similar. 

3. Three Day’s Worth Of Clothes.

This one is just a matter of preparation. You never know what could happen, so a smart traveler will always bring an extra pair of pants. Remember to pay attention to the weather so that you know what kind of clothes to pack. Three sets of clothes are perfect for a weekend trip, maybe you can get away with bringing four if you really need to. Try to avoid overpacking, you’ll only be gone for a couple of days. If you can avoid using more than one suitcase or backpack, then you’re doing it right. Doubly so if you’re traveling with friends, who will no doubt have their own luggage. Pack light and pack smart, your friends will thank you for it. If you’re going on this trip by yourself, making sure you aren’t weighed down by piles of luggage is a good choice.

4. A Good Camera

This is mostly a personal preference, but if you’re going on a trip, I think it’s better to bring along a camera. This is especially true if the destination of your weekend trip is someplace you’ve never been, or a place with beautiful scenery. These days phone cameras are pretty powerful and can capture high-quality images, so they work just fine for your casual photography needs. However, if you for one reason or another do own a DSLR camera or photography equipment, you should absolutely bring it along, because DSLR photos are on a whole different level quality-wise. You’ll want to take photos with your friends if you brought them along, and photos are great souvenirs and mementos if you don’t feel like purchasing any trinkets. 

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5. A Toiletries Bag

This is a pretty standard thing to pack when traveling in general. A toiletries bag contains things like your toothbrush, toothpaste, and dental floss. Other things in this category include any medication you might need, any personal hygiene products, a razor, and maybe even a travel bottle of shampoo. All of these are essentials, and keeping them together in a small tote bag of some kind is highly recommended. Forgetting some or all of these items will be inconvenient at best and downright trip-ruining at worst, so it’s a good idea to gather and pack them well in advance. Having them all in one place lets you keep them organized and separate from any clothes or other things during packing. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t bring all of them, but it could save you time and money if you do.

6. Snacks!

If you’re going to be traveling, snacks are a must. This is non-negotiable. Snacks are a key part of making travel and vacationing enjoyable and are absolutely critical to the experience. When choosing what snacks to bring, there are a few things to consider.

The first is if you’re traveling with other people, you should make sure that they can all enjoy the snacks you’ve brought, and you should make sure to bring enough snacks to share. The second major factor is the mess factor. If it isn’t your car or you just hate cleaning up, you should avoid snacks that get grease or crumbs everywhere. You don’t want to spend your weekend trip cleaning up. The final big thing is the perishability of the snacks. You’ll want to bring things that don’t spoil, or that you know you’ll eat before they go bad. This is more of a concern for longer trips, but it’s still worth mentioning. Most of all, you should enjoy the snacks you bring along. 

7. Your Phone

This one should be kind of obvious. If you’re going on a weekend trip, especially an unplanned one, make sure to bring your phone. There are many reasons to bring a smartphone along, but I’ll cover the basics. Firstly, it’s useful if an emergency comes up and you need to get in contact with someone, or if someone needs to get in contact with you. It’s also useful for entertainment and photography, both of which are essentials to a trip. Finally, your phone can be used to look up information about your destination and its location features can give you a better feel for the area. 

These are some things I consider essential for a weekend trip. What are your weekend trip essentials?

Featured Image Source; https://www.pexels.com/photo/couple-with-suitcase-walking-along-city-street-3756158/
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Edward Zukoski

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