My Ultimate Travel Gear List

As if packing wasn’t hard enough, those of us wanting to create content on the road also need to contend with packing the right travel gear. Sigh.

That’s why I’ve created this comprehensive post with all of my travel gear. This should help you decide what travel gear to invest in, what to pack and what will help you create amazing content for your blog or your Instagram account.

Ultimate Travel Gear

Welcome to my comprehensive travel gear list where I tell you every piece of equipment I take with me on the road to make the Blog, Instagram and YouTube come to life. You can check out a few of my recent posts on London, Belgium or Napa Valley to see the quality of the content I was able to get with this travel gear.

1. DSLR Camera

This is at #1 because it is quite literally my main guy when it comes to travel gear. I could get away with skimping out on some of the other stuff, but this sturdy and reliable camera is my rock when it comes to taking great pictures. I use a Canon 760D which is an awesome and affordable multipurpose DLSR.

2. Lenses

Lenses can be a massive pain in the butt to carry around with you, so unless I’m shooting something where I need a specific lens I usually just carry one ultra versatile one: the 18-135mm zoom lens from Canon. I find that this lens captures pretty much everything I need – it’s got enough zoom to capture far away things, and packs down enough to make it into my carry on luggage. If you’re headed out on safari and you need a really long range lens, you might consider something larger, but honestly for general travel days, this bad boy rarely leaves my side. You can grab it here.

3. Go Pro

For video content, adventure content or a wearable camera, I use a Go Pro Hero5 Session. Before I had the Go Pro, I created all video content on either my phone (too grainy) or my DSLR (too big and too fragile for some places) and I have not looked back. This little bite-sized camera can stick onto my helmet if I’m snowboarding, it has it’s own orange floatie for water filming and it’s super quick and easy to whip out of my pocket to grab some footage. Grab the Go Pro Hero5 Session here.

4. Portable Wifi

In this day and age, bloggers and influencers seem to be accessible and posting content constantly while on the road. This increasing accessibility is largely due to more and more portable wifi options available and the best of the bunch has to be the little orange disc called Skyroam Solis. Running a 4G LTE connection plus a portable power bank all at once, this simple concept allows you to buy or hire the device and load on day passes or a monthly subscription to keep you connected. I bought mine in January 2018 and I never leave the country without it. Get your Skyroam here and use the code EMMAJANEEXPLORES to grab 10% off!

5. Smart Phone

The quickest and easiest way to edit content on the go is via my Smart Phone. I’m an iOS baby as I’m totally down the worm hole with Apple products and it’s super easy to connect and share with my Macbook Pro when I’m creating long form blog posts and videos.

My smartphone is awesome for other things on the road too – like, I have no idea what I did before Google Maps – but carrying it with me means I can edit my photos for Instagram quickly and easily and post them as I walk from place to place. I also started doing lives on Facebook and Instagram, and it’s all done on the go on my iPhone.

6. Selfie Stick

Hate them or love them, selfie sticks are here to stay. And when you’re a solo traveller like me and you don’t want to lug your tripod around, a selfie stick is the best way to get that ultimate shot with an awesome backdrop. Well, its that or ask a stranger, and in my experience, I’d trust myself with a selfie stick more than I’d trust a stranger to take the ultimate shot! The best part about selfie sticks is that they are stupidly easy to use and they pack down to fit in a bag, so you don’t have to be that person visibly carrying a selfie stick around – you can just whip it out for a shot, and pack it straight back up. They’re also really cheap – so if you can’t afford a fancy DSLR or a GoPro, you can get by with a smart phone and a selfie stick! Grab your selfie stick here.

7. Tripod

If you want to take pretty pictures of yourself in a destination on a DSLR and you don’t want to have to ask strangers to take your photo every five seconds, then I’d seriously think about grabbing yourself a lightweight tripod. They’re also totally necessary for low-light photography, as the longer your exposure, the shakier your picture will be unless your camera is on something stable like a tripod. I have two types of tripods – one is quite hefty and not great to travel with, but it’s super sturdy and won’t blow away in the wind. The other is a lightweight (still moderately sturdy) tripod that packs up nicely into my luggage and doesn’t blow my weight allowance when I check it in. The light weight version is pretty cheap, so I’d recommend starting with that in your travel gear and then investing in something sturdier if you find you need it later on. Grab your tripod here.

8. A big ol’ Memory Card (and a spare)

If you’re travelling around taking heaps of photos and videos, then you’ll need a big memory card to store all of the amazing things you’re capturing. I have a SD card for my DSLR camera with a huge storage capacity so that I don’t have to worry about it running out. I’ve done four overseas trips now with the same card and it is still not full. I’d also recommend bringing along a spare SD card. Like anything small and fiddly, these things are so easy to lose and if you’re somewhere remote, you’ll lose all your ability to take photos without an SD card – your DSLR simply won’t save anything. I learned this the hard way in Turkey when my memory card fell out somewhere in the underground cisterns in Sultanahmet and all my Jordan, Egypt, Gallipoli and Istanbul photos were lost (including my photos of the once-in-a-lifetime dawn service on ANZAC Day). Add a spare memory card to your travel gear here. 

9. A good backpack

I’m about to upgrade my backpack as the zipper is totally busted on my day pack, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a good, sturdy and comfortable back pack when you travel. When I leave the hotel in the morning, I usually don’t come back until late, so my backpack has to hold my all camera equipment, my tripod, my selfie stick, my water bottle, my portable wifi and anything else I need with my throughout the day. There are some awesome backpacks out there now that are theft proof and can charge your devices, too, which are the ones I’m looking at! Check these out here.

10. A polarising filter

A cheap and easy way to make your photos look great and avoid sun flare is a polarising filter that screws on over the end of your lens. It darkens and brings the colour out in sky shots, so the blue is really radiant and takes the white glare off water shots. I find overall the colours and reflections are brought out so much more when I use this filter and it’s seriously the cheapest piece of equipment I own. Grab yours here.