Road Trip Gear Essentials
Memorial Day is just around the corner and many travelers will be hitting the open road for an extended weekend road trip. One of our favorite Memorial Day weekend trips is Moab, Utah and visiting all the nearby national parks. Wherever you’ll be headed, make sure to bring some road trip gear essentials — products that we think are practical, efficient, and offer good value.
Over our many miles of travel, we’ve come to rely on manufacturers that produce high quality, versatile items that simplify travel. Think of comfortable travel clothes that you can wear on the trail or in town. Or products that help better organize your packed items. We love these kind of products and think you will too! Happy travels!
Road Trip Gear
Travel Packs and Bags
Best Travel Pack – Cotopaxi Allpa 35L
It would be difficult to find a more beautifully designed travel pack than the Cotopaxi Allpa 35L. Built like a suitcase style backpack, this versatile pack will get you through a long road trip and double as a carry-on for flights. Organizing in the Allpa 35L is a breeze with subdivided zippered mesh compartments and a padded laptop sleeve. A rain cover is also included for any potential stormy weather. Don’t need such a large pack? No problem! Opt for the smaller Allpa 28L for shorter trips.
Best Pack Organizers – Patagonia Cubes
Pack organization is key when traveling. It makes life easier to not have to search around for things buried in a pack or suitcase. To simplify the organizing process, try pack organizers like Patagonia’s Black Hole Packing Cubes. These are well-designed, rugged, and lightweight clamshell dividers available in 3L, 6L, or 10L sizes. Use these to pack your electronics cables and other gear for organized access.
Best Toiletry Bag – Topo Designs Dopp Kit
We like a nicely designed toiletry bag to organize our travel size road trip toiletries. The Topo Designs Dopp Kit is super durable for outdoors oriented trips. The dopp kit is designed in a triangular self-standing shape for easy interior access. Available in a wide variety of colors, this is the dopp kit we bring on all of our travels.
Travel Clothes
Best Pants – Vuori Ripstop Pant
Travel wear should be comfortable, yet versatile. Something that can be worn on a moderate hike, but function in town too. For our travel wear, we love Vuori’s lineup. In particular, the Vuori Ripstop Pant is smartly designed, lightweight, and super comfy. Perhaps the ultimate road trip travel pant in our opinion! It’s 98% cotton, so we would not use these for long backcountry hikes, but they are superb for travel and other leisure activities. Available in men’s and women’s sizes.
Best Shirt – Patagonia Capilene Daily Hoody
Comfort is a key factor for what we decide to pack for our road trip travel wear. Thus, we never leave home without the Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily Hoody. We like a lightweight hoody that breathes and protects in the heat, but has some warmth for cool nights. The Daily Hoody is made of polyester, so it can be used for a wide range of outdoor activities. But it is also a stylish option for general use around town. Available in men’s and women’s sizes.
Best Jacket – Patagonia Houdini Windbreaker
To bridge the gap between spring and summer, we recommend a tried and true windbreaker. In a pinch, it can even double as a semi-functional rain shell. For this, we turn to the Patagonia Houdini Windbreaker, which has a continual presence in our road trip travel pack. It’s lightweight (3.7oz.) and looks as good in town as it does on the trail. At minimum, it’s a good emergency shell jacket for any alpine adventures! Available in men’s and women’s sizes.
Best Shoes – Teva ReEmber Moc Camp Slip-Ons
When we found these Teva ReEmber Moc Camp Slip-Ons, we wore them all over the place. They are unquestionably comfortable and super convenient as a road trip shoe. These Teva’s are obviously an ideal choice for car camping and keep your feet warm on chilly nights. But talk about comfort when driving for long hours! Available in a variety of styles for men and women.
Other Travel Essentials
Best Travel Toiletries – Ursa Major
Sure, you could stock up on grocery store travel sized products, but we like to opt for natural products. Ursa Major makes some of the best natural skincare products available; and they smell great! Their face tonic is stellar, but also try their Base Layer Deodorant and Essential Face Wipes to stay fresh!
Best Tech – GoPro Hero 11
GoPro continues to outdo themselves with high quality products. Record your travels with the GoPro Hero 11, the best action camera out there. Both affordable and durable, we love using the GoPro hiking throughout our road trip adventure travels. Whether cruising through a national park, or actively hiking on the trail, paddling, or mountain biking, you’re sure to get great footage with the GoPro Hero 11.
Best Notebook – Field Notes
Want to record your travels the old fashioned way? No problem! Field Notes are hands down some of the best notebooks we’ve ever used. These notebooks are compact and lightweight, so you can keep them in your jacket pocket to jot down your memories from your trip. Field Notes has a huge variety of styles to select from — we like the original graph paper!
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