A plan view of a desk full of items for planning a trip such as a map, notepad, passport, camera

Trip Planning


I’m the type of person who enjoys planning and researching things before I go (bit of an Aisling in that regard) and then once I’m there I play it by ear/air.

So before going I had a few things to get done and I thought I’d list out a few in case it’s ever helpful to others. Far from exhaustive, but should cover a lot.

I’ve just started this blog and I’m not an influencer (yet), so the links below aren’t affiliates—just what I went with personally!

Checklist

Some things to do pre-travel. I hope I haven’t missed anything massively important myself.

  • Travel vaccines: This is something you should try and sort early as some of them take a few days to come into effect. I went with the TMB who were very friendly and helpful. It’s not the cheapest but I had some of the recommended ones before from my time in South America
  • Travel insurance: Loads of options out there. Worth noting there are different kinds and I wasn’t aware of the backpacker beforehand. I went with AA—reasonably priced and cover looked good too. Touch wood I never need it!
  • eSIM: If you have a relatively modern phone than these are so handy. I’ve used the Airalo a few times this year and it’s always been great. Thailand is currently €20 for 20 days unlimited
  • Power bank: Anker seem to be one of the more reputable brands but I’m sure any would do the job. I picked up a 30W one as well as this neat built-in USB-C one for the Euros. I didn’t realise Homebase had them and the Anker website didn’t ship to Ireland so it was a bit of an ordeal getting them brought over from London! I find that sometimes the adapters are clunky and may not fit in sockets and if you have more than one device to charge (i.e. phone and headphones) it can be really handy to use the aul power bank
  • Banking: I opted to upgrade to a Revolut Metal account. Supposedly worth it with the unlimited weekday conversions and higher ATM withdrawal limit but time will tell. Also has a bunch of subscriptions included so I’m finally back with The Athletic for the first time since their €1/month launch deal

Bag

I knew I wanted to one-bag it and travel as light as possible.

  • Osprey Farpoint 40L: This bag is highly recommend from what I’ve seen and I was able to pick one up in Call of the Wild. I even got a deal to include a small daypack too which fits neatly into the bag. I figured the bigger the bag the more unnecessary things you’ll inevitably bring. This bag is snug enough to be brought on as carry-on yet big enough to fit a fair amount of clothes (and books that I better read)
  • Daypack: Fits into the main bag and can then be used when out and about
  • Drawstring bag: If you’ve ever done any racing event you probably have one of these. I find it so handy for landry and also to shove things into as a personal item on a flight
  • Clothes: One hoody and one pair of trousers which I wore while in transit, an Absolute Daftee, and then just jerseys, shorts, socks and jocks
  • Jerseys: Gotta fly the flag abroad so I have my Ireland Italia 90 (thanks Koreen), Retro Rovers (cheers Ev), and Sligo County (Roddy the legend) jerseys with me
  • Footwear: I intend to do a fair amount of running so picked up a pair of Nike Pegasus Trail 5 runners. Did a bit of looking and found a pair for €100 online—I think the colour I chose (same as in the link) isn’t the most popular so they were a good bit cheaper than the black ones. Of course I also brought a pair of trusty sliders too
  • Laptop: Thankfully the main bag includes a laptop compartment at the back which mine just about fits in. Easily the heaviest item I have with me, but needed for the digital nomad life
  • Electronics: Macbook charger with USB-C does the phone and laptop. A plug adapter thing is always essential and then a cable for the Garmin. Wish they’d just use USB-C as well
  • Toiletries: Since I’m carrying the bag on the flight with me I didn’t bring much. Figured I’d pick up everything out there

Resources

  • Reddit: The best way to get honest, human, reviews to things. If you just Google a question about travelling and add ‘reddit’ you’ll see it has likely been asked before
  • r/solotravel: A good subreddit with some wikis and general information, e.g. the SE Asia wiki
  • Travel bloggers: I found Nomadic Matt to be quite good but there are any amount of them. Signed up for the newsletter from a few of them but get a bit spammed then. [Note to self: start a newsletter]
  • chatgpt: It’s trained on all the content online so just regurgitates what others have spent time writing about, but it is very handy for a quick question and can do up plans very quickly as well

So there’s some things that I found useful. One thing I can kinda be guilty of is overdoing the reviewing (what’s the best bag? does it fit through security? can it hold X, Y and Z). No need to overthink it, things are generally grand.