Heather Giustino Blog: Carry-On Essentials (for a long flight)

photo by my world traveling friend, Art @bombero359

Hey friends! If you follow me on Instagram you know that Tony and I were in St. Lucia a couple weeks ago for our tenth anniversary. It was an absolutely incredible trip, and one for the memory books. While being on the lush, amazing, incredibly beautiful island was magical, traveling so far was long and arduous, but I wanted to share a few things that helped. We flew out of San Francisco and into Atlanta. That was a five-hour flight. In Atlanta we had a three hour layover, and then another four and a half hour flight from Atlanta to St. Lucia. Coming home was even more of a beast, but I digress. I think what made the long travel times so bearable was my handy-dandy carry on, packed with the following...

All of those goodies fit beautifully into my carry-on bag, which is just a super large purse. That bag also had my wallet, passport and other travel documents, but still fit easily under the seat in front of me, and I didn't have to carry on any additional luggage. Let me breakdown the specifics of what I carried on.

To keep boredom at bay I had a fully charged iPad, loaded up with a bunch of shows from my DVR (if you have the comcast app you can do that too, it's super easy), my iPad charging plug and my iPhone charging plug. We flew Delta which has charging stations at every seat, but if the airline you're flying doesn't make sure to bring a Mophie. I also brought a brand new book that I was dying to read. (Spoiler alert - it was awesome! I also read The Nightingale on my vacation, which was heart breaking, and beautiful and I can't recommend it enough.) With my iPad (and in-air wifi) I was able to watch my shows, return emails and of course Instagram. When I got bored of that I read my book, and before I knew it we were landing.

All that travel in a cooped up plane, with recycled air can get you funky. I brought wipes, deodorant, a super luxe lip balm, hand cream, eye cream, eye drops (my eyes always get dry in a plane), tylenol (just in case), Colgate wisps (basically little toothbrushes you can use anywhere, without water), a brush and micellar face cleansing wipes. I used all of these things travelling both ways, and reached my destinations feeling great despite 12+ hours of travel.

What is up with planes charging big bucks for crappy little snacks? $12 for a cheese plate? No thank you. I brought a box of individually packaged almonds and a bunch of protein bars. It might look like too many protein bars, but I figured my hubby would steal one or two. I was right. I highly prefer Detour Bars and Quest Bars. Both are super clean, and high in protein which keeps you full, longer.

My husband made SO much fun of me for packing slippers, but they were probably the best thing I packed. I snagged these ones at Payless because they are super light weight and could be shoved into any corner of my bag, but they were also super warm and cozy. I am always freezing on planes, and these helped big time! I got the neck pillow (also fuzzy and warm) and eye mask - this one is awesome because there is extra space above the eyes, so your eyelashes don't get all smooshed down - at TJ Maxx.

We flew overnight on the first leg of our trip, and my eye mask was awesome. It may have looked like I was wearing a tiny bra on my head, but it was 100% worth it.