Build a Budget-Friendly Travel Kit With All of the Essentials
- Kylie Petty
- Jul 23
- 5 min read
20+ tried-and-tested travel essentials to make long flights, train rides, and bus trips easier.
Keeping a small kit of travel essentials makes long travel days more manageable. Additionally, creating a small bag doesn’t have to break the bank. In my many plane, train, and bus travels, I’ve identified a few items that made long travel days easier to manage. Since this is a kit you can put together yourself in a four-by-six-inch makeup bag (10-by-15 centimeters), it’s incredibly customizable and budget-friendly — everything comes out to less than $50, and most of the items come in packs for multiple uses. These pieces have been tried, tested, and honed by me, so feel free to take what sounds good and leave the others.
Dental routine travel essentials
Toothbrush and Toothpaste
Travel Size Crest Toothpaste & Travel Toothbrush Kit (3-pack), $6, alltravelsizes.com
Especially vital for long flights, keeping a toothbrush on hand and ready to access is a necessity to avoid morning breath after a red-eye. A perfect travel option is a pre-pasted toothbrush — no need for a small tube of toothpaste to make it through TSA; all you need is water.
Floss or Floss Picks
Keeping a small roll of floss ensures you maintain healthy dental habits on travel days, and it can come in handy when you have a pesky kernel between your teeth. If you prefer floss picks, buy a travel pack to keep a dozen or so in your kit at a time.
Mouthwash
If you've run out of travel toothbrushes or have your dental routine down, include a travel-sized mouthwash. A quick swish of mouthwash is an easy way to freshen up. However, it may need to be put in a separate bag to get through TSA.
Gum
For shorter trips, gum might be all you need. But it’s an obvious addition for flights when the pressure changes hit, even if you have a full dental routine on hand.
Keep clean while traveling
Anti-bacterial wipes
Travel Size Wet Ones Antibacterial Wipes, $2.60, alltravelsizes.com
Travel is gross and germ-y. No two ways about it. Pack a bundle of anti-bacterial wipes to sterilize your seat and table on planes and trains. They’re also helpful to wipe your hands before and after eating, to clean cuts before bandaging them up, and won’t be flagged as a liquid hand sanitizer at TSA.
Assorted band aids
Scabs, hangnails, blisters, there’s always a need for band aids. Keep a stack of assorted sizes in your kit. You never know what you’ll need to bandage up.
Deodorant
Pack a deodorizer to keep smelling good on long flights. Travel-sized stick deodorant is a good option, but can be messy and ineffective because of how they store bacteria. Deodorant wipes or spray deodorants are great alternatives.
Lens wipes
Whether you have glasses or not, you definitely have a screen to keep clean. Lens wipes clean fingerprints and smudges off of all of it.
Skincare for travel
Facial cleansing wipes
Travel Size Neutrogena Makeup Remover Cleansing Towelettes, $3.20, alltravelsizes.com
Don’t leave makeup and SPF on your face for two full days. Red-eye flights are hard, but sticking to some semblance of a skincare routine can help you arrive feeling clean (and can save you from a breakout). Keep a pack of face wipes in your travel kit, or buy a box of individually wrapped wipes to use.
Mini face moisturizer
Travel — especially flying — can leave your skin dry and tired. Keeping a small tube of moisturizer in your bag can help your skin stay fresh, even after an 8-hour flight.
Hand cream
Like your face, your hands have some of the most delicate skin on your body, meaning it’s more susceptible to drying out. Put a small tube of hand cream in your travel kit for a remedy.
Lip balm
Staying on the dry-skin train, don’t neglect your lips. Small and convenient, Chapstick is a travel kit must.
Clothing mishaps
Mending kit
Travel Size Coghlan's Sewing Kit, $2.50, alltravelsizes.com
You don’t need spools of thread and dozens of buttons and needles. Just a small bit of white and black thread, one needle, and two small buttons can tide you over if you lose a button or rip a seam.
Tide stick
Spills: you can’t avoid them. Quick to clear and quick to dry, Tide sticks are useful when red sauce hits your shirt on the plane.
Q-tips
Useful for blotting away Tide stick residue or to clear flaking mascara, Q-tips are a versatile and helpful travel tool to have on hand.
Additions based on travel needs
Now that we’ve covered the bare necessities for a travel kit, here’s a speed round of ideas to add based on your unique needs — keeping in mind this is in no way every potential addition.
Corded headphones for the plane TV
Oil blotters
Nail file and clippers
Dry shampoo
Medication as needed (Midol, Tylenol, or Advil, prescribed medication)
Pads, tampons, panty liners
Extra contacts, contact case, contact solution
Hair binders (assorted sizes or styles if wanted)
Cough drops
Weighted eye mask
Small beauty products (mascara, concealer, even perfume if you have a signature scent)
Travel Kit Essentials FAQ
Can this kit be brought through TSA?
Yes, but a few items may need to be taken out and put in a clear quart-sized bag with the rest of your liquids, creams, gels, and aerosols. Toothpaste, mouthwash, face and hand cream, and dry shampoo are a few things that would need to be separated. If this extra step is unappealing to you, consider creating a kit that is completely TSA-friendly.
At the bare minimum, what should be in a travel kit?
A toothbrush, toothpaste, gum, Band-Aids, anti-bacterial wipes, lip balm, and moisturizer. From there, you can add personal essentials.
What is the difference between a travel kit and a toiletry bag?
A travel kit is created specifically for travel days, not for the entirety of your trip. Travel kits should only have a couple of lens wipes, facial cleansing wipes, one disposable toothbrush, and a couple of anti-bacterial wipes at a time to keep it small — but make sure to restock it before each trip. Your travel kit can also be customized to be completely liquid-, gel-, cream-, and aerosol-free for TSA, but your toiletry kit likely won’t be.
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