Ask Lemmy

Tea. A lot of hotels have tea and coffee making facilities, but a horrible selection of teas.

What out companies founder took along in his hotel bag had been interesting, too. He always had a 100W light bulb (back when they were common), as hotels used crappy, low wattage bulbs in the room. He just switched them for his own 100W bulb so he could actually see something. He switched it back when he left. The other important thing was a set of plumbing tools, so he could remove the pressure reduction from the showers.

Whenever I visit new cities I always bring an extra backpack that can either fold nicely or one of those disposable backpacks from a lighter material. Just found that it's best to use it instead of my regular backpack in case it gets stolen. I put only the bear neccesities such as a bottle of water and a sweater and I'm ready to go.

Travel router. I can plug it in to a router (if available) and instantly have a network all my devices connect to automatically that can either connect to a commercial VPN or my home VPN. Works to rebroadcast a WiFi network as well. If you have to pay for WiFi, you can pay for one device and clone the MAC onto the router and rebroadcast a signal all your devices can use. Works on planes, hotels, you name it. I have a gl.inet but there are a few.

My proudest script kiddy achievement was at hotel that had paid WiFi and a free tier. I clicked the free tier but it wasn’t very good and there was no way to upgrade to paid, even after changing MAC and deleting cookies etc. I found a piece of gym equipment that used internet in the hotel gym, cloned its MAC address onto the device, unplugged the gym equipment and boom I had full speed internet as it was on the network’s whitelist with no throttle.

Universal diffuser for hotel hair dryer.

Sketchbook. On work trips, I always finish one drawing every night as a way to get out of a work headspace.

I always make sure I bring a nice towel on my carry on. We got some high quality cotton Turkish towels that double as blankets when traveling. Not sure if it's standard outside the hitchhikers guide.

A roll of 'for rectal use only' stickers.

Liquid bandages?

I have a weed grinder in my wallet. It's one of those card-sized, flat, cheese-grater ones.

Coffee making gear, so hand grinder, tiny scales, and either a tricked out picopresso or an aeropress or my wave dripper. I pick based on what sort of coffee beans I am expecting to be able to pick up where I go.

My regular electric toothbrush instead of a travel one. I have found its just easier to just throw my toothbrush in a bag morning of then to deal with having a 2nd one for travel which is often disgusting

Amongst other things, I always carry some zip ties. They weigh nothing, yet come in handy in so many ways.

I've been looking for a portable humidifier. Hotel rooms are so dry!

I also bring liquid bandaid most places, it really is superior but you have to wait for the bleeding to (mostly) stop first

My travel kit includes way too many nails, mousetraps, an upholstery stapler, power drill, syringes/needles, and first aid stuff. Sideshow performer so it's just par for the course. I also use the needles for medication.

Body glide blister balm, and laundry wash sheets (so much tidier than washing powder!).

Most of my other stuff seems standard to me...

Shoe horn, thermoplastic.

Do you know those supermagnets that can be found in old computer hardware? I take one of those, a particularly strong one, which my BF and his relatives found for me once during the advent of their metal detecting hobby. Good for things like getting stuff out of hard to reach places or determining the material of something, though I'm told it's not so good for those who have put their phone or credit card too close to my baggage. I even once took a toy out of a grocery store toy machine this way (screw the rigged crane, especially when you have a kid who just went through a tragedy).

Alcohol gel, pack of tissues, steam deck with vpn connection to my home server. Next time I'll be bringing a travel router to test WFH 😉

A small backpackable 2 line parafoil kite in case things get blowy

My trusty bag, basically a small/medium duffel bag I can wear over my shoulder or carry. When I've traveled (been so long, I miss it), that holds everything. It makes travel so nice. I just carry it on the plane, shove it under my seat. One thing to worry about. No hauling luggage, no waiting for baggage claim (mostly). A single pocket for my passport. Just one bag.