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[00:00] If you need to solo travel, you might be feeling a little bit nervous about what to expect. I know for me, before I took my first solo travel trip, I remember one of the first things that I had questions about was, what do I bring? Besides the obvious clothing and shoes, toiletries, what else could I bring that would make my travels easier and also help keep me safe?

[00:22] So in this video, I'm going to be sharing with you five of my favorite solo travel essentials. These are five easy things that I bring with me on almost every single trip when I'm traveling by myself. And some of these items I use just to make my life a little bit easier, make my trips run smoother.

[00:38] And then some of these items I bring strategically to help try to keep me safe as I'm traveling by myself. So let's start with the first item. My very first solo travel essential is this door stopper. These are really great and come in handy when you're staying at accommodation like an Airbnb

[00:52] be where the owners have the key or other people have access to the place that you're staying at, but it can also be really great for hotels as well. What I love about this is it's cheap. It's not that expensive. I think it's probably about 15 bucks on Amazon. Second thing I love about it

[01:07] is that it's lightweight. I go on and on in so many videos about the importance of packing light and not packing too many heavy items that are going to weigh down your bag, and this is certainly not going to do that. This one has this grip, kind of non-slip grip at the bottom, which is also

[01:22] really great for hardwood floors. So obviously because of the wedge design, you stick it under the door and it's going to block the entry of the door. And this not only is a door stopper, but it's also an alarm as well. So when pressure is applied on this part of the doorstop, the alarm

[01:36] goes off. This one, I believe, has 120 decibel sound and it keeps going. And hopefully that's going to deter them, maybe attract some attention if there are other people around. And also,

[01:49] God forbid, if you're sleeping, it's going to wake you up too. So the second solo travel essential I have is actually another alarm and it is a personal alarm. I got my personal alarm from a company called She's Birdie, which I actually found on Instagram. And this

[02:03] one is a little bit pricier than some of the other personal alarms out there. You can get some pretty cute ones on Amazon. I know on Amazon, they do have some personal alarms that are sold in packs. So you could get three, you could get five, maybe two by three, you could get two

[02:17] others to a couple of friends. Another simple, easy, lightweight item that's not going to weigh your bag down. Great about this is that it comes on a keychain. So this is actually where I put all all of my keys. You don't have to use this if you don't want to. Keys Birdie has a lot of really

[02:31] bright colors on their website I love the bright colors because they easy to spot in your bag You can also attach it to your bag So what I like to do when I traveling alone is I will either hold this in my hand

[02:44] especially if I'm traveling at night, say I'm walking to a restaurant or walking back to my hotel or Airbnb or what have you. I also will take this keychain and attach it to my travel backpack. And if I feel like I'm starting to feel a little bit unsafe,

[02:59] Then I will take one strap of my backpack off, cross my backpack around my body, and hold on to it like that as it's on my back. It's got the alarm in the back, and it's got some lights in the front.

[03:12] So not only does it sound off an incredibly loud alarm, it also flashes lights. And this alarm is really loud, and hopefully it's going to do a couple of things. Number one, it's going to distract and deter anyone that you feel unsafe with.

[03:28] The second thing that hopefully it's going to do is attract the attention of other people. So draw more attention to yourself and to the scene. And then the third thing that it's hopefully going to do is distract that person enough to where they run off.

[03:41] And also, it's going to give you time to flee the scene and find safety. And I'll show you how this works. If you don't want to hear it, close your ears, mute the sound. All you have to do is take the top part.

[03:54] You guys ready? And pull. You see how loud that is? Also super cute. You know I love to travel in style. If one of your biggest concerns about solo travel is safety, then make sure you check out the

[04:06] description box below because I have a free ebook waiting for you there. Ten solo travel safety tips that I use to keep myself safe when I'm solo traveling and you can find it in the description box below. The next solo travel essential

[04:19] that I'm going to talk about is something that I've talked about in a couple of other videos but I think it's just really important and this one serves as sort of something that is going to help you keep you safe, but also something that's just

[04:31] going to make your travels run a little bit smoother. And that is a portable charger, USB charger, phone charger, power pack, whatever you want to call it. Here's the thing, when you're traveling by yourself, your phone doesn't need to be dying. It needs to be full. It needs to be

[04:47] reliable. You need to be able to have a functioning phone so that you can dial an emergency phone if you need to, so that you can keep in touch with your family and friends. Also, if you're using Google Maps to get around, you need your phone.

[04:59] It's very important nowadays, especially when we do so much on our phones. The one that I use is pretty bulky and old, but there are some nice, thin, sleeker ones available on Amazon and other places And actually I think that this is so old I not even sure they make it anymore so I try to find it and if I do I definitely link it down in the description box but I will

[05:22] also go ahead and link some other portable chargers in the description box that I've heard are really good and reliable you can get some portable chargers that have more than two ports and some of them have some of them are designed even for camping so they've got a flashlight on

[05:37] them so you can get really fancy with this thing. So definitely make sure before you go on your trip that this is charged up and ready to go. My next solo travel essential is something that I like to bring just because I just feel like it just makes my solo travels so much easier and that is a

[05:54] portable clothesline. I love this one because it folds into its own little pouch and again something super lightweight that's not going to weigh your suitcase down. I will admit that I I actually haven't used this that many times, but I do think that this comes in handy when

[06:08] you're going on longer trips but you're packing light. So say you're going on a one month or two month trip but you've only passed a carry-on and you have no access to laundry, this is going to be perfect because you can easily

[06:20] wash your clothes, set up your portable clothesline, and hang your clothes on this to dry. Mine is from a company called Sea to Summit. If I can find it, I will definitely link it down below, but again, as usual, I will find

[06:32] Other clotheslines that are comparable to this that are also really great, and I'll link them down in the description box below. And this particular clothesline is also reflective, so it's great for doing it at night. Again, if you have some kind of emergency and you're like, listen, I need to wash this shirt because I've got to wear it tomorrow or the day after,

[06:48] then this is super easy to just, you know, tie up. You can see it. It'll be fine. Also use it for more than just clothing. You can use it for towels, bathing suits. This one doesn't work with any clothes pegs.

[07:00] It actually has beads on the line. you can pull together to keep the item up. So this isn't an item that's necessarily going to keep you safe like the personal alarm or the door stopper but it is going to make your travels a little bit easier and also it's really great for any sort of emergency. My very last solo travel essential and

[07:17] this is probably something that I use on every solo travel trip and that is a mini tripod. Yes. So one of the questions I get asked probably the most, how do I get pictures of myself when I'm solo traveling? And there is a variety of ways in which I do this, but one of the ways is using a mini tripod.

[07:42] So I have two, but there's so many different options out there. First one I have is what you call a Gorilla Tripod. And what great about this one this is from a brand called Joby On the top here it got that I don know what you call it but it got that little thing that indicates if

[07:58] something is center so you can always know if you if your shot is lined up correctly and center I don't know what this thing is called um also what's really great about the base of this is that it can wrap and move and you can

[08:13] wrap it around nature poles so you can use whatever's around to hold it steady to get that stop. These are really great. I really really do love Gorilla Tripods. It also has a I think it's

[08:27] called a quick release plate so you can pull this part out and really get it onto your camera or onto your phone in a secure way and flip it back on. Then it has a ball head on the top to adjust

[08:42] so you can adjust this so easily. This is, I don't even know who made this. I'll have to, um, oh, Manfrotto. Manfrotto. I got this off of Amazon, and this one is one that, again, it also has the

[09:01] ball head at the top to adjust. This one is a little bit simpler than the Gorilla Pod, and this has less bells and whistles but it is just as reliable. It also has these legs that come out

[09:17] so you can keep it flat on a surface. This one and this one are also really great for selfies because you can hold them out and it kind of extends your arm a little bit more. And if you're looking at these two tripods and you're wondering how do you even get a smartphone on this, well

[09:32] you can get a smartphone mount. Some of them have, it's got this at the bottom and what you do is you can easily pull the mount out. This one works with like a screw. The other one I have works,

[09:50] it's just a spring. I don't know where it is at the moment or I would show you. You pull it out and you can adjust it the way that you need to. You can stick your phone in it. You can attach it

[10:02] to your tripod. Easy peasy. And there it is. And so you've got your phone on the tripod and then from there you can set up a self-timer and again you can wrap this around trees, get a shot up here,

[10:17] a shot here, a shot below, however you want to do it. So now it's not enough just to have these solo travel essentials if you're not actually going to take your first solo trip. And if you have no idea how to do that, then definitely check out this video.