For a few years now, I have embraced a very minimalistic lifestyle and reduced my belongings to some few essential items that are important to me – find my full list of items on https://cedricwaldburger.com/list/
Watch me pack my travel essentials for an upcoming 4-week trip to Portugal which will enable me to mix business meetings and different fun activities.
Video Transcript
Hey, everyone. It’s Sunday, and Elena and I are flying to Portugal tomorrow for four weeks. It’s our first trip in a few months. And so it’s also my first time packing in a long time, I’d say up until February when we were still frequently traveling. I didn’t really ever unpack, so I was constantly packed. But then during COVID, and the last few months, I think it’s been about three or three and a half months since I’ve been anywhere. Basically, everything was here at home. I didn’t really bring my stuff when I left for meetings in the last month or so. So this is the first time packing, and it’s also an interesting opportunity to see what is the stuff that I still had but hadn’t really used the last 90 days. So I’ve put some stuff away. I’ve also acquired some stuff like this really nice Canon lens that I bought maybe like a month ago that I’m going to bring on this trip. So here’s a quick look at what I’m packing for the next four weeks in Portugal.
My travel kit
Okay, so real quick, what I’m bringing my travel kit. This has all our important documents in it has all my adapters in it. So this is all the cables that I need. It has like a pen; it’s where my keys go when I’m traveling. And then it also has a bit of cash in it. It’s like my backup cash if I go anywhere, Elena’s documents in it, and then it also has my frequent flyer cards in it.
Then on to camera gear, of course, I’m bringing this camera, and a tripod, as well as use, Rode mics that are mounted on the camera and here that I’m using right now and I’m also bringing this Rode mic that goes on the camera this is a bit more suitable for vlogging if I’m out running around, let’s just put this on the camera and if I’m more, you know, sit down set up like here then I usually use this Rode Lav mic.
And I’m also bringing this lens cap. I recently got this HyperJuice charger, which delivers 100 W on two USB C connections and then three USBs with 18 W each. This is good enough for Elena and me plus all our devices so I can charge the camera from this, wireless charging my laptop or iPad and plug in both our phones as well. I’m bringing my mobile battery, this is an Anker battery that I bought about four years ago. My AirPorts Pro. Since I got this AirPort Pros about six months ago, I did retire my noise-canceling bossy in-ear QC 20 I headphones. So this helped me consolidate a couple of items, bringing my iPad Pro with a pen. I’m always tempted to go with just either the laptop or the iPad. And I’ve done test runs on previous trips where I’ve only brought the iPad. The problem is I can do most things that I do for work with the iPad Pro, except for Zoom calls, where I want to take notes. It’s so annoying that if you’re running Zoom even if you want, I’m actually not sure if the app supports split view now but before it didn’t, and so either you were visible on the call, and you could see others, or you were taking notes which is kind of annoying. And then the other thing that’s really hard to do with the iPad is to bring video files from the camera onto Dropbox to share them with my team. But activities for the iPad come in super handy is, for example, editing photos. And also, just if I’m out and I am going to meetings, or we’re going on a hike, I usually just bring the iPad because it’s good enough to take notes I’m almost typing as quickly on this as I’m on my laptop.
So I have my hopes up that with iOS 14 or iPad OS 14, the two devices are going to get one step closer to each other. But for now, I, unfortunately, have to bring both of these.
So this my MacBook Pro 2020 also renewed this during COVID. My last one lasted about four or five years so I’m pretty happy with the time that I get out of MacBook Pro just due to its weight and it’s an extra item I’d like to get rid of the laptop and but for now I’m bringing it to upload videos and stuff.
And now video stuff, I mentioned a couple of microphones. This is actually a lot of equipment. So here’s an extra battery. Well, I should say video and photo stuff, battery, extra SD card. And then I also have the Dummy battery in here. So I can run my USRP as my webcam, then this lens that I mentioned, just beautiful, it’s pretty heavy, but also for Sony 202.8. This is pretty compact. So I’m giving this a try on this trip, I’m not bringing any other lenses except for the 1635 and the 7200.
My wallet, I don’t think I’ll use much of this except for I’m bringing some cash because maybe we’re going to go to some towns where they might not accept credit cards, or we might do something out in nature, or pay like a guide tip and so it’s always good to have a bit of cash with us. And then also here, my Toiletries, space, just a kid with hair wax toothbrush, toothpaste, anti-allergy pills, and some perfume.
Clothing
Clothing. So I have two bags of clothing. So before I used to bring these on every trip, these were basically the only second pair of shoes that I had, I used to do all my running and these, all my gym all my hiking. Super handy because they’re so flat and small. But then also, as I started running more in COVID, I realized that these are really bad for my knees, and I really can’t go more than let’s say six, seven, maybe eight kilometers at a time.
And so for the first time in my life, I bought actual running shoes. These Nikes here that our friend recommended, unfortunately, not quite, they’re quite bulky, but I’m bringing them on the strip just to see if it’s worth it. Bringing a jacket this my shaver and my towel in case we’re going to go to the beach. So that’s packing kit number one.
And last but not least, this is the main packing kit for all my clothing. So I’m bringing three shirts one that I’m wearing plus two in here, one pair of long pants, these are my kidneys pants need to refresh them, but I haven’t been to Canada or the US In a while, bring three t-shirts plus one long sleeve for colder evenings bringing about six pairs of undies one that I’m wearing, and then four pairs of socks. And that’s it. Now let me see if this all fits into my bag and how heavy it is.
All right, so this is still the main bag that I use my Lululemon. I think they call it a duffel bag. I think it has about 26 liters of storage, and I’ll see if I fit everything in here.
Obviously, things will look pretty good.
This is my second bag. This is my everyday carry. That’s the duffel bumper bag. One thing that’s really handy here is I’ve attached this peak design plate to it. This is where the camera snaps into. So when I’m walking around throughout the days, usually I have my cameras strapped in here. And I usually just bring this bag while I travel. I could actually work this one and this one on top. So it gives me extra storage as well.
So as expected, not a ton of space left. Nevertheless, everything fits.
This is the main bag of 26 liters. Actually, it’s not as heavy as I thought it would be. And then this is the everyday bag that I put on top of it. And that’s how I usually travel.
All right.
I’m ready to go. Kind of excited to see how the world has changed the world of travel, how things are going to be at the airport on the plane, and then also being abroad. The reason why we’re going is to meet with local VCs and entrepreneurs in the Portuguese startup ecosystem. And then at the same time, we also were looking for a bit of a change of scenery.
All right, if you have any questions on how this trip goes, please let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions for what anything that you’ve seen here, I could either get rid of or consolidate the most looking for tips and hints and with that have a beautiful day. Stay curious, and we’ll chat soon.
