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Packing for a Family Round-The-World Trip (Or any Trip Type)

Last Updated: March 8, 2023

When we decided to head off on a Family Round-The-World Trip, one of the things that people asked us a lot was how and what we pack for a long term travel trip like that.

The answer depends a lot on your kids ages and interests and your family travel style.

So versatility is key.

Whilst we were initially packing for a 2 Year RTW Trip, this packing list can be used for any length of trip. Whether it be for a year, a month or even a week, bar a few exceptions.

And we now tend to pack roughly the same, whatever our type and length of trip.

set of packed backpacks
Let’s Get Packing!

Whilst we consider this packing list versatile and applicable to most types of travellers, it’s not a catch all for everything. It wouldn’t really apply to someone looking to stay in Scandinavia in the winter for example!

But, generally speaking, this packing list can usually be adapted to accommodate your particular preference and style in most cases.

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So if you’re interested, read on for our advice on things to consider when packing for long term travel as a family. Alternatively just skip straight down to our family packing list to see what items we’ve stuck with over the years.

It took us a while to get our packing list right for us, but this list has now been tried-and-tested over a number years and we feel it’s now a pretty good foundation.

Less is definitely more!

The one thing I think every traveller will tell you, no matter what your style of travelling, is PACK LIGHTLY! This can be challenging with kids, and you have to be somewhat brutal on occasions.

But you have to keep this golden rule in mind at all times when packing. Only take essentials and limit yourself and your kids to a few luxury items.

You will be surprised how little you need things once they’re gone. And you will thank yourself when lugging a backpack round in 40 degree heat that you didn’t bring those extra shoes even though you swore at the time you couldn’t live without them!

Beware the ‘spare’

What we mean by this is don’t take spares of things unless they are going to be required quickly and/or are difficult to replace whilst travelling.

For example, I carry a spare pair of glasses when I travel. Because if my usual ones break/get lost I cannot see and acquiring another pair with my specific prescription could prove tricky in some places. So justifiable to bring a spare.

A spare hat however, not so essential. Firstly it will be a bit annoying not having one for a while if I lose it (which I have many times!), but nothing you cannot manage. And, secondly, hats are sold everywhere, so one hat is enough.

And whilst you might think, ‘but it’s just a light hat’, these things will soon add up if you’re not careful.

An organised pack is a happy pack!

When you’re living out of a backpack, organisation is important as it becomes your cupboard for the duration, particularly if you’re moving quickly.

So just chucking everything in can be tempting at the time to get it done quickly, but nothing’s more annoying than rooting through your bag every time you need something. And sods law it will be the last thing you find.

One of the best things to help organise are packing cubes or packing organisers (same thing). These are just basically glorified bags/pouches, but they help a great deal.

We got 4 sets of 6 in different colours, one colour for each person. With 3 sizes of net top cubes for the clothes and 3 sizes of bags for other miscellaneous items (toiletries for example).

This makes finding things so much easier, as you just look for the colour and size of the bag where you know the item is. They essentially act as your drawers when living out of your back pack.

It also makes packing quicker as you only have to pack/unpack a few bags each time rather than every single item.

We went for some pretty cheap ones when we purchased and to be honest they’re not the best quality. But if you’re careful and don’t stuff them and mistreat the zip too much they do the job.

You can go for better quality and more robust ones, if you feel you need them.

It’s a lot of trial and error

If you’re going on a long trip, don’t get too stressed about having the perfect packed bag before you go, as a lot will change as you go. You will find some things you never use and others you use more than you thought and things you never thought of will spring to mind in certain situations.

You will remove, add and change your items in your pack as you go. The packs we left with are very different to the packs we returned with. We donated a lot of items we just weren’t using, particularly in the first few weeks.

And remember, most things are acquirable in most places. So only really concentrate on the things you will really struggle to get once you’re gone. Everything else you can get as you go if you want. It’s actually likely to be cheaper buying things as you go than getting it all before you leave.

Our Family Packing List

So after the thought process comes the actual packing. Click on the list to jump to a section or browse our full packing list below.

There’s one item not on our list below, but we would still recommend for some families, which is a compact buggy/stroller. We don’t take a buggy anymore as we wanted to lighten our load. So we stopped taking one travelling once our youngest was around 2 and could walk relatively well, with the occasional shoulder taxi when required!

But if you have very young children you might still want a buggy. In this case, we would recommend getting a compact one. We used to use the GB Pockit.

It’s not one of our cheapest purchases, but considering how much travelling we did we felt it ended up being excellent value for money and worked really well for us over the years.

It’s surprisingly robust and super easy to fold down. Folding into a backpack size, so you can purchase a cheap small backpack and then just sling it on your back when not in use or when in transit.

Clothes

We aim for about a weeks worth of clothes for whatever length of our trip. So if we go for a week? A weeks worth of clothes. A month? A weeks worth of clothes. A year? A weeks worth of clothes!

That’s because you can just wash them every few days, so you really don’t need many. You can use laundry services in hotels, but they are usually a rip off. If self catering, you can often get apartments with washing machines. Or alternatively, handwashing.

Handwashing can get a bit tiresome, but we’ve outlined some helpful items below that may help with this. Such as the Scrubba Wash Bag and a Travel Washing Line.

Most travellers opt for the warmer destinations (as we do) so the majority of your clothes should be light and thin and for the colder days/areas you can then layer.

You can take some thick warm clothes if you know you’re going to be in really cold places. But the thicker clothing gets really bulky really quickly in your pack. So, remembering the golden rule of packing lightly, its not ideal and layering is usually sufficient. You can always buy some thicker clothes if in a cold region for short term use and then donate them again when you leave.

You can’t avoid all bulky things altogether, but anything too bulky you should aim to wear whilst transiting from place to place. For example we all have walking boots for hiking. So whenever we’re moving from place to place we wear these and stick the trainers in the pack to keep space as the boots would take up much more room.

  • Shorts – 2 Per Child.
  • ‘Funky Pants’ – 4 Per Child – Most people actually call these ‘Elephant Pants‘. These are great for keeping the kids cool, whilst also protecting them from the sun and mosquito’s. You can often buy these in South East Asia at markets, but if you want some before you leave you an also get kids and toddler sets.
  • Jogging/Track Suit Bottoms – 1 Per Person (wearing in transit)
  • Zip On/Off Trousers/Shorts – 2 For Gareth – Some people really hate these, but I absolutely love them! So convenient and a great space saver. I usually keep the leg parts in my day pack, then if we spontaneously head to a temple where knee covering is required, I can simply take them out and zip them on. Plus they’re really comfy and have lots of pockets which is ideal for out and about.
  • Short Dress/Skirt – 2 For Nadia
  • Long Dress/Skirt – 1 for Nadia
  • Leggings – 3 for Nadia
  • Thin T-Shirts – 5 Per Person (wearing one in transit)
  • Thin Long Sleeve Tops – 2 Per Person (wearing one in transit) – Thin enough to wear in some heat to protect from mosquitoes, but can be layered together when cold.
  • Pyjamas – 2 Sets Each
  • Thin Waterproof Jacket – 1 Per Person – Not for cold, but for wet weather. You will get the latter a lot in the tropics!
  • Walking Boots/Shoes – 1 Pair Each (wearing in transit)
  • Trainers – 1 Pair Each
  • Sandals/Flip-Flops – 1 Pair Each
  • Underwear – 7 Sets Each
  • Ankle Socks – 5 Pairs Each
  • Hiking Socks – 2 Pairs Each
  • Swimming Trunks/Suit/Bikini – 2 Sets Each – Trunks can also double up as shorts.
  • Reusable Swimming Nappy – 1 Per Toddler – Whilst potty training.
  • UV Protection Swimming Suit – 1 Per Toddler – Really saves on the sun cream.
  • Sun Hat/Cap – 1 Each

Toiletries

You will of course need toiletries, but beware the spare with these. There’s no need to take spare toothpaste, I promise, its sold everywhere!

  • Deoderant
  • Toothpaste
  • Small Mouthwash
  • Floss
  • 1 Electric tooth brush base & charger + heads – You only need 1 base/charger and then 1 or 2 of the tiny heads per person to save space.
  • Small Shampoo & Conditioner – Most stays have it complimentary. So don’t take much, if any at all.
  • Nail Clippers & Scissors
  • Medium Travel Towel – You don’t want to be taking large towels as they’re so bulky, and again most places provide them anyway. So we just take two medium travel towel between all of us for the rare occasions we need one in accommodation and also for unpredictable scenarios where we need to dry off.
  • Electric Shaver – 1 For Gareth – I like to shave my own head/beard so I take one of these. I like the ones to use in the shower to save on cleaning up. However, my one has a huge charging port which really annoys me in terms of space, but it is a good shaver for the price. So I made a compromise on this.
  • Hair Brush – Being the Curly Explorers this is necessary for Nadia and kids, not so much for me!
  • Hair Products
  • Moisturiser
  • Makeup
  • Wax Strips/Razor
  • Tweezers
  • Hair Accessories

Health

Depending on where you are going, you may need various vaccinations and/or malaria tablets before you head off. So if you do, speak to your doctor well in advance. As some of the vaccination periods are quite long (a month or 2 in advance is advised usually).

After that you will also need any specific medication that you require as an individual. It’s advisable to take the prescriptions with you as some countries have this as a requirement. Particularly if you are carrying a lot, which you might be if you’re heading off for long time.

Finally we just then get down to the basics;

  • First Aid Kit – We bought a standard all in one kit, then added some additional things to it. The first aid kits vary depending on where you get them. We’ve used ours many times, not just for our own family but for other people as well, so it’s something we always recommend to take.
  • Deet/Bug Spray – We actually use this rarely and mainly try to avoid bites by covering up, with clothes, mosquito nets etc. where possible. But we have been in some tropical places where you just get attacked if you don’t have it on.
  • Basic Painkillers – Paracetamol, ibuprofen, no need to take a pharmacy though, you can replenish these easily. If you’re taking kids paracetamol in liquid form, it’s good to take the sachets rather than a bottle. As it’s then a lot easier to measure out the dose and less chance of the bottle smashing/leaking.
  • Sun Cream – Again no need to take litres of the stuff, you can replenish easily. One bottle to begin with will suffice.
  • Vitamins – If you take any usually
  • Sanitary Products

Survival Gear

OK, I don’t think I’m Bear Grylls or anything, but this is just stuff that might help you with your day to day travelling. You could categorise it as ‘miscellaneous’, but survival sounds so much cooler!

  • Re-Usable Water Purifier Bottle – 1 Per Adult – This is probably my favourite item. Depending on where you are, tap water is often not safe to drink in certain countries. But this little gizmo all but eliminates the chances of illness. It uses a special purifying system so you can drink from most water sources and not get sick.
  • Re-Usable Flexible Water Bottle – 1 Per Adult – The purifier can be used as a normal water container as well, so this isn’t essential. But we like to have an extra water container for reliable drinking water sources as well. Get a flexible one that rolls up so when not in use you save the space.
  • Scrubba Wash Bag – It’s a simple little item, but saves so much time when handwashing clothes and takes all the hard work out. It’s basically a thick plastic bag with a flexible, yet rough, wash board to scrub your clothes on. And it is super light and small.
  • Travel Washing Line – Useful for drying clothes in lots of places.
  • Sleeping Bag Liners – 1 Per Adult – Not a sleeping bag, but a liner. This is basically a thin sheet, but in a tube like a sleeping bag. Useful for extra insulation in cold places or even gross places! Or if you sleep in an airport or on a train at any stage, you can get the kids in with you and your bag at the bottom keeping everything close by!
  • Collapsible Cup – 1 Per Adult – Really handy. In Asia especially, they have boiling water dispensers in a lot of places (such as trains). So take a fold-able cup and some instant coffee and your sorted. Also instant noodles can go in and this can also be used in conjunction with the water bottles.
  • Fold-Up Spoon/Knife/Fork – 2 Of Each – To compliment the cup.
  • Inflatable Neck Pillows – 1 Per Adult – Neck pillows are pretty nice to have for long haul travelling, but the big material ones are quite bulky. So we use blow up ones. They obviously don’t feel as nice to the touch, but it’s a small price to pay for the space saving.
  • Duct Tape – I use my duct tape so much for so many things.
  • String – Extremely useful. You don’t have to take a huge roll or anything, just a couple of metres until you run out then replenish
  • Camping Knife – You can go for a swiss army style with lots of contraptions. Or just a basic knife. Nadia likes the ones with the axe!
  • Compass – Useful even if you’re not venturing into the wilderness. Sometimes you’re on a road not knowing which side is the correct bus stop for the way you’re going and a compass can help in situations like this.
  • Lighter
  • Pens
  • Pencils
  • Notepad
  • Small Waterproof Bag – For electronics when on boat trips etc.
  • Head Torch – Use this almost as much as the water bottle, another essential item!
  • Money Belt – Some people loath them, others love them. I’m a lover, keeps things handy and safe.
  • Debit/Credit Cards – If you’re moving from country to country cash there’s not much point taking cash, although haveing a few spare US Dollars an help as it is often accepted currency all over the world.
  • Passports – This is an obvious one. But check the expiration date before you leave to ensure you have enough time on it for your entire trip. Some countries require 6 month minimum left on passports. So you need to consider this sort of thing when looking at your passport expiration. I.e. if you are going away for a year moving from country to country, ensure you have 18 month’s on the passport as a minimum. You can renew them in other countries, but it’s far easier to do it in your home country before you go if possible.
  • Documents and Copies – We took copies of passports and birth certificates (needed the kids ones for China Visas) drivers license and copies, immunisations books (especially yellow fever as some countries require it), prescriptions, UK address proof, passport style head-shot photos (you often need them for visas).

Safety/Security

None of these things on this list are by any means essential, and we ‘re certainly not overly safety conscious or paranoid (at least we don’t think we are) and generally speaking the world is a pretty safe place wherever you are. But, we did get a couple of items just to give us a bit of extra piece of mind;

  • Travel Smoke/Security Alarm – I absolutely love this little gadget, it’s a smoke alarm and a security alarm in one. It uses a real basic system for the security alarm in that it has a little prong that bends and you can wedge in doors or sliding windows etc. then when the door/window moves and the prongs separate the alarm goes off! genius! Unfortunately they don’t seem to make the exact all in one I have any more. But you can get a similar alarm system.
  • Door Wedge Alarm – Similar to the above, but this only works in doors and is wedged under them. Then, if the door is pushed/pulled onto the wedge, it presses down sounding an alarm. Both the alarms are good if you’re in accommodation with dodgy doors or windows, to alert you if anyone enters or more importantly if your toddler tries to go for a wonder!
  • Bluetooth Trackers – These are just used for short distance tracking. You attach the little device to whatever you want, your bag or even your kid. Then if the item moves to far away from your phone both your phone and the device make an alarm. This can be useful for sleeper trains for example where travellers sometimes have there bags go a stray. Or if you have a toddler that likes to wander you can be alerted before they roam to far. Pretty cheap, small and useful.
  • Toddler Wrist Link – Quite a handy, light item for linking your wrist to your toddlers. We don’t use it religiously, but it can be helpful in certain places. You’ll often be in a crowded places and may need your hands to look at a map for example. So with this you an let go of your toddlers hands for a few seconds knowing that they won’t instantly disappear like Houdini with their magical powers that only they know how they achieve!
  • Pad Locks – For securing your zipper. Some accommodation won’t have a safe so it’s helpful to be able to lock your stuff in your big pack while you go out for the day. Or if you’re leaving it in a holding area on a boat or train etc. Preferably get a pin number one rather than key one so you don’t have a key you can lose!
  • Personal Alarm and/or Whistle – Good for our kids if they ever got lost in a crowded place. They can whistle or use the alarm so we could follow the noise if necessary. They’re also pretty good for ushering away stray dogs f they ever get too close for comfort.

Tech

We’re not ones for being big spenders on tech, but it will depend on your circumstances and if you’re working etc. and also depends on your kids lifestyles;

  • Laptop – 1 Per Adult – I work whilst travelling so needed a laptop, but didn’t want anything too fancy in case anything happened to it. Obviously weight and size are key factors when choosing your laptop. You don’t want to be lugging around a large heavy one.
  • Phone – 1 Per Adult – Smart phones have revolutionised travelling and make it pretty much seamless nowadays. But you really don’t need a fancy one. There ae some things that can help though. Fast charging and long lasting batteries are great for when you’re off the beaten track. Also unlocked phones with a duel SIM make it easy to get local SIMs in countries and keep your roaming charge down! Also, if you’re a shutter bug, a good camera might please you, but most are pretty sufficient nowadays even at the lower end of smartphones.
  • Sky Roam – On the rare occasions where you can’t get Wi-Fi you might want to consider a Sky Roam. It essentially works the same way as your phone when you switch it to a hot spot. The benefit is you don’t have to worry about horrendous roaming charges. You have to first buy the device and then you pay as you go. As it runs off mobile data you need a decent signal. But it’s generally pretty good.
  • Multi Region Adaptors – If you’re going from country to country the ports will vary so get a multi adaptor rather than lots of different ones. Also try to get one with surge protection as the electricity is spotty in some places and you don’t want a surge frying your laptop charger!
  • Chargers – Whatever you need for your phones/laptops.
  • Power Banks – Power banks are pretty useful if you know you’re going off for a day or two without access to electricity, but you’ll still need your phone. The Sky Roam also acts as a power bank if necessary and we have some additional power banks also.
  • Headphones – Picked up along the way on flight etc. but we also took some toddler friendly ones as well.
  • Wire/Electronics Organiser Bag – If you have a lot of wires, chargers and devices you might want to get one of these. I have a love/hate relationship with mine. I hate how much room it takes up. But I love that it keeps my wires and devices organised and protected. So another compromise for me.

Entertainment/Educational

This one is mainly for the kids. Our kids don’t really have electronics, so no iPads etc. We do put a game or two on our own phones and have streaming services to download movies for them, but other than that they mainly entertain themselves with games. So this proved a difficult category to get right and was tough to keep low, but we tried our hardest!

Backpacks

The final thing you’ll need is something to carry all the above in. We like to think we’re quite thrifty and have never been big spenders on our gear. But this is the one area we did not want to not cheap out on.

If you’re heading off on a long term trip this item will carry your life, almost literally, so you will want to make sure your pack is good quality.

Some key things it should be is;

Waterproof, with an additional waterproof cover (monsoons happen at the most inconvenient of times!).

Robust with zippers that can take abuse (cant think of much worse than my bag not zipping up when I have all my worldly possessions in it travelling the world!).

And the right size, not to big that it’s so heavy you can barely carry it but not too small that it doesn’t fit all your gear (the mistake I made!). So it’s advisable to get all your gear first then decide what backpack you need for it.

We felt it right for the kids to be fully immersed in travelling experience so wanted to give them a backpack each. Then me and Nadia would take a big backpack and a daypack each.

Initially we adults carried most of the clothes and major items with the kids packs just had their own personal items. This was a good way to get them to be careful with what they asked for their luxury items as it meant they had to carry it!

As our kids have grown, we’ve moved more and more responsibility to them for what they carry. Our eldest now carries all his own stuff.

We prefer front loaders with our big packs rather than top loaders. This makes it easier for us when we’re not fully unpacking as we can just zip it open and have our stuff nicely displayed and take out our packing cubes easily. Bu this is just our personal preference, some people swear by top-loaders so just decide what’s right for you.

  • Osprey Farpoint 80 Litre & Osprey Daylight 20 litre – Nadia initially carried much more litreage than me, she was carrying our eldest’s as well as her own stuff. The big pack is a no nonsense front loader and the daypack has some good features.
  • Osprey Farpoint 70 Litre (57 plus 13 litre bag inclusive) – The reason I went for this pack is due to the zip on/off day pack. This is useful to keep you’re hands free whilst walking around and then you can just zip it off when you need to. I carried our youngest’s plus my gear and Nadia told me I wouldn’t have enough space, but I ignored her and got it anyway, but she was right as usual. I have made it work eventually, but looking back I probably should have got a bigger one. But I do really liked the zip on/off daypack feature. So if you are able to get everything into a pack of this size it is a very good pack.
  • Osprey Jet 18 Litre – This was originally what our eldest used as his full pack before he upgraded and now uses it as a day pack. It’s great for both, being robust and has lots of pockets and features which he loved stuffing with his various bits and bobs. It’s also a nice bright colour, which is useful for spotting it when he repeatedly puts it down and forgets!
  • Allpa 42L Travel Pack Del Día – When we gave our eldest the responsibility of carrying everything, we upgraded to a bigger pack and he had his sights set firmly on this pack from cotopaxi that he had been introduced to by some friends. It’s an awesome pack for kids with lots of pockets and zips to organise they’re stuff into. The ‘Del Dia’ range give the added bonus of being made with recycled material. Which give it a patchwork style, with each pack being unique!
  • Small Toddler Backpack – Our youngest carries a very small 10 litre pack.

Now Get Packing!

So that’s our list!

One final piece of advice is to make sure you practise pack in advance.

We intended to do this before we went off on our RTW trip, but never got round to it and really regretted it.

I remember being sat on the floor of our airport hotel room at 1.00am (about 4 hours before we were leaving). Looking at my gear, then looking at my pack, then looking at my gear… realising I was never getting it all in, so don’t be me!

Free Download

If you like our list then download our free printable version of our packing on the link below.

Family_RTW_Trip_Packing_ListDownload

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