Digital Nomad Packing List without hidden ads

Before we started traveling I checked a bunch of sites for advice on what to pack as a digital nomad... and there was one consistent problem: Their selection of products was heavily influenced by the Amazon Affiliate program. Rather than give you generally useful advice, they would do anything to get you to buy products through their amazon links. The result of this is that they recommended countless trinkets and other 'bullshit' items.

Backpack

Starting with the obvious: Take a backpack, don't travel with a suitcase. Suitcases are great when you're in rich countries, but are terrible when you have to carry them anytime there isn't a well maintained path. In contrast backpacks are consistently and predictably uncomfortable, so you can always know what to expect.

As for the size of the backpack: One harsh reality of travel is that no matter the size of your backpack, you'll always manage to fill it up, and you will always feel like you need everything you packed at the start of your travel whilst by the end you realize you overpacked. My advice would be to just short circuit the entire thing by getting a backpack one size smaller than you think you will need.

As for organizing the content within your backpack, I definitely would recommend getting packing cubes. Make sure to take one empty one for dirty laundry.

Daypack

You will need a separate smaller backpack as carry on to carry any electronics on planes, and just for daily life. Carrying two backpacks at the same time though is never going to be a comfortable affair (even if the two backpacks are meant to be attached to each other), so I would strongly recommend to get the smallest possible daypack that fits your stuff.

Clothes

Take enough clothes for around one week. Assuming you're traveling with at least one other person that results in a decent load of dirty laundry each time. One of the things that doesn't matter that much, but is still totally worth it in my opinion is quick drying clothes. When you end up with clothes drying all throughout your apartment, or a drying rack that only fits right next to your bed you will appreciate it if you clothes dry quickly. For this reason I can say that after refining my selection of clothes over time I can say without a doubt that I strongly recommend clothes made of higher quality polyester.

Secondly make sure to take clothes for any weather situation. Weather conditions will surprise you no matter where you plan to travel - like when we were climbing a volcano in Indonesia - , so when you're traveling long term the art is to have a set of clothes that can be layered perfectly. Rather than taking a sweater it might for example make more sense to layer a t-shirt with a long sleeved t-shirt.

Lastly: Make sure to take some clothes with you that you will be okay with parting in a couple of months. Once you start traveling you will definitely discover that you lack certain clothes (or other items) and having at least some 'easy to sacrifice' (or ideally give to a charity) stuff to make some space is a good idea. The added bonus is that that means you shouldn't stress too much about the clothes you take with you, as you can always figure it out later.

Recording memories

If you are like me you won't remember what you did last week, let alone last year, so taking photos and recording videos is pretty important (and keeping a digital diary is a great idea as well). Assuming that you aren't considering taking an 'old fashioned' camera (they are heavy 😅), the big question is whether it makes sense to invest in an expensive phone. The advantage of expensive phones lies primarily in their zoom lenses, because for everything else even mid range phones will do a perfectly decent job. The big disadvantage of expensive phones is that they make you a far more likely target of a robbery/burglary, as expensive phones are one of the clearest signs of wealth. I have no idea how to balance those factors.

On a related note, we didn't often need our powerbank, but we needed it often enough that I would recommend buying a good one that isn't too big.

A lot of articles will recommend carrying around an external SSD for photos and videos and I think this is a terrible idea. Even though I don't think cloud storage services are the best idea for most people, they are absolutely perfect for Digital Nomads.

Drone

We're traveling with a small light weight drone. I absolutely love flying, so I am very happy I took it, but I will point out that carrying a drone with you will block you from visiting some countries (e.g. the U.A.E. and Uzbekistan) and you won't (legally) be able to use it in many others.

Laptop

If you have the freedom to pick the laptop you will be traveling then the main thing I would recommend is to pick something light and sturdy. Also note that whatever you will be traveling with will take a lot of abuse - from humidity to being moved around non stop - , so it probably makes sense to pick something that isn't too expensive. One thing that can make a lot of sense is to get a laptop with USB-C, as that can help minimize the number of chargers you will have to carry with you.

On a related note, you will probably need to eventually buy a travel adaptor. Weight-wise it would make most sense to buy the 1:1 travel adaptors for the specific region you're in, but it turns out that in some regions it's pretty hard to find those, so buying a universal one does make sense.

Personal care products

The most important thing when you pick your personal care products will probably be how sturdy the packaging is. Arriving in a new location after a day of travel and finding out that your shampoo has leaked all over your stuff is no fun. Anything that can open by pushing on the bottle is a bad idea, anything that screws on is a good idea.

Also worth noting: If you use tampons, you won't be able to buy them in most of the world. So you either need to carry a tonne of them around, or you will need to adjust 😔 .

Medicines

You can buy basically any OTC medicine you might want anywhere you could imagine, so don't worry about carrying everything you might need with you from the start.

Other small stuff

My thoughts on some commonly recommended items that might be a good idea:

We very rarely used our padlock, but the few times we needed it I was happy to have it, but not entirely sure it's worth carrying around unless you plan to stay more often in dormitories.
95% of accommodations will provide towels, but for those last 5% it might make sense to carry around a towel. If you take a towel we would recommend those thin towels that are sold in sport stores that can also be used a blanket.
Absolutely would recommend taking some of those mid sized scissors. Small enough that you can still cut your nails with it, but big enough that it's still usable for opening a random item from the grocery store.
A some point during our travel we bought a rope that we primarily used to dry clothes on.
You are definitely going to end up in some accommodation with incredibly loud noises going on throughout the night. Whether that's people partying right under your hotel room, or the temple next door shouting and playing a drum throughout the night. I can't tell you whether earplugs or noise cancelling earbuds or something else is the best solution for you, but it's worth planning for this.
I always sneered at the idea of a travel eye mask as I have no problem sleeping in the middle of the day, but there have now been enough situations that I wished I had an eye mask that I would totally recommend carrying an eye mask with you.
Bluetooth tracking devices have been a decently popular travel accessory for a long time now, and Apple joining the party 3 years ago definitely has made them even more popular. It's hard to judge how often they are actually useful (rather than just giving peace of mind), but they are definitely fun 😇.
Reusable water bottles are great when you're in a country where you can use them (any country with drinkable tap water), but in most countries we didn't use ours at all. Maybe the ones with a filter make more sense? Not sure.
Cutlery: A single spoon, fork and knife makes a lot of sense to carry around. Whether to cut up fresh fruit you bought whilst you're staying in a hotel, or because you're staying in a country where certain utensils just aren't used.
A USB stick can come in handy, whether to put some files on there when you need to print your visa paperwork, or to help reinstall your wifi driver after you have to reinstall your laptop. Realistically I think you will be perfectly fine without one, but if you have one lying around anyway I would totally take it with me.
We're currently literally traveling around with a plush toy travel pillow. I would've originally said that they just aren't worth the size and weight, but realistically speaking we use it as both a normal pillow and a travel pillow... so I guess it's a decent enough idea 😅 .

Do not take

Stuff I saw other articles recommend that I would not recommend taking

Do not take a headlamp, you already have a phone
Do not take a standalone GPS, you already have a phone
Do not 'take' a VPN to most countries. VPN companies do a lot of false advertising on youtube, so make sure you understand what a VPN does before you use one. Basically you replace the monitoring that the local internet provider can do with the monitoring that the owner of the VPN can do (technically speaking the VPN provider can monitor even more), And you replace the monitoring the local government can do with the governments of the country the VPN provider is located and the country you're connecting to. VPNs do not make you more secure, they just change your 'security situation'. If you have a trustworthy VPN provider whilst you're in an untrustworthy country they are absolutely 100% worth it, but I had to put them on the 'do not take' list because most of the time you probably shouldn't be using them.
Do not take an umbrella. Take a thin rain coat that you can layer with other stuff.
Do not take a suitcase
Do not take a flashlight, you already have a phone
Do not take an external harddisk. Use cloud storage, it's not worth the weight.
Do not take an international eSIM plan. They are ridiculously overpriced, just buy a local SIM from a local provider (the only two exceptions we encountered to this were South Korea and Japan where it was cheaper to get a Hong Kong eSIM 😕🤷‍♀️).
Do not take a power bank with solar panel unless you plan to go into nature for more than a week (at which point you probably still won't be buying the gimmicky power banks with solar panels that are typically recommended).
Books or paper notebooks. Dead single-use pulverized wood is just not worth the weight.
Bag protectors just don't work. If you don't believe me, buy one and try to cut it with a good pair of scissors.
Travel Insurance, see this article