Top Gear

Over the last few years, I’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time living out of backpacks, dragging gear through airports, throwing it into boats, jeeps, snowstorms, deserts, and hotel rooms across dozens of countries. And somewhere along the way, I realized most travel gear falls into two categories.

Stuff that looks cool online but is useless in the real world, and stuff that works brilliantly. These are the rare pieces that survived the chaos. Some made life easier. Some prevented expensive mistakes. Some earned permanent space in my bag simply because they solved problems before I even realized I had them. None of these are sponsored picks. They are just the items I kept reaching for over and over again.

GRAYL Transport EXP 25L Backpack

I’ve gone through a stupid number of backpacks over the years and most of them fail for the same reason. They’re either too tactical-looking for normal travel, or too clean and minimalist to survive real adventure.

The GRAYL Transport somehow manages to sit right in the middle. It works in airports, on road trips, hiking days, and even thrown into the back of a Land Cruiser somewhere in Iceland.

The organization is fantastic, the materials feel bombproof, and the

water-resistant zippers have already saved my gear more than once.

HOVERAir X1 Pro Max

This thing honestly feels slightly futuristic. It’s basically a flying camera drone for people who do not want to deal with the usual drone nonsense. No giant case, no complicated setup, no standing in a field pretending to be an FAA specialist. You pull it out, press a button, and suddenly you have cinematic moving footage following you through mountains, cities, beaches, or hikes. For solo travelers especially, this might be one of the coolest travel gadgets I’ve used in years.

Tropicfeel All-Terrain HDry Shoes

These became my “I only packed one pair of shoes” travel shoe. Waterproof enough for bad weather, breathable enough for hot cities, and lightweight enough that your feet are not screaming after 20,000 steps through airports, markets, or old European streets. Most travel shoes try too hard to look technical. These actually look good enough to wear to dinner without looking like you’re about to summit Everest.

Coolibar Emmet Convertible Ear Flap Hat

I know exactly how this sounds. I judged it too. Then I spent long days in brutal sun conditions and suddenly became emotionally attached to a hat with ear flaps. The reality is this thing works ridiculously well. Lightweight, breathable, surprisingly comfortable, and excellent for fishing, boating, desert travel, or anywhere the sun feels personally aggressive.

Under Armour Yard Dual Mirror Sunglasses

Most performance sunglasses either look amazing and feel terrible, or feel great and make you look like the terminator. These somehow avoid both problems.

Super lightweight, comfortable enough for all-day wear, and durable enough to survive being shoved into backpacks, cup holders, and jacket pockets constantly.

They also hide jetlag exceptionally well, which deserves recognition.

GoPro HERO14 Black

Action cameras are one of those things you do not realize you need until the exact moment you need one. Glacier hikes, snowmobiles, cliff jumps, motorcycles, boats, surf days, ziplining, there are certain experiences your phone just cannot survive properly. The stabilization on the new GoPro is absurd and the footage somehow makes average adventures look cinematic.

Berghaus Ridge Seeker Gore-Tex Jacket

There are rain jackets you buy for emergencies, and then there are the ones that become part of every trip.

This is the second category. Iceland, Norway, South Korea, random sideways rain in London, this thing handled all of it.

Lightweight, clean, properly waterproof, this sets the standard for all waterproof jackets.