My husband and I have been living full time in vacation rentals for almost four years, traveling the world without a home base. Our vagabond life has taken us places as disparate as Buenos Aires and Morocco, Paris and Florida, and until we actually open the door of a place we’ve reserved, we’re never quite certain what we’ll find. Usually the apartments or houses we have rented work out well, but experience has taught us to bring along some items that might seem unusual to someone who’s just traveling for a few weeks.
Tourists usually dine out often and attend plays, concerts, clubs or events as part of their travel experience. We do those things too, but less frequently. As full-time travelers we shop for food like the locals and cook at home regularly. Our evenings’ entertainment choices more closely resemble the night life in Indianapolis than that of Istanbul, and most evenings we’re content with a good movie, our favorite TV shows, or listening to music and reading. Our non-tourist status has made our packing list a little different from most people’s, and I’m sure more than one TSA agent has shaken his head at what he’s found in our luggage.
Even the most well-equipped properties can’t provide everything we need, especially in the kitchen, so instead of searching the neighborhood to find the items that we find ourselves needing most often we’ve started just bringing them along.
For instance, a sharp knife is every cook’s most valuable tool, and since I have never found a sharp edge in a rented space, I pack a small plastic knife sharpener. After using it for five minutes I’ve got enough good blades to satisfy Emeril Lagasse or Ina Garten! An instant read meat thermometer that calibrated in Fahrenheit, not celsius, is another lightweight gadget that does the trick for people like me who lack mathematical talent. Lots of chickens and quite a few roasts have been rescued from incineration by that tiny tool. We also tuck a substantial number of heavy duty zip lock bags into our suitcases because we have discovered that it’s difficult to find them in many other countries. They come in handy for damp laundry, leftovers and a million other incidental uses.
As a Californian who thinks my state’s most important product is wine, particularly the yummy red stuff, a nice big glass from which to swill it is important. They’re usually absent in rented apartments, so after having repeatedly searched a new city for a large red wine glass, bought it, and then left it behind, I finally found wonderful plastic wine glasses. They take up little space, weigh almost nothing, and provide me with an excellent vessel for tasting the local offerings in style. It’s the little comforts that make life on the road fun.
Of course, with all this cooking going on, a person needs some recipes, right? Carrying books isn’t possible, but our computers offer all the help I need. A favorite app is Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything. This interactive book sorts recipes by their ingredients, not the finished dish, so I can turn to my pal Mark to tell me how to put almost anything together in an appealing way! I tap in the ingredients I’ve bought and usually find inspiration and instructions right on my iPhone!
Our electronic gear list is extensive since we entertain ourselves at “home” often. We each have laptops, of course, and I also have an Apple mini with a keyboard as a back up, since a computer failure would seriously interrupt my writing schedule. I use it, too, as a reading device, an alarm clock, a music provider, a radio and newspaper and electronic book reader. We also carry mini speakers so we can enjoy music, movies and TV directly from our computers. We take our iPhones mostly because of the apps we use, and we purchase throwaway phones in each country because it’s less expensive than paying for an international phone plan.
Plug adapters are another essential item. We have several for each part of the world that we’ll be visiting because it can be really time consuming to search them out in our host country. We also tuck an extension cord in our luggage, since some older places have too few plugs.
One off-beat item that has saved the day many times is a roll of duct tape. Once we were living in a country when winter came too early. The owner had not yet removed the window air conditioners and a powerful wind was blowing freezing air into our bedroom. My brilliant Tim fixed the problem in two minutes with his trusty duct tape! We’ve used it to mend torn luggage, broken shoes, and leaky plumbing, until we could correct the problem permanently.
Silicone earplugs, noise canceling headphones and a 40-Blinks Eye Mask from TravelSmith are my personal must-haves. I am sensitive to noise and not a good sleeper, so these are essential to my well-being and happy disposition. The headphones also allow me to work in almost any atmosphere without being disturbed by neighborhood, traffic or fellow travelers’ noises, and the eye mask is the best I’ve found because it doesn’t smash my lashes!
Of course we carry clothes, shoes, toiletries, and all the other items a vacationer would take, but that’s another story that we’ll be sharing very soon!
Most people dream of traveling the world when they retire, but Lynne and Tim Martin have taken this concept to an entirely new level. In 2011, they sold their charming house in Central California’s wine country, gave away the furniture, and stuffed their art, clothes and small treasures into a 10 x 15 storage unit. They said goodbye to their surprised children and quizzical friends, and now live in rented apartments and houses internationally, putting down new roots one country at a time. Read more about Lynne and Tim and their plans for the future on their website, homefreeadventures.com.
