The Essentials Bag

Hello Friends! Today we thought it would be a great idea to share what we pack during our international flights. Its so important to be health conscious and prepare for a flight thats more than 4 hours. A lot of people don't think twice about it but the 3 of us think about it all the time! Here are some of the essentials you should pack.

1. Oral Hygiene: mini toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and mouthwash are necessary to maintain your oral health and to keep your mouth fresh. No one likes to smell stinky morning breath before they have had their peanuts. Pictured here is a toothbrush that has a case to keep your tooth brush clean, also glide offers individual flosses for easy carrying on the go, mini mouthwashes are perfect for freshening up.
Pro tip- save your dental goody bags from your six month cleanings for your travels.
Pro tip 2: After eating, wait 20 min before you brush and floss. 

For those that have had braces or grind their teeth: We love our straight teeth, theres no shame in wearing your retainer or night guard in public. 

2. Eye hygiene: Contact cases, mini contact solution, eyeglasses. Keep your eyes healthy by removing your contacts during those overnight trips.
Pro tip- add clean solution in the contact cases so you don't have to pack a mini solution bottle. 

For those that wear makeup: pictured is an eye makeup remover to keep those eyelashes fresh!

3.  Skin: Spf lotion, night rejuvenation lotion and chapstick. Your skin is your best friend, take good care of it!!!! The damage only gets worse when you neglect it. Keep your lips hydrated as well, they also love pampering :)
4. Hand sanitizer: mini hand sanitizer and wipes. Do you know how many doors, rails, and other miscellaneous objects you've been touching all throughout your trip? And you wanna eat after that?? Yuck! Don't forget your mini-hand sanitizer, perfect to use before you want to eat snacks.
Pro tip - if you don't have any wipes - put hand sanitizer on a tissue paper and wipe down the table and touch screen on the plane. Who knows who use them before you
5. Other: Ibuprofen, antacids, and bandaids. Coach is notorious for no leg room and screaming children kicking the back of your seat. Some ibuprofen to ease that headache is just one essential bag away! 

Alaska by Land vs Alaskan Cruise 

Our trip to Alaska started off by land. My family has always been the on-your-own type so it only made sense to plan that way. However, we soon realized that there's no way to visit a lot of the Alaskan towns by car in two weeks. For the first time ever we booked a 7 day cruise and we were in for a surprise.

Land

On land you have the freedom of coming and going as you please, trying out local restaurants, renting a car and sightseeing as much or little as you would want. Our favorite things about traveling is exploring and getting to know the area as if you were to live there. Shortly put, We definitely recommend this option. You're open to so many options and you get to plan out your day to what you like to do to. So if you like to stay in or stay out late? Then this may be perfect for you.

For the 4 days we were on land we did exactly what we always do, rented a car, researched online of the hottest spots and the unpopular sites, asked locals and asked forest rangers what we should check out, and tried to stop at all the camera sign spots as much as we could on the road driving to our planned destination. You definitely get to experience a lot, more than people think when you rent a car and head out on your own.

Our plane landed in Anchorage. There are many nearby cities you can visit. Cities we ended up exploring were Alyeska, Portage and Seward.

Things we would change: If we could change anything from our Land experience it would be to have had more time on land. We wished we had time to visit Denali and Fairbanks. One of our regrets but just another reason to visit. From Anchorage to the entrance of Denali is 8 hours.

Cruise 

We are going to start off with that we have never been on a cruise, ever. We didn't know what kind of experience we were about to embark on. We heard so many good things about cruises so we were excited, but very nervous. Our cruise ship boarded in Seward. Our ship's route was to head to
Glacier Bay, Haines, Juneau, Ketchikan, and then the final destination, Vancouver.

Our entire lives our travels have always been in a hotel room. So we cannot say we were very impressed with our cruise rooms. We are accustomed to queen sized beds, a bathroom that you could breathe in, a room that would fit all of our suit cases. Since we were three people in one really tiny room, we really struggled finding room for our suitcases. At one point we were making jokes about the situation when all of a sudden all 3 of us started balling.. or maybe it was a mix of emotions cause we were crying and laughing at the same time. So as you can tell so far not heading off to a good start.

One thing that everyone failed to mention, as well, was the At Sea part. No one let us know that we would be stuck on the ship for 48 hours. Or maybe we are at fault cause we didn't look into it as we should have. People claim that you can barely tell the ship moving, that is a total lie. We did bring the motion sickness pills with us as a just in case since there were times we thought about taking. However we never did take any. But this is a warning, you do feel the ship moving back and forth especially when it is At Sea because the ship is moving at a higher speed and starts to hit the waves harder.

So now that we have officially sounded spoiled, we also recommend the cruise. WHY? If you can get over the above things then you will not want to miss out on such a great opportunity. It would have been impossible to visit Glacier Bay, Haines, Juneau, and Ketchikan in the short time we could take off work. Plus trying to visit those cities by car would have taken 2 or 3 more trips back to Alaska.

Things we would change: So, we would do a cruise again, but maybe try out a different cruise line hoping for a better cabin experience.

Alaska

Our Alaskan make-sure-you-pack List!

Just a few things to remember before you head off to Alaska.

1. Bug Spray!!! 

For sure you will need it. I bought 2 different types. I was experimenting with non-Deet sprays for this trip. The first one, which I love, is the Sawyer Permethrin Clothing Insect Repellent. Beware though! I didn't read the labels when I bought it, but luckily enough I liked it the most. This bug spray SHOULD NOT be sprayed on your skin...ever. It's poisonous! You spray it on your clothes. So I sprayed it on all my jackets I took with me to Alaska. However, do not make the mistake I made. Spray the jackets/boots a few days before you leave on your trip. You want to spray them OUTSIDE. I didn't have a choice when I arrived in Alaska and had to spray my jackets in my hotel room and that was a big mistake because you're breathing in poison. So I had to open the windows up to have fresh air while spraying my jackets. The best thing about the spray is that it lasts on your jacket for weeks, and it lasts for 6 washes, which was perfect because it rained the entire time I was in Alaska. Because of this spray I never had any problems with bugs. It's amazing. 

I also bought (as a backup) Sawyer Picaridin Insect Repellent Lotion. When I realized the first Spray couldn't be put on your skin, I thought for sure I would run out of this. However, I used it only the first day. With the Sawyer spray it just was necessary.

2. Boots, Boots, BOOTS! 

I honestly didn't wear anything but boots the entire time there. I had my Wellington boots for rain and separate hiking boots for wilderness adventures. The only shoes I took that were not boots were my tennis shoes, and only because I wore those on the plane. Make sure you have at least one pair of waterproof boots. It's very important. Thankfully my hiking boots were both waterproof and insulated!

3. Waterproof jacket! 

Again, it rained most of the time we were there. We had a few lucky days, maybe 3 out of the 12 days we were there. It's very important to pack a waterproof, not water-resistant, jacket. My sister brought a water-resistant jacket and it didn't hold up well. Water-resistant is for when you are in the rain for a quick second. Waterproof is when you're going to be in rain for 8 hours, which is exactly what's going to happen when you're in Alaska.

4. Pack lots of layers.

Even if the weather tells you it'll be 70 degrees, you might be that unlucky soul that gets to Alaska and now the weather is 55. AKA that happened to us. If you're tiny, or if you're tall and bulky, it's better to be prepared than to be cold and then have to wear everything that's in your suitcase at once. You can always take off your sweater, you can't put one on if it's not there.

5. External Batteries 

This was the smartest thing I ever did. I packed 2 external batteries which can charge our phones. You never know when you're going to be by an outlet and it seemed like we never were.

6. Waterproof backpack.

Mine was water resistant and water did go through. I was getting worried that it would ruin my batteries and electronics, etc. I had to wrap them in a plastic bag for protection. Do pack a backpack even if it's not waterproof cause you're gonna need to put the small things you need to carry with you. I packed my batteries, my water bottle, gloves, binoculars, camera lenses, and maps.

7. GPS

The cell signal in Alaska is essentially non-existent unless you're in a huge city. Packing a GPS helps if you decide to drive around instead of hiring a tour company to take you around. My family loves to adventure off and get lost as we go so we picked renting a car and touring ourselves. Thankfully Alaska basically has one highway, so it's very hard to get lost unless you're on foot on an unmarked hiking trail. So even if your phone service isn't working and you're dependent on GPS, bring one of your Garmins with you, otherwise it's time to take out that dusty map you've had hidden a way for years.

A blog about our trip will soon be posted. Check out our instagram: thetravelingdocs
Also check out Our Alaskan Trip