What we pack for an international trip

After six Adventures by Disney trips across three continents, we have packed for enough overnight flights and foreign hotel rooms to know exactly what earns its place in the bag. None of it is glamorous. All of it saves the trip.

Sleep on the plane, or pay for it on day one. Two things actually work, and we own both: a contoured sleep mask that blocks light completely without crushing your eyes, and noise-cancelling earbuds. With the Manta mask and AirPods Pro, a nine-hour flight becomes a nap instead of an endurance test — you land ready to explore instead of needing a recovery day. This is the single biggest difference between a good first day and a wasted one.

One adapter, every country. Your charger will not fit the wall in Paris, or Dublin, or Oslo. A universal travel adapter covers outlets in over 150 countries from one cube, with enough USB ports that the whole family charges from a single socket. It is the first thing that goes in the bag.

A neck pillow you will actually use. Most travel pillows are useless. A real memory-foam one wraps the sides of your neck so your head does not loll off your shoulder on the red-eye — the difference between landing rested and landing wrecked.

Keep your passport on your body. In a crowded plaza you want your passport, cards, and cash under your shirt, not in a back pocket. An RFID neck wallet keeps everything concealed and unskimmable. Quiet peace of mind on every international day.

Pack smart, not heavy. Compression cubes squeeze a week of clothes down and survive the repack home. A flat-plug travel power strip turns the one free hotel outlet into five. And a crossbody belt bag keeps your phone and passport in front of you, hands free, on every walking day through a new city.

Pick this, not that

The choice	Our pick	Why
Universal adapter vs. country-specific plugs	Universal adapter	One cube covers 150+ countries — no guessing which plug Portugal uses.
Adapter alone vs. adapter + power strip	Add the flat-plug strip	Foreign hotel rooms give you one usable outlet; the strip turns it into five.
Real sleep mask vs. the airline freebie	Manta mask	Zero pressure on your eyes and total blackout — the freebie leaks light and presses.

The trip is the splurge. The gear is the cheap insurance that makes it go smoothly — and most of it pays for itself the first time you sleep through a flight. Everything we pack is below.