Five travel essentials + A giveaway!

Even for a few days away I tend to way overpack but my travel essentials really don’t take up much room. Here are the must-haves I brought to Wasaga Beach for a girls’ weekend last month at Lakes of Wasaga Cottage and RV Resort. (Full disclosure: All of the products I’m talking about in this post were provided free of charge, but I wouldn’t share them with you if I didn’t love them and think you might too.) 

My friend Cathy knows her tech, so when she recommended Belkin’s Power Rockstar 10000 battery pack, I knew it had to be good. This baby can fully charge two phones or two tablets at the same time. (Awesome!) It’s a bit heavy but I’ll forgive that for the convenience. And Belkin’s SurgePlus USB Swivel Charger is something I didn’t even know I needed but now I don’t know how I ever did without it. This way I don’t have to unplug everybody else’s stuff to charge my camera battery and plug in my laptop and other essentials.

I take a zillion pictures when I’m away so I brought some Kingston tech along too — a 64 GB micro SD card for my camera and a 64 GB USB stick to back up photos or share with friends.

You never know how the wifi’s going to be up in cottage country, but with Netflix I can download shows and movies to bring with me. Which is always nice for those rainy days and cozy evenings. (And also crazy hot sticky days when you just want to hole up inside with the AC.)

Somehow I never have as much time to read as I think I will, but that never stops me from bringing a few books. My stack for our Wasaga Beach weekend included A Book That Takes Its Time: An Unhurried Adventure in Creative Mindfulness from the creators of Flow magazine, which you’ll be hearing more about on the blog very soon. (You probably can’t see what it says there in yellow but it’s pretty awesome: “Filled with hundreds of paper goodies! 2 journals • 16 postcards • 40 stickers PLUS pretty punch-outs, posters, fill-in lists, and dozens of other hidden treasures.”)

And I might schlep around in the same jeans and hoodies for days on end but put on a well-chosen accessory or two and I feel like I made some sort of effort. So I like to bring a few with me. One of my favourites (and totally appropriate for Canadian cottage country) is my Canada Day Maple Leaf Bangle from Foxy Originals. It’s made in Canada, lead-free, and 20% of every bangle sold goes to Romero House, an organization in Toronto that helps refugees. If you’re looking ahead to Christmas, it makes a great gift. (Just sayin’.)

Giveaway!

Foxy Originals has another Canada Day maple leaf bangle for one lucky reader. To enter to win it, visit Foxy Originals and put the link to something else you like in the comments below and tell me one of your travel essentials. (Beyond the obvious toothbrush, passport, phone, wallet, etc.) This entry is mandatory.

For an additional entry, follow try small things on Facebook and share this post, then tell me you did so and your name on Facebook in the comments below.

For a third entry, follow try small things and Foxy Originals on Instagram, and tell me your Instagram handle in the comments below.

And feel free to tweet the following once per day and leave the url for your tweet in the comments below (one entry per tweet). Make sure you’re following try small things on Twitter for your entry to count.

It’s Canada’s 150th all year long! Enter to win a Foxy Originals maple leaf bangle from @trysmallthings http://wp.me/p4xBed-6io  • CAN 10/29 

The giveaway is open to Canadian residents 18+ and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on October 29, 2017. The potential winner (chosen at random) must respond to prize notification within 48 hours and provide the correct answer to a skill-testing question, otherwise another will be selected.

Good luck!

Update November 4, 2017: Congratulations Maritess S! 

Thank you to Belkin, Kingston, Netflix, Thomas Allen & Son, Workman Publishing and Foxy Originals who provided the items mentioned in this post free-of-charge. All opinions are my own.