The U.S. Travel Association predicts healthy growth in travel for 2025. According to its latest report, it forecasts a 3.9% bump in domestic leisure travel for the year ahead. As more families add travel plans to their calendars, those less familiar with packing quickly learn how easily the essentials get left behind.
Vacations create great excitement and stress for families, resulting in commonly forgotten items that do not make it into a suitcase. Depending on the final destination, the ease of replacing an item left at home ranges from convenient to near impossible. Travel to a large city, and a family will find corner markets on every street selling essentials. However, traveling to a more remote destination or secluded resort makes finding a toothbrush feel like a new installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise.
As families prepare for their travels in 2025, experts offer their top recommendations for remembering the essentials. Some of their advice includes items travelers do not often think of, but they make all the difference in keeping travel stress-free and organized.
Avoid Upcharging By Remembering Essentials
Destinations such as resorts and theme parks hope travelers lose or forget to pack their everyday essentials. Hotel gift shops often carry these items but with an extreme upcharge.
Jessica Gardner, The Theme Parkette on Instagram, considers how someone packs as crucial as what winds up in their bag and urges travelers to keep the essentials close by.
Gardner notes, "When packing, assume your checked luggage will be lost or delayed. Medications, jewelry, electronics, special clothing, and anything you need to survive a delay should be in your carry-on."
Georgia Konidari, founder of World Wild Schooling, warns travelers about commonly-forgotten items. She shares, "One of the most common things families forget is a travel adapter for chargers and electronics, especially when visiting a different country. Sunscreen is another important item often left behind, and buying it at your destination can be expensive."
The remedy to avoiding paying the cost at a hotel or park involves concocting an iron-clad packing list a family refers to every time they travel. As theme park journalist Megan duBois explains, "I start making my list about a week before any trip, and as I think of items I need to throw into my suitcase, I either go grab it right away and start a suitcase pile or write it down on my list."
Konidari echoes the importance of in-advance packing and adds, "Include basics like snacks, water bottles, toiletries, and a portable phone charger." Konidari recommends packing a change of clothes in a carry-on bag, especially when traveling with younger children, in case of any delays with reuniting with checked luggage.
Gardner also recommends that travelers pack a reusable water bottle for all vacations. "Wherever I travel, it always seems that the most overpriced, overcharged item is a bottle of water," she shares. “Most airports, hotels, and even theme parks now have free filtered water available, so packing an empty water bottle in your carry-on that you frequently fill up can really save you money and keep you hydrated."
Stay Organized While Traveling
Experts observe travelers forgetting essential items that keep everyone organized during a vacation. While seemingly trivial, these items make a big difference in ensuring things stay in their proper place. DuBois offers one piece of advice that changed the game for her travels.
"One thing I often see people forget to pack is a laundry hamper," duBois says. "I have a small collapsable mesh hamper that goes on every trip with me. It makes keeping my hotel room or cruise cabin tidy, and I know what I have and haven't worn yet."
Staying organized creates more room in suitcases, as Gardner explains. Beyond employing packing cubes or various folding methods to yield more space, Gardner highlights multiple tricks she uses to ensure souvenirs fit into her luggage.
"Before your trip, pack snacks for your hotel room, like chips or gallon bags of assorted granola bars," says Gardner. "You'll eat them during your vacation and have more room in your luggage on your way home." Packing snacks doubles as a great cost-cutting measure, echoing Gardner's earlier sentiments on avoiding overpriced items at a destination.
She continues, "Pack compression bags, but don't use them on the way to your destination. Fold them into your suitcase. When packing to go home, use them for your clothes and double your space." Gardner warns travelers to watch how much goes into their luggage with this method, as compression bags quickly increase the weight.
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