I’m not the kind of person who likes to carry things around, so normally I don’t even have a bag with me. But when it comes to travel, especially business travel, it’s a different story.

A little background:

– I pack on a “tech first” basis, mainly because a lot of the stuff can’t (or probably shouldn’t) be checked in.

– I don’t pack spare clothes in my hand luggage (clearly I’ve not learned my lesson from the time I ended up in Germany and my suitcase ended up in Turkey), mainly because I don’t have space.

– Sometimes I’ll take this bag plus an extra hand luggage bag instead of a hold bag, which I did when we went to Belfast & Dublin last month. My other hand luggage bag is a rucksack which basically holds my clothes and personal items for a week.

So, what have we got?

Bag – The bag is a pro photography bag by a US company called House of Flynn. It’s tough to find tech accessories that are as pretty as they are functional, so as a company I absolutely love them. The bag is really well padded and designed to hold a laptop as well as camera gear. It has adjustable sections inside, so if you’re not carrying around a camera and a bunch of lenses it works well for that too. And it has a million pockets, so I love it even more. It’s regular hand luggage size so fits perfectly.

Laptop – This is my travel Macbook Air. For day-to-day use I only use my Pro, as it’s a big spec’d out workhorse, but I prefer a little light Air for travel.

Camera & lens/es – Pictured is my old chunky Nikon DSLR, which I still love, but sometimes I take my mirrorless instead because it’s so much smaller and lighter.

Book – I always take a book to read during take off and landing, because I hate those parts of flying and need to be distracted.

iPad Mini – Usually just for entertainment on the journey, because I love app games too much.

Nintendo Switch + games – Can you tell I really hate being bored yet? I have a mix of games, from RPGs to puzzles.

Cables – I try to minimise what I take in hand luggage because otherwise it’s a guaranteed stop at security, but also I don’t want to be replacing Apple chargers if my hold luggage gets lost/delayed somewhere.

Pocket microfibre cloth – For cleaning all the screens. It folds up small and has a clasp so it can attach to the outside of things, which is useful.

Health stuff – Tissues, hand gel, mask (not pictured) – still had to wear one for Portugal, mini suncream (factor 50 is excessive for my skin tone in the Med but that was all they had).

Internet hot spot – I always travel with an extra mobile hotspot just in case. This one is Hippocket, which I highly recommend because the service is great, they don’t leave you with a single point of failure, and battery life and data allowance are excellent. (Although as it’s a French company, you need to plan ahead enough to have it sent over before your trip, and you will get some sites auto serving you their French versions regardless of where you are).

And that’s what’s in my hand luggage! Are you a light packer or a hoarder? Let me know in the comments!