Dog and Dragon Favorites: Best 2023 Travel Accessories

Dog and Dragon covered a lot of miles in 2023 living mostly out of our bags. When we are basically travelling full time we have certain items we rely on constantly. This post is intended to share some of our favorite items we’ve been relying on for our travels throughout the past year. Unless otherwise indicated, they are personally tested and have stood up to thousands of miles of travel and countless uses. We have found them to be some of our go to items lately and wanted to share them with you.

Dog and Dragon Go To Travel Luggage

Before setting out on our adventures in 2023 we planned for long term living abroad that would require us to carry essentially everything. We have had great success with Eagle Creek bags in the past and went back to Eagle Creek for all our luggage needs. Our go to bag for 2023 was the Eagle Creek Migrate Wheeled Duffel. There are multiple size and color options. In our case Dog has the 130L and Dragon uses the 110L. Both bags are weather resistant, super durable, feature amazing carrying capacity, are equipped with wheels for easy pulling, and have stow-away backpack straps for those times when you can’t pull your bag. Cobblestone streets and stairs come to mind…

We each have two bags. Our second bag is a carry on size Eagle Creek Load Hauler expandable duffel. Unfortunately that model is no longer available. We’ve gotten a ton of mileage out of the load hauler and think it is a great duffel. The closest current version appears to be the Eagle Creek Cargo Hauler Duffel which comes in 40L, 60L, and 90L. One of the features we love about our load hauler is the expandability allowing it to range from 49L to 57L. We haven’t tried the new cargo hauler version, so can’t give you our assessment. If you try it out, let us know your thoughts.

Dog and Dragon Go To Sling Bags

Setting out with plans to tour many parts of the world we’d never been to we wanted an easy to use, safe option to carry our personal items without worrying about pickpockets. Having never used sling bags for this purpose we decided to try two different brands. It turns out we’re both happy with our sling bags and each prefer our own.

With that in mind we’re going to tell you about them both. They are very similar, slim to wear, have multiple pockets, and make access to our phones, passports, and wallets both easy and secure. We recommend either the cross-body sling chest bags by Waterfly or Maymooner. We have gotten tons of use out of both bags exploring Europe, South Africa, and South America. Either of these sling bags will serve you well no matter what your destination is.

Dragon’s Go To Women’s Travel Shoe

In 2023 Dragon found her go to travel shoe. The Birkenstock Islay is a light-weight, lace up sneaker with leather uppers. It has served Dragon well whether she’s using it for short treks or long mileage walks exploring cities around the world. The leather upper keeps out the elements and keeps her feet dry. The slim design and light construction makes them easy to pack and transport. There are several color options meaning it can be anything from casual to serious. We’ve had a long standing love of Birkenstocks over the years and the Birkenstock Islay is a great new addition to our list of favorites.

Dog’s Go To Men’s Lounge Shoe

Dog’s go to lounge shoe is the Merrell Hut Moc 2. Let’s face it, this shoe is not attractive in any way. It is downright goofy looking if we’re being honest. Having said that I’m here to tell you it is a super comfy lounger. Dog has literally been wearing this moccasin for months on end. (They’ve done surprisingly well in the laundry!) This shoe is ultra light weight and shockingly cozy, making them a perfect travel lounge shoe. The sole has a tacky, grippy footbed which is nice on wet surfaces, like a ship deck for instance. With a squashable neoprene back you can stomp down on it to transform them into slip-ons or pull it back up for a more stable sneaker mode. The Merrell Hut Moc 2 is a perfect lounge shoe whether you are out exploring the world or just channel surfing from the couch. Just don’t try to wear them on formal night.

Dog and Dragon Go To Laundry Detergent

Sounds mundane eh? You can chuckle about it, but you need to do laundry no matter where you are in the world. We discovered the Tru Earth Compact Eco-Strips long before we set out on our travel adventures, but they are the ideal travel companion for getting your laundry done. For starters, this is the lightest, most compact way we’ve found to travel with laundry detergent. It’s flat and easy to pack in any bag. Additionally, this detergent is hypoallergenic, paraben-free, phosphate-free, and giant plastic jug free! These laundry strips are a life saver for travel and a perfect replacement for those ridiculously heavy tubs of detergent we’ve all been using for years. It may sound silly, but these are maybe our favorite item in this post.

Travel story interlude: Dog left our supply of these on the washing machine at our rental in Rome. Oh woe is me! It was brutally disappointing. Ordering and delivering Amazon in another country on short notice is a whole saga in and of itself. It took us several weeks, but we finally found a replacement in a random store in Portugal. Phew! Crisis narrowly averted.

Dog and Dragon Go To Travel Water Filter

Some of you will know this already if you’ve read the early blog posts, but our initial plan was to head from Colorado to Mexico. Dog did just that in the summer of 2023. Follow this link for more about his adventures in Mexico. One of the best items in his travel bag, especially in Mexico, was the Katadyn BeFree water bottle. It has a highly effective filtration system built into it that surpasses EPA standards and lasts for as much as 1000 uses before it needs to be replaced. I’ll defer to the company on the scientific efficacy of the filtration system specifications. What I can tell you is that Dog used that bottle while in Mexico to drink the tap water, brush his teeth, clean his toothbrush, etc. No Montezuma’s revenge. No GI problems. Like most of the things we’re packing around these days it is super light weight and when not in use it compresses down to a very packable size.

Dog and Dragon Go To Low Cost Accessories

Sometimes there are those goofy simple things that you don’t really think much about, that help you get by in strange places, or you’ll simply be annoyed with replacing if they disappear. Here are a few of the simple things we’ve gotten a ton of use out of, but don’t need to really elaborate much on.

Dog swears by his foldable cell phone stand. By know you know the requirements, light weight and packable. This stand is sturdy, but folds flat for easy stowage in any pack pocket or back pocket.

Dragon uses her Belkin multi-outlet extender literally everywhere. With two AC outlets and two USB-C outputs it serves a big purpose at every location we end up at.

Dog recommends this Tessan European outlet converter that includes two USB outputs to compliment the AC outlet.

One of Dragon’s favorite go to items is the Gear Aid Heroclip Carabiner. She has used this all over the world, whether to hook a bag to a table or any other gear from any number of surfaces. It’s super versatile and always gets the job done.

Disclaimer Wrap Up

Like it says above, sometimes we may include affiliate links in our posts that will lead to a small commission if a purchase is made. Obviously this entire post is chock full of those. Ultimately we are trying to share our experiences and part of that is the gear we use on a day to day basis. This list of our best 2023 travel accessories isn’t all inclusive. I can already think of several more I could and probably should add. More to come in the future on that front. Thanks for following along again. If you happen to use any of these links we’ll get a small commission on any of your Amazon purchases and for that we just want to say we really appreciate you. Cheers! Talk to you again soon.