What Frequent Business Travelers Always Keep in Their Luggage

Bellroy accessories were mentioned by many of the business travelers I spoke with, and this streamlined tech kit was especially popular. New Level Radio founder and CEO Nathan Green (who is on the road more than 150 days a year) says it holds all of his cables and chargers and is essential for laptop productivity.

This is two-in-one laptop case and stand is executive stylist Elisa Ellis’s favorite travel item. “The slim design fits in almost any tote or backpack, and it makes working on the go much easier,” she says.

“I often recreate an efficient ‘hotel office’ setup with a travel laptop stand, compact keyboard, and mouse,” says Green.

She Hit Refresh CEO Cepee Tabibian, who lives and works between the U.S. and Spain, even packs a portable travel monitor that she says can “turn any accommodation or café into a productive workstation.”

This power brick is powerful enough to charge a MacBook without being plugged in, as well as your phone and tablet. It’s an essential for Preston Lane CEO Lisa Manice, who splits her time between New York City, Italy, and Portugal.

Rather than deal with a tangle of cables, Anna Crowe, CEO and founder of Crowe PR, uses this compact hub to power her phone, AirPods, and watch.

Another solution for the device charging dilemma? A multiuse adaptor cord like this one that Planet Nusa founders Mille Skat and Kristine Esmer never travel without.

For those of us who just pack a million different cables, Ellis says that these will keep them separated and tangle-free, “So you can stay productive instead of fishing through a knot of wires at the bottom of your bag.”

When traveling internationally, Skat and Esmer throw one of these universal power adaptors from Tumi into theirsuitcasesto ensure all of their devices can power back up overnight.

“Yes, they’re absurdly expensive,” says Tickadoo founder Frances Hellyer, who operates his company across four time zones. But he also uses them on every single flight because “the noise cancellation means I can take calls at 35,000 feet and actually think clearly.”

Hellyer adds that this tablet has replaced all his notebooks for physical note-taking. “It syncs across devices, has infinite pages, and no charger anxiety,” he says. “When you’re in back-to-back meetings across three cities in a week, digital notes that follow you everywhere matter.”

The Skylight app “connects to a big digital calendar at home so my family knows when I am traveling,” says Valerie Bihet, founder of Miami-based destination event-planning agency VIBE. “I can also outline all of my packing lists and then I can duplicate across trips to make it easier for the next one.”

Fable & Mane’s CEO and co-founder, Akash Meht, finds himself in as many as eight cities each month. And while he’s in transit, this smart Rubik’s cube (which he says “tracks your moves and helps you learn quickly”) is a fun and addictive stress reliever.

Chris Salgardo, founder of Atwater and former president of Kiehl’s, says the best travel hack is to keep a small go-pouch full of essentials like your passport, eye mask, melatonin, and a pen that’s always at the ready. He recommends Rimowa’s pouches for a splurge, but also likes Bellroy’s more accessible options.

Jewelry designer and very frequent traveler Jennifer Fisher has recently become obsessed with these flat Cadence organizer parcels. “They’re the most amazing thing I’ve ever used for organization,” she says. “They’re an investment, but the quality is really nice. The flap is very easy to open and close, but they stay shut.”

Ellis says that Cadence’s capsules, meanwhile, are “hands down the best travel containers” because they’re TSA-approved, customizable, come in multiple sizes, and are completely leakproof.”

Nocturne Luxury Villas CEO Scott Wiseman, who travels between the U.S., Caribbean, and Mexico for work, recommends using Eagle Creek compression envelopes for shirts that need to stay unwrinkled. And he adds that the suit-jacket-folding method fromthis YouTube videonever fails.

One of Tabibian’s favorite travel hacks is using water-resistant diaper bags to isolate wet and dirty clothing, underwear, and bathing suits.

After years of honing his packing methods, Hellyer says that Peak Design’s travel backpack is the only bag he trusts. “I’ve tried everything, and this is it,” he says. “It looks professional in boardrooms, but functions like a technical pack.”

A travel steamer is “perfect for refreshing linen during summer trips or when you arrive just before a business meeting,” says Preston Konrad, co-founder and CFO of Preston Lane.

And Fisher always carries this retractable lint roller, too, because she wears a lot of black.

And Skat and Esmer like to smooth out their clothes before meetings with this crease spray.

Serial entrepreneur Rich Naha likes to bring along a handful of hydration packets, as well as a travel-size greens powder, on every flight.

“I’m on the go a lot, and sometimes I can’t make it to the gym — or the gym is packed,” says Justin Goldsberry, who currently serves as a business travel ambassador with SAP Concur. This portable arm trainer gives him a quick and consistent workout no matter which country, town, or state he’s in.

Packing a Theragun Mini “sounds excessive until you’ve sat in economy for 11 hours and need to pitch VCs the next morning,” says Hellyer. “Twenty minutes with this and you’re functional.”

“Always travel with protein bars,” says Wiseman. He likes the RX Bar variety pack.

“A Pluto Pod, which is the sort of hooded travel pillow that lets the world know: This man is not available for conversation. It blocks light and sound, and I love it with a devotion I usually reserve for coffee,” says Naha.

And wearing compression socks for long flights is “like giving your circulatory system an apology note,” he adds.

“I don’t know what I’d do without under-eye patches to help hide the fact I woke up at 3 a.m.,” says Food Network star Maneet Chauhan, whose filming schedule has her flying between New York, Texas, California, and Tennessee. She loves these ones from Peter Thomas Roth.

Naha tricks his body into switching timezones using a combination of theTimeshifter appand these Ayo light-therapy glasses, which he says “are half-science, half-magic.”

Several business travelers I spoke with emphasized the need for wrinkle-free, meeting-ready clothing that was also comfortable. Lululemon’s ABC fabric works for travel days as well as boardroom check-ins.

Outlier Futuredarts pants are also a popular wrinkle-free, machine-washable option. “They look like they cost more than they do,” says Hellyer. “I own four pairs in the same color.”

“In the last year I’ve been loving the Villa wide leg pant by Vuori,” says Tara Busch, founder of boutique travel company Conscious Travel Collective. “I can wear thick cotton tights underneath without any static issues, wear them alone, or even swimsuits. They are really that adaptable.”

Fisher invested in an Adam Lippes blazer and has never looked back. “It can be worn from day to night, from an office to the party,” she says. “And it works for all climates.”