City Break Essentials: 8 Things We Wouldn’t Leave the Hotel Without
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One of the questions we get all the time through email and Facebook is: what do you actually take with you when you're out exploring a city all day?
And after travelling to 450+ cities, we've definitely figured out our answer.
Because packing for a city break is one thing. But what makes it into our day bag is VERY different. We're often out from morning until dinner, walking miles, jumping on public transport, visiting museums and generally trying not to carry more than we need.
So this isn't another packing list with underwear, toiletries and phone chargers. These are the city break essentials we genuinely wouldn't leave the hotel without for a full day of sightseeing.
Some are more obvious, like a compact power bank. Others, like blister plasters and a foldable shopping bag, have earned their place after a few travel mishaps.
There are only eight things on this list. They all fit into our cross-body bag, and every single item comes out with us for the day.
1. Compact power bank
At home, our phones easily last the day. On a city break… we'd be lucky if they made it to dinner.
When we're travelling, we're on our phones SO much more. We check Google Maps, read reviews, pull up tickets and take way too many pictures.
With GPS and the screen on all day, the battery drains fast. And if your phone dies, so do your tickets! That's why a power bank tops our must-have travel essentials.
Please don't cheap out though. A friend's bargain power bank once burst into flames while charging, so we happily pay more for well-reviewed brands.
Around 10,000mAh covers a full sightseeing day for both our phones. Our Anker power bank (the one below👇) has come with us on every city trip. It's small, and the built-in USB-C cable means one less thing for us to forget.
There's also a 20,000mAh version of the Anker power bank if you'd rather not charge it every night. For us, though, the smaller one works perfectly for a day.
Oh, and power banks have to go in your hand luggage, NEVER your checked bag. Since late 2025, airlines like Emirates, Lufthansa and Korean Air have banned using them on board too.
2. Foldable shopping bag
Okay, a foldable shopping bag doesn't sound very exciting. But of all our day bag essentials for travel, this is the most versatile. We never leave the hotel without one.
And no, you don't need a special travel version. A basic plastic bag or (more sustainably) a reusable shopping bag folds down to almost nothing.
While exploring Kyoto, we filled ours with onigiri (rice balls) and matcha drinks from a convenience store. Then we headed to the nearest public park.
The benches were still a bit wet from the morning rain, so the bags even served as our seats.
And since public bins are a rare sight in Japan (people take their own rubbish home), the wrappers from our lunch went straight back in the bags afterwards.
It's also a lifesaver when souvenir shopping gets out of hand. In fact, some of our tote bags ARE souvenirs! Our latest, from Japan's Don Quijote store on that same trip, has a cute Shiba Inu under a cherry tree 💖.
3. Blister plasters
After so many city trips, we know that one bad blister can ruin an entire holiday.
We only travel in broken-in sneakers. But 20,000 steps a day, several days in a row, will wear your feet down even in shoes you've had for years.
We learned this the hard way while sightseeing in Singapore. Sebastian got a blister on the back of the heel, and it became so infected that he ended up at the doctor's. He had to take a course of antibiotics because of it.
Putting a plaster on straight away would almost certainly have saved him the trouble.
But waiting until the blister's there puts you on the back foot (sorry). And finding a pharmacy in an unfamiliar city isn't easy either. So whenever we pack for a day out, two or three blister plasters ALWAYS go in the bag.
Just put one on at the first sign of rubbing. Hydrocolloid ones like these Compeed blister plasters cushion the spot and protect it from further friction.
4. Headphones
More and more museums and attractions have swapped physical audio guides for apps and online guides you open with a QR code.
For example, almost every attraction we visited in Seville and Bruges had one. Without headphones, you're stuck with your phone attached to your ear, which is SO awkward in a quiet museum (and inconvenient too).
We always carry small in-ear headphones with us when we leave the hotel. We love our Apple AirPods… and they even make for a perfect gift for travel lovers, by the way.
Our top tip: Places that still hand out physical audio guides usually give you headphones too, but in our experience they're often not properly cleaned (and the sound quality isn't great either). So we bring our AirFly adapter, a small plug that goes into the audio guide's headphone socket and lets you connect wireless headphones like AirPods. We originally bought it for long economy flights, but it's become just as handy in museums.
5. Reusable water bottle
On a long walking day, you get thirsty FAST. And popping into a supermarket every time you need a drink gets old (and expensive) quickly.
So we always fill our reusable bottle at the hotel room before heading out. And when it's empty, we look for a public drinking fountain.
These drinking fountains have become a lot more common in the last few years, and you can spot them all over cities like Ljubljana or Vienna.
And while there are often dedicated local water fountain apps or maps (like this one for London's water fountains), you can also just search “drinking fountain” in Google Maps to find them.
Honestly, a 500ml (17 fl oz) bottle is plenty for us. Anything bigger and you're lugging a heavy bottle around all day.
6. Packet of tissues
A packet of tissues is the least glamorous of our trip essentials. And you usually don't give it a second thought until the moment you're SO glad it's there.
In Budapest, Viola was walking with a matcha latte, staring at St Stephen's Basilica instead of the pavement. One uneven cobblestone later, half of it had splashed over the cup and down her hand.
Free public toilets are another classic, especially the women's. Viola has lost count of how often the paper's run out, and you REALLY don't want to discover that when it's already too late.
And in Taipei, we bit into a pepper bun straight from the oven at a night market. Hot, peppery juice ran down our fingers and chins, and the vendor had no napkins. Thankfully, the tissues saved us (and our clothes)!
7. Cross-body bag
On a city break, we're in and out of our bag all day. There's the phone for Google Maps, tickets for public transport or the museum and, of course, those tissues.
We used to carry a backpack. But with all that space, we always overpacked and regretted it by mid-afternoon.
Now we use a small cross-body bag and wear it in front of us, where it's always in sight. That makes a real difference in cities with busy tourist spots, where pickpockets love to work.
Our Travelon anti-theft bag (the first one below👇) comes with us on almost every trip. The zips lock, and there's steel mesh inside the fabric and the strap. So nobody can quietly unzip it or cut it open in a crowd.
On a packed metro, that's one less thing for us to worry about. And it doesn't look like security kit at all. It's simply a nice, stylish bag.
Over the years, we've collected a few anti-theft bags, and our Baggallini bag still comes along on some trips. But at the moment, the Travelon is the one we reach for first.
8. Travel-ready phone
So, this one isn't something you pack. It's the setup we do once before every trip, and it makes each sightseeing day so much easier.
The apps you need can also vary by country, so it's worth a quick search before you go.
South Korea's travel apps, for example, are very different from what you'd use in Italy or Mexico. With them downloaded before the trip, you're ready the moment you leave the hotel.
And none of this helps with a flat battery🪫… which is exactly why the power bank tops our list.
Ready to pack your day bag?
These eight things leave the hotel with us every single day of a city break. After 450+ cities, each one has earned its spot in the bag.
All eight fit into one small cross-body bag, so we never feel weighed down by mid-afternoon. For us, that's the answer to what to carry when travelling around a city all day.
Here's hoping your feet and your phone battery both make it to dinner.
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