What I Actually Pack

— and why it matters more than you might think

We're currently en route to Europe: visiting friends and family in London, making our way through Puglia, celebrating our friends J + O in Santorini, then road-tripping through France.

This trip has been on the mood board since J + O first told us they were getting married in O's homeland. And now, somehow, it's actually happening.

The timing hasn't been ideal. I had the flu a week before we left and I'm still dealing with the after-effects, so I'm travelling with one goal: enjoy every moment while giving my body the best possible chance of keeping up.

Which brings me to what's in my suitcase.

What I packed

Biodegradable sanitising wipes
LATRAVLA PillowWrap™
Biodegradable body wipes
LATRAVLA PillowMask™
Silver nasal spray
Tallow balm
Barrier-protection facial mist
Electrolytes + creatine
Zinc, vitamin C + supplements the ones I refuse to skip
Eye patches
Sanitiser spray
Red-light LED mask
Slippers in their own duster bag

Not exactly glamorous. But very considered.

The slippers come everywhere with me — flights, hotels and everywhere in between. After each wear, I sanitise the soles before putting them back in their bag. Overkill? Maybe. Peace of mind? Absolutely.

Travel has never been about maintaining some impossible version of perfection. Your routines will shift. Sleep will be interrupted. Meals will happen later, days will run longer and plans will occasionally be abandoned altogether.

And don't even get me started on the alcohol consumption.

I'm two mimosas in as I write this, midway through the first of many international flights taking us to Europe. I wish I were one of those people who didn't drink on planes, but I love the ritual of opening my laptop with a champagne or cocktail beside me. Somehow, I do my deepest work on an aeroplane.

Worth it.

For me, packing well isn't about trying to control every part of the journey. It's about bringing along a few small rituals — the familiar things that help me feel rested, grounded and like myself, wherever I happen to wake up.

Travel is a kind of undoing. It loosens all the ways everyday life has stitched you together.

In the space it creates, another version of you begins to emerge — through new tastes, new perspectives and new ways of moving through the world.

Sleep is the thread that carries you through all of it. We sleep to recover, to heal and to come back to ourselves.

That's really why I created LATRAVLA: so I could do sleep well, whether I'm in business class drinking champagne or on a train crossing from one country into another.

Luxury is, in fact, sleep. And doing it well is imperative.