What’s in my backpack and tech pouch in 2024?

This post is from January 2024, click for most up-to-date backpack and tech pouch. Hello and Happy New Year 2024! Today is day 1 and I’m starting off this year with an update to my travel pouch and backpack, now that I’ve upgraded my trusty iPhone 13 Mini to USB-C powered iPhone 15 Pro. This changed helped me to streamline my setup and get rid of many Lightning dongles:

• I’m traveling with 6 things in 2024
• What’s in my tech pouch in 2024?
• How I pack my tech pouch?
• Which backpacks I use for travel?
• What’s in your backpack?

I’m traveling with 6 things in 2024

Here’s the list of things I carry with me:

1. iPhone 15 Pro in Spigen case
2. iWallet by MOFT with my IDs and cash
3. iPad 13 Pro - most versatile computer ever
4. Moleskine Smart Notebook (review on the blog soon!)
5. Tech Pouch by Peak Design
6. AirPods Pro 2 (not on the photo, because they’re always in my pants pocket!)

That’s it. These 6 things. I don’t travel with my MacBook Air, it stays in my home office. All these things are marked with green 🟢 numbers:

What’s in my tech pouch in 2024?

I love the Tech Pouch by Peak Design - I’ve reviewed it before by now it’s time for an update - all the things marked with yellow 🟡 numbers fit into this mighty pouch:

1. Small wallet for cards, business cards and stickers
2. Compact shoe spoon to help me put my shoes on
3. L’Occitane hand cream for when they run dry
4. Forceps (they come very handy!) and extra ballpoint pen refills
5. Tiny paper notebook (still quite often I need to leave a note for someone)
6. Sewing kit (so I can mend something broken fast)
7. Extra propellers for my Mavic Mini 3 Pro drone (review coming up soon!)
8. Fancy leather wrist band for Apple Watch Ultra (when I want to look nice)
9. Waterproof bag for the iPhone
10. Charging hanger (when charge sockets are in weird places in the hotel rooms)
11. Uni USB-C to Ethernet (this dongle lets me use wired LAN with both the iPhone and the iPad) - Anker alt.
12. Bose mini-jack to micro-jack cable (when I travel with Bose QC35 or Bose NC700) - although recently I just use the AirPods Pro 2
13. Lavalier microphone with a generic jack-to-usb-c adapter
14. Uni HDMI to USB-C cable to stream iPhone/iPad screen to any TV screen - Amazon alt.
15. Cleaning cloth for screens
16. Jack-splitter for my daughters when they travel and want to watch something on their iPads with their headphones - Amazon alt.
17. Small Phillips and flat screwdriver with SIM-card popper and safety pin (for emergency)
18. AirFly Pro Bluetooth transmitter Amazon
19. Fingernail clipper (not leaving on a trip without it)
20. USB Pen drive (reused an old Apple one) with USB-to-USB-C dongle.
21. Anker 10K MagSafe Power Bank
22. Apple MagSafe Duo (it’s no longer for sale but I still love it - enjoying MagSafe lifestyle)
23. Cable Matters Thunderbolt 3 cable and Belkin USB-C cable which I now changed for Apple braided USB-C cable that came with my iPhone 15 Pro
24. Apple Watch 900mAh power bank which is also a charger - when I need to charge my wife’s Apple Watch
25. HyperDrive Hub Adapter 6-in-1 Dongle
26. Apple MagSafe Battery pack - when I need to charge my iPhone on the go
27. Two USB-c to Lightning cables so I can charge all these Lightning accessories and my wife’s iPhone 13 Pro Max or my kids’ iPads
28. SOOPII 100W 1ft USB C to USB C Cable with LED display so I can measure charging speeds
29. RoHS 100W 3*USB-C and USB charger (previously I was using the one from Tecknet but I misplaced it somewhere)
30. Two very short USB to Lightning cables as additional spares
31. Very short USB to USB-mini cable with additional USB to USB-C dongle and USB-C to USB dongle

How I pack my tech pouch?

I put the first 10 items in the first compartment of the pouch. There’s always some additional place there for something else I might need on each particular trip.

In the middle section I put all the dongles, jack cables and similar things:

In the last and most important section I put all my charging cables, charger and usb-c hub:

In the external pocket of the tech pouch I put the power bank.

Which backpacks I use for travel?

I still have my old trusty Fjällräven Ulvö 23 but my new travel backpack has been the excellent Patagonia Refugio 26L (black). I find its size and dimensions perfect as well as the side pockets that fit all my water bottles. It also has this additional compartment for the iPad/laptop. I love it. It’s very lightweight and when empty it looks really small but it can really fit all 26L of stuff inside, perfect for a week of travel:

My smaller backpack for daily use is a discontinued excellent LEGO backpack. I have two of these - one in green and other one in blue. When I go out on a short trip around town, I usually take this backpack and in the lower “lego” pocket I have an additional Anker nano 20W charger with a simple usb-c cable so I can always charge my iPhone and iPad. This way I don’t need my travel pouch there.

Karabiners! I love karabiners on my backpacks as they come handy to attach things together and as a way to close the backpack so they’re not so easily opened. This way thieves will have harder time opening it when walking on busy city streets.

What’s in your backpack?

Post your comments on Mastodon and send me your suggestions. Let’s travel the best way possible in 2024!