8 must-have travel items you can’t afford to forget in India.
(especially number 5!)
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, I will earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you if you click through and make a purchase. Secondly, please always wear a safety helmet when riding a bike in India. In this photo I was only posing to look cool 😆. Seriously though, Indian roads aren’t especially safe and my friend Hubshan helped me to wear my helmet soon after this photo was taken.
I’ve been travelling in India for more than 16 years and during that time have learnt a lot about which items to pack in my travel bag. I’ve written a full guide in another article about packing lists for India [which you can read here] but this post really focuses on my top 8 absolute India Travel Essentials.
Read below for more details…
1. Universal Travel Adaptor
(with power surge protection!)
Most of us travel with expensive smart phones nowadays and if you’re planning on travelling in India with any high-priced gadget that requires charging, then please follow my advice and invest in a good quality POWER SURGE PROTECTED travel adaptor.
On a very recent trip to India, I stupidly plugged my laptop into the wall with a very basic travel adaptor, which led to my connector throwing out sparks (yes it looked like a firework!) and consequently burnt out the connection port on my laptop. I was actually lucky to have not lost any data, but I did face a very expensive repair job once I got back to London! 😐
Power cuts and voltage variations are very common in India. In fact, I can’t remember any trip without experiencing a power cut at some point, so make sure your gadgets stay safe with a surge protected universal travel adaptor.
After my recent experience, I did some research and found this travel adaptor to be the best on the market. It’s a little expensive, but worth every penny, when you consider the value of your tech plus the price you’ll pay for repairs when it burns out.
2. Electrolytes
It’s so important to take a selection of rehydration salts along with you to India. If you suffer from diarrhoea (which most first-time visitors do) then you must never forget to take a dose of these replenishing salts and minerals after every trip to the toilet!
The climate in India is generally hot and these electrolytes can easily be added to your water bottle at anytime to boost your hydration levels. You can find electrolytes in most pharmacists throughout India, but I often find the taste of Indian electrolytes slightly funny and they’re usually loaded with sugar, so I always try to take these Hydro Tabs along with me from home. They not only come in a nifty hard shell tube (which is easy to carry around) but these particular tablets also contain hardly any calories and come with added vitamins such as B3 to help reduce fatigue and tiredness.
3. Earplugs
India’s not particularly renowned for its quiet ambiance and serene silence. If you’re staying in an urban area, you will undoubtedly notice the distinct and almost constant irritation from honking horns. Temples typically begin their worship at sunrise and will broadcast early morning prayers through giant loudspeakers on full blast.
Even if you’re not a sensitive sleeper, having a pair of earplugs in your travel bag could be a saviour and is one of the best travel investments you could probably make when planning a trip to India. I’m a very sensitive sleeper and have tried out a few different ear plugs over the years. I found that these ear buds are by far the best option for sleeping. The reason being because they only cover the ear canal (as opposed to sitting inside the ear canal itself) making them a much more comfortable option when sleeping on your side. They’re also made from a squidgy material that moulds into the perfect shape.
4. Activated Charcoal Tablets
OMG! I got such bad food poisoning recently in Kerala. I was knocked out in bed for days, and so relieved I had some of these capsules with me. To date, I have not seen activated charcoal widely available in India, so I highly advise getting these on Amazon before you travel.
Activated charcoal is a great alternative to Imodium and completely different to the stuff you slap on your BBQ grill 😀! They are a potent natural remedy that can aid stomach cramps, bloating and flatulence. Activated Charcoal is more commonly used to treat poisoning and drug overdoses, because it has this amazing ability to trap toxins within the body, enabling them to be flushed out instead of reabsorbed into the bloodstream. They’re also a great cure for hangovers, making them a good thing to keep handy even if you’re not travelling to India ! Always make sure you get capsules that are made from natural sources (such as coconut shells).
5. De-worming tablets
If there’s one piece of advice I give to anyone travelling to India, it is to take a de-worming tablet. I’ve written a lot more on the subject of parasites in India in the health & safety section of the blog. A few years ago, my uncle in Goa had ingested tapeworm eggs and it was seriously not a nice experience for him!
The eggs had hatched in his digestive system and the worms then moved towards his brain, causing him to have a spasm, where he consequently dislocated his own shoulder! Had he not treated it quickly, it could have proven fatal. The moral of the story is to read this and understand the best practices to avoid parasite infections in India.
6. Travel Lock (for your hotel room)
I find the vast majority of hotel rooms in India contain a barrel lock like the one shown in this picture. It’s always reassuring therefore to use your own personal padlock to secure your room, rather than the one provided by the hotel management.
Better still, I think it’s a good investment to take a combination lock (instead of a traditional padlock and key) just like the one available in the amazon link below. The advantage of using a combination lock is that it will save you from having to carry your own key around town when you leave your room. The small combination locks typically used for suitcases probably won’t be robust enough to secure a hotel room door in India, so make sure you get a slightly larger version for your own peace of mind.
7. Rubber Sandals (Chapals)
I always remember my uncle from Punjab distinctly informing me that you should NEVER enter a bathroom in India without wearing a pair of chapals (slippers). The reasoning behind this advice (without being too descriptive) is basically a combination of two reasons…
- Most Indian bathrooms are designed as wet rooms with a drain plug in the middle of the floor.
- The Indian technique for cleaning oneself after using the toilet tends to be performed ever so slightly beyond the area contained within the lavatory bowl!
Put these two reasons together and you should understand the wisdom of my uncle’s advice! Rubber sandals are always best as they dry quickly and can be used while showering too. Haivanas seem to be the cool rubber sandals that all hipsters are wearing nowadays, so why not grab a pair before you travel.
8. Anti-bacterial hand sanitizer gel
A general lack of hygiene and proper sanitation facilities is to be expected in most public places throughout India. It’s crucial therefore to keep a small bottle of hand sanitiser with you at all times.
Many people in India eat and prepare food with their hands and if you wish to muck-in and do as the locals do, then it’s particularly advisable to use some hand gel before sitting down to your meal. You can usually buy a small tube of these gels in pound shops and thrift stores, but do check before you go as some of them are a bit sticky and smell like you’ve just cleaned your hands with cheap whiskey! I was more than satisfied with these gels on amazon, which I purchased just before my last trip to India.