Amazon Gear For Tropical Travel | Pack With Me For Costa Rica!

this video was sponsored by minky Blue work and travel organized if you're looking to take a trip to Costa Rica you have come to the right place I just got back from a seven day fun-filled adventurous trip to Costa Rica and let me tell you we thought we had everything right when it came to packing but we had so many things very wrong and I don't want you to make those same mistakes this video is part of my Costa Rica series it's a six-part video series telling you all the things we got up to and then I've also got some really valuable tips as far as what to pack I just did a very lengthy video about hotel safety lots of gadgets to help you stay safe and keep people from getting in your hotel rooms I'm going to link those down in the description and let's get into the video okay as far as some of the things we got right Costa Rica is a tropical environment it is probably going to be humid and rainy no matter when you visit during the year kind of stays within the same 30 degree window throughout the year here and then they're rainy and dry season and I'm definitely using the air quotes when I say dry season tends to come along in maybe like two or three month increments so you'll have a couple months of rain a couple months of dry a couple months of rain a couple months of dry it rained on us every day that we were there and we went in March during the dry season so first off definitely pack your swimsuit there are so many adventurous activities to do in Costa Rica and like I said you can swim in a waterfall you can go zipline and you can go kayaking snorkeling surfing so you definitely want to make sure you pack at least two swimsuits one to have to wear while the other one that you already wore is drying so I would bring at least two depending on how long you're going to stay personally I found the two for our week-long trip to be more than adequate and then also bring a swimsuit cover up and some sort of swim shoes I brought these Reef fan candles to wear because I felt like I could wear them with an outfit if I was walking the town or I could wear them in like a watery situation because they're all rubber the only problem I found with this is that I didn't swim very well in them they really drug me down because they're not made for swimming do you know what I mean I was just trying to pack less so if you plan on going actually swimming I would say bring some water shoes or something that's a little bit more streamlined around your foot that way when you're swimming you don't get drugged down into the current because especially when we went to law Fortuna waterfall I noticed very quickly after jumping into that water that these puppies were dragging me down and they were not going to be good like water shoes or swim shoes have I got news for you I am now hosting group trips in the first place that we're going is the magical land of Fire and Ice Iceland February 4th through the 10th 2024 we will be adventuring out into Iceland we're going to see 14 different types of Landscapes there and including geysers waterfalls black sand beaches maybe a volcano glaciers and natural Hot Springs like the blue lagoons if Iceland has ever been on your bucket list I encourage you to click the link down in the description and sign up to come on the trip with me and then as far as other shoes I wouldn't bring anything super fancy the general style in Costa Rica is very laid back very casual so I would say something maybe like these other reef sandals would be plenty these are normally my swim shoes or my water shoes but I think they're really cute they're by native they look like little Chucks again I wouldn't swim in these but these are really cute water shoes to bring as far as hiking because again there's a lot of hiking trails that you can do or a lot of maybe even waterfalls that you're trying to get out to but you've got to climb over rocks and mud and whatever to get out there you need to bring some hiking shoes unless you don't ever plan on getting out of any of these towns which if you're coming to Costa Rica I would hope that you'd be going to do all of these adventure activities you need to bring a good pair of hiking shoes or hiking boots These Are by Ultra these are their lone Peaks but these are kind of expensive and specialized for hiking they have a flat foot instead of arch support but one thing I will say that I like about them is that they come up over my ankle and give me some good ankle support so if you get anything definitely get something with some ankle support and I found some on Amazon that are really good I've looked into these before and they have really good reviews so if you want something that maybe is a little bit more affordable you may look into these they're not too expensive they're very durable they've got a good tread which is something you're going to want to look for and they have ankle support so I'll put the links to everything I'm going to talk about down in the description so that you can go shopping if you're getting ready to go to Costa Rica a few more things I wouldn't go to Costa Rica without one of them is some sort of day pack now there's a couple different ones that you can get I like this one from trip travel gear because it folds down into itself like itty bitty to have some sort of day pack to take with you while you're out hiking or when you go to that waterfall or while you're ziplining I took my minky blue bag and this thing held up so well I went hiking the Arenal Volcano we were stuck in a downpour in it and it still looks really really good and it is not a waterproof bag they do not Market it as a waterproof bag I'm not marketing it as a waterproof bag but the bag held up so well I'm so proud of it and that's why minky blue has sponsored this video and I want to tell you about the sponsor right now now if you've been watching my channel for any amount of time you'll know I've spoken about minky blue for almost two years and it's because I love the quality and detail they put into their travel bags I'm currently traveling through Costa Rica with my favorite travel bag by minky Blue the nashae backpack in this beautiful and perfect for summer Coral pink colorway when I travel for work I carry a ton of gear and these bags have all the compartments I need to stay organized whether I'm replying to emails at the airport or looking for sloths in the jungles of Costa Rica this bag has me covered and looking stylish outside you have gorgeous vegan leather and gold-plated Hardware with protective feet inside you'll find a beautiful blue twill inner lining with a padded protective sleeve for your 15-inch laptop you've also got several inner Pockets to stay organized two expandable side pockets and the best part the inner pan panel converts the bag into upper and lower compartments or take it down and have one larger compartment this gives me the option to travel my way so that's why I've teamed up with minky blue to sponsor this video because I want to be able to offer a special discount code just for go travel with Stacy viewers when you click the link in the description of this video you'll be taken to the minky blue website enter promo code go travel Stacy to get 10 off your purchase I'm giving one of these beautiful bags away so stay tuned to the end of the video to learn how you can win one for yourself thank you so much to minky Blue for helping me continue my travel Adventures now let's get back to the video for hiking I would seriously recommend some long pants or something especially if you're going to be hiking around the arena volcano or kind of out into the jungle Trails there are a lot of insects mosquitoes spiders snakes they saw a Viper on one of our hiking trails so long pants would be preferable and something that's waterproof again you're going to get rained on probably every day but if you don't want to do that you still need some sort of hiking short and I would also say for us ladies something that goes down long enough to kind of go in between your thighs because after walking for hours your thighs are still going to chafe together and cause a rash same thing if you're going to go ziplining I would recommend a short of some kind or pants that comes down and covers most of your thigh because you're going to have a harness on the zip line and if you have shorty shorts on everything is going to get rubbed in your groin and it's just not going to be fun I found some really good long pants on Amazon as well I think some are Amazon Brands some are Eddie Bauer but they have really good ratings here too they're water resistant or waterproof they come down long to cover up your legs and ankles to come maybe over the boot so check those out too if you have any travel gear that you absolutely can't live without whether it's for Costa Rica or somewhere else please put it down in the description below because I am always looking out for new travel gear in kind of this same vein you're going to want to get some sweat wicking clothes sweat wicking shirts sweat wicking underwear maybe and sweat wicking socks I normally have like a set number of underwear and socks and bras that I bring for a trip but when you go to Costa Rica you're mostly going to be probably wet from sweating because it's hot and humid or because you've been getting wet from being rained on or you've been swimming or whatever you've been doing so you need to bring some extra sets of things like underwear and socks because those things are going to be stuff that you're either probably not going to be able to wear twice or you're going to have to let them dry out while you wear another pair speaking of hiking and outdoor activities definitely bring some bug spray and bring some sunscreen you gotta remember as far as sunscreen I don't care if you tan you are only about 10 degrees off the equator I think Costa Rica for the most part is somewhere around 10 degrees north of the equator and the sun Just Hits different down there and I would recommend a high SPF maybe 50 or above definitely bring some bug spray because the mosquitoes can be really bad especially when you get down out of the mountains oh please bring some chapstick or lip balm or something that's got SPF in it because one thing that we all noticed on this trip was that parts of our body that normally don't get sunburned we're getting sunburned and that was our lip I'm going to link a couple up here and down in the description that I love and they don't taste too bad like sunscreen you know I've only been in Costa Rica a few days and already I'm in love with this place the people are so friendly they just want to tell you about their culture I mean we have volcanoes excellent food I cannot wait to come back here and if you would like to travel here with me on a group trip to Costa Rica I'm going to put a survey down in the description of this video go fill it out and when I get a group trip together we're going to come here to Costa Rica and we're going to have the most amazing trip of your life I would also make sure you're probably gonna do this already but make sure you bring power Banks because again when you're out there's not going to be a whole lot of plugs out wherever you're doing whatever you're doing these are a couple that I've gotten off of Amazon this one I like it's got a 10 000 milliamp hours it only charges my phone maybe like one and a half times this big brick although it's heavier it has 20 000 milliamp hours and I know that I can charge my phone at least two times sometimes three times with this so often I'll just bring this one of course if I'm trying to pack down really small this one's really good too but I'll put some links up here for some Chargers that I like these are kind of old but you need to bring some power Banks and especially if you're going to be out in the wilderness for a while I would say the larger the power bank the better another thing I would bring because I've been harping on this especially in my hotel safety video is a carbon monoxide tester I have just this is not a Costa Rica thing I've just started taking this everywhere because I keep seeing reports over the years of Travelers just going on vacation Nation they're staying in hotels they're staying in airbnbs or they're renting houses and they end up passing away because of carbon monoxide poisoning most hotels and even airbnbs technically these days are supposed to have safety devices like smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors but they don't or they do have them and they forgot to change the batteries I wouldn't trust anybody else to keep you safe you need to trust yourself to keep you safe this is a teeny tiny carbon monoxide detector it runs on a little battery it'll light up different colors and of course it will start alarming at you if you need to get out of the place that you're staying in it's really small it fits in my pocket that's how small it is now I wouldn't keep it in your pocket I'm just saying it's teeny tiny so it's not going to take up a lot of space in your travel gear and it's extremely portable take this with you make sure that you use the test and know that the batteries are still working good and then just keep this at your bedside or whatever room you're going to be staying in sleeping in that way if there's an issue with carbon monoxide it will wake you up it will tell you to get out of that house as soon as possible and then you need to call the authorities and I have an entire safety gear video for your travels that I'm going to link down in the description below I highly encourage you to go watch it it's a lot of stuff you can get off Amazon and it's a lot of really helpful tangible safety tips there are two things that I don't ever travel without I don't care where I'm going one is a handheld fan I put this in my bag when I'm out hiking or if I'm riding in the van or whatever I'm doing I keep this on me pretty much all the time and then I would probably bring some kind of fan for your room this one's a really cute one that I found off Amazon that kind of just sits on the desk it doesn't take up a lot of space and it plugs in as a USB which we all have like USB blocks and stuff air conditioning in some of the places that we stayed most of them had like the not window units they're the ones that go up in the wall watching these a lot in Europe too but they go in the wall and they've got the little remote it kept us pretty cool but sometimes I just needed that circulation because maybe the air conditioner faced one part of the room and not the part I was sleeping in so bring this because honestly some of the places that you might be staying in Costa Rica are not going to have air conditioning at all so you need to prepare for that because it can get pretty hot and then like I said the hand fan this is my tried and trusted I think it's tree pulled or tripol is the brand of this I have talked about this so many times Amazon favorites videos I actually saw this mentioned on I think GMA one of their Friday favorites after I had already talked about it I'm not saying that they got the idea for me or anything but I'm saying this is a tried and true it also has two settings on it it can blow really ah it can blow really really high you charge it with a USB so you don't have to worry about bringing a bunch of batteries and I love this at the theme parks too because it gets really hot and I get very cranky when I'm hot so this is tried and true I think I've said that three times now it fits in your purse it'll fill in your fit in your belt bag honest I can fit it in my pocket I can't live without these and I don't travel without them either of course like you know bring your sunglasses bring a hat of some kind if you want to wear a ball cap that's fine you're just going to need something to help protect your face from the Sun and then I would also say definitely bring a refillable water bottle water is going to be your absolute best friend you might be able to get a bottle of water maybe at the entrance of the national park or at the entrance of that waterfall that you're about to climb 530 something steps down but there's no more offerings for water once you leave that area and so I took this one this is a 64 ounce water bottle and I felt like a lot of times by the time I got off the trail I had already built this down and could use some more so I would take a very big refillable water bottle if you want one that's insulated that's fine it's just going to be a little bit heavier this one is by styabin I don't know it comes in a lot of cute colors and this one comes with a neoprene case that goes in it to help keep your water cool the neoprene case also has a little pocket that I would put my cell phone in it's got another pocket for your SPF chapstick or whatever you want in there and then this also has a strap that you can connect and then like hang it on your body that way you don't have to worry about carrying it because it is 64 ounces it is kind of heavy you all know I'm a nurse and I'm going to harp on it over and over again please have enough water with you on you at all times did I say that right have enough water on you at all times next up are two things that I think you should have in your hotel room one is an extra power strip or power bank or something because I found that there weren't a ton of plugs in these hotel rooms this one is by Tesson I have let me take this off because I just bought a new one for my cruise um there are lots of different ones some with surge protectors and some not this one does not have a surge protector because I am going on a cruise and they don't let you take those but it does have three places for plugs and then three USBS and then I liked this one because especially I think in a cruise cabin you have to kind of find the one plug that they have and maybe it's behind a desk or something and so this one is not going to take up it's not going to be as bulky where I have to like move a desk around or something because a lot of times in a cruise cabin everything is like nailed down to the floor as it should be but I would definitely bring some sort of extension cord or some sort of extra power source because otherwise it's going to be y'all whoever's in that room using like this one plug socket that you can find and then the other thing that I brought that I have just kind of started bringing on all my trips are these little motion sensored night lights they do run on batteries I talked about this in my safety video but I like them because they flick on only when it's dark outside or when the lights are off in the rooms I just kind of set them in the corner of the room or wherever I wanted you don't have to use the stickems to put them on the wall I just would like sit them on the floor or sit them on the counter in the bathroom and that way in the middle of the night when I had to get up to go to the bathroom or something I walked past them they're motion activated for 15 seconds it gets me to my destination which is the bathroom or back to bed and then after 15 seconds they turn back off so now I pretty much don't travel without these and I would suggest bringing something like this so that way you can get around in that same respect I would also bring some sort of flashlight or headlamp or whatever you want to work with I have a headlamp somewhere around here but I couldn't find it but I'm going to put some options up here on the screen I would say like I said either a flashlight or if you're really going to like do it in Costa Rica and go out and camp and do all that stuff I would probably bring a headlamp so you could be hands-free but when the storms are happening a lot of times these facilities or your hotel have a tendency for the electricity to go out for a little while it didn't happen to us but I have read lots of stories also just when you're out hiking or at the waterfall or like I said I know I keep bringing up the same activities but when you're doing whatever you're doing again you're kind of out in nature and you may need a light and you don't want to have to use the light on your cell phone and run your battery down even further so bring a little flashlight just something packable and portable I'll put some options down in the description of this video now let's talk about all of the things that we did wrong and stuff that we did not pack even though I have told you already that it rains a ton we didn't pack stuff for rain I don't so the first thing I'm going to tell you to pack is some kind of rain coat this is one that I bought while I was there a very big markup of like 65 dollars it does say Costa Rica on it though established 1821 Pura Vida so it's kind of like a souvenir too but I had to buy this while we were there because I didn't take a raincoat and if you watch any of my videos in this Costa Rica series you will see I was absolutely drenched almost the entire trip why didn't I pack a stupid raincoat I don't know so definitely pack a raincoat and I would pack one that's waterproof not just one that's like water resistant for a light shower no no you need a waterproof raincoat because if you get one of those light ones it's going to be too permeable and the water eventually is going to soak through if you want something that has a hood and you definitely I would say get a size maybe a little bit bigger than your body because if you have your day pack on with all your stuff in it you're going to want to put this on on top of your backpack to keep it a little bit more water resistant and on top of this go ahead and get on Amazon I'll put you some stuff up here for your umbrella that you need to buy and make sure it's wind resistant too I need to get on getting me a new umbrella too so I'm gonna be shopping while you're shopping as far as waterproofing I would also bring some sort of dry bag a small dry pack this is for things that cannot get wet whatever that may be that you're traveling with so I would get a dry bag and put your electronics in that and then put that in your day pack just a small dry bag it doesn't have to be anything crazy I'm going to put some links on the screen of some ones that I really love and on top of all of this I am going to put a link on the screen for some really cool towels you need to bring some sort of little hand towel or dish towel sized like a microfiber towel to either help Wicks sweat off of you or to wipe yourself back down after you've been rained on for the millionth time or maybe when you get out of one of those swimming holes that you found and went swimming in and I like these because they come with a case that helps them dry really fast and they come in so many different sizes and colors they have some that are just the size of a dish towel to some that are size the size of a big bath towel that'll cover your whole body so you kind of have some options there this next one is for women only I have read several times that feminine products like tampons aren't as readily available so if that is what you use you may want to pack those and pack enough of those with you because you may not be able to find them in the stores and then as far as medication most of the stuff that you're going to need that's over the counter like something for a headache something for diarrhea something for colds and flus and sinus stuff you're going to be able to find those over the counter but anything else you may have to go to the pharmacy or maybe see a doctor while you're down there to get it of course I always say if you have a specific over-the-counter medicine and you only like that brand or you only like that particular type of medication definitely pack that but I think one of the things that people often over pack on on any trip is bringing all of these things with you that you can totally get when you arrive to the country that you need if you need them keeps you from having to pack too much or pack more than you actually need I would say the same thing for contact wearers I do hear also that contact cleaning supplies and cases and things like that may not be as readily available so if you wear contacts bring your stuff for that some things that I would leave at home honestly I would leave your heels at home like I said in Costa Rica pretty well casual is how you dress like I said even at night that was probably the only time that I saw girls dressed up to go to the club and even then casual is best I would also honestly leave your perfume at home and same thing if you get like these bug sprays or lotions make sure they're not extra perfumey because there's so many bugs and they tend to go to things that smell like flowers and if you smell like a flower or you smell sweet or you know like your perfume or your lotion you're probably going to attract more bugs and you're going to attract more mosquitoes and stuff like that so leave that at home you smell beautiful just the way you are and then I would leave anything expensive at home expensive bags expensive clothes expensive jewelry anything extra valuable that you don't want to get messed up rained on Stolen whatever leave all of that at home you don't need it you don't need to look fancy I don't know how many times I've said it in this video already but casual is is the style in Costa Rica as long as you feel comfortable you're going to look great I want to give one of these beautiful nashe backpacks away to a lucky viewer I'm using Google forms for this giveaway because giveaways in the past I've had a really hard time actually being able to contact the winner and I want to make sure that if you win you get this beautiful bag I have an entry link in my video description and in the pinned comment click that link enter your name and email in the form and then come back to the video and leave a comment to let me know that you entered there are six videos in this Costa Rica Series so that is six chances for you to enter to win be sure you're subscribed to the channel so you don't miss the winter announcement on June 25th like I said this is the second video in my six part Costa Rica series on the next video we are going to be going down 530 something steps to the law Fortuna waterfall it was so beautiful and magical but boy was in a hike to get back up those 530-something steps after that we go on a beautiful scenic drive down to the beach town of hako but on the way we stop at a crocodile Safari get in a big boat and go look for some big wild crocodiles you don't want to miss that I'm going to put a link to that video right up here click into that video and I'll see you over there

Channel: Go Travel With Staci

Views: 6,064

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Id: XquVgimOOXU

Length: 25min 23sec (1523 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023