Traveling with the Jones

Mr. Jones travels two or three weeks a month on business. Over the years of frequent travel, he has gotten much better at packing for a trip.

Here are 6 of his personal packing “rules”:
1. Roll, rather than fold bulky items like jeans.

2. Compartmentalize smaller items like socks and underwear in mesh packing cubes.

The small grey bag includes non-liquid toiletry items like his toothbrush and razor. That little bag is always “packed” in the suitcase waiting for the next trip.

3. Leave dress shirts and slacks on hangers and in plastic from the dry cleaners. 

4. Invest in a good suitcase.

Over the years, we’ve tried just about every possible brand of suitcase. Mr. Jones’ current favorite is the Briggs & Riley Baseline Luggage Carry-On Expandable Upright .

This suitcase includes built-in tri-fold garment folder with a foam roll bar to prevent wrinkling, with a clip for the hangers.

Once the fresh-from-the-cleaners clothes are clipped in, the garment folder is closed up, section by section.

This device makes folding to avoid wrinkles easy to achieve.

A weeks’ worth of clothes zip snugly into place.

5. Always be prepared to carry-on your bag, even if you intend to check it.

Since you never know when you might need to change flights due to delays, it’s a good idea to always be prepared to carry-on your bag. This means keeping liquids in a quart-sized plastic bag. Mr. Jones slides his “liquids” bag into a pocket on the outside of the suitcase, for easy removal at non-Pre-Check security lines. (Such as the United gates in the Kansas City airport.)

6. Wear your dress shoes, and make them slip-on if possible. 

Even when he wears casual jeans on a flight, Mr. Jones wears his Bruno Magli Mens Pivetto dress shoes, as well as his dress belt, to avoid having to take multiples. (One pair of shoes for a week of business travel is not a strategy that neither I nor most women will follow. But I do always try to wear slip-on shoes for flying, which makes security much easier.)

Finally, it’s a bonus if your briefcase works with your roller bag to slip over the handle, for easy handling through airports.

Are you a frequent traveler? What packing tip do you have to add? Please share in comments below.

Other travel tips you might want to check out:

Flying Internationally from the U.S. with Diabetic Medications and Supplies

3 Tips to Avoid Forgetting Something When You Travel

Dealing With Guilt From Your Cat When You Travel

A Look Inside A Road Warrior’s Briefcase

How to Get Your Preferred Dining Seating on a Cruise

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Eight years ago today we boarded Holland America Line’s ms Prinsendam in New York City, and set sail for an adventure.

We had quit our jobs in Seattle.

Sold or stored most of our belongings.

Drove to Missouri to leave our car and our cat, before a plane flight to New York.

On board the Prinsendam, we first sailed down the coast to Florida, which gave us a chance to visit one last U.S. port to grab anything we missed.

Then we sailed for seven straight days across the Atlantic to Lisbon.

Onward, then, through the Mediterranean and into the Black Sea.

Five months later, in September, we sailed back into New York City.

We had experienced Europe.

From the Black Sea to the Polar Ice Cap.

Mostly on cruise ships, but some time on land, traveling by train, and by ferry, and via public buses, and even cable cars.

We explored.

We laughed.

We learned.

We started this blog.  You can see our first post here: Nothing but Blue Skies and Blue Seas

Most of all, we grew.

We became more open to new experiences.

We learned about history and different cultures.

We realized that deep down, most people are the same.

We came back to the United States, grateful for large, inexpensive cups of coffee. (The Euro was quite strong compared to the dollar in 2007.)

And, we became immensely grateful for the freedoms that our passports allow us as U.S. citizens.

We found new, better jobs than we’d had before.

We did not grow weary of travel.

We wanted to see and experience more and more of the world.

So if you have the chance to travel, where ever in the world, do not pass it up. 

Whether you are 21 or 81, or anywhere in between, traveling somewhere new will open your eyes and change you in ways that you can’t imagine.

Just go.

If you started reading this blog eight years ago or just today, thank you for following along and sharing our journey.

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Over the weekend as we were discussing our plans for an upcoming trip to Europe, I pulled up the list of 324 Destinations on The Travelers’ Century Club List, a club for people who have visited 100 or more of the world’s countries and territories. (Scroll down below if you are curious about the list.)I have visited 101 of the destinations, and we thought that Mr. Jones had been to 99 of them. I thought there might be a TCC destination in Europe that we could visit during an upcoming trip.  The first destination the TCC list under Europe is the Aland Islands (Mariehamn) and the flag is shown in the photo above.

“I’ve been there,” said Mr. Jones. “On a ferry between Helsinki and Stockholm in the Baltic, we stopped in Mariehamn.)

The í…land Islands (also known as í…land) is an autonomous, demilitarized, and Swedish-speaking region of Finland that consists of an archipelago lying at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea.

Baltic ferries often stop at Mariehamn because í…land is not part of the EU customs zone and so duty-free goods can be sold aboard.

The Travelers’ Century Club, or TCC, is a club for people who have visited 100 or more of the world’s countries and territories. The TCC list of countries and territories includes not only sovereign states but also certain territories, exclaves and island groups. The club literature notes that “although some are not actually countries in their own right, they have been included because they are removed from parent, either geographically, politically or ethnologically.”  

Anyone who has visited 100 or more of the places on the list is eligible to join. The club has no requirements as to how long the traveler must have stayed in a country to qualify. Travelers who have visited 75 or more of the list places can become provisional members.

In case you are interested in what The Travelers’ Century Club counts as a destination on the list, see the list below.  We have noted in BOLD those destinations that we have visited, allowing us to track our progress.

This weekend discovery changes our current total destination count to 100 for Mr. Jones, while my stays at 101.  Since we both travel separately for work, and we traveled separately prior to 1996, there are some minor differences in our countries and territories visited.

PACIFIC OCEAN (39)

• Australia 
• Bismark Archipelago (New Ireland, New Britain, Bougainville, Admiralty Islands)
• Chatham Islands
• Cook Islands (Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Penrhyn)
• Easter Island
• Fiji Islands
• French Polynesia (Tahiti, Tuamotu, Austral, Gambier)
• Galapagos Islands
• Guam
• Hawaiian Islands
• Juan Fernandez Islands (Robinson Crusoe Is.)
• Kiribati (Gilberts, Tarawa, Ocean Island)
• Line/Phoenix Islands (Palmyra, Fanning, Christmas, Canton, Enderbury, Howland)
• Lord Howe Island
• Marquesas Islands
• Marshall Islands, Rep. of (Majuro, Kwajalein, Eniwetok)
• Micronesia, Fed. States of (Pohnpei, Kosrae, Chuuk,Yap, Caroline Islands)
• Midway Island
• Nauru
• New Caledonia & Deps. (Noumea, Loyalty Islands)
• New Zealand
• Niue
• Norfolk Island
• Northern Marianas (Saipan, Tinian)
• Ogasawara (Bonin, Volcano Island, Iwo Jima)
• Palau, Republic of
• Papua New Guinea
• Pitcairn Island
• Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa)
• Samoa, American (Pago Pago)\ Samoa, Western (Apia)
• Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal, New Georgia, Tulagi)
• Tasmania
• Tokelau Islands (Fakaofu, Atafu, Union)
• Tonga (Nukualofa)
• Tuvalu (Ellice Island, Funafuti, Vaitapu)
• Vanuatu (New Hebrides Islands)
• Wake Island
• Wallis & Futuna Islands

NORTH AMERICA (6)

• Alaska
• Canada
• Mexico
• Prince Edward Island (Mr. Jones only)
• St. Pierre & Miquelon
• United States (continental)  (Mrs. Jones has visited all 50 U.S. States)

CENTRAL AMERICA (7)

• Belize (British Honduras)
• Costa Rica
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Nicaragua
• Panama

SOUTH AMERICA (14)

• Argentina
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Ecuador
• French Guiana
• Guyana (British Guiana)
• Nueva Esparta (Margarita Island)
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Surinam (Netherlands Guiana)
• Uruguay
• Venezuela

CARIBBEAN (30)

• Anguilla
• Antigua & Deps. (Barbuda, Redonda)
• Aruba
• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Bonaire
• Cayman Islands
• Martinique
• Montserrat
• Puerto Rico
• St. Barts
• San Andres & Providencia
• St. Kitts & Nevis
• Cuba
• Curacao
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Grenada & Deps. (Carriacou, Grenadines)
• Guadeloupe & Deps. (Marie Galante)
• Haiti
• Jamaica
• Leeward Islands, French (St. Martin)
• Leeward Islands, Netherlands (Saba, St. Eustatius)
• St. Lucia
• St. Maarten (formerly Netherlands Antilles)
• St. Vincent & Deps. (Bequia, Canouan, Grenadines
• Trinidad & Tobago
• Turks & Caicos Islands
• Virgin Islands, U.S. (St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas)
• Virgin Islands, British (Tortola, etc.)

ATLANTIC OCEAN (13)

• Ascension
• Azores Islands
• Bermuda
• Canary Islands
• Cape Verde Islands
• Falkland Islands
• Fernando do Noronha
• Faroe Islands
• Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat)
• Iceland
• Madeira
• St. Helena
• Tristan da Cunha

EUROPE & THE MEDITERRANEAN (67)

• Aland Islands (Mariehamn) (Mr. Jones only)
• Albania
• Andorra
• Austria
• Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Minorca)
• Belarus
• Belgium
• Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Bulgaria
• Corsica
• Crete
• Croatia
• Cyprus, Republic
• Cyprus, Turkish Fed. State
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Dodecanese Is. (Rhodes)
• England
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Gibraltar
• Greece
• Guernsey & Deps (Alderney, Herm, Sark, Channel Islands)
• Hungary
• Ionian Islands (Corfu, etc.)
• Ireland (Eire)
• Ireland, Northern (Ulster)
• Isle of Man
• Italy
• Kosovo
• Lampedusa
• Latvia
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Macedonia
• Malta
• Moldova
• Monaco
• Montenegro
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Russia
• San Marino
• Sardinia
• Scotland
• Serbia
• Sicily
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Spitsbergen (Svalbard, Bear Island)
• Srpska
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Trans Dniester
• Turkey in Europe (Istanbul)
• Jersey (Channel Islands)
• Kaliningrad
• Ukraine
• Vatican City
• Wales

ANTARCTICA (7)

• Argentine (Palmer Peninsula)
• Australian Antarctic Territory South Pole (Mawson, Davis, Macquarie, Heard)
• Chilean (Palmer Peninsula)
• British Antarctica (Graham Land, South Shetland, South Orkney)
• French Southern & Antarctic Territory (Kerguelen, Crozet, Amsterdam, St. Paul)
• Norwegian (Queen Maud Land, Bouvet)
• New Zealand (Ross Dependency)

AFRICA (55)

• Algeria
• Angola (Port. West Africa)
• Benin (Dahomey)
• Botswana (Bechuanaland)
• Burkina Faso (Upper Volta)
• Burundi (Urundi)
• Cabinda
• Cameroon
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Congo (Brazzaville)
• Congo (Kinshasa-Zaire)
• Djibouti (French Somaliland, Affars & Issas)
• Egypt in Africa
• Equatorial Guinea (Bioko, Fernando Poo)
• Equatorial Guinea (Rio Muni)
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Ghana (Gold Coast, British Togoland)
• Guinea (French Guinea)
• Guinea-Bissau (Port. Guinea)
• Ivory Coast
• Kenya
• Lesotho (Basutoland)
• Liberia
• Libya
• Malawi (Nyasaland)
• Mali (French Soudan)
• Mauritania
• Morocco
• Morocco, Spanish (Ceuta, Melilla)
• Mozambique (Port. East Africa)
• Namibia
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Rwanda (Ruanda)
• Sao Tome & Principe
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Somalia (Italian Somaliland)
• Somaliland (British)
• South Africa
• Sudan, North
• Sudan, South
• Swaziland
• Tanzania (Tanganyika)
• Togo
• Tunisia
• Uganda
• Western Sahara (Spanish Sahara)
• Zambia (No. Rhodesia)
• Zanzibar
• Zimbabwe (So. Rhodesia)

MIDDLE EAST (21)

• Abu Dhabi
• Ajman
• Bahrain
• Dubai
• Egypt in Asia (Sinai Peninsula)
• Fujeirah
• Iran
• Iraq
• Israel
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Oman
• Palestine
• Qatar
• Ras Al Khaimah
• Saudi Arabia
• Sharjah
• Syria
• Umm Al Qaiwain
• Yemen

INDIAN OCEAN (14)

• Andaman-Nicobar Islands
• British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago, Diego Garcia)
• Christmas Island
• Cocos Islands (Keeling)
• Comoro Islands (Anjouan, Moheli, Grand Comoro)
• Lakshadweep
• Malagasy Republic (Madagascar)
• Maldive Islands
• Mauritius & Dependencies (Agalega, St. Brandon)
• Mayotte (Dzaoudzi)
• Reunion & Dependencies (Tromelin, Glorioso)
• Rodrigues Island
• Seychelles
• Zil Elwannyen Sesel (Aldabra, Farquhar, Amirante Islands)

ASIA (51)

• Abkhazia
• Afghanistan
• Armenia (Yerevan)
• Azerbaijan (Baku)
• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• Brunei
• Cambodia
• China, People’s Republic
• China, Republic of Taiwan
• Georgia
• Hainan Island
• Hong Kong
• India
• Indonesia (Java)
• Irian Jaya (Dutch New Guinea)
• Japan 
• Jeju Island (South Korea)
• Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo)
• Kashmir
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Korea, North
• Korea, South
• Laos
• Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali, Indonesia)
• Macau
• Malaysia
• Moluka (Moluccas, Indonesia)
• Mongolia, Republic (Mrs. Jones only)
• Myanmar (Burma)
• Nakhichevan
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Sabah (North Borneo)
• Sarawak
• Siberia (Russia in Asia)
• Sikkim
• Singapore
• Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
• Sulawesi (Celebes, Indonesia) (Mrs. Jones only)
• Sumatra (Indonesia) (Mrs. Jones only)
• Tajikistan
• Thailand
• Tibet
• Timor Leste
• Turkey in Asia (Anatolia, Ankara, Izmir)
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan
• Vietnam

Have you visited the Aland Islands? Where will you visit next? Please share in comments below.

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