Picking out a wand at Ollivanders. Important gear indeed. All photography is ours. Some links on this page are affiliate links.
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Gear We Love and Travel Resources
This is the gear we actually pack and the sites we actually use to book our trips. The bags have been on trip after trip with us, and the booking sites are the ones we go back to every time we plan.
Everything here has a link so you can check prices or grab it for your own family.
Updated October 2026
How we get there
Cash + Miles & Points
Hotels
Expedia
Near the parks
Best Western
Award flights
seats.aero
Theme park tickets
Undercover Tourist
The cards in our wallets
Capital One Venture X
75,000
bonus miles after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months
Points and miles pay for a lot of our trips, and the Venture X does a lot of the heavy lifting. We love it for reimbursing travel expenses like Disney tickets purchased from Undercover Tourist and transferring to airline partners for long-haul flights. It’s one of the easiest travel cards to get value from.
We use it to pay ourselves back for travel purchases, including theme park tickets from Undercover Tourist. The biggest value, though, comes from transferring miles to airline partners. Our favorites are Air France-KLM and, more recently, Japan Airlines, one of Capital One’s newer partners.
How the annual fee pays for itself
$395Annual fee
−$300Travel credit every year, booked through Capital One Travel
−$10010,000 bonus miles every anniversary, worth $100 toward travel
This is our personal referral link. If you’re approved, you get Capital One’s current welcome offer (75,000 bonus miles after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months, as of October 2026), and we earn 10,000 bonus miles. Terms apply and offers change, so check the rates, fees, and offer on the application page before you apply.
What else comes with it
- 2X miles on every purchase
- 10X miles on hotels and rental cars and 5X on flights booked through Capital One Travel
- Lounge access at Capital One Lounges and 1,300+ Priority Pass lounges for the cardholder
- Up to $120 back for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck
- Hertz President’s Circle status
- Cell phone protection when you pay your bill with the card
- 15+ transfer partners across airlines and hotels
Our favorite transfer partners
Air France-KLM Flying Blue 1:1Japan Airlines 2:1.5
Heads up for families: since February 2026, lounge guests and authorized users pay extra unless you spend $75,000 a year on the card.
What 75,000 miles can turn into
2round-trip economy tickets to Europe on Air France-KLM, when Flying Blue Promo Rewards drop to 18,750 miles each way
1round-trip economy ticket to Japan on Japan Airlines, at 27,000 JAL miles each way
1one-way business class seat to Japan on Japan Airlines, from 55,000 JAL miles
Starting award prices from Flying Blue and JAL Mileage Bank as of October 2026, plus taxes and fees. Capital One miles move to Air France-KLM 1:1 and to Japan Airlines at 2 to 1.5, so 75,000 miles become 56,250 JAL miles. The lowest-priced seats can take some hunting.
Where we book hotels
Expedia
If we’re booking with cash, Expedia is where most of our hotel links point these days. For family travel it’s easy to filter for the things that matter, like room occupancy, a pool, or free breakfast. The four of us like to stay in one room, so checking occupancy before we book saves a lot of back and forth. You can also earn rewards.
Luggage
The four bags we nearly always travel with
We’ve tried a lot of luggage over the years. These four are still in the closet and still come on every trip.
Formerly eBags
Samsonite Mother Lode Carry-On Wheeled Duffel
This is the bag our kids started traveling with, and we still use our eBags Mother Lode bags today. Samsonite bought eBags in 2017, and the Mother Lode line is back under the Samsonite name.
It’s not super-light, but durable and soft-sided with a frame, so it stands up without tipping over, even with a backpack hooked on. The bright orange interior makes it easy to find things, and it fits every overhead bin we’ve tried. The wheels are like roller blade wheels and go everywhere.
Our checked bag
Briggs & Riley Baseline Large Expandable Spinner
We’ve owned our big Baseline for years and it still rolls like new. It’s built from tough ballistic nylon and expands when the souvenirs pile up.
Briggs & Riley backs its bags with a lifetime guarantee, so this is a bag you buy once.
Carrick’s carry-on
Red Oxx Air Boss
If you’d trade wheels and a frame for more space, the Air Boss might be for you. Carrick packs five or six days of clothes in it, and it fits the overhead bin every time because it flexes.
The zippers are excellent, with monkey fist pulls, and it has been everywhere with him. It’s made in the USA and comes in lots of colors.
Carrie’s travel bag
The Foldie Foldable Travel Bag
This is the bag Carrie loves to travel with. It fits in any overhead bin or under the seat, even on the tiny commuter jets, and it’s ridiculously expandable when you need more room.
It comes in every color, including the perfect shade of orange. Thousands of Amazon reviews back her up, averaging 4.5 stars.
Shopping for a new bag? Our best suitcase, best carry-on, and best underseat bag guides compare the current options.
In the bag
The small stuff that makes a trip easier
None of this is particularly fancy, but it’s the gear that keeps four people organized, charged, and happy on a long travel day.
Stay organized
Packing cubes
Packing cubes keep each person’s things together and make it easy to separate clean and dirty clothes near the end of a trip. They also squeeze more into a carry-on.
We use the medium size for clothes. The small ones are great for socks, hair bows, or toiletries.
Noise cancelling
Apple AirPods Max
We’re an Apple family, so our noise-cancelling headphones are AirPods Max. Noise cancelling takes the edge off engine noise on a long flight, and they switch easily between a phone and an iPad.
They come with their own case, which keeps them protected in a carry-on.
Power anywhere
EPICKA Universal Travel Adapter
New on our list for 2026 is the EPICKA Universal Travel Adapter. It works in more than 150 countries and has USB-C and USB-A ports built in, so one adapter charges phones, tablets, and camera batteries at the same time.
It has thousands of strong reviews on Amazon, and it’s a smart pick for a family that needs a lot of devices charged overnight.
For reading
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite
Carrie reads on a Kindle. It’s an easy way to bring a whole stack of books on a trip without the weight.
The newest Paperwhite is thinner and lighter than before. It’s waterproof, so it’s safe at the pool or the beach, and the battery lasts for weeks.
Guidebooks
Travel guides we recommend
Lonely Planet guides are the ones we started with, and we keep coming back to them. They’re easy to read and the transit maps are handy. Here’s where we’d start for the places we’ve been, plus our go-to book for the national parks.
Itineraries for the Ring Road and the South Coast, plus the hot springs and waterfalls worth the stop.
Rail passes, neighborhoods, and easy day trips, with transit maps for Tokyo and Kyoto.
Neighborhood maps, the Tube, and the big museums that are free for families.
Maps, trails, and when to go for every U.S. national park. Our pick for planning a park road trip.
Machu Picchu tickets, Cusco, and the Sacred Valley, with altitude tips that matter when you travel with kids.
Dublin, the Wild Atlantic Way, and the small towns in between.
Camera bag
What we shoot with
With the exception of a few stock hotel photos, every photo on this blog is ours. This is what Carrick carries, from the camera he uses most to the lenses that come out on occasion.
Canon EOS 6D Mark IIFull-frame body for almost everythingCheck price- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USMWide shots: landscapes, canyons, and big roomsCheck price
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USMTelephoto for wildlife and faraway peaksCheck price
- Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM ArtOn occasion, for low light and people shotsCheck price
- Panasonic LUMIX ZS100Quick point and shoot when the big camera stays homeCheck price
- GoPro HERO7 BlackWaterproof action cam for snorkeling, the slopes, and anything too wet for the big cameraCheck price
Canon and Sigma have moved on to mirrorless cameras and GoPro has released newer models, so the 6D Mark II, the Sigma lens, and the HERO7 Black are easiest to find renewed or used now.
Places to stay
Hotels near the parks
Expedia covers most of our hotel bookings. When the trip is a national park, we look at Best Western first.
National parks
Best Western
Best Western hotels sit right on the doorstep of a lot of national parks. That means less driving and more time on the trails.
We leaned on them for seven national parks in ten days, and having breakfast before an early start was perfect for the kids. We loved working with them as a brand, and continue to stay with them as a customer.
Everywhere else
Expedia
For cities, beaches, and theme park trips, we search Expedia. We appreciate lots of filter options and being able to book tours and activities as well, all in one place.
Tickets and tours
Theme parks, city passes, and walking tours
Attraction tickets add up fast for a family of four. These are the places we check before paying the gate price.
Theme parks
Undercover Tourist
Where we look first for theme park tickets. They sell discounted tickets for Disney, Universal, and other big parks in Orlando and Southern California.
City attractions
CityPASS
CityPASS bundles a city’s top attractions into one ticket for less than paying at each door. It’s worth a look before a city break, and we’ve linked it in our Chicago, Philadelphia, and Tampa Bay guides.
Walking tours
GetYourGuide
A walking tour is an easy way to get your bearings in a new city on day one. GetYourGuide lets you compare tours, read reviews, and book with free cancellation on most of them.
AftT Hot Tip
Undercover Tourist purchases code as travel on most banks, so if you have a credit card that pays you back for travel-related expenses, this is a way to use points to pay for park tickets. Capital One’s Venture cards let you do this, including the Capital One Venture X we use (that’s our referral link).
Getting there
Flights, trains, and award seats
Points and miles pay for a lot of our flights. These tools help us find the seats and the routes.
Award flights
seats.aero
Finding award seats for four is the hard part of points travel. seats.aero searches award availability across airline programs, so you can spot the saver seats without checking every airline one by one. We pay for the subscription to get the advanced features.
Cash fares
Google Flights
A free way to compare schedules and prices between two cities. The date grid makes it easy to see which days are cheapest.
Train travel
The Man in Seat Sixty-One
Mark Smith’s site is the place to start for anything about train travel. Seat selection, tickets, directions, and routes are all covered.
Routes
Rome2Rio
Type in any start and end point and Rome2Rio lays out the ways to get there, with prices. It’s especially good for trains, and it’s free.
Clothing
What we wear on the road and on the slopes
Travel clothes
prAna
prAna makes comfortable clothes that work on a trail in the morning and at dinner that night. They pack well, too. You’ll find us wearing prAna in many of the photos around the blog.
Ski jacket
Eddie Bauer
When Carrick needed a new ski jacket, he went with the Eddie Bauer Telemetry Freeride. It has smart design features and layers comfortably on the slopes. You can see it in action in our Japan ski post.
Kids’ ski gear
Lands’ End
Lands’ End kids’ ski jackets and bibs have hems you can let out a few inches. That bought us another season or two before buying new, which is a big win when you ski often and need to stretch budgets.
Keeping the memories
Photo books instead of scrapbooks
Photo books
Shutterfly
Carrie is a scrapbooker, but keeping up with travel photos is nearly impossible, and scrapbooks are bulky. Shutterfly photo books are her answer.
They’re quick to design, take up far less room, and cost less than a full scrapbook. Watch for their frequent sales.
Good to know
Questions readers ask us
Some of them. Many links on this page are affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission if you buy something. It costs you nothing extra, and it helps keep Along for the Trip running. We only list gear and sites we use ourselves.
A carry-on that rolls easily and stands up on its own. Our kids have used the Mother Lode wheeled duffel for years. Pair it with packing cubes and each kid can manage their own bag.
Book as early as you can and stay flexible on dates. We use seats.aero to see where award seats are open across airline programs before we transfer any points.
Keep exploring
Packed and ready? Pick your next trip
United States with kids
Theme parks, ski towns, city weekends, and the national parks that started it all.