Travel kits are a necessary part of any traveler’s baggage. Also called a toiletry kit, these kits are used to carry items like toothbrush, toothpaste, deoderant, soaps, and other personal items. They vary in shape in size, but they all share this same general purpose.
A very basic travel kit will consist of a small container, with a single zipper. It may or may not have additional pockets, but not having those extra pockets and zippers and pockets makes the kit more lightweight. Such lightweight travel kits are great for adventure travel, as you want to carry with you as little as possible. If you’re on an outdoor excursion, you won’t be carrying much with you in the way of personal items anyhow, so these kits work just fine. A great example of such a kit is the North Face Base Camp Travel Canister.
Travel kits for men will generally be made of leather and sometimes come with complete travel shaving kits. A shaving kit made for traveling will have usually come with a small travel shaving mirror that is fog proof and can be used in the shower when shaving. This is important when traveling for business, but if you’re going on outdoor adventures, the trees and bears certainly aren’t going to care how much stubble you have on your face. Mens travel kits are tough, due to their leather construction, but this toughness comes at the expense of additional weight. Again, if you’re going any sort of backpacking, or adventure traveling, this is not the type of kit you’re going to want to go with. Use these kits for your business travel, and even leisure travel that is spent in hotels and timeshares, in other words, very boring and mundane travel. If you’re doing any sort of real traveling, leave these bulky kits at home.
Same goes for travel kits for women. Women’s kits have to be larger for the loads of cosmetics they carry. They aren’t made of leather, usually, but they are often padded to protect the cases of those cosmetics. This adds bulk and weight to your travel kit, and if you’re backpacking through Europe, every additional ounce is going to begin to weigh you down. Sure, it’s great to look nice for that dinner in Paris, but keep the make-up, and other toiletries to a minimum. These creature comforts are necessary for some women to function though, and this is understandable, but keeping it light will make the entire trip more enjoyable. Trust me, no one likes a cranky travel companion. (Did that paragraph come across as sexist? Yeah, probably.)
The best choice for outdoor travel, backpacking and other adventure travel is the generic travel kit. These generic and unisex travel kits will provide you with a case for all your necessary toiletries, while physically limiting what you’re able to carry by their modest size. At the most, your kit might have a flap with a hook for hanging off the back of your hostel’s bathroom door, or tree branch in the Adirondacks, but it shouldn’t have a hundred different pockets and flaps for each individual item. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t have enough to be clean, comfortable and hygienic, but a minimalist kit will really help you be selective with what you really need, and what you don’t.