Hand luggage checklist at a glance
- Passport or required ID
- Boarding pass
- Wallet and payment cards
- Phone
- Medication
- Charging cable
- Headphones
- Power bank if allowed and useful
- Tablet or laptop if needed
- Travel adaptor for arrival
- Water bottle to fill after security
- Extra layer
- Snacks where permitted
- Eye mask for long journeys
- Book or entertainment
- Basic toiletries
- Spare underwear
- One light change of clothes
- Essential contact details
- Accommodation details
Keep travel documents easy to reach
Do not bury your passport or boarding pass under everything else. Anything you may need at check-in, security, the gate, border control or on arrival should be accessible without unpacking the whole bag.
- Passport or accepted travel ID.
- Boarding pass or access to the airline app.
- Visa or entry documents if your journey requires them.
- Accommodation address and booking details.
- Travel insurance information if relevant.
- Driving licence if you are collecting a hire car.
Valuables and important tech belong in hand luggage
Items that are expensive, fragile, personal or difficult to replace are usually better kept with you rather than packed in checked baggage.
- Phone, tablet, laptop or camera.
- Headphones.
- Wallet, cash and payment cards.
- Prescription medication and other essential medical items.
- Glasses or contact-lens essentials.
- Jewellery or other small valuables you choose to travel with.
If your checked bag were delayed until tomorrow, what would you wish you had kept with you? A small amount of essential clothing and personal care can make a big difference.
Pack for the hours between home and the hotel
Airport time, queues, boarding, the flight and the journey at the other end can make a travel day much longer than the flight itself.
- A layer you can add or remove.
- A refillable bottle that can travel empty through security where required.
- Snacks suitable for the journey and destination rules.
- Headphones, book, downloaded entertainment or a charger.
- Travel pillow or eye mask for longer flights if you genuinely use them.
- Any item a child will need during the journey rather than after arrival.
Check current airport rules before packing liquids
Security procedures differ by airport and can change. Do not assume the rule you used on your last trip still applies everywhere. Check the departure airport's current security guidance before you travel.
To make security easier, keep any liquids or items that may need to be removed from the bag somewhere easy to access rather than underneath everything else.
Your airline's cabin bag limit matters
Hand-luggage size and weight allowances vary between airlines and ticket types. A bag that was accepted on one flight may not be included on another fare.
Check the airline's current dimensions, weight rules and whether your ticket includes a second small personal item. If your Packminder trip includes the airline, the Trip Info area can keep this information closer to the checklist.
Common hand luggage mistakes
- Packing every charger except the one for the device you actually use.
- Putting medication or travel documents in checked baggage.
- Filling the bag so tightly that nothing can be accessed quickly.
- Taking several bulky comfort items that are barely used.
- Assuming baggage or liquid rules without checking the current official information.
- Forgetting the first few hours after landing: charger, adaptor, transport details or accommodation address.
Build the cabin-bag list around your actual flight.
Give Packminder your destination, dates, airline and luggage type and it can build the list around the trip rather than a generic cabin bag.
Create my packing checklist →