QUESTION: What to pack: what is mandatory for carry-on luggage?

Packing for a trip always raises many questions, but the most important one remains forming the contents of your carry-on luggage. These are the items that are always under your control and must ensure comfort and safety in any unforeseen situations, such as a flight delay or baggage claim delay.

Starting to pack your carry-on luggage is necessary with documents and valuable papers. Foreign passports, printed airline tickets, hotel reservations, medical insurance, and driver's licenses should be placed in a separate waterproof file or organizer. It is also useful to have digital copies of all documents in your smartphone's memory or in cloud storage.

Financial assets must also be kept exclusively with you. Divide cash and bank cards into different pockets or bags in case of losing one of them. Don't forget to take chargers, cables, and an external battery, as a dead phone in an unfamiliar airport can become a serious problem.

A first aid kit is another mandatory element of carry-on luggage. Put basic painkillers, band-aids, antiseptic, and medications you take on a regular basis into it. Luggage can be lost, and buying the right medicine abroad without a prescription can be difficult.

Finally, add a small freshness kit to your carry-on: wet wipes, a toothbrush with a mini-tube of paste, and a change of underwear. If your main suitcase gets lost, these items will allow you to feel confident in the first 24 hours after arrival.