Hi there, this is Shannon O’Donnell from ALittleAdrift.com and I’d like to share one of the best pieces of travel gear I’ve brought on my travels.

This tip is uniquely for the lady travelers out there – sorry men – and it stands out as the one tip I tell to every female backpacker prepping for her travels.

Use a Diva Cup. The Diva Cup is a brand of menstrual cup for use on your period – these cups have several huge advantages over more traditional pads and tampons:
You only buy it once and you never have to worry about hunting tampons somewhere in the world.
You can leave the Diva Cup in for up to 12 hours, which means less potentially embarrassing situations when bathrooms are scarce!

It’s a heck of a lot more eco-friendly to limit your waste in developing countries. As a warning, there’s a learning curve, so you’ll want to get used to it before you leave on any planned trip, but you once try it, you’ll be a Diva Cup convert too! :)

Safe and happy travels from A Little Adrift.com!

"Hi there, I'm Matt Reider, and I'm with CanuckAbroad.com - and my favourite travel gear, since I like to travel light with as few things as possible has to be Ex-Officio Underwear and Icebreaker Merino Wool T-Shirts. They're both fantastic products and basically what it comes down to is that they are anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, lightweight, breathable, and you only have to wash them every so often - what it comes down to is they don't stink. You can wear them for a long time and they're really durable, they'll keep up with you and that means you'll have more room in your backpack to bring things home!"

Hi. This is Jack with Jack and Jill travel dot com. My favorite for piece of travel gear is the Delsey Uptown Backpack. It's a small sized pack that I got when searching for a laptop case. It's actually just a little larger than a laptop case. With straps. There are two smallers zippered pockets. One I use for documents like boarding passes, confirmation papers, things like that. I always have quick access to them when I wear the pack up front with the larger pack on my back The smaller section is great for other items,gadgets, and chargers. I've had it for several years and it barely shows its age.

Hi this is Katie from the Tripbase Travel Blog: www.tripbase.com/blog
And here’s my top travel gear tip which is….. to go get yourself a Lifeventure Trek Towel!

Now this may not sound terribly exciting but I promise you this little towel has the power to totally transform your trip!So what’s so good about it? Well firstly it dries quickly, really quickly – 4 times quicker than a regular beach towel. So, no more shoving a stinky wet towel in your rucksack as you run out your hostel in the morning.

It’s also really light so it’s great for day trips and folds up into a tiny square leaving room in your bag for fun things.

You’ll find the trek towel in all good adventure shops and on Amazon.

So go get yourself one – stay dry and happy travels from Tripbase!

Hi, I am David Robert Hogg of My Little Nomad, and my best tip for traveling with kids or traveling with babies, anyway, is having a great baby carrier. They're just great, I mean you have your hands free. You can get through airports, onto subways off subways, grab your bags, check-in, check-out. Your hands are free, you can sign things, you can pay for things, uh, they can be a real lifesaver. Especially in cities. Two that I really recommend the Baby Bjorn for younger kids up to six months and then older than that as they get a little heavier the Ergo is really great.

Our favourite piece of Travel Gear is the Belkin Mini Surge Protector. In today’s world, travellers are carrying more electronics then ever. From digital cameras to ipods, cell phones and computers you can never have enough outlets. The Belkin Mini Surge not only charges multiple electronics at once, it also has 2 USB Outlets to charge your iphone or any other USB powered devices.

Plus, it keeps your electronics safe from power surges. Carrying thousands of dollars of equipment can be very nerve wracking and it would be terrible to have your computers hard drive fried from an electrical surge because of bad wiring. The Mini Surge protector keeps our mind at ease.

Besides, sometimes when we are in the common room with the need to plug in several items, we don’t feel guilty because we are only taking up one plug. We can have everything charging while allowing other travelers to get their business done as well.

So we recommend the Belkin Mini Surge Protector from Dave and Deb at ThePlanetD

Cheers, Dave and Deb

"This is Keith of Traveling Savage and my favorite piece of travel gear is the Tom Bihn Smart Alec. It's a small shoulder backpack about the size of a college book bag. It's made out of ballistic nylon so it's impossible to tear it, stain it, or see any kind of wear and tear. I've already taken it to Argentina and now I'm in Scotland and it looks brand new.

It's designed to hold a brain cell, which is Tom Bihn's laptop case. They provide those sized to fit your laptop. The beautiful thing is that the Smart Alec itself is inconspicuous - it won't give away the fact that you're carrying expensive equipment inside the bag. And the bag itself holds a lot more than you'd think a typical book bag might."

Hi! I'm Jessica Maceda from WayfaringWanderer.com and my favorite piece of travel gear is adigital camera. If you ask me, sharing travel experiences would be alot less exciting without images to help tell your story. That's whyI carry a Sony A700 DSLR with a Carl Zeiss 16-80mm wide angle zoom.This lens can cover a wide range of subjects while maintaining alighter load. And if that's still too much to lug around, my SonyCybershot WX9 takes great photos, is significantly smaller than theA700, and fits in my pocket. A bonus is that it shoots HD video, too!

Hi, I'm the Healthy Voyager and my best piece of travel gear is my Go Greens powder by To Go Brands. In order to stay healthy & make sure that I’ll be getting my 5 servings of veggies a day, I make sure I pack enough packets, regardless of where I am in the world or how long I’ll be gone. Every morning when I’m on the road, I dissolve 1 packet of my tasty Go Greens into 8 ounces of water and I’m all set for the day. 5 full servings of veggies, packed with vitamins and minerals and total convenience so that I can spend time having fun while traveling instead of worrying about my health. For more information visit HealthyVoyager.com!

"My favorite travel gear is my headware. There's so many uses and it doesn't cost that much. You can use it as a neck scarf, as a beannie, as an arm band, as a headband, and much more. I also use it to cover my face whenever I'm travelling thru dusty roads. There's also a lot of fun designs that you can choose from."

P.S. Check out http://www.theheadware.com/how-to-wear.html (not an affiliate link) for instructions on how to use it.

"Tim Leffel here, editor of the Practical Travel Gear blog.

What do Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, Peru, and the Czech Republic all have in common? They’re all countries where I’ve used the SteriPen to purify my drinking water instead of buying water in single-use plastic containers that end up fouling our land and oceans.

The SteriPen is my favorite piece of travel gear because it saves me money and it saves the planet, all in a compact size that’s easy to pack. It’s a wand that uses powerful ultraviolet light to purify your water and get rid of anything that could make you sick. I’ve now used this in nine different countries where guidebooks warn not to drink the water and I haven’t gotten the runs or a stomach bug even once. I trust it enough to use it on my daughter too and she’s never gotten sick either, in five countries so far.

The SteriPen comes in several models and generally runs 70 to a hundred bucks depending on accessories. It will pay for itself after a month or two of use for long-term travelers. After that it’ll save you a fortune. A new model out this summer is even smaller than the others and can be recharged by USB.

If every traveler used one of these, they would keep hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles out of landfills and streams and be doing Mother Nature a huge favor. Go get one."

"Hi! This is Carol Cain from NYCityMama.com. When I travel with my three boys, I usually leave behind the little gadgets that help to keep them busy and entertained, and this is because I want to see them completely immersed in the places that we're visiting. Instead, I'll take along books that will help share information about the people and the places that we are about to see, and I bring along art projects that will help the children express themselves and share the things that they have learned along the way. Not only are these fun to do, but they also encourage conversation between us as a family, and helps the children their experiences in a unique way. Absolute must-haves when traveling with kids."