Top travel accessories you need before you go, according to Reader’s Digest

These top five travel accessories help you pack smarter and avoid common travel mistakes that tend to show up at the worst possible time

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Packing for a trip always starts with optimism.

This time, you’ll be prepared. This time, nothing will be forgotten. This time, you will absolutely not end up buying overpriced toothpaste in an airport convenience store at 6 a.m. while silently questioning every decision that led you there.

It’s a familiar ritual: the suitcase comes out, possibilities feel endless, and suddenly you believe you are the kind of person who labels cables and packs with military precision. For about twenty minutes, it’s true.

According to a guide from Reader’s Digest, the best trips don’t really begin at takeoff—they begin with what you pack, what you plan, and what you double-check right before you walk out the door and immediately feel like you’ve forgotten something.

Because once you’re on the road (or in the air, or standing in a security line trying to remember if your charger is still plugged in next to your bed), it’s never the big things that trip you up. It’s the small ones. The missing documents. The........

© Quartz