Opinion: I’m just back from a trip. While I’m on any kind of voyage, I keep a running list of things I should have brought with me.

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I’m just back from a trip. While I’m on any kind of voyage, I keep a running list of things I should have brought with me. There’s always some little thing that would have radically improved the experience, so it goes on the list for next time. I keep this list in my emptied suitcase. The funny thing is that I tend to edit the list when I’m packing for my next trip. “Flashlight?” I’ll ask myself. “Why would I think I need a flashlight?!” (The brown-outs of the central-African electrical grid clearly completely forgotten once back home.)

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This recent trip took me to a hot, dry climate. And if there’s one thing I hate, it’s a hot, dry climate. I was made for the misty moors — for the shoulder seasons, not the high seasons. For north of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the Tropic of Capricorn. I don’t care for heat and I don’t care for cold. That being the case, into my suitcase went a kettle. Not so that I could make tea at any hour, but so that I could humidify my hotel room. I also took along a USB charging desktop fan. A genius combination, this. I could set the fan up to push the steam all through the room and temporarily escape the aridity outside.

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The one thing I forgot to take was a face cloth. It’s one of the world’s great mysteries to me why a face cloth, or wash cloth, isn’t provided by foreign hotels. From Japan to Italy, or Germany to Mexico, you would be hard-pressed to find a hotel that supplies these small terry towel cloths for their guests. French hotels sometimes supply something called a gant de toilette — essentially a terry towel mitt or pocket — but there is no guarantee your salle de bain will stock one. There is no single authority on why this is the case, but the general consensus is that wash cloths are considered highly personal items that you wouldn’t share.

I’m a big fan of the retractable clothesline that you sometimes find above a hotel bathtub. The trouble with these clotheslines, however, is anything you drip dry will end up with an indelible crease across the width or breadth of it. As handy as those clotheslines are, what is even better are those inflatable clothes hangers. Of course, I forgot to bring any on my........

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