What I Always Pack for a River Cruise (and 4 Things I NEVER Pack!)
If you're new here, you may not know I'm getting ready for my first Christmas Market river cruise at the end of November! As a travel advisor, that means getting every detail set up and double-checked, so I'm not missing anything — for my clients traveling with me, or for myself.
One thing I like to do every fall is go through my backstock of travel supplies well in advance, so I can restock what I need at the best prices. Prime Fall Deal Days are right
around the corner on October 6-7, so I put together a list of things I always bring on a river cruise... and a few things I never do. I'm using this list to figure out what needs restocking, what I can buy now, and what can wait.
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What I Always Pack
Waterproof shoes (with new insoles broken in for at least a month). I won't lie — I got influenced into buying waterproof sneakers for my first river cruise a few years ago, and it was one of the best purchases I've ever made. Wet socks and wet feet will ruin my day, so having a cute pair of waterproof sneakers that I can toss in the washing machine and get looking new again is exactly what I need. I'm actually on my second pair now, because I wore straight through the soles of the first! (Don't forget to replace your insoles if you've put it off!)
My waterproof sneakers are from Vessi, but other options are available from Amazon.
Corded headphones. Most river cruise lines use an audio device on tours so you can hear your guide clearly. Earpieces are provided, but I've never found a pair that actually fits my ear and stays put — so I always bring my own corded headphones. I use them for the tour devices and for hop-on-hop-off bus tours with an audio plug-in, too. It just makes everything easier, and I'm not spending the whole tour trying to jam earbuds back into my ear. I currently use my ancient iPod touch earbuds, but they are on their very last legs!
A small pill case for my day bag. I like to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best! Travel is hard on your body, and I tend to take medication more often while traveling, just to make sure I'm setting myself up for a good day and not a headache. My everyday pill case is way too big to carry in my purse on a day tour, so I keep a small one stocked with a single day's worth of whatever I might need — and restock it each morning before heading out.
All my everyday vitamins and medications. Vacation is not the time to mess with your everyday health routine. As annoying as it is to pack a bunch of medications and vitamins, I bring my normal daily doses plus a few extra days' worth, just in case I get stuck somewhere. Keeping them in my regular, everyday organizer makes that part of the day easy. (I've tried just packing the doses of everything in one bottle, and it's such a hassle that it's not worth having a little extra space!) (Click here for my favorite everyday organizer, and here for my travel organizer I keep in my purse!)
About 6 weeks to a month in advance, I'll take stock of what I have on hand, and sometimes I'll actually pack what I need for my trip that far out! Then I can restock whenever a good sale comes around!
A few doses of medications I don't need regularly. I know what I need day-to-day, but there are a handful of things I don't typically take that I still pack when I travel. Let's just say I don't want any surprises — and hunting down a pharmacy in a foreign country isn't exactly on my vacation to-do list. (If you're wondering what types of medication I mean, click here!)
Blister Band-Aids. Never again will I travel without these! On my first few days in Vienna in 2025, I wandered the city for hours — and didn't realize until too late that my socks weren't playing nice with my shoes. I ended up with some of the worst blisters of my life (and that's saying something, since I was a dancer!). I spent part of my Sunday hunting down an open pharmacy and seriously considered buying new shoes just to escape the pain. Now I always have blister Band-Aids on hand and stop the second I feel one coming on.
Electrolyte powder and vitamin C. These are my saving grace while traveling. I'm not great about drinking water even on a normal day, and air travel dehydrates you even more — which is a huge part of why jet lag hits so hard. I pack at least one electrolyte packet per travel day (I prefer the sugar free kind from Drip Drop!) and actually drink it. I also bring Emergen-C immune support packets with 1,000 mg of vitamin C plus B vitamins for a caffeine-free energy boost. Bonus: both make me drink more water throughout the day!
Travel tissue packs. Maybe your grandmother tucked these into your pocket as a kid, but she was onto something! I threw a pack into my day bag for my first river cruise and ended up with a truly terrible cold. Now I never travel without one in my pocket — for sniffles, sure, but also for wiping down handrails and other icky things!
A plastic shoebox. (This one might be a little genius.) I always pack an empty plastic shoebox for three reasons: first, packing it empty saves space in my luggage for new favorite souvenirs. Second, while I'm traveling, it becomes my catch-all for souvenirs so I don't misplace anything. And finally, when I'm repacking to fly home, I load my most delicate finds into the shoebox and pack it inside my luggage, giving them a much better shot at arriving home in one piece.
An external battery. No surprise here — I take a lot of photos and video while traveling, and my phone isn't exactly a spring chicken anymore. My external battery is one of the best things I've ever invested in, and I keep it in my bag so I can charge on the go without missing a shot. I like to get one that can charge with different types of cables, so I can charge it no matter what!
My go-to travel snacks. I'm prone to both migraines and the occasional hangry moment, so I pack my favorite snacks for when things aren't going my way. Mine are Cheez-Its and Sour Patch watermelons — just enough energy and happiness to get me to real food.
AirTags or bag trackers. There's a good reason everyone's using these! I got mine before a trip and ended up needing them — luckily not at an airport. After the River Cruise Expo in Indiana, while moving from my accommodations to the airport, my bag got separated from me amongst thousands of others moving that day. My bag tracker helped staff locate it fast. Now I keep one in my carry-on, my checked luggage, my wallet, and my backpack for total
A full day's worth of clothes in my carry-on. This one comes from experience too! Remember when Southwest Airlines imploded around Christmas a couple of years back? I was supposed to fly Boston to Savannah, Georgia on Southwest, but switched to JetBlue just in case. My new flight had a small delay, which let weather roll into Savannah and made landing impossible — so we diverted to Atlanta and stayed overnight. I was luckier than most because I had clothes in my carry-on to sleep in and to wear the next day--since we didn't get our checked bags until we finally flew to Savannah! Now, every time I fly, I pack a full change of clothes — pajamas included — plus essential toiletries like toothpaste and deodorant. This method has saved me more than once since that diversion.
Ziploc bags. You never know when something's going to end up wet or need to be separated from the rest of your luggage, so I always bring a few in varying sizes. For this trip, I'm packing plenty of gallon-sized bags to bring home my new Glühwein mug collection, which will need washing out once I'm back on the ship. I'll drop a used mug into a Ziploc in my day bag so it doesn't get everything else wet or sticky.
Wine purifying wands. I'm the lucky girl who can go from one sip of wine to hungover-with-a-migraine in record time — and then I'm out for a day and a half recovering. A few years ago, a friend introduced me to wine-purifying wands. They look a bit like a tiny butterfly net — you swish your glass with the wand for two minutes before drinking, and the filter catches the sulfites and histamines behind wine headaches. It's one of the best travel inventions I've ever been introduced to. On a trip where part of the appeal is sipping mulled wine from a mug in a historic European square, you can bet I'm packing a few of these.
My favorite hand lotion. I'm still coming to terms with this one — apparently I'm picky about hand lotion (shouldn't have been a surprise, honestly). For this trip, I'm packing a travel size of my go-to Bath & Body Works lotion, because I know from experience I'll tell myself I'll use the provided lotion every day and then just... won't. Cracked, dry hands and mild self-directed annoyance will follow.
What I Never Pack
Straighteners, curling irons, or hair dryers. A few reasons: every hotel room and river cruise cabin already has a hair dryer, so why add the weight? Unless I'm 100% sure my hair tools are dual voltage, I'm not risking frying them the second I plug in overseas. And most river cruise lines actually prohibit curling irons and straighteners for that exact reason — though most offer a limited number to borrow from the front desk if you're desperate.
Shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. I have no specific needs here that the hotel or ship's provided products can't cover, so I save the space, the weight, and the risk of a shampoo explosion in my luggage.
An umbrella — if I'm only exploring with the ship. River cruise lines always provide umbrellas for guest use (usually a large golf-style umbrella). But if I know I'll be exploring on my own, outside the ship's included excursions, I'll pack a compact, foldable umbrella just to be safe.
Anything with a heel. Why torture myself on cobblestones and hillsides by giving up luggage space for shoes I won't even wear? That's just silly.
Time to Restock
That's my full list — the tried, the true, and the "learned it the hard way." Fall deal days are the best time of year to stock up on this stuff, so I've linked everything above to make your restocking (or first-time packing!) as easy as possible. Go forth and shop — your future self on a cobblestone street will thank you!
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