1. Sleep Off the Ground

The more air can circulate around your body, the cooler you’ll be overnight. Lying in a sleeping bag or on a mat on the ground isn’t ideal in hot weather. Sleeping on a thin camping cot or even in a woven hammock should leave you minimally sweaty by morning.

2. Bring Giant Ice Cubes

Standard ice cubes will keep your cooler cold for a day. By day two, all your stuff is warm, including your drinking water, and everything is waterlogged. Next time, freeze plastic bottles or gallon jugs of water. (Let a little water out first so the plastic doesn’t explode when the water expands.) Use frozen bottles in place of ice cubes in your cooler. They’ll melt slowly and create cool drinking water for you as they do.

3. Set Up a Sunshade

If the sun beats down on your tent all day long, climbing in at night is like climbing into a hothouse. In the morning, the sun’s rays may wake you long before you want to rise. Keeping the sun from baking your tent is as easy as setting up a sunshade. Buy one from a camping retailer or DIY a sunshade by using ropes to tie a tarp between two trees.

4. Live in Light Colors

Before leaving home, scan all the clothing you’ve packed for your hot-weather camping trip. The best items are lightweight, breathable fabrics that stand away from the body and are light shades, like white, pastels and pale gray. Darker fabrics will absorb heat and keep you hot all day.

5. Plan No-Cook Meals

When the forecast calls for scorching weather, you can anticipate that you probably won’t want to be anywhere close to a campfire until it cools off after dark. Pack s’mores supplies and maybe some hot dogs to toast for an evening campfire snack but focus on cold foods for daytime meals. Sandwiches and salads are the way to go in a heatwave.

6. Dismantle the Tent During the Day

A sunshade can help keep it cool, but a tent may still be uncomfortably hot at the end of a steamy day. Consider taking down the tent and stashing it someplace shady during the day. Depending on how easy it is to put up your tent, the effort that this requires may be worthwhile if it means having somewhere cool to sleep.

7. Bring an Inflatable Kiddie Pool

What feels better to hot, aching feet than a soak in cold water? It’s enough to cool down your entire body. If you’ll have access to water at your campsite, pack a small, inflatable kiddie pool to fill with just a few inches of water at the end of the day. Put just your feet in or if you get really desperate, climb in and splash your entire body.

8. Pack Portable Fans

The invention of battery-operated fans is one of the best things that ever happened to camp enthusiasts. On a hot night, opening your tent’s ventilation flaps may not be enough to get air moving through your space. Portable fans will do the trick. The type that is designed for camping even attaches to hooks so you can hang them overhead at night.

9. Shift Your Schedule

Are you normally not a morning person? A sticky summer camping trip is the perfect time to become one. Rising with the sun allows you to enjoy hiking, biking, cooking, and other activities that would be too hot to attempt once the sun is high in the sky. Relax or swim in the hottest part of the day and resume more strenuous activities in the late afternoon. You’ll be ready to crash by evening.

10. Cool Your Head Before Bed

After a long, hot day, lowering your body temperature before bed should help you sleep comfortably. Even if you’re traveling light and can’t carry portable fans or a kiddie pool to your campsite, you can probably find space in your pack for a few clean washcloths. Soak them in cool water and hold one on your forehead and one on the back of your neck. Chilling the skin should help you feel cooler all over.

1. Start with a packing list

This might sound like common sense, but we honestly think you’ll be surprised when you notice the difference between packing on a whim and packing after you’ve made a detailed and scheduled list of everything you’ll need, just to really make sure you have everything you need when you arrive on the other end! Skyscanner has some suggestions for you for things they always like to include on their packing list.

2. How to pack your liquids and toiletries

Like most of us, have you been through the nightmare of opening your suitcase after a long car trip or airplane ride and discovering that one of your liquid toiletries has exploded all over the bag and the clothing inside? Beyond that, many of the bottles these things come in are strangely shaped and a little awkward to pack. That’s why we were pleased to come across this guide from The Beauty Department that suggests a few better ways for packing liquids so they’ll fit better and won’t spill on your clothes!

3. How to pack jewelry to stop it from tangling

If you’re like us and you love taking all kinds of accessorizing options with you when you travel so you can look your best throughout your trip, then we have a feeling you’ll find this jewelry packing technique from Mom Spark quite interesting indeed! They show you how to layer your necklaces between sheets of cling wrap to prevent them from tangling in your bag.

4. Best ways to pack your shoes

There are all kinds of ways to pack your shoes if you really get looking around the far reaches of the Internet but this particularly affordable method outlined on WikiHow is one of our favorites, particularly because we have so many pairs of sparkly shoes as you see in the photo that will shed glitter all over our clothes! They suggest putting them inside a dollar store shower cap to keep them together and separate them from your clean clothes.

5. Packing hats without squishing them

Perhaps you’re going on a nice summer vacation and you’re intent on bringing a sun hat or two because those are your absolute favorite kind of accessory in warm weather, but you’re concerned they’ll get squished in your bag en route? In that case, you simply must take a look at the way A Pair and A Spare DIY filled the inside of the hat with small clothing and packed it in layers so it fits in and around your other things, rather than getting squashed on top or underneath.

6. Packing long maxi dresses

Perhaps the things you really want to take most on your beach vacation are your favorite maxi dresses, but they’re made of a material that wrinkles rather badly and you want to keep them looking their best so they’re ready to put on right away when you arrive? Then we think you’ll appreciate this tissue paper rolling technique outlined nice and simply on Wendy’s Lookbook.

7. Mesh laundry bags to organize what you pack

Perhaps your trouble isn’t with making everything fit nicely in your bag but rather with keeping things organized similarly to your busy trip, so you don’t have to rifle through trying to find things and mess everything up? Then we’d definitely suggest trying out this technique from iHeart Organizing that involves organizing your outfits in zipping mesh laundry bags and packing them in order by day, with all the pieces for each day together and easy to grab.

8. How to neatly fold and pack suit jackets

Just in case most of your trips happen in a professional capacity when you travel for work but you’re not yet feeling like a professional at packing your business suits without finding them all folded, crushed, and creased when you arrive, here’s a fantastic guide from GQ for strategically folding and placing your suit jackets so they experience as little creasing as possible.

9. How to properly roll clothing for packing

No matter how you try, are you convinced that folding your clothes flat and laying them into your suitcase is taking up more space than it should so you’re wondering whether there isn’t another way to make things fit? In that case, we think you might find this folding concept outlined in more detail on eHow very interesting indeed!

10. Organizing clothes and liquids with big plastic bags

Just in case you’re feeling rather interested in the idea of organizing your clothes and other things in bags like we mentioned before but you don’t have the kind of zippered bags we mentioned and there’s no time for you to pick some up, here’s a guide from Real Simple that talks a little bit about how they used a similar process but put certain things in large Ziplock bags instead!

11. Pack clothes without wrinkles using tissue paper

Did we catch your attention with the idea of keeping things as smooth and unwrinkled as possible with tissue paper but you’re not going to be traveling with maxi dresses any time soon? Well, luckily for all of us, they’re not actually the only thing you can use that technique for! Travel Fashion Girl shows you how they folded tissue paper into their shirts and other clothes and found it just as effective for battling suitcase creases.

12. Save space by using the insides of your shoes

Like us, are you actually finding that one of the biggest challenges is finding a good place for your smallest things, like socks and underwear because they always end up either buried or taking up weird space in the middle of the bag? Then we’d definitely suggest taking a look at how Business Travel Life made us of the inside of their shoes for storing small things more space efficiently.

13. Tips for packing when you travel with kids

Of course, packing for yourself and packing for a trip that your kids are coming on can be a whole different experience because the needs are so different. That doesn’t mean, however, that some of the techniques you’ve seen so far on our list won’t work for your little ones too! For example, we really appreciate All Four Love‘s suggestion of packing outfits with all their pieces together day by day. During a hectic morning of getting everyone ready on your trip, you can just reach for the right bag and have everything you need!

1. Vacuum Travel Bags

This is one of the best smart travel gadgets that you need to buy right now. The kind of this bag is designed with a built-in valve-suction, which allows airtight compression for saving space. Place your clothes in the bag, tight the zippers, roll the bag, and the excess air will be easily released from the bottom part of the bag. How cool is that?

2. Water Bottle with Time Marker

Take care of yourself and stay hydrated with this 100% BPA and toxin-free water bottle. It includes a time marker so you know exactly how much water you need to drink at a certain time. Smart!

3. Pocket Soap

Wash your clothes anytime, anywhere with these pocket soaps. Just add 1-2 sheets to the water to quickly wash your clothes. Bonus: they smell great and they’re Sea to Summit Leave No Trace certified.

4. Multi-Function Travel Adaptor (USB and Type-C)

No need for many cables and plugs, just use this one for your accessories and you’ll be good to go. It includes interchangeable UK/USA/EU/AUS plugs and it’s compatible with international voltage.

5. Bagail 6 Set Packing Cubes, Various Sizes

If you’re into packing cubes, these are bestselling on Amazon and won’t disappoint you. Available in different colors to suit all tastes.

6. Dry Sac

Seal your most valuable stuff into a dry sac and you won’t have any problem. We find them useful to put our laptops, cameras, lens, documents into our backpacks when we hike. They’re savage! We use Osprey, and that’s what we recommend.

7. Miniature Travel Toiletries

Keep your toiletries organized with these soft travel bottles. The soft and squeezable body is perfect for traveling and allows for easy refill and cleaning. Plus: they’re so cute!

8. Hanging Toiletry Bag

Flat when in the bag, this hanging toiletry bag allows a perfect organization of spaces and can be hanged in the bathroom for convenient use.

9. Travel Laptop Backpack

This water-resistant, durable, and light backpack is perfect for traveling, hanging around in the city, and hiking. It holds a laptop up to 15.6 inches and includes a built-in USB charger outside and a built-in charging cable inside.

10. Electronic Organizer

Electronic Organizer is one of the smart travel gadgets that are very cool. You got the cubes, you got the toiletry bag, you got the dry sack… you also need to have a cable organizer with pockets of various sizes for organizing your tech accessories. Seriously, is there anything else so smart?

11. Microfibre Towel

If you’re going to hike, or to the beach, or just want to have something in case of a sudden picnic, this is perfect. It’s light, odorless, and absorbent. We use it also as a blanket for the plane!

12. Luggage Locks

Having a lock for your luggage is essential, not just when traveling but also when leaving your stuff in the hotel. It may sound too excessive, but locking your luggage doesn’t harm you when you’re around exploring and these luggage locks are simply perfect!

13. Mini Travel Toothbrushes

24 disposable mini toothbrushes, already prepasted. If you want to use a new toothbrush every day, this is the best solution ever! Cool Cool Cool!

14. GRAYL’s Ultralight Purifier

If you love to hike, this water bottle will immediately become the smartest gadgets you have ever own. In fact, it transforms almost any tap or clear natural water source into pure drinking water. Removes 99.9999% of viruses (e.g. Hepatitis A, SARS, Rotavirus); 99.9999% of disease-causing bacteria (e.g. E. coli, Salmonella, Cholera); and 99.999% of protozoan cysts (e.g. Giardia, Cryptosporidium).

15. Havaianas Flip Flops

This item may not be that amazing to you, but if you think how useful it is you will soon understand why it’s on this list. You can use your flip-flops not just to go on the beach, but also to have a shower if, let’s say, your hotel is not that clean or when you want to give your feet a break after a long hike. Most of all, they are easy to wash and easy to dry!

If you think this article is useful and we’ve given you the inspiration you needed for your next trip, please share it on social media and let us know the smart travel gadgets that you have!