Cooking While Traveling - Traveling with Spices
About Us
Darren and I are early retirees who left corporate careers in our late 40s. We are nomadic except for three months a year when we live in our tiny home in the Great Plains of the United States.
We spend 40 - 120 days per year thru-hiking in the EU and about 90 days per year in the Caribbean and Central America. This blog documents our journey to nomadic living and financial independence.
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Why Bring Spices With You While Traveling?
There are several reasons why someone would want to travel with spices in preparation for a trip or life as a nomadic or semi-nomadic traveler.
You plan to make a specific dish at your destination and know that these spices are unavailable where you are going.
You are backpacking or traveling to a rural area with few grocery stores.
You already own a curated stash of spices and want to use them up.
You frequently use spices that are difficult to find.
You use expensive or specific spices.
You only need a small amount and would need to buy a large quantity where you are going.
As semi-nomadic early retirees, we pack a limited amount of the specific spices we frequently use at our home base that we expect to use while traveling.
We’ve learned from previous travel experiences that we won’t often won’t be able to find spices needed for cooking. Another reason is that we already have the spices and do not want to take the time or expense of buying more at the destination, especially if only a small quantity is needed.
We don’t pack spices for our thru-hiking. We do pack a few favorite spices when we are on trips of over 30 days. Packing a few favorite spices allows us to focus our spending on fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats—plus local, readily available seasonings.
Yes, You Can Bring (Most) Spices on the Plane With You
According to the TSA website, you can bring dried spices in checked or hand luggage when traveling within the USA. You may also take liquid seasonings in hand luggage less than 3.4 ounces (100 ml) or pack them in your checked baggage.
When traveling overseas, you should check what type and volume of spices are allowed. We haven’t run into any restrictions on the spices or quantity yet. However, whole-seed spices are often not allowed, as are spices that are not in their original container. In some countries, dried leaves are not allowed. These restrictions prevent the introduction of invasive plants and plant diseases.
The best practice would be to consult Google and search for “Can you bring (insert your spice) into (insert destination country). Then, look for authoritative governmental websites or plant importation websites within the destination country.
Tips For Packing Spices
As semi-nomadic early retirees, we have traveled to many countries with spices. Here are our recommendations for how to shop for spices to bring overseas.
Original Packaging
Leave spices in their original containers. We’ve traveled with previously-opened packages of herbs with a screw top or zip-loc type of seal and have encountered no issues with leakage, customs, or plant health authorities. Traveling with spices in their original containers reduces the likelihood of being interrogated about the obscurely labeled bag of “white stuff” in your luggage.
Chose Plastic Packaging over Glass
While we prefer using reusable glass containers at our home base, we don’t like them for travel because they are heavier and more susceptible to breaking.
When buying spices, shop for herbs that are in plastic containers or, better yet, plastic sleeves. Spices in plastic sleeves are becoming more common in the US, especially in Mexican and Indian grocery stores.
Our favorite brand is Badia, frequently found in Spain and Portugal, and in Mexican grocery stores in the US. While in the US, we purchase spices from Penzy’s, which also sells spices in robust zippered plastic bags.
Secondary Container
Whether you pack your spices in hand luggage or checked bags, we recommend placing your bags and jars of spices in a secondary container. This provides secondary containment if a spice (liquid or powder) somehow opens in your luggage. Even if you’ve packed your spices very carefully, your luggage might get inspected and repacked less carefully. And airline personnel sometimes mishandle luggage. Packing your spices in a plastic container or freezer zipper seal bag reduces the likelihood of spills that could affect the rest of your bag’s contents.
We pack our spices in a Tupperware container that can double as a food storage container at our temporary accommodation.
In addition to serving as food storage, the container can keep mice and insects out of cereals or grains if you are lodging in a rural area.
How Much Spice Can I Bring on the Plane?
You can certainly try to take a three-pound package of ground pepper on the airplane as a carry-on, but TSA will likely ask you to unpack your bag and have it scanned again (much to the delight of your fellow travelers!).
The TSA recommends taking all spices larger than 12 oz out of carry-on luggage so that they can be scanned separately. And as with any other liquid, if your liquid spice fits in a 3.4 oz container, you’ll need to put it with your other TSA-approved liquids in your carry-on luggage bag.
You’ll have no limit on what you place in checked luggage other than what you are willing to spend on checked bag fees.
When traveling overseas, you should check which spices and volumes are allowed where you are going.
What Spices Are Available Where I Am Going?
The availability of spices depends on the location. Generally, the more rural or the smaller the town, the more limited the selection, whether in the US or internationally.
If you don’t want to hassle with bringing spices and don’t know anyone in your travel destination, here are a few ways to determine which spices you can find when you arrive:
Ask your lodging host what spices you might find near where you are staying and what they stock in preparation for guests to use.
Join a private travel or ex-pat group on Facebook for the country you are visiting. Ask the group if the specific spice is available where you are going.
Search for popular grocery store chains or specialty stores in the region or city you are visiting and see if someone has captured a photo of the spice section of the grocery store in a Google or Yelp review.
What Spices Should I Leave at Home?
Leave basics like salt and pepper at home; they are available almost everywhere.
Leave any spices containing whole seeds at home—no need to risk an inspection or fine by accidentally taking viable seeds into a country. Similarly, leave whole plants (e.g., basil plant, thyme plant) and whole leaves at home unless you know that they are acceptable for travel where you are going.
How To Optimize Spice Packing for Travel
Instead of packing “what if” spices, we travel with a limited number of recipes on our Paprika app. We have a repertoire of about 50 recipes. We don't deviate from them very much while on the road, other than eating out or preparing a simple dish from local ingredients found in the place we are visiting (such as grilled octopus with salt and paprika while in Portugal).
Sticking to a menu plan helps optimize spice packing for nomadic living and helps us maintain our weight loss in early retirement.
How Much Spice Should I Bring
For a three-month trip, we usually bring small quantities (3-4 ounces total) of favorite spices that can be hard to find elsewhere.
What Spices Do We Bring?
The spices we travel with on longer trips include smoked paprika, Penzy’s chili seasoning, cumin, bay leaves, and cinnamon. If we have recently used spices and not much left in the packet, we may throw those into our Tupperware box as well.
When traveling, we source everything else locally. We’re also known to pick up a few local spices and try them on fresh vegetables and fish at our lodging. If we like them, we bring some home and leave the rest in the accommodation for the next guest.
Our Spicy Summary
Don’t pack your spices like this …
unless you like chili powder in your underwear or a sun hat that smells like vanilla!
In almost two years of perpetual travel, we’ve learned to pack a few of our favorite spices so that we are ready for healthy cooking as soon as we’ve reached our rented lodging.
We pack as light as possible, taking only our faves in small quantities, like 3-4 ounces, and in the original packaging. This avoids raising concerns with airport or customs authorities.
We typically do not travel with liquid spices (e.g., soy sauce, hot sauce) as these, too, are often available locally and can stain or create a big mess if they break in transit.
We package our spices in a secondary container to ensure our packed garments don’t smell like a spice shop.
We like to pick up a few local spices when we make our grocery store run at our destination. This allows us to incorporate local flavors in our cooking at our rented apartment, hostel, townhome, or even back home in the US.
Do you like to travel with spices? If so, what do you travel with and to where? Do you have any spicy tips to share below in the comments?
