As I travel through Europe, a lot of folks are asking how I can be prepped. When traveling, your choices should lean more toward survival than prepping. (I wrote about the differences between the two here.) And for that, you need a small amount of extremely versatile gear.

In this article, I'll share what I brought with me and why. I spoke to some pros like Toby Cowern and Selco while making my final choices and many other choices were based on what I learned in their urban survival course in Croatia.

I have an everyday carry kit that easily fits into my purse along with a light jacket. Secondarily, I have a bug-out kit with a few additional items I'd take if I made the decision to evacuate in a hairy situation. We'll talk about the EDC first, then move on to the bug-out kit.

Note that this does not include all the things that I brought. I have a veritable pharmacy in my suitcase for treating everything from nausea, infections, pain, and the common cold. I have bandaids for blisters and a Kindle for reading and all manner of items. But that's a topic for another article.

What I carry every day while traveling

Before we get too deeply into this, I strongly advise you to understand the laws and restrictions in the country you're visiting. Women can often get away with a little more than men when it comes to sharp, pointy things, but if I was in England where the laws about knives are extremely strict, for example, I wouldn't risk carrying a knife around beyond a small folding knife, if even that.

Here's my EDC kit in all its ordinary glory.

These things all fit comfortably in my purse, which is this crossbody bag that has RFID-blocking protection. Not fancy but it gets the job done. This stuff is Layer 1 according to Selco.

Let's go through what I've got.

I always grab a paper map as soon as possible upon my arrival. You can get these free at tourist welcome centers and sometimes at the airport. Google Maps is great if you have data, but it isn't infallible, and there's always a possibility you may have a dead battery or no service when you need it. Paper maps always work. For privacy reasons, this is not my marked copy. I put a dot with a sharpie on important places like the American Embassy, my rental, the police stations, and the hospital. Any place I might need to go in an emergency gets a symbol like a cross for the hospital, a star for the PD, and different shapes for different locations. This code is memorized.

Hand sanitizer. It's not just good for cleaning your hands. You can use it to add some fuel if you are starting a fire – hand sanitizer that contains alcohol burns like crazy.

Benadryl. I have food allergies so I always keep a bottle of Benadryl on me, especially when I'm traveling and may not be able to explain clearly what ingredients I'm allergic to. My allergies are uncomfortable, but not life-threatening. If you have life-threatening allergies, you'd want to upgrade this to an epi-pen.

Lighter. That one's obvious. I did see a pretty interesting self-defense video using a lighter – find it here. Keep your lighter in an outside pocket of your bag or in your pocket so you can get to it easily.