There are few things more disappointing than waking up somewhere incredible only to be greeted by a lack of coffee or even worse, a cup of terrible coffee. Maybe you’ve spent the night in a hostel in Peru, a campsite in the Scottish Highlands, or a tiny guesthouse tucked away in rural Pakistan. Outside your window sits a spectacular view, but the coffee options are limited to a dusty jar of instant or whatever suspicious brown liquid comes out of the communal machine.
I learned the hard way that travel kinda sucks without a proper strong black start to the day. While you may think coffee is one of those ubiquitous things that you can easily find anywhere, anytime, let me tell you it really ain’t.
But thankfully, there’s a simple, ingenious solution available for well under $50. The AeroPress has become something of a cult favourite among travellers, campers and digital nomads thanks to its clever design, compact size and ability to brew consistently excellent coffee just about anywhere you can find hot water.
While it might seem like an unnecessary luxury at first glance, many seasoned travellers will tell you it’s one of the few pieces of kit that genuinely earns its place in a backpack.
What Is an AeroPress?
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The AeroPress is a portable, travel coffee maker invented in 2005 that uses a combination of immersion brewing and gentle air pressure to produce a smooth, rich cup of coffee. It doesn’t quite make espresso, and it isn’t exactly filter coffee either. Instead, it sits somewhere comfortably between the two, producing coffee that’s full of flavour without the bitterness that can sometimes come from traditional brewing methods.
Despite its slightly unusual appearance, it’s actually very easy to use one you watch a tutorial. Simply add coffee, pour over hot water, stir, leave it to brew for a minute or two, then slowly press the plunger. In less than five minutes, you’ll have a seriously good cup of coffee with very little mess.
The learning curve is tiny, but the quality of the coffee is surprisingly impressive and will make your morning many a morning to come.
Why Travellers Love the AeroPress
It’s Lightweight and Backpack Friendly
When you’re living out of a backpack, every gram or ounce counts. Thankfully, the AeroPress weighs very little compared to traditional coffee makers and takes up surprisingly little space.
Even better, you can store your paper filters, stirrer, scoop and even a small bag of coffee beans inside the AeroPress itself, turning it into its own little coffee kit. It slides neatly into a packing cube or the corner of your backpack without demanding too much valuable real estate.
If you enjoy proper coffee every morning, it’s a trade-off that’s surprisingly easy to justify.
It’s Built for Life on the Road
Glass French presses and ceramic pour-over sets might make fantastic coffee, but they aren’t exactly designed to survive budget airlines, overnight buses or the baggage compartment of a mountain jeep. In fact, I can testify that they are not even really designed to service a busy kitchen in the North of England.
The AeroPress is made from incredibly durable plastic that’s designed to take a few knocks. Throw it into your backpack, stuff it into a van, or wedge it between your clothes before a flight, it’ll almost certainly come out totally unscathed.
For adventure travellers, that’s a huge advantage.
You Can Make Great Coffee Almost Anywhere
One of the AeroPress’s biggest strengths is how little it asks of you. All you need is ground coffee and hot water.
That means you can brew coffee;
- In hostel kitchens
- At campsites
- In campervans
- Inside Airbnbs
- During long-term trips
- On road trips
- At airport lounges (if they’ll give you hot water…)
- Even in many hotel rooms with nothing more than the kettle provided
Good coffee suddenly becomes available, almost anywhere in the world.
Fast To Clean
Nobody wants to spend half an hour scrubbing coffee equipment while travelling.
Fortunately, cleaning an AeroPress couldn’t be much easier and takes 20 seconds.
Once you’ve finished brewing, remove the cap, press the compact puck of coffee grounds straight into a bin or compost, give everything a quick rinse and you’re ready for tomorrow’s brew.
No filters to clean (*although actually, I prefer a reusable metal one rather than the disposable ones) no coffee sludge coating the sink, and very little water required. It’s arguably one of the easiest coffee makers on the market to clean – a lot easier than the nice French Press I use at home.
Is It Really Worth Packing?
Let’s be honest, good, fresh coffee isn’t essential for travelling…
I mean you could survive perfectly well on hostel coffee, supermarket instant or whatever your overnight bus stop happens to be serving but travel isn’t simply about survival.
And yet all of us already carry a few comforts that make life on the road more enjoyable. Noise-cancelling headphones make long flights bearable, a Kindle saves carrying five paperbacks and a decent travel pillow can transform an overnight journey.
For coffee lovers, an AeroPress falls into exactly the same category.
There’s also something comforting about the ritual. Grinding your beans, boiling the kettle and brewing your morning coffee becomes a small slice of normality, even when you’re thousands of miles from home.
Some of the best mornings on the road begin with nothing more than sunrise, a quiet campsite and a proper cup of coffee.
Tips for Brewing Coffee While Travelling
If you’re planning to travel with an AeroPress, a few simple tricks can make the experience even better.
- Buy fresh coffee locally whenever possible. It’s a brilliant way to support independent cafés while discovering regional coffee cultures, whether you’re drinking Ethiopian beans in Berlin or locally grown coffee in Colombia.
- If you’re particularly serious about flavour, consider packing a small hand grinder instead of pre-ground coffee. Freshly ground beans make a noticeable difference, although many travellers will happily trade that extra quality for the convenience of pre-ground coffee.
- Don’t worry too much about finding hot water. Hostels almost always have kettles, cafés are often happy to help if you buy a drink, campsites usually provide somewhere to boil water, and even many petrol stations will happily fill a flask.
- Finally, if you’re trying to cut down on waste, consider swapping the disposable paper filters for a reusable metal filter like I did. It packs just as easily and saves carrying spare filters on longer trips. Of course, it does mean a bit more cleaning…
Final Thoughts
One of the joys of travelling is embracing different ways of living. You don’t need to recreate every single, last comfort from home, but a few carefully chosen luxuries here and there can make life on the road considerably more enjoyable.
For coffee lovers (or addicts…), the AeroPress is one of those rare pieces of travel gear that consistently lives up to the hype. It’s compact enough to earn its place in your backpack, tough enough to survive years of adventures, and capable of producing genuinely excellent coffee almost anywhere in the world.
Whether you’re watching the sunrise over a mountain range, sitting outside your campervan beside a remote beach, or easing into another day in a bustling hostel courtyard, starting the morning with a proper cup of coffee is one of those simple pleasures that never gets old.
I swear it, once you try it you’ll wonder how you ever travelled without it. Other TBB team members feel the same too!
