We just returned from a two week trip to Italy. In that time we made use of airports, bus and train stations to move about the country. It become evident to us that many travelers still pack more than they need, making their travel more cumbersome and exhausting than necessary. How do you pack?
Every travel blog, podcast and guide book has tackled the issue of packing light. It makes perfect sense; carry only what you need to stay agile and unencumbered by the possessions that may rule our everyday life, but not our travel adventures. We listened, we watched, and as a result we tried packing light on our last trip. Here’s what we learned.
- Start with light weight carry on sized luggage. Our current suitcases were older, heavy and with wheels that had their own mindset. Embracing this new philosophy did have an initial cost.
- Colour coordination and multiple use clothing helped reduce what we needed. Our rain jackets doubled for warmth, a pair of nice sandals doubled as dress shoes and black basics were functional and interchangeable with colourful accents.
- Weight is always an issue when flying. Wear your heavier items, such as jeans and walking shoes and pack the lighter stuff. This helps as well when you are on the move such as in train and bus stations.
Fluids are an ongoing security issue so transfer your shampoos, conditions, lotions and sprays into travel sized containers. You can purchase travel sized products but they are generally far more expensive. Where possible transfer over the counter medications and prescriptions into smaller containers as well.- If you are gone for more than a week explore options to do laundry. Are there laundry facilities on your ship or in your hotel or apartment? What can you wash out yourself? A spot remover stick is my new best friend, and you can purchase travel sized pouches of laundry detergent, or take your own in a travel sized container.
- Your personal carry on, and here we would recommend a good back pack that fits the size criteria for under the seat on a plane, will hold everything else. We also added an over the shoulder bag to our luggage so that we did not have to check our bulky back packs in museums and galleries.
Even after making this profound change we still had more than we needed. A third pair of shoes for me, collared dress shirts or golf shirts but not both for Ken and exchanging a heavy camera with all its gear for the more than adequate camera in our phones are all things we will reconsider before our next trip.
What continued to be important to us were our travel guides, documents and maps, our tablet and my journal. The first as we had researched, planned and pre-purchased tickets for many of our must see sites, and the second so we could record our adventures.
The one, and perhaps for many of you, insurmountable drawback to packing light was that there was no room to bring back many souvenirs. One couple we met actually bought another suitcase while abroad to bring back all they had purchased. This is not ideal, but then again our kids don’t need any more t-shirts.
Visit your airline’s website for details about the weight and size restrictions for carry-on and personal items. For example, Air Canada allows a carry-on measuring 55cm/21.5in X 23cm/9in X 40cm/15.5in with a 10 kg maximum weight.
As one of our favourite travel writers Rick Steves is fond of saying, “no one ever returns home wishing they had packed more”. Give it a try next time you travel and please share your results with us.