From personal experience when I was younger: Spending a month traveling on European trains with a backpack will teach you a whole lot about what you actually need to pack, and what you will want to just leave behind and purchase again locally if you really turn out to need a given item.
For me, the starting point that makes a lot of it way easier is to focus on layering. Anyone who lives in the Bay Area will instantly understand it: you don't build outfits for different weather, you build outfits for all weather that just depend on how many layers you've got on. For example, no cold-weather coats: instead you pack a feather-light and very foldable rain shell, layer it over thin sweaters for cold weather (multiple, if it's cold enough), and wear it directly over a light outfit for warm rainy weather.
The advantages of packing light aren't always obvious[1] until you experience them, so you can pretty much tell someone's level of travel experience by how small their luggage is. I've yet to meet someone who packs more and more stuff based on past experience.
As the article mentions, good fabrics (like merino wool) can go a long way.
(1) Reliability and flexibility being foremost. Not having to worry about lost luggage. Itinerary changes are much easier when all your stuff is with you and can fit on your lap or under your seat. Then comes the comfort and speed. Being able to take the stairs or not blinking an eye at walking an extra half mile go a long way towards making travel enjoyable.
I've been going lighter and lighter and am down to a backpack that I carry (mostly just meds and electronics) and a small suitcase that I could carry-on, but I usually check. But my spouse packs heavier and heavier every year. It's a way to cope with anxiety; you think of everything that can possibly go wrong, and you make sure you have that mitigated with something in your carry-on.
And that's why on our last trip we had 9 pounds of dog food for our service dog, in cold packs, in our carry-on. "But what if there's a problem with the flight, and we lose our luggage, and we can't get to a pet food store for the whole two weeks?"
Spoiler: The cold packs didn't last, the food spoiled, and we had to go to a pet store.
Light packing is great for the travelling part, but has disadvantages once you're at the destination and a need a thing you didn't bring. So neither is always better, it'll be trip and person dependent.
Depends on where you are and what you're doing, but you can usually get what you need at the destination. People live there after all, and those people are able to get what they need.
Unless I have to travel to a destination with a drastically different weather or I have to stay longer than ten days, it usually takes me no more than 15 to 20 minutes to get packed.
With my undiagnosed ADHD I usually start an hour or two before my airport cab.
My problem is not what to pack or that I pack too many things but to actually begin the process of packing.
I used to struggle to even start packing and solved it for me by creating a default packing list in google keep. So I now just need to mindlessly retrieve passport, ticket, cards, 3x socks, 3x shirt, etc. and check them off the list.
Only takes 15 minutes now and not a single braincell or any willpower need to be involved. And who doesn't love checking items off a list.
I really don't understand what people are putting in the 2-3 large suitcases I see them struggling to shove in overhead. For one, rolling luggage is usually a mistake for anyone who's not flight crew.
I bring a week's worth of thin clothes that layer. If I need more, I'm either washing by hand or using a service. Basic toiletries, an e-reader, phone, keys, charger bricks, a notebook/pens, daypack. It fits into an underseat backpack with room to spare.
This has scaled fine all the way up to multi-month scientific expeditions in remote locations. Sometimes I need to accommodate specialized equipment like formal clothes/shoes, camera bodies/lenses, excavation equipment, tent, water purification, sleeping pad/bag, etc, but that's solved through the magic of bringing a slightly larger bag.
Rolling luggage has exactly zero disadvantages? You dont have to roll it if you dont want to, but rolling if frequently easier. I have seen people walk 2-3km from hotel to the station with rolling luggage, no issue or effort needed. It would be harder if they had to actually carry it.
For me, colder weather doesn't necessarily dictate warmer clothing, it dictates a faster pace or more inside activities.
Another thing is getting used to and being comfortable with being cold and hot. Enjoying time in saunas and cold plunges made me pack even lighter than I already did.
Used to travel for work 3 weeks a month and worked with a group of folks who took pride in traveling light. I learned to never pack for more than 6 days. After 5 days either do the laundry or use the hotel laundry service.
> I had my worst-ever packing experience in the late nineties, when I was a teen-ager.
Is hyphenating a word like teenager a New Yorker idiosyncracy? Or is that a "soft" hyphen that crept into the final article copy?
On the topic of packing, my advice is to roll your clothes instead of folding them. Rolling avoids wrinkles and allows more space-filling options. That plus the general advice of packing just a few universally-appropriate items. If you really need something else you can always buy it locally and then discard it (or something else) when you pack for the return trip.
I usually travel with one 19-22L bag (the same one Tynan, mentioned in the article uses… or used a decade ago). I ran across one of his videos when looking for a bag, and everyone was recommending the same Tom Bihn bag at the time.
I found traveling light requires understanding and accepting 2 things:
1. You will do laundry while on vacation, how much you pack determines how often laundry is done.
2. Unless going to an uninhabited area, people live their whole life where you’re going. If you forget something, you can probably buy it at the destination. I almost always buy toiletries locally to avoid dealing with liquids and TSA. I’ve bought stuff a couple times, but it’s rare. I find that with 19L, I still over pack and have stuff I bring and don’t use.
On an overnight trip, I only brought a plastic shopping bag with me. We were going by bus and would arrive late in the evening. The next day we’d be out and about all day, before meeting up at the bus in the evening to head home. I knew I didn’t want to be saddled with luggage, so I wore cloths that were on the verge of being thrown out, and brought a change of clothes and a phone charger in the grocery bag. The next day, the other people on the trip who brought multiple bags, laptops, coolers, etc for 1 night, were stuck sitting in one place watching their bags. I was able to roam free like a local. No regrets.
Being able to pick light and travel with minimal belongings is a great skill to have. But on the other hand, if your itinerary looks like home -> car -> plane -> car -> hotel, then you can pretty much go nuts bringing big checked suitcases with as much junk as you think you might need. Just keep the essentials in a carry-on in case the airline loses a bag.
We recently traveled to Italy, and after purposefully packing light ("just a carryon"), of our 8 gate-checked carry-on bags, we received 2 on day 7 and the rest on day 8.
It was revealing to see how much our agonizing "should I take this or not" decisions just did not matter, because we didn't have them anyway. Receiving our bags after the week was somewhat overwhelming - look at all this stuff!
In the future, we will bring less (but maybe not quite "travel with a passport and a credit card"), but we will make sure that our bags-that-stay-with-us contain at least needed medications and next-day necessities.
And if given a choice, we'd all much rather we make it to the destination without our bags than the other way around!
Travelled southeast asia + China for one year with small maybe <20L backpack (and I could fit there even quite thick hooded sweater for cold weather and huge lonely planet guide back in those days, now with smartphone/laptop everything would be much easier).
The basic simple rule usually is - the packing for 3 months or even whole year is no different from packing for 1 week, if there is stable climate. How often do you need things you won't use within 1-2 weeks? Pretty much never, if it's not something you use all the time within one week then it's most likely not needed.
The lighter your baggage is the more mobile you are, you can go easier further to have more accommodation options, more transportation options, good luck carring your suitcase on unpaved road, mountain, forest or just broken sidewalks or high curbs every 10 meters.
Now I travel with my family each summer for beach vacation in Europe, we still pack each person only one small backpack - after all what you need for hot weather in Europe for ~10 days? Bunch of t-shirts (let's say 1 per 2-3 days of vacation, you can rotate them), shorts/dress (if girl), underwear, swimsuit, sandals, flipflops (wear sneakers into plane, they take the most space) and just in case of bad weather light jacket and one long pants, kids are even able to put there plush toy, book, some drawing tools. This summer we just bought sun umbrella for like 8EUR which paid itself in one day compared to renting sun umbrella/berth, though we were unsucessful in selling it, so it was not for free, but we didn't need to lug it with large suitcase as some people. When the kids were small (unable to carry their own backpacks) I could pack all 3 of us into one 50L backpack with wife having her own 24L backpack.
I don't really understand travelling for summer vacation with large suitcase, what are people packing there, are the moving or what? I am always astounded when kids are going to school trip for FOUR nights, they leave Monday morning and Friday noon they are back, yet parents pack these kids large more than 50cm tall suitcases full of things, my kids with one 24L rolltop backpack (rolled down) and smaller (half empty) 15-20L daypack are always kids with smallest baggage, yet they are not missing anything, now I started to pack even towel and 50ml shampoo/shower gel since they have some crappy accommodations not providing it.
There are record 35-40C temperatures in Europe this summer, yet now when they went to camp for one week I saw again all the kids with large suitcases for hot weather, what the heck are ALL these parents packing. Out of 60 kids there was literally ONE other kid which had like 50-60L large backpack, everyone else medium/big suitcases and their accommodation provides shelves to store your things, so they don't need to live out of suitcase which is the only benefit of suitcase over backpack (though there are duffel bags you can wear as backpack).
TikTok keeps pushing me those person item hack jackets with tons of pockets where you can stuff clothes, one of them even folds up into a bag with handle, seems not entirely stupid idea, for cooler weathers, but I've never seen it in the wild.
I’ve done lightweight backpacking in the past and usually check in luggage now. I’ve come to the conclusion that for how I usually travel these days - long amounts of time in single places, not trying to cram in many destinations in a single trip - there isn’t a major benefit to keeping it light. Usually I’ll just keep one change of clothes in a small backpack and check everything else. So I don’t need to carry anything until I reach the destination and have a backup in case of delays etc. Unless you’re traveling to the absolute middle of nowhere, if your bag gets lost you can get compensated for that, and buy whatever you need at your destination. Then on arrival I take a cab to wherever I’m staying, where I just have to roll the roller suitcase from the baggage claim to the cab (like 5 minutes of flat walking with ample elevators etc). Make sure that wherever I reserve isn’t up 10 flights of stairs (it usually isn’t a problem). Then that bag will just sit for the entire time I’m on vacation. Finally repeat in reverse.
I find the benefits of lightweight backpacking type optimization overblown for my travel style. Maybe it’s important if you’re speed running 20 destinations in a single trip or are incredibly unlucky with checked bags getting lost, but especially with kids now I just don’t really see much benefit.
I passed through stages of owning no vehicle, then homelessness, then losing all my possessions, then had my own place again, and for the past 23 years, amassing personal belongings again, without owning a vehicle. I've walked around with nothing to my name but what's in my backpack. In those times, I was strict about not becoming a "bag lady" type, no pushing a shopping cart, and no stashing of my stuff: if it didn't fit into the one backpack, something had to go.
A seminal film for me was Up in the Air with George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick. George Clooney plays a nomadic executive who doesn't ever stay home. He visually demonstrates how he packs and how he never uses carry-ons. I took that advice, and I was flying Southwest Airlines.
I routinely went back-and-forth on 90-minute flights; having no checked baggage was a good strategy for streamlining, and cost-saving. Visiting my parents, I could keep clothes and stuff at their place, and there it was waiting for me when I arrived. Don't forget to bring an empty bag for souvenirs! Don't forget the shoes you'll need!
I've built a collection of luggage, and recently used it all, when I went on "Staycation". It was weird, because I only planned for a one-night stay, and I could literally go across town and pick up anything I wanted from home, and I only brought 1.5 changes of clothes. But I filled up about four bags. I packed under time pressure, but I hadn't forgotten anything; in the end, I did not go home to pick anything up, yet I stayed for three days and two nights.
My mindset is quite the opposite, yes it it annoying to travail more heavy, but nothing worse than when you are in a trip and you were unexpectedly soaked too many times, or sweated too much under heavy rain and have nothing to change because you just run out of the last pair of socks that you planned for the exact number of days.
There is something very comforting to know that you have everything needed and you don't have to worry.
31 comments
[ 0.36 ms ] story [ 8.2 ms ] threadFor me, the starting point that makes a lot of it way easier is to focus on layering. Anyone who lives in the Bay Area will instantly understand it: you don't build outfits for different weather, you build outfits for all weather that just depend on how many layers you've got on. For example, no cold-weather coats: instead you pack a feather-light and very foldable rain shell, layer it over thin sweaters for cold weather (multiple, if it's cold enough), and wear it directly over a light outfit for warm rainy weather.
As the article mentions, good fabrics (like merino wool) can go a long way.
(1) Reliability and flexibility being foremost. Not having to worry about lost luggage. Itinerary changes are much easier when all your stuff is with you and can fit on your lap or under your seat. Then comes the comfort and speed. Being able to take the stairs or not blinking an eye at walking an extra half mile go a long way towards making travel enjoyable.
And that's why on our last trip we had 9 pounds of dog food for our service dog, in cold packs, in our carry-on. "But what if there's a problem with the flight, and we lose our luggage, and we can't get to a pet food store for the whole two weeks?"
Spoiler: The cold packs didn't last, the food spoiled, and we had to go to a pet store.
With my undiagnosed ADHD I usually start an hour or two before my airport cab.
My problem is not what to pack or that I pack too many things but to actually begin the process of packing.
Only takes 15 minutes now and not a single braincell or any willpower need to be involved. And who doesn't love checking items off a list.
I bring a week's worth of thin clothes that layer. If I need more, I'm either washing by hand or using a service. Basic toiletries, an e-reader, phone, keys, charger bricks, a notebook/pens, daypack. It fits into an underseat backpack with room to spare.
This has scaled fine all the way up to multi-month scientific expeditions in remote locations. Sometimes I need to accommodate specialized equipment like formal clothes/shoes, camera bodies/lenses, excavation equipment, tent, water purification, sleeping pad/bag, etc, but that's solved through the magic of bringing a slightly larger bag.
Another thing is getting used to and being comfortable with being cold and hot. Enjoying time in saunas and cold plunges made me pack even lighter than I already did.
Is hyphenating a word like teenager a New Yorker idiosyncracy? Or is that a "soft" hyphen that crept into the final article copy?
On the topic of packing, my advice is to roll your clothes instead of folding them. Rolling avoids wrinkles and allows more space-filling options. That plus the general advice of packing just a few universally-appropriate items. If you really need something else you can always buy it locally and then discard it (or something else) when you pack for the return trip.
Depends on climate, but if they dry in 2 days, you barely need anything
I found traveling light requires understanding and accepting 2 things:
1. You will do laundry while on vacation, how much you pack determines how often laundry is done.
2. Unless going to an uninhabited area, people live their whole life where you’re going. If you forget something, you can probably buy it at the destination. I almost always buy toiletries locally to avoid dealing with liquids and TSA. I’ve bought stuff a couple times, but it’s rare. I find that with 19L, I still over pack and have stuff I bring and don’t use.
On an overnight trip, I only brought a plastic shopping bag with me. We were going by bus and would arrive late in the evening. The next day we’d be out and about all day, before meeting up at the bus in the evening to head home. I knew I didn’t want to be saddled with luggage, so I wore cloths that were on the verge of being thrown out, and brought a change of clothes and a phone charger in the grocery bag. The next day, the other people on the trip who brought multiple bags, laptops, coolers, etc for 1 night, were stuck sitting in one place watching their bags. I was able to roam free like a local. No regrets.
It was revealing to see how much our agonizing "should I take this or not" decisions just did not matter, because we didn't have them anyway. Receiving our bags after the week was somewhat overwhelming - look at all this stuff!
In the future, we will bring less (but maybe not quite "travel with a passport and a credit card"), but we will make sure that our bags-that-stay-with-us contain at least needed medications and next-day necessities.
And if given a choice, we'd all much rather we make it to the destination without our bags than the other way around!
The basic simple rule usually is - the packing for 3 months or even whole year is no different from packing for 1 week, if there is stable climate. How often do you need things you won't use within 1-2 weeks? Pretty much never, if it's not something you use all the time within one week then it's most likely not needed.
The lighter your baggage is the more mobile you are, you can go easier further to have more accommodation options, more transportation options, good luck carring your suitcase on unpaved road, mountain, forest or just broken sidewalks or high curbs every 10 meters.
Now I travel with my family each summer for beach vacation in Europe, we still pack each person only one small backpack - after all what you need for hot weather in Europe for ~10 days? Bunch of t-shirts (let's say 1 per 2-3 days of vacation, you can rotate them), shorts/dress (if girl), underwear, swimsuit, sandals, flipflops (wear sneakers into plane, they take the most space) and just in case of bad weather light jacket and one long pants, kids are even able to put there plush toy, book, some drawing tools. This summer we just bought sun umbrella for like 8EUR which paid itself in one day compared to renting sun umbrella/berth, though we were unsucessful in selling it, so it was not for free, but we didn't need to lug it with large suitcase as some people. When the kids were small (unable to carry their own backpacks) I could pack all 3 of us into one 50L backpack with wife having her own 24L backpack.
I don't really understand travelling for summer vacation with large suitcase, what are people packing there, are the moving or what? I am always astounded when kids are going to school trip for FOUR nights, they leave Monday morning and Friday noon they are back, yet parents pack these kids large more than 50cm tall suitcases full of things, my kids with one 24L rolltop backpack (rolled down) and smaller (half empty) 15-20L daypack are always kids with smallest baggage, yet they are not missing anything, now I started to pack even towel and 50ml shampoo/shower gel since they have some crappy accommodations not providing it.
There are record 35-40C temperatures in Europe this summer, yet now when they went to camp for one week I saw again all the kids with large suitcases for hot weather, what the heck are ALL these parents packing. Out of 60 kids there was literally ONE other kid which had like 50-60L large backpack, everyone else medium/big suitcases and their accommodation provides shelves to store your things, so they don't need to live out of suitcase which is the only benefit of suitcase over backpack (though there are duffel bags you can wear as backpack).
I find the benefits of lightweight backpacking type optimization overblown for my travel style. Maybe it’s important if you’re speed running 20 destinations in a single trip or are incredibly unlucky with checked bags getting lost, but especially with kids now I just don’t really see much benefit.
A seminal film for me was Up in the Air with George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick. George Clooney plays a nomadic executive who doesn't ever stay home. He visually demonstrates how he packs and how he never uses carry-ons. I took that advice, and I was flying Southwest Airlines.
I routinely went back-and-forth on 90-minute flights; having no checked baggage was a good strategy for streamlining, and cost-saving. Visiting my parents, I could keep clothes and stuff at their place, and there it was waiting for me when I arrived. Don't forget to bring an empty bag for souvenirs! Don't forget the shoes you'll need!
I've built a collection of luggage, and recently used it all, when I went on "Staycation". It was weird, because I only planned for a one-night stay, and I could literally go across town and pick up anything I wanted from home, and I only brought 1.5 changes of clothes. But I filled up about four bags. I packed under time pressure, but I hadn't forgotten anything; in the end, I did not go home to pick anything up, yet I stayed for three days and two nights.
Simply having two pairs because say, gym + anything else disproportionately adds large overhead.
I usually get away with one pair. But its not always possible.
There is something very comforting to know that you have everything needed and you don't have to worry.