Packing for a Month Long Trip

After being with my employer for five years, I got the awesome opportunity to take a 30-day “recharge” from my responsibilities. I eagerly read posts by others who had gone on recharge, looking for ideas on what I could do to fill my time. Some typical things people did were:

• go home to spend time with their family,
• a “staycation” to catch up on chores and friends,
• exercising and eating better (focus on health),
• some light traveling to visit friends.

My first thoughts were some combination of these ideas, including going camping and hiking, and maybe taking up some meditation. I love being at home and in a normal routine, so a staycation that included a good dose of the outdoors sounds very appealing… except that I have been binge watching Netflix and could easily picture that I might fall into the trap of never leaving the house.

To outsmart my tendency to be lazy, I decided to set a more ambitious goal: travel around Europe for a month! Aside from what my itinerary should be, the biggest worry I had was how to pack for such a long trip.

Light Packing Research

After searching for ideas on what to pack, I started stumbling across some great blog posts by other travelers. Here are some of the notable posts I found that helped me in my own packing:

• One Bag - this was the most thorough site I found on light travel. The checklists cover pretty much everything, so I used this as a master list and pruned back things that I didn’t need. I should mention that this site favors “bundle packing”, but the one time I tried it myself it happened to be at a place with bed bugs and disaster ensued.
• Fitting My Life into 18 Liters - some great suggestions for the minimum necessary clothing.
• No Bag Travel - Regev is the MASTER at lightweight travel. His recommendation: wear wool.
• How to Pack Light - a list of “the best X” and why.
• Lady Light Travel - some suggestions directed at women. It takes a different tack, avoiding the “technical” clothes.
• Snarky Nomad - similar to the others, but a great read. The most important take-aways for me were: pack the same amount no matter how long your travel is, have an ultralight daypack, and get travel shoes.
• Best One Bag Travel Ultralight Gear & Packing List = a pretty standard packing list, with several items different from previous blog posts I found. There are interesting ideas in here, but I didn’t refer to this one much.
• Best Men’s Travel Shoes - I spent a few hours looking at shoes but ultimately just went with what I had. The “Snarky Nomad” page on shoes seemed a bit more useful to me.
• Best Backpacking Hammocks - Nobody talks about bringing a hammock. Why? Because you should be exploring! But I met a girl who always carried a hammock and I thought it was a really cool idea for taking a siesta in the middle of a hot day and reading a book. During my 30-day trip I only got to use it twice, but one day I hope to slow down enough to take a relaxing break.

I spent a long time reading through all these and much more to get some idea of what patterns people followed for ultralight travel. Most folks preferred using merino wool based clothing because they don’t need so much washing, and would use eBags to organize their stuff. I already had some camping clothes (socks, underwear, convertible pants) and all of the merino wool links I found before my trip were broken, so I tried out a bunch of different things. During my trip I also came across a camping store and picked up some more items there based on the experiences I had.

My Gear

What I use is a mixture of things I’ve had from previous camping trips and things I bought for my long trip. Now that I have had a lot more experience with my gear, I also really recommend wool clothing; there were several times where I wore the shirts three or four days without washing and they smelled fine.

Organizing

To organize, I had a medium size backpack and several “cubes” for organizing the internals.

• Osprey Talon 44 Backpack
• 3pc eBags large packing cubes
• 3pc eBags slim packing cubes - I picked different colors for the two styles of cubes so that they would be easier to identify.
• cable management pouch

I also brought a regular suitcase that I packed in some regular clothes (jeans, t-shirts, nice shirt) and a board game to play with friends. This was handy because the weather changed from “hot summer” to “chilly autumn” during the time I was there, and having the suitcase let me keep only the most appropriate clothing with me while I stowed the rest at an airport.

At a high level, stuff that I want to be readily accessible goes into the outer pocket of the Osprey, trying to optimize for going through airport security and airplane comfort.

• ziploc gallon-sized baggie holds liquids in case I need to pull it out while going through security
• compressed daypack
• cable management pouch
• personal items: iPhone, wallet, car keys

Once I’m through security, I pull out the daypack and transfer the cable management pouch and my laptop/iPad to it. This way I can keep the daypack at my feet and do some reading or work while on the plane.

Electronics

All the wiring and adapters I had went into the cable management pouch.

• 2x iPhone USB cables, 1x Android USB cable - I carry an iPhone and bring two cables because one is usually fraying a bit and some devices won’t charge correctly if the cable isn’t grounded. I also carry a microusb cable because it works on my camera and it’s handy to be able to loan it to fellow travelers.
• NEO Universal Travel Adapter - A crucial piece of electronics when traveling is to have an adapter/charger so that you can power your phone and laptop. Another adapter I carried with me was Kikkerland UL03-A Universal Travel Adapter after searching for “ultralight travel adapter”. Always be sure to check what types of outlets are found in the countries you are traveling in at a site such as Adaptelec.
• J5 Hyper V Tactical Flashlight - I learned to clip this into the top pouch of my backpack, because otherwise it was too difficult to locate in the middle of the night. I have a hard time remembering to take it with me if I was walking at night, but it was great when I had it. I’m considering moving it to the cable management pouch so that I have it with me while exploring.
• iPhone headphones - Wired headphones are useful for long bus or train rides, without having to charge them each day.
• 2x pens (for immigration forms!)

I also brought a 15” Macbook Pro with me, which I largely left in the suitcase at a friends house (and later, at the airport). When I carried the laptop with me, I used a neoprene sleeve that opens on the side to stow it along my back within the backpack. This makes it easy to pull out and put back when you’re going through airport security. In the beginning I used the laptop to book hotels and trains, as well as to transfer photos off my camera. By the end of my trip, I had gotten pretty comfortable doing nearly everything on my phone except for transfering photos.

I only used two of the normal packing cubes and two of the slim cubes for my month-long trip, aggresively cutting back and making sure I wore something that would fit well into the rotation of clothing for the week. For trips where I am only going a few days, I sometimes using another packing cube to pack an extra set of clothing. I am also experimenting with bring a trash bag to hold my dirty clothing, because my normal (non-wool) clothing can get a bit smelly and I don’t wash my clothes on these trips.

For the trips where I’m not so concerned about the weight (only a few days, or staying at a single place), I bring both a laptop and an iPad air so that my phone can charge more quickly while I goof around on the internet. I am considering getting an external battery for my phone because I use apps a lot to discover places to visit or to request Lyft rides.

Toiletries

All my toiletries fit into a single packing cube.

• sink laundry kit
• laundry soap
• travel toothpaste
• fingernail clipper
• tweezers
• small bottles - For shampoo and conditioner. UPDATE: these now get packed into the top pocket of my backpack so that they are easy to pull out while going through airport security.
• small bottle of hair gel
• hair brush
• electric razor that is washable in water, with charging adapter
• toothbrush
• dental floss
• small tube of toothpaste
• small bottle of ibuprofen
• prescription medication

I always put this packing cube into the bottom of the backpack. There is a zipper at the bottom of the pack that allows me to easily remove this cube without having to unpack the whole backpack. This is useful because oftentimes I will arrive at a new place late at night or when a roommate is already asleep, and all I want to do is brush my teeth and get to sleep as fast as possible.

Clothing

I divide the clothes across the two slim packing cubes I have. It doesn’t quite fit, so I use part of the second packing cube.

• 2x Columbia convertible pants - These convert to shorts for those spontaneous hikes.
• Bluffworks chino pants - Nice looking pants that don’t wrinkle.
• Ministry of Supply dress shirt - I accidentally bought one too large for me, but getting it tailored has netted me a very nice shirt that can be aggressively folded without worry.
• Icebreaker Merino Wool t-shirt - This particular coloring has been discontinued by Icebreaker, but you can still find it on third-party sites. Update: I love this shirt! I bought three more because it’s so comfortable and not a bland coloring.
• quick dry t-shirt - this t-shirt isn’t quite comfortable because it doesn’t breathe. Also, it was a mistake to pick beige when my convertible pants are the same color.
• 2x ExOfficio boxers - these were from previous camping trips, and smelled badly if I washed them without soap. Now I would prefer to get wool boxers.

I found wearing the convertible pants every day quite comfortable, which meant that I didn’t have to transfer the pockets every day. I am not in love with how they look, but they are very handy.

At the camping store I found a very tiny “packing cube”, which I bought to organize my socks separately. Before the small cube, I would just stuff them in across the three cubes (two slim, one normal) that were being used for clothing.

• Darn Tough wool socks
• Darn Tough crew socks
• Icebreaker micro socks
• Wrightsock Men’s Escape Quarter socks - These are double-layer socks to help reduce the incidence of blisters, which I was worried about at the start of my trip.

Since the wool socks can be worn multiple days without smelling, I didn’t bring too many pairs.

Miscellaneous

I used a second packing cube to store some miscellaneous things:

• Cocoon silk travel sheet - Some hostels ask you to use a travel sheet so I brought this one. Update: I never actually needed this; the hostels I stayed at all preferred me to use their sheets so they could be sure they were washed.
• Hummingbird double hammock - If you expect to have some free time to lounge around and read, this is a great investment. It is very comfortable and big enough for two if you are traveling with a friend.
• hammock tree straps - Don’t forget to order tree straps so that you can hang up the hammock whenever the mood strikes you.
• larger packTowl

And a few things that I just place into the backpack loosely:

• Trtl travel pillow - I have a terrible time sleeping on airplanes, and I had a red eye over. This did a decent job of keeping me warm and supporting my head enough that I didn’t jerk awake over and over.
• ultralight travel daypack - I love this daypack, although it can tear from using it often. Mine tore on a later trip, but I sewed it up and it’s still going strong.
• puff jacket - This jacket compresses to fit into one of the hand pockets, so it’s perfect for stashing in the backpack until you need it.
• GorillaPod tripod
• sunglasses - strapped to outside of my pack

On my person

• keychain multi-tool
• personal PackTowl - I kept this on my person. Really useful when in a public restroom and there are no hand towels.
• Sony DSC-RX100M III camera - this camera is bigger than the Powershot S95, but still small enough to fit into my pocket so that I’m never tempted to leave it in my room. It can transfer photos to a cellphone by wifi, and the battery tends to last me a few days. Definitely buy a screen protector for the LCD.
• iPhone 6s with data plan - wifi was often difficult to come by, or required a European bank card, so having a data plan kept me from getting lost.
• passport - I kept this in one of the zippered pockets of my convertible pants.

• Eagle Creek RFID zip stash - I originally used my normal wallet while traveling, but it didn’t hold coins and was an awkward fit for Euros. Switching to this wallet let me organize the bills better and not lose all the coins I received as change. It is also incredibly light compared to other wallets I considered.

  

Conclusion

I was really surprised at how easy it was to adapt to wearing the same clothes every day. With the laptop, the weight was hovering around 11kg and the airlines would let me slide with my backpack as a carry-on. This sounds a bit heavy, but I found that I adapted to it within the first week. By the end of my trip, it even felt a bit light and was easy to carry around all the time without feeling like it was a burden.