The bag
The traveler who packs well is the traveler who unpacks little. The single best decision you can make before any trip is to pick a bag small enough that overpacking simply isn’t a possibility.
For nearly any trip up to two weeks, a 40-litre carry-on is the right size. It clears the cabin-bag rules of almost every airline that matters, it forces discipline, and it spares you the wait at every baggage carousel you’d rather skip. Soft-sided wins on flexibility; hard-sided wins on protection if you’re moving fragile things. For most travelers, soft is the right answer.
A second, much smaller daypack — the kind that folds flat in a drawer — earns its keep on day trips, hikes, and the occasional grocery run. Everything else (the wheelie-bag-and-tote-and-handbag combination of airport lobbies) is the start of a logistical problem you’ll be solving for the next ten days.
The capsule
The reliable rule for clothing is to pack roughly half the days in outfits and wash once mid-trip. A week needs three or four shirts. Two weeks needs four or five and a single laundry run somewhere around day eight.
What goes in
- 3–5 tops in a coherent palette so any pairs.
- 2 bottoms — one of which is what you’re wearing to the airport.
- 5–7 sets of underwear and socks. The single item it’s always worth having one too many of.
- 1 light layer for evenings — a long-sleeve, a cardigan, or a thin sweater.
- 1 jacket appropriate to the season — packable, ideally water-resistant.
- 1 swimsuit if there’s any chance you’ll want one. They take up no space.
Pack for the trip you’re taking, not the trip you imagine. Three “just in case” outfits weigh more than the one good shirt you’ll actually want.
Layers and weather
Climate variation is what trips up most packers. The plane is cold; the airport is hot; the city is mild by day and sharp after sunset; the mountain ten kilometres outside it is something else entirely. The answer isn’t more clothing — it’s the right layers.
A thin merino base layer is the single most useful piece of clothing a traveler can own. It packs to nothing, it doesn’t hold smell, and it works as pyjamas, an undershirt, or a top in its own right.
A packable rain layer is the second. Even in “dry” destinations the weather is more unpredictable than the forecast suggests. The shell weighs almost nothing in your bag and will save a day at least once a trip.
Shoes
Shoes are the most consistently mispacked item on any trip. They take more space than anything else, they’re heavy, and most travelers bring too many.
Two pairs is enough for almost every trip. One pair you can walk fifteen kilometres in without thinking about your feet — those are the pair you fly in, since they’re the bulkiest. One slightly dressier pair you can also walk in — sneakers in good leather, a loafer, a flat — for evenings and the meal that calls for a little more.
A third pair only enters the conversation if the trip has a specific footwear demand: hiking boots for the trail, sandals for a week on a beach, formal shoes for a wedding. Otherwise it’s dead weight, and you’ll know it’s dead weight by Thursday.
The small stuff
Toiletries should be travel-sized only — and most should be bought on arrival. Shampoo, soap, sunscreen, deodorant, toothpaste: they’re available everywhere, often better, and rarely worth carrying from home. The exception is anything specialised or prescription, which you bring in full.
The kit that earns its space
- A small meds bag. Plasters, painkillers, anti-diarrhoeal, an antihistamine, a few rehydration sachets, any prescription you take. Almost weightless; pays back the day you need any of it.
- A spares kit. Phone charger, plug adapter, a short cable for whatever else you carry, spare contacts if you wear them, a tiny sewing kit (one needle, two threads).
- Documents in two places. A photo of your passport in your email; a copy of your travel insurance in a folder on your phone.
Sunscreen is the one toiletry worth a closer look — buy it locally when you can. It’s usually calibrated to the local sun, often cheaper, and you’ll go through more of it than you think.
The tech
A phone, a charger, and a universal adapter cover ninety percent of what most travelers actually need. The other ten percent is mostly worth carrying; everything beyond that is a thing you’ll wish you’d left at home.
- A small power bank. The 10,000 mAh size is the sweet spot — useful all day, still cabin-bag legal.
- Wired headphones as a backup. Bluetooth fails at inconvenient moments; a three-euro pair of earbuds in a side pocket has saved many a long-haul flight.
- A universal adapter, the small cube-shaped one with USB ports built in. Skip the bundle of country-specific plugs.
A laptop only earns its place if you’ll genuinely use it for an hour or more each day. Otherwise it’s a kilo of obligation. A tablet or a Kindle, on the other hand, is one of the better trip companions ever invented — it weighs less than a paperback and replaces a small shelf of them.
What to leave behind
The hardest part of packing isn’t deciding what to bring. It’s deciding what to leave. A useful exercise: lay out your entire packed bag, then remove four things. The trip will be easier for each one.
The repeat offenders, in order of frequency:
- The third pair of shoes. See above.
- The “just in case” outfit for a fancy evening that probably won’t happen.
- Full-size toiletries. Buy local, smaller, on arrival.
- Books you won’t finish. One genuinely good book is plenty. The Kindle handles the rest.
- The travel pillow that lives in a stuff sack. Lovely on the plane, dead weight for the next nine days.
The bag you carry every day is the cost of the things in it. Make sure each item is paying its way — and you’ll spend the trip thinking about where you are, not what you brought.