How to travel with only carry on Luggage
Travelling with only carry-on luggage has many advantages. It will save you time because you don’t have to wait at the luggage claim belt for your suitcase to arrive after landing. It will save you money because you don’t have to pay for checked in luggage when flying with budget airlines. As you don’t check in any bag, the airline can’t lose or damage your luggage and you are therefore guaranteed to have everything you need at hand once you reach your destination. It’s also much easier to move around with light luggage and e.g. catch a bus or train. Once on a bus or train big suitcases can be a pain if there is not enough room. And even if you are taking a taxi or rent a car, sometimes if you are more than 2 people, you can’t fit all your big suitcases in the trunk.
Convinced it’s a good idea to travel using only carry-on? Here are my tips on how to travel with only carry on luggage.
Choose accommodation providing laundry facilities
The key to packing and travelling light is washing more often. Yes, there are washing machines in other countries as well. When booking your trip make sure to consider where you will wash your clothes and book accommodation that provides laundry facilities. This won’t be necessary for a weekend trip, but for everything longer than a week I would make sure to have access to laundry facilities at some point during your trip.
Bring washing detergent tablets
You can never be sure if washing detergent will be provided. Local supermarkets usually only sell regular package sizes containing enough detergent for 50 washes or so which you won’t need. I prefer the tablets because they are less messy than the powder and don’t contain any liquids like the pads.
If you fail to find accommodation with laundry facilities, bring a travel wash paste to wash your clothes in the sink. Just keep in mind that your clothes will take longer to dry if you wash them in the sink than if you wash them using a washing machine with spinning function.
Choose your clothes wisely
Make sure all the clothes you are taking with you match with each other. It is called a capsule wardrobe. It means that every shirt matches with every pair of pants, every jacket and cardigan match with your shirts and so on. This way, you can mix and match everything and won’t run out of shirts to match a certain pair of pants for example. The same obviously goes for shoes. Pick shoes that match every outfit and are comfortable to wear. Take as few pairs of shoes with you as possible as they take up a lot of space in our luggage. I found that you never need more than 2 pairs. Wear the heavier one of the two on your flight as your luggage has weight restrictions and you as a passenger don’t.
Use layering if temperatures will vary during your trip. Take an extra fleece jacket to put on under your main jacket instead of bringing a very thick and a medium thick jacket. Wear all jacket layers during your flight. If you are hot, you can always take them off after boarding.
Choose light materials and avoid pieces that wrinkle easily or need forever to dry. Also, never take any valuable clothes or jewelry on your trips. Accidents happen, and it would be a shame to ruin e.g. your expensive silk blouse.
How many clothes will I need?
You shouldn’t need more than 2-3 pairs of pants and 4-6 shirts. Remember to use layering. Depending on where you go and how warm or cold it will be there you might need 4 short sleeved shirts and a thin jacket or 3 t-shirts and 2 sweatshirts. Keep the number of things you are packing as low as possible and only take what you really need. There shouldn’t be anything in your luggage you won’t need for sure at some point during your trip. Every piece and gram counts. If for some reason the weather at your destination turns out to be totally different than what was forecast, you can always buy what you need at your destination. But If found that this is a rare exception rather than the general case.
Use Travel Cubes
Whether you prefer taking a backpack or a trolley is a personal choice. I prefer a backpack because it’s easier to move around with it in the streets and walk over cobblestones and stairs. Also, I like having both hands free. But no matter if you are the backpack or trolley type, use travel cubes. They come in different shapes and sizes and will make your life so much easier. They will keep your luggage organized, so even if you must open it in the middle of the street to get something out your underwear won’t be all over the place. It will not only keep the inside of your luggage organized, it will also save you space. When closing the zipper of your travel cube, it will compress the inside. So, you can fit more stuff in less space.
Use Travel Sizes
Do you really need a 300 ml shampoo bottle on your trip? Get empty travel size containers and fill them up. This way you can use the products you prefer while still travelling only with carry-on. Just make sure you don’t bring more than 1 liter in total and put all your liquids in a transparent zip lock bag.
Travel towel
Toiletries are the obvious things when it comes to using travel sizes but there is more. What about a beach towel? The regular ones take up a lot of space. Get a fast dry, microfiber travel towel. They come in all colors and sizes and are perfect for travelling. You can use them on the beach as well as for a pick nick in the park. I’ve even used mine as an additional blanket when I was cold.
Foldable backpack
If you are like me and like to bring a small daypack with you on your trips, consider getting a foldable travel backpack. They are small and light when folded, but will provide enough room for water, snacks, a jacket and whatever else you need when you go out and explore your travel destination.
Foldable water bottle
Speaking of foldable: get yourself some foldable water bottles. Regular water bottles will take up a lot of space even if they are empty. Foldable water bottles can be rolled up when they are empty and therefore won’t take up that much space in your luggage. Ideally you get some with a clip to hang it up on your backpack or the seat in front of you.
E-Book reader
Use an eBook reader instead of printed books. They are smaller and lighter, and you can have hundreds of books on your eBook reader. With printed books, there is only a limited number you will be willing to carry around. Also, if you run out of reading material, you can easily download new books anytime. With printed books sometimes it’s not that easy to find what you like at your destination. It might even be impossible if you are looking for a book in any other than the local language.
