Travel Essentials

Over the past few years, I've learned a lot about travel and how to experience more by traveling light, cheaply, and comfortably. There is still a lot to learn, but each successive trip is more comfortable and focuses more on getting to know the places and people, and less on the logistics and everyday concerns of a trip.

All of my international trips to this point have been to Europe, plus Mexico and some Caribbean islands which I don't count.

2003: London, Paris
2005: Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg
2006: Spain, Portugal
2007: Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland

As Europe is generally 'first-world', many of the travel concerns are the same as they would be when traveling stateside.

Here is what I've learned about various aspects of trip planning:

Packing: Luggage
Lighter is better. Everyone knows that, but it's taken me years to figure out what that actually means. When I first began traveling, I purchased a backpack, the Jansport Mozambique Tall. It's an internal frame pack. The frame helps transfer the weight of the pack to your waist via a hip belt.

It also has a detachable (via zipper) day pack for use once you get to your destination.

It is a good pack, and served me well for several years and many trips. I never traveled with it fully expanded, knowing that it had more room than I'd ever need. That said, it was still a bit big. Even fully cinched up, it had a tendency to spread out and make itself larger than it needed to be.

The other problem is that the frame itself kept the bag above airline regulations for carry-on, pictured here. Even if one were to squash and bungee it up in every dimension (something I've never done), the frame would take it several inches at least above the length limit. After Iberia Airlines lost the checked bag twice in 2006, I vowed to not let it happen again, if at all possible.

Before my most recent trip, I looked into getting something a bit smaller. After a number of test drives and lots of internet research, I went with the Rick Steves convertible carry-on.

There are several things I like about this pack:

• dimensions are well within airline carry-on limits
• it's basically rectangular. I found with other packs that lots of curves and tapers lead to either wasted space or space that gets too easy to fill with odds-and-ends that add weight
• CAN be expanded (as shown) if needed; normally it is much less deep
  
• can be worn like a backpack, or carried like a normal bag. The waist belt rides a little high and it is definitely not as comfortable in this mode as my Jansport, all other things being equal. But most other things aren't equal because this one forces me to carry less stuff, with less weight.

Things I wish would be different about this pack:

• an internal strap in the middle. In fact, my Jansport has the same problem: it has internal cinching straps at the top and bottom, but tightening them invariably allows the contents in the middle to bulge. Three straps evenly spaced from top to bottom would be ideal.
  

That said, I was very happy with this pack during the trip. I will make some modifications to the contents for the next one, but it will likely become my normal bag, as the airlines had no trouble letting me carry it on, while a number of passengers with larger packs had to gate-check.

Packing: What to Pack
For a week and a half in Europe, in April and expected mild weather, I packed the following, including what I wore to begin the trip:

• Clothes
• 2 pairs of long pants (khaki style, one dark)
• 1 long sleeve, button-down shirt.
• 3 short sleeve, polo-style shirts
• 2 t-shirts, cotton/spandex (very light), as undershirts
  
• 2 t-shirts, cotton/poly, as undershirts or sole shirt under a jacket
  
• polar fleece jacket
• 5 pairs underwear (poly/spandex, very light)
• 4 pairs socks (Thorlo, thick hiking socks, "Level 2" padding)
• 2 pairs athletic ankle socks
• 1 pair 'shower shoes', collapsible (double as 'sneakers' when not a lot of walking is required)
  
• belt
• baseball cap
• Books
• 1 Rick Steves Eastern Europe book
• 1 Lonely Planet Vienna
• 1 Lonely Planet "Best of Prague"
• 1 Lonely Planet Poland
• 1 Sudoku book (mini), for plane
• Toiletries (dry), in 1-quart plastic bag
  
• toothbrush
• mini medical kit, in small plastic container, with
• Sudafed (blister pack, cut into 2's, with extra backing cut off)
• Immodium (same)
• Antihistamine (same)
• Dramamine (mini 'sample' size from store)
• a few Q-tips
• a band-aid or two
  
• Adhesive tape
• small plastic pill container with enough multi-vitamins for trip, which I conveniently didn't take
• mini travel deodorant
• mini travel Advil
• 2 razors
• mini sample dental floss from dentist
• mini travel soap (cheap hotels sometimes don't give you soap)
• Toiletries (wet), in 1-quart bag. Anything that remotely reprsents a liquid or gel went in here, for TSA inspection at the airports
• mini toothpaste
• mini mouthwash
• mini shampoo
• mini hair spray
• mini hand sanitizer
• carmex tube
• neosporin tube
• my personal favorite: a mini spray bottle with Febreze. Freshens clothes up, takes out wrinkles. A lot of bang for the buck.
• Miscellanous, in 1-gallon bag
• plug adapter (no transformer)
• camera battery charger (built-in voltage converter)
• extra camera battery
  
• cell phone charger (probably unnecessary unless I do international roaming)
• cheap digital wristwatch with alarm (serves as alarm clock)
• extra pair of glasses, plus prescription sunglasses
• extra CF cards for camera
• Other
  
• TSA-approved combination lock, can also be used in hostels for minimally securing items
• a couple fabric softener sheets for the "old" clothes bag
• my daypack from the Jansport bag
• mini notebook
• pen
• copy of itinerary, passport, and extra ATM/debit card (this is in addition to my wallet which I carried)
  

For me, this is close to everything "necessary". I know you can travel with just the clothes on your back, but for the level of convenience, this was plenty.

When possible and necessary, I quickly washed clothes in the hotel sink, using shampoo. Nothing gets so dirty in the two weeks that a laundromat is required. It sounds barbaric, but it works just fine. The underwear and cotton-spandex shirts can all dry in less than a day. The socks, because they are so thick), take a bit longer. But again as awful as it sounds, throwing a damp pair on dries them out very quickly.

As I said, this was a pretty good balance. But if I wanted to go lighter, I'd remove these items:

• 1 short-sleeve shirt. I used all three, but could have gotten by with two easily. One could be washed if needed.
• at least 1 pair underwear. As I said, they dry quickly when washed.
• guidebook(s) (discussed later)
• 1 pair athletic socks
  
• Mouthwash
  
• cell phone charger

As it was, the daypack could fit inside the main pack while still keeping it within the carry-on limit. This was important if the airport security dictated only one carry-on per passenger. In the daypack, I put the guidebooks for the current country, the notebook and pen, the jacket if I wasn't wearing it, and the liquids.

Generally, unless I was walking a long distance, I wore the daypack on my back and carried the backpack by the handle. It was very comfortable.