Your Ultimate Travel Packing Guide

This article presents another perspective of the article “Savvy Travel Tips.”

Irrespective of where you are heading to and the duration of the stay, you need to pack a relevant bag or suitcase and, pack it right. And you need to follow the master guide with the checklist irrespective of whether it’s your first trip or you are a seasoned globetrotter.

Packing for a trip at the outset seems a simple task. But only when you actually start packing, you learn the science of packing the hard way. There are several factors to consider while packing your luggage for a trip. First and foremost, it’s the place followed by the weather. The weight limits and the mode of transportation too are important.

Packing right is extremely important to ensure everything you need is at your fingertips. Otherwise, it leaves you with a harried trip causing endless frustration.

Let’s now jot down critical tips to pack effectively and efficiently for any type of trip.

The Type of Travel

Choose your belonging depending on the intent of your travel. There are different items required for camping, for a road trip, business visits, beach holidays and others. The type of clothing and the gear you need purely depends on your genera of travel.

Picking Your Luggage

Looking for a suitcase?

All your trips don’t require a pile of suitcases. Maximum of a carry-on suitcase, a check-in suitcase and a duffle bag will do for most trips. In fact, just single baggage or two for others.

The two-wheeled suitcase is one of the most common types of luggage. However, it needs to be pulled behind you in a straight line. And, to pull the heavy ones are quite a task. Four-wheeled suitcases known as spinners, since they rotate 360 degrees, are way easier to manoeuvre. You can pull the comfortable even in upright position. But the design makes the wheels susceptible to damage.

The hard-shelled suitcases are more durable and much sleeker than the soft-shelled ones. They limit the stuff you can put it but offer more protection. The soft ones have external pockets to store some items conveniently. The biggest advantage is soft bags have more room due to some expansion capabilities.

How about a duffle?

Typically made of durable fabric or leather, duffle bags are usually large and very flexible. They are easily foldable and easy to store. Attractive features include shoulder straps, wheels and multiple internal & external pockets to secure important items.

Storage for high-tech accessories

Conceived by advanced technology, these are usually hard-cased bags having tech features like GPS tracking, biometric fingerprint lock, chargers and more. Bluetooth tracker is available to find lost luggage.

Travel backpacks

These are available in wheeled and the standard ones. The wheeled ones are perfect for embarking on different terrains including, walking across cobblestones. The standard ones are more versatile and lighter with enhanced mobility. They are hands-free and can be carried conveniently.

The Size of the Suitcase

Remember, the bigger the suitcase, the more you will be tempted to store. Always keep a suitcase not more than 22 inches tall. It works as a carry-on too and avoids stuffing unwanted items. However, this depends on where you are travelling and the length of the trip.

Lay Out Your Things

This is one of the first things you do to organize your stuff better for travel. Always spread things out, if possible, in groups, before putting it into your suitcase. Check everything clearly and see what is really needed. The biggest things should go in first. Keep the lightweight items is the extra gaps and form a sturdy and secure base.

Organize Your Stuff’

The stuff you carry depend on the activities you’ll be performing. Organizing your suitcase or duffle bag will be a real challenge here. Use packing organizers to combine multiple layers and to keep everything reachable and make more space. You can conveniently do away with the nitty gritty of packing and unpacking and rearranging.

Packing cubes come handy to pack clothes depending on outfit and reduces the volume occupied by clothes. You can use folders to keep certain clothes neat and folded. In other words, always pack by outfit.

Choose Your Toiletry Bag

Pick the hanging one preferably since they can be hung in bathrooms that have not counter space. You can easily store the essential stuff in these bags featuring multiple and different-sized pockets.

Always place the toiletries on top of the suitcase in a clear bag. And if toiletries come packed, never unpack them.

Other Organizing Aids

Grid-it organizer helps you secure all electronics and wires in order.

Buy a compression stuff sack to store dirty clothes, perfect for laundry.

Travel bottles are great to store shampoos and other liquid toiletries. They don’t leak.

Packing Your Clothes

Your clothes occupy the major portion of your luggage. It’s important to make a checklist of the clothes and select only those you really intent to wear.

Coordinate the colours: always pack your clothes in pairs that coordinate with each other. See if you can mix and match different clothes to create different looks. Dark ones are easier to coordinate than the light ones.

Skip the single-wear clothing: To pack clothes efficiently, always carry those you will wear a number of times with different combinations. Never carry a single-wear item since it occupies an additional space.

Avoid high maintenance clothing: Choose clothes that are machine-washable and more durable. The high maintenance ones are not worth on the trip since you need efforts to maintain them.

Multiple accessories: Mixing up your outfits with accessories like sunglasses, hats, scarves and others is always a good idea.

Use Dry Sheets

Always make sure to keep dry sheets between all your clothing to keep everything fresh.

A Note on Travel Underwear

Your underwear is the most important outfit you will be wearing. Why? Comfortable underwear keeps you comfortable outside. While buying travel underwear, look for the following:

Fast air drying: Choose underwear made from high-tech synthetic materials or merino wool. It’s convenient to wash them in the hotel sink and thy dry quickly.

Breathable: The two materials are breathable, and it keeps you fresh and comfortable all day long. Whereas cotton retains sweat and creates a swampy feeling.

Odour control: Your travel underwear should repel odour and keep your nether regions clean and fresh.

Socks – The Essentials

While travelling, carrying several pairs of socks are highly essential than you think. Choose merino wool socks for summers and thicker socks for winters. Spend some extra bucks on quality socks and they will make your travel more comfortable. Look for travel socks with the following features:

Moisture-wicking: You can avoid sweat by wearing socks that wick moisture from your feet.

Fast drying: Quality woollen and synthetic socks are known to dry in a few hours.

Eliminate odour: Wear high-quality woollen socks that eliminate odour effectively. These socks have antibacterial features too.

Say no to cotton: Cotton socks are the worst since they trap moisture and build up odour easily. They also take longer to dry and can lead to blisters and smelly feet.

Shoes – Your Best Friend

Always keep two pairs of premium-quality shoes while travelling. You may need to explore some places by foot and, a comfortable pair of shoes saves your feet and keeps you going. Consider the environment before buying shoes to induce maximum comfort.

Storing Your Clothes

Always roll your clothes tightly because you can easily fit more items in your suitcase. Folding takes space and also creates wrinkles and fold lines.

Your Personal Items and Gadgets

Get a personal item carry-on bag that is cosy and safe to store your other personal stuff. A small daypack is an ideal choice to secure items and keep it light. These include your technology items and small but useful travel essentials.

Travel Documents and Credit Cards

The most important items of your travel, it’s advisable to get yourself a travel document organizer. The multiple holders help keep your documents and ID proofs safely in an organized manner, easy to use whenever required.

Keep a Ready-to-Go Health Kit

International adventures are fascinating but, can also invite a string of common health problems. Keeping yourself fit in a foreign land is a challenge. A more-than-useful health kit is your saviour in any circumstance. The kit should contain band-aids, antiseptic solution, essential ointments and common tablets. Keep this kit in your duffle bag if possible, for quick access should the need arise.

Keep Some Essentials in Your Backpack

You may need some items like chargers, lip balms, neck pillow, eye mask and other similar items while travelling. Don’t forget to include them in the backpack for convenience.

Don’t Forget Travel Security

Pick pocketers are quite common in most foreign lands. Secure your belongings by keeping them in discreet places and close to you. Try these safety essentials for the same:

• Travel lock
• Reflective clothing
• Leg wallet
• Undercover bra
• Money belt
• Neck wallet

The Takeaway

Invest enough time to think about your requirements and carefully do a detailed study of how you will travel. Once you know what you want, and you have the necessary things, you will know that packing for your international trip is more of an art in an organized way. You can concentrate completely on your new experience and connect with the culture better.