Luggage Preferences and Packing Light

@mars My partner has the Osprey Fairview 40 and loves it, it’s a great bag. Excellent choice!

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I highly recommend vacuum bags (compress with pump or vacuum cleaner)to increase capacity in your luggage.

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Absolutely agree @evag008 … space bags allowed us to pack for a three month house sitting road trip along the West Coast of the US from Vancouver Canada, to Southern CA in my husband’s 2 seater sports car, which had a miniscule trunk.

We checked into a hotel in Ashland OR (in between sits) wheeling in the luggage trolley the receptionist remarked “Did that all come out of THAT car?” “Yes and there’s more besides”

Thank you space bags! BTW you can usually find a vacuum cleaner (for sucking the air out) :wink:

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I guess everyone is different. I’m not much of a fan of shopping at the best of time (for something specific as opposed to window shopping) so the last thing I want to do is have to shop for clothes etc when I’m travelling.

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It’s interesting to read through all the comments here. I guess it depends a LOT on how you travel, how long you are gone for, and where you are going.

We generally spend about 6 weeks in Europe in spring/fall so no real weather extremes for us. I dress in layers and don’t take a lot of clothing, but what I take is comfortable.

We almost always have a rental car so we don’t worry much about pulling a suitcase. I have travelled with a backpack when we did the camino and was glad to go back to pulling my case, instead of having to haul (any amount) of weight on my back.

(My backpack was a 30 litre Deuter which I loved, but it was a bit too long for carryon, so we checked it. I’m not a fan of checking backpacks as they get thrown around a lot.)

So - given the kind of trips we do, staying in one place for a long time, having a rental car, preferring to check our bags instead of carry them on (so we can carry liquids etc), we have a set of lightweight hard shell luggage we bought a couple of years ago and really love.

I prefer a suitcase to a backpack now because I like that I can find everything easily without having to pull stuff out to get to the bottom etc. On a long trip, we will using take two medium-large suitcases, on shorter trips, we manage with one medium-large and one carry on side (which we almost always check anyway.)

We never take boots (wellies) but normally both take two pairs of light weight running or trail shoes, and a pair of sandals. I usually just borrow the wellies of our home owner (asking first of course), if they are needed.

I have a good quality lightweight waterproof jacket and a LW down vest that rolls up into nothing as well as LS and SS shirts, and a hoody/jacket. I take a sari style scarf on every trip because it can be used in so many ways.

A few times, after 4-5 weeks of house sitting in England or France, we’ve popped over to Crete to an all inclusive at the end. Then we’ve stored our bigger luggage for a week and just took a single carryon to share.

So many options, you need to find what works best for you and your style of travel!

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I had to fly to my present sit here in Florida so it was a perfect opportunity to try my hand at packing light, but I mostly failed. I got everything into a carry-on, but overstuffed it so that it measured closer to 11 or 12 inches deep and not 9 inches. I got lucky in that I was offered the option of voluntarily checking it because the flights were so full. I truly doubt that I could have stuffed it into the overhead bin. I plan on shipping back whatever I can in the next few days before I fly back. I think my 15 inch Lenovo laptop with case might have sabotaged my efforts. It, alone, takes up a lot of space and is kind of heavy.

And now my question. For those of you who travel light with a computer, what size and brand do you have? Is yours small and lightweight?

My daughter has a MacBook Air, which seems much lighter and smaller than my Windows laptop. I’m wondering if I should offer to take it off her hands, it’s from 2018 when she started college, and get her a new one as a graduation present this May. I have an iPhone but have never used a Mac for regular computing, although my daughter much prefers a Mac.

Hi @mars. I won’t address the travel part with computers, as I don’t have enough experience. I will say that I always take my Mac with me, even though I also have an iPad (which I leave home). We’re all different. I converted to Apple products many years ago. This year I went from a MacBook Pro to a MacBook Air. In part it was just a treat from me to me (and a long story), but the Air certainly does all I’ll ever need and more. I have a good friend who eagerly waits to buy my older iPhone and then the MacBook, and I help her with geek stuff and so I do still work on both my current and previous models. I do like the Air, but I also really liked the Pro.

The best feature for me is the connectivity of the Apple products. I do most of my texting on the MacBook, which really speeds things up. I use Notes a lot too, and again both are connected. What happens on one displays on the other. I also have my iPad in the loop, although I rarely use it. All three display identical information simultaneously. “Once you go Mac you never go back”.

Switching from a PC to a MacBook took me about a week to adjust. It’s a little like driving on the other side of the road - what’s on the right on a PC is on the left on a Mac, generally speaking. That’s certainly not a technical answer, but that’s how I see things. :slightly_smiling_face:

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In case you want to stick with Windows, I can heartily recommend a Surface Pro. Mine is about half the size/weight of my husbands laptop, and the keyboard detaches from the screen, turning it into a tablet.

I’m in LOVE with the thing :heart_eyes:

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Side note: I’m so excited I bought an Air to replace my Pro last year and it’s SO much lighter. I can’t wait to travel again!

I generally take my iPhone, iPad Air, and MacBook Air on all our trips. I love how they are all on the cloud and connect with one another no matter what I’m doing.

I have a backpack that I always carry on the airplane with a change of clothes, food, water, toiletries etc, and it has a special padded laptop pouch between the bag and my back so it’s always been safe.

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For those who are walkers/hikers in the UK, do you you prefer to wear regular ankle-high hiking boots or are waterproof trail shoes adequate?

Have a look at trail shoes & use some gaiters when it’s muddy? I don’t have the ones below as found a cool local person making some but tis just an example.

https://dirtygirlgaiters.com/

Thanks for the tip @TheMapleKiwi I wonder how lightweight and compact these are for traveling with just a backpack.

I have these two pairs (below) and am planning my trip to the UK. I’m wondering if I can get by with the lower ones. I only wear the hiking boots on rocky terrain. Is there much of that in the UK?


So, you think my trail shoes plus strap-on gaiters would be the way to go? My trail shoes are waterproof.

I’d take the ones in front :+1:. Also look easier to squash & put socks etc in your backpack.

Sorry, when I think of trail shoes I think in terms of ones I use for trail running, not hiking :woman_facepalming:. I’d still wear my Brooks Ghosts or Saucony’s for hiking. Sorry for the useless info on a sat am.

Thanks! It was great info! I have La Sportiva trail running shoes that I bought for hiking. I don’t run. But the trail where I usually hike becomes a mud bath when it’s wet so I had to retire those shoes and they’re practically new. Now I know I can just get a pair of gators and I’ll be able to wear them again!!

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I use a carry on bag pack, the biggest size that the airline will allow for carry on. Then i wear light pants with several pockets for packing lingerie and small items. Under the pants, I wear leggings or warm thermals. I wear a sleeveless vest then a t shirt, a top, a light cardigan, a heavy cardigan and a rain/windjacket. I wear a warm pair of shoes and then pack light sandals. Also, I stuff all my jacket pocket with clothes. Travel size toiletories also work for me and a small sachet of detergent in case I do not get to the launderette quickly enough. If it gets too hot on the plane, I disrobe in the restroom, of course!!

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For me - trail running shoes with good tread. My personal faves are Saucony Peregrines because they are light weight but have excellent grip.I also like them because they have a wide toe box. I walked 800km on the Camino without a single blister.

They come with or without gortex (waterproof) but I don’t buy the waterproof ones because it’s so dry here.

The only down side is that in the UK, the bottom of my “trousers” (honestly, I’d say pants but the uk folks would giggle) still get wet in long grass. I normally take two pairs but I have a suitcase and space. One to wear, and one to dry if necessary. And then I borrow the HO’s wellies if I can.

I just picked up another pair of last year’s model, there are Peregrine 11s out now.

I haven’t weighed these ones, but the Peregrine 5s I wore on the Camino weighed 495 grams.

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I usually tuck my pants (trousers) into my socks when hiking or just walking through high wet grass. I started doing that to protect against ticks, e.g, Lyme ticks.

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Yes! I do that as well. :slight_smile:

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@Kelownagurl I am a Saucony :canada: brand loyalist too - my brand of choice for any runners/trainers. I’m not a runner, but the podiatrist told me long ago it’s one of their two choices for good footwear. The other brand was New Balance. :athletic_shoe: :walking_woman: :running_woman: :athletic_shoe:

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For those who travel with only a carry-on or a backpack, what kind of rain gear do you bring if traveling in the UK in the summer or fall? The Grunden’s waterproof jacket I own is too bulky, I have a water resistant wind breaker but this might not work in pouring rain. I’m thinking of something that can be really compressed. Or do you just wing it and depend on a collapsible umbrella?