Inspiration for traveling light: six items or less

You don't have to convince me.

When I travel I pack a second pair of slacks, and two extra shirts. Socks were not mentioned, but I pack a second pair of those too, along with something to sleep in, sweater and jacket. If it gets cold, no one ever sees the top I'm wearing anyway.

You could pack even lighter---credit card, passport, piece of paper verifying that you have a plane ticket. LOL

However, some people prefer comfort!I travel with a checked bag which allows me to travel with an ultra-light carry-on. We travel at least once a year and the checked bag has never been lost. If it ever is, we will get to have the adventure of clothes shopping in Europe. As to the "delay" of picking up the bag, we rarely wait more than ten minutes. Since we travel with a rental car, we rarely have to carry the bag more than a hundred feet. And I don't have to spend my vacation doing laundry.

Please don't bother trying to enlighten me about how awful it is to check luggage. It's all been said here hundreds of times. I am simply trying to present the opposite viewpoint which never gets expressed here!

Cynthia, you're not alone. On my last Europe trip, we only took carry-ons and it was great. I was with my 3 teenage daughters and we were able to share jackets, tops, shoes, toiletries. This time I'm going with my husband and teenage son. We can't really share anything! So, we are checking bags and each taking a personal carry-on. I'm fine with it...I've got two big, strong guys to carry my suitcase!

Good answer Cynthia, people have the choice of how THEY would like to travel. We can go light for a trip when we'll be on the move but if we're heading to Palm Springs or Hawaii with golf clubs does our suitcase size really matter? Depending on the trip, I'm quite happy to travel with only a carryon bag but I'm also glad that restrictions are now enforced. Remember when people carried everything they owned into the cabin, what a pain that was!

I too get amused when people point out that carry-ons allow you to skip baggage claim. I think "ten minutes", that's all it takes. Is it really going to upset the balance of your vacation.

Traveling by public transportation means dealing with extra bags is a real pain. If you rent a car, of course it's easier to manage more luggage, but that isn't what many travelers on this board choose to do.

Cynthia, I find it interesting that you consider shopping to replace items from lost luggage an adventure, but don't consider doing laundry in a foreign laundromat to be an adventure. We had a very interesting time at a laundromat in Florence, and it was definitely cheaper than replacing the contents of our suitcase! And if you don't want to use vacation time doing laundry, there are usually places in larger cities where you can drop your clothes off to be done for you.

In the end though, neither one is better than the other. It just comes down to what makes sense for your own style of traveling.

I agree with all...for trains travel light. For some combo trips- New Zealand & Japan, the Arctic & Europe - it just takes more luggage. That's why hotels have storage rooms.

As for baggage claims, I still laugh. I think the longest we waited was on a business class international flight (don't remember where)...didn't realize we had a "special and quicker" but separate baggage discharge belt...waited and waited while everyone else on the plant got their bags...duh? But that makes travel interesting.

On a long trip (which most here seem to take) what's a few minutes at baggage claim. I have well over 2 million miles and no permanently lost bags, some for a few days, but on big trips I like to go in with extra time for things to catch up with us, if they have to do so.

Cynthia, we have done both. The only time we lost our luggage was on the way back home (who cares?), and it was delivered to our door the following day.

We have done the one month trip with carryon luggage and were so sick of our clothes, but it worked beautifully since we were doing three countries, and changing umpteen trains and having to walk a bit to get to our accommodations.

We are going to Hawaii in two weeks time I plan on travelling much heavier because I can! LOL

But on my recent trip to England, I did see where hubby and I could have left some clothes back. I anticipated using more "fancy" clothing for his meeting and dinners out, but we only used some of them once. I am still trying to fine tune packing for Europe. Oh, we checked our bags coming back because they were stuffed with goodies and other pressies for the kids.

I'm also with Cynthia. We do take backpacks and a small rollerboard, however, we check our luggage. We also do most of our travelling by car so there isn't as much lugging around the bags. We'll pack a small soft sided bag to take our overnight and next day clothes in into the zimmers.

This year, we are going in the fall versus the summer so I suspect we'll have to take a heavier pair of slacks for the mountains and possibly one sweatshirt to layer under a light jacket. Other than that, I can roll and fit a lot into our luggage. I'm always amazed how much I can pack. I'll pack one cube just full of underwear--I try to avoid doing wash. On this upcoming 5 week trip I might have to break down and do a few loads.

"I have one rule about travel. My wife can take as much as she wants. But she has to be able to carry it herself....." Good rule Steve, I'm going to try that rule next time on my wife. I usually pack light but end up being her burro....or is it ass?

Although I'd prefer to just take one carry-on, medium backpack each on our non-car trips, we've recognized we haven't perfected the technique, not with several travelers including a teenage girl. Our compromise is that we travel with only one check-on bag between the three of us. It is of moderate size and has rollers to help move it about. This compromise means we can usually handle the hassle of stairs and crowded trains and buses without too much strain. It is economical to offload things to this one bag and leave it at a hotel or a left luggage station on occasion. We pack it up with heavier things for the outgoing trip and then readjust once we've arrived. If we do it correctly, there is room in the bag for things we pick up on the trip.

Hey, Bob - go ask your wife: burro, or...

We'll wait. Go on.

(I think of myself as a pack mule. With a pretty pink ribbon around my neck. But of course.)

On my first 5 week trip to Europe (in the very early days of ETBD) -- in AUGUST -- during a summer-long heatwave -- I actually wore the same T-shirt all 5 days I spent in Rome. Its fabric was ever-so-slightly thinner than my other Ts, so that sucker got hand-washed every night. That was a watershed moment for me - I no longer cared if the front-desk guy noticed my 'wardrobe' (Ha!), or how the photos turned out. I was already somewhat impressed with myself that I had packed as lightly as I had (we 'light packers' can forget how absolutely drastic the whole concept was to us the first time we tried it!), but now I realized I could go even lighter. And I try to each time. I try...

I am a light packer, I don't take much more than six items of clothing (exclusive of underwear and pajamas), and my general rule is that I must be able to lift my bag over my head, BUT, I check my bag because I don't want to fool with it on the plane and in airports. I put necessities, a change of underwear and a shirt in a small bag I take on the plane. I have never had a lost or late bag, but figure that my small carryon will last me until I get my bag or buy replacement clothing if my checked luggage disappears.

I go to Europe every summer and take a RS tour during my stay. Since RS guidelines call for one carryon sized piece of luggage, that is what I take. Thank goodness that I am beyond caring what other folks (or me) thinks about my wearing the same clothes occasionally. 3 sets of underwear, shirts, pants, a pair of sandals if warm weather, fleece jacket if not warm climate, lightweight rain jacket, RS bathroom bag and miscellaneous odds and ends does the trick. My wife actually packs lighter than I do. Sink wash every third night - no problems.
However, not everyone who shows up for a RS tour is so fortunate.