More suggestions for travelling light.....

My husband would say do not take your mother in law with you. My mom was visiting my sister in UK three weeks before we went over and she joined us to go to Italy. We always travel carry on only (in her defence) but she is still taking things over to my sister 7 years after she moved there, so she has to take the big suitcase as well as a carry on. Of course, poor hubby had to wrangle the approx 40 lb bag around most of the time, on trains and buses, up and down stairs, metros, vaporettos, bridges and cobbles. We did manage to get the small bag into the large bag a few times so we only had a bag each, but now it has been reinforced why we only take carry ons and travel light. If we had've been smart, we would have left the large bag in portsmouth and had my 21 yr old niece come to London with it the day before (we flew from italy to london and stayed the night before flying home). By the time we paid to store the bag at train stns, it would have been cheaper, and easier on my hubby's back.

I can't take my snorkeling gear to Hallstatt?

RE: I can't take my snorkeling gear to Hallstatt?

I fit the family (2 adults + 2 kids) snorkeling gear in an apple box placed in a duffle bag for our trips to Hawaii. So much nicer to snorkel with our own gear than rentals.

Adam ;) It may have been different had it been HIS mother...lol.

I was trying to add an edit earlier but it froze - I was going to mention the guy in Venice by San Marco who had this little train of suitcases...one hooked to another. They were smaller bags, but he had the one main bag and 3 more piggybacked on that! I should have snapped a pic. Hubby says - wonder what he'll do when he gets to some stairs?! And the more I travel and see people with these gigantic bags trying to use public transport, the happier I am that I travel light.

I suggest you leave at home lists other people's suggestions of what you should leave at home.

And while you're at it....leave the guidebooks at home as well. Look through them at home, make notes of things you want to see, and then leave time to find the unexpected. Have you noticed that this site went from "Europe Through the Back Door" to "Rick Steves' Europe?" Why? Because they sell so many guidebooks that any place listed is no longer a "back door." Go find your own.

And while I'm on the soapbox.....any restaurant listing offering you an x% discount by showing the guidebook is no longer a local restaurant catering to the locals--especially when every table has that guidebook resting on it. Go find your own local eatery by asking a local.

However, if you feel more comfortable following a guidebook, any guidebook, to the letter, and only staying and eating in places mentioned in such guidebooks, then do so. It is your trip and your money. Do as you please.

If you really can't travel without a guidebook (I used to carry them), buy an electronic version of as many guidebooks as you like.

I like Rick's take, "Don't ask if you will use something, ask if you will use it enough to lug it around?" On a mostly beach trip, snorkeling gear might make sense. I took snorkel gear on my last cruise (as part of my one carry-on only), and used it regularly. I still decided in the future I'd bring the mask (maybe gloves) and leave the snorkel and fins at home. For light snorkeling - off a beach - a mask is plenty. Gloves help if you are going to handle anything. I can rent fins, etc. if I go out into the current.

Things I skip:

Reading material. I just don't find the time to sit and read - even on long trips.

SLR with lenses. An early trip was to Japan, Korea, and Phillipines with a friend and our wives. I brought a camera bag and tripod along with an assortment of lenses, filters, and gear on the trip. My friend brought a small all-in-one auto-focus Canon. My pics were great, so were his. Mine weren't worth carrying the extra weight. Now I carry a small all-in-one from a quality maker (currently Canon), put it on a neck lanyard and tucked inside my shirt or jacket when I'm not taking photos.

Heavy bag. SAS and Lufthansa have low carry-on weight allowances, 18 lbs. Why spend your limited allowance on a bag?

Bed bag. I used to pack one to use in hostels. It's been years since one was needed anywhere I stayed so no mas bed bag.

Full travel guides. I clip out the parts I'll refer to later and pack only those parts, trashing the used parts as I go. I constantly reassess my load during trips and purge unneeded items.

I'm not a particularly light packer. (I feel like it's not really vacation if I'm always doing laundry) Only place where I hated having a bigger suitcase was on the Paris metro.

As for reading material, I go with a e-reader app for my smartphone and load both guidebook and novels onto it.

i have gone to Europe 12 of the last 13 years for a month. I take a RS tour during that month (#13 Bulgaria coming next Spring). I travel with one RS 21" roller bag plus one small carry-on for things I do not want to loose. I take the whole guide book for whichever place I am going to visit and wherever the RS tour is going to go. I take 3 sets of under ware, shirts, pants, plus light weight rain jacket. I do sink laundry as needed and by taking quick drying ExOfficio products stuff is dry in the morning. I do not feel over-packed and am underweight for luggage
restrictions.

Use your i-pad to take photos of the pages you want from your guidebook. Easy and you save lots of space and weight. For things like maps, it is invaluable, as you can make the photo larger. Helpful on darker days or at night.

We do the same thing Jo. We also take "snapshots" of webpages on our iPad and save them in "Photos". This way we can organize opening times and the like, which we may want to refer to in case we don't have wifi to view them.

I met a retired woman in Bath a few years ago. She had all her belongings loose but strapped to a travel cart. She hadn't been to Europe before or read ETBD books. Her luggage was too unwieldy for her so she ditched it and bought a collapsible cart.

Eh, I like bringing my guidebooks, particularly if it's somewhere I've never been before. My husband recent bought an e-reader so I suppose we could have gotten an e-version this time around, but I like being able to thumb through them. It's rare that I have time to read it cover to cover before I leave anyway, and my memory is not that great!

I struggle with shoes on extended trips- I limit myself to three pairs but rarely can whittle down to two. We always seem to plan to go hiking so that makes it tough. On our last trip (SE Asia) I brought low hikers, sandals and flip flops. The flip flops were mainly for kicking around and to avoid walking barefoot at hotels etc. To Italy I'm again bringing low hikers (for cinque terre), lightweight canvas sneaker and sandals. It seems like a lot but don't know how to decrease! Need the sandals to wear with skirts and don't want to traipse around the cities in my hiking shoes. I do go lightweight in regards to other things though.

I don't think of myself as packing particularly light, maybe more medium. And, yes, I am one who once succumbed to the RS mantra and later regretted not bringing more. I find many of the suggestions for packing light, that are periodically aired here, to be ridiculous. However, it's amazing what can be fitted into a 20 or 22" bag and carry-on tote. I typically bring a week's worth of underwear (no sink laundry for me, thank you), sleepwear, 5 bottoms, 7 - 8 tops, 3 pairs of shoes (1 on me), rain gear, 1 or 2 light weight cardigans, bathing suit, inexpensive jewelry, an array of otc meds, toiletries, electronics, and my diversions - - books and knitting. I read the books, my husbands reads them, then we leave them at our b&b's for others. Our kids gave my husband a Kindle recently, and I might just succumb and get one, too. I usually photocopy pages from those guidebooks that don't have too much relevant info and discard (into a recycling bin, of course) the pages when finished with them. I do carry a really detailed guide (Cadogans are my favorite) for places where we're spending a lot of time. We have had a number of experiences of trying to buy items we either forgot, lost or ran out of; and I don't recommend it. We've spent a lot of time and more money than we would have wished to obtain products that are cheap and easily acquired at home.