In fact, you always take things with you on every trip that you later turned out not to need at all. Clothes, shoes, toiletries. Time and again you resolve to pack as little as possible, but in the end you still travel with too much luggage. Recognizable? From now on you can solve that problem: this is how lightweight travel is done! We give you five useful tips.
1. Clothes: make sets
The golden tip is to make sets of clothes and pack them. If you just pack a pile of pants and T-shirts, there is a good chance that there are items of clothing that you are not going to wear. Because they don’t match anything. If you already make sets at home, you have already tackled that problem and you prevent your clothes from taking home unworn clothes.
Be especially critical of your footwear: in warm destinations a pair of sandals/slippers and sneakers/sports shoes is really sufficient.
▸ Tip: If you want to travel lightweight, rather take a bottle or tube of travel detergent with you instead of even more clothes. Tossing clothes and underwear through soapy water at night is better than lugging around extra pieces of clothing.
2. Buy toiletries on location
It is much better to buy large bottles of shampoo, sunscreen and shower gel on location than to bring them from home. That saves a lot of weight while traveling. And in many countries it is also cheaper. If you sleep in hotels, there are almost always free bottles of shampoo and shower gel ready for you. And you really don’t need full bottles during a vacation. If you do want to take something with you, go for small travel bottles where you can take lens solution, make-up remover and that kind of toiletries. Can you leave the large packages at home?
3. Go for a backpack instead of a suitcase
If you travel with a suitcase, you soon have the tendency to stuff it completely full. Just because you have the space. But if you prefer to travel lightweight, go for a backpack. When you have to carry your luggage on your own back, you think better about the items you really need when traveling.
For example, go for an all-in-one backpack such as The Ramverk 21 liters that you can zip open all the way to the bottom and that has all kinds of handy compartments. It is available in black or in this beautiful green color.
4. Leave heavy electronics at home
The heaviest items in your travel luggage are probably electronic equipment. If you mainly want to enjoy your holiday, then a laptop is unnecessary to take with you. Noise-canceling headphones are very nice to have with you, but they are also large and heavy. A set of earphones is a much better alternative when you travel if you want to travel lightweight. And think carefully about whether you really want to take a (heavy) camera with you, or whether you perhaps have a smartphone that can also take good photos. If you are fond of photography, and you still want to take a good camera with you, then go for one all-round lens such as a 24-70 mm because you have a large range with it. For traveling that is really a perfect option, then you can leave your other lenses at home.
And it’s a bargain, but an e-reader really beats the paper books when it comes to travel.
5. Leave all doubts at home
In the last minutes before you zip up your suitcase or backpack, you often put in all kinds of things that belong in the category of doubtful cases. Leave all those last-minute items at home. If they were really that important, you would probably have packed them first. An extra pair of shoes? Still an extra sweater? Spare sunglasses? Not necessary, just leave it at home. That saves a lot of hassle. And don’t forget: things that you have forgotten and that you still need can be bought anywhere in the world.
