This video is an excerpt from a much
longer European Travel Skills talk. To view other topics or to watch my Travel
Skills Talk in its entirety, visit ricksteves.com, or check out my Rick Steves
YouTube channel. Thanks. Thank you for joining us, I want
to talk about packing light. My name is Rick Steves and I have spent
a third of my adult life living out of a 9 x 22 x 14 inch carry-on-the-airplane
size suitcase, and I'll tell you, you're going to learn now, or you're going to
learn later. It's important to pack light. I don't
care if you're going for two weeks or two months, winter or summer. You need to pack light. You don't have a
mule. If you do have a pack mule you are
abusing your spouse, okay, every person should generally be able
to carry their own stuff, and they should pack assuming they got to carry it. Now, when you travel around Europe, you see a
lot of people with a lot of gear, and you wonder, "why do they need so much stuff?" I
mean look at this. I hope she's going to use all that. Now, I
live out of a bag that I can get up that donkey path and into Civita Di Bagnoregio
without a lot of effort and that's really, really important. Good travel means you're going to have
to walk. If your trips any good, you're not gonna have a hotel right in
front of your tour bus, or right in front of the train station, and a lot of Europe
is inaccessible. You can't get buses into the center of town these days, so, you need to be mobile, and if you need
to buy a porter everywhere you go, that's bad style, and it's going to put
you in a real bind, so just get serious about packing light. here's the reality, you come in by train,
and you've got to get that bag out at least to the taxi rank, probably to the
subway, and then on to your hotel. this is a shot from one of our tours, I
took this tour just as a participant with my family. Lisa's there in the front, one of our
guides, and I like to show this shot because this is a shot travel or tour promoters generally
don't show, the reality of tourism. You gotta unload your gear, load it up,
walk out to the tour bus, and so on, and as I mentioned, if your tour is any
good, the bus will not park directly in front of the hotel. You want to be buried
in the old town with your hotel, and that means the reality of getting out to the bus,
getting out to the train station, whatever, so you'll want to
be mobile. when I'm traveling, you've got a big
choice. Do you want a roller suitcase or do you want a suitcase that has a grip
that has hidden padded shoulder straps that hangs on your back? I still use the backpack hanging on my
back, which is a soft-sided suitcase, and I like it because it is a couple pounds
less, it is a little less expensive to buy, and
when I'm on an airplane, I can always jamming in the overhead
locker because it's not a hard frame, and for me that's a real advantage. I'm the last person on the plane, I like
to be the last person on the plane, and I'm never unable to jam my bag up above. If I had a roller bag, that's a little bit of a different story. If
you need to have a roller bag, that's okay. Someday I'm going to need a
roller bag. As long as I'm strong enough to carry it on my back, I will, okay. I find in my office, among the men it's kind of half and half, half of us
carry it on our back, half use a roller bag. among the women, most women like that
roller bag. So really either way, and just because you have a roller bag doesn't
mean you can pack heavier, that's a key thing, right. Now this is my
home for four months out of the year. The bag is something we've designed, it
costs about a hundred dollars. If I could get a better bag for five hundred
dollars, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, because this is my home. It's a lot of living, and I find that
this bag has everything we need. It's a self-imposed limit, 9 x 22 x 14
inches, that's as big as I can carry out of the airplane, very important. It's got a very smart configuration of
pockets, and I hang it on my back with those padded shoulder straps. I just love it. These people are very
mobile and when you're traveling by train, you need to be mobile. I will remind you
if you're traveling by car, you can be packing a little heavier,
because you can use the car to get where you want to go, in most cases. But if
you're traveling by train, you got to get serious about packing light. On our tours,
and we take a lot of people on our tours, this group here looks like a
reunion for one of our tours, people just like you guys, we do not
allow anybody to check any bags. 9 x 22 x 14 inches, that is the max. Last year we took twenty thousand people
on 800 different tours. For some of those people, that was a radical concept, "what, 9
x 22 x 14 inches for my whole trip? That was my cosmetics kit." Nope, that's
everything because-- and it's kind of tough love, and for years I've been
forcing people into this beauty of packing light, and I think, "am I comin' down too hard on him?" I drop in and visit them a week into
their trip and I asked them how's it going, and they're always thankful. I've never met
anybody who was mad at me for making them pack light. You're going to learn now or you're going to
learn later the importance of packing light. So you can see these people here,
these are people who take-- this is one of our tours, a small group from one of our
tours, and we got six people here, they've all got their roller bags, and they've
all got day bags. The roller bag day bag thing, that's
really your world, whether you're taking a cruise or a bus tour, or going on your own, you got your big bag, you leave it on the
ship, you leave it under the bus, you leave it in the hotel room, and you got
your day bag for out and about. Here's me coming back from a two month
trip. That's my world. When I leave home, I always think, "this bag is so light, I
must be forgetting something," and I go to my Europe Through the Back
Door Book, and I look through the packing list, and it's all there. You don't need to pack heavy, as I was
talking about. Whether you're going for two weeks or two months, whether you're
going winter or summer, whether you're a man or a woman, rich or poor, old
or young, it's all the same. You will do
yourself a huge favor if you pack light. You got your big bag, you got your little
bag. Now I do like to accommodate the reality
that you're going to get things as you go. All right, I come, I leave home really
bare bones, I'm beyond getting tourist souvenirs, but a lot of people
understand what they're going to buy, they're gonna buy their beer stein, and
they're gonna buy their whatever all around Europe, and I like to
have what's called a hideaway tote. I leave that in the car, I leave that
deep stored on the bus, and that's where I put my stuff I don't want to carry
into the hotel every night, all right. Very nice, it lets you still be
packing light even though you're cheating and you're gathering stuff as you go, and
then when you fly home you can fly home heavy, and you've got this big bag that
you can check on to the airplane. If you can enjoy the luxury, however, of not
checking things onto the airplane, you're doing yourself a huge favor. With
climate change, more flights are canceled in Europe these days, you need to be more flexible, and you
need to be able to go to the airport, and be able to roll with the punches. And if
I've got my bag with me, I can hop on an earlier flight, or I can
take a canceled flight, and jump over here, without wondering, "where the heck's
my bag?" Just last year, I missed two planes in
Frankfort. Not my fault, there was a thunderstorm, it closed down
the airport, it happens a lot. So, if you have your bags with you, if you can handle that,
you become a more resilient traveler. if you're packing heavy, you should go by car. One
thing I've learned, if you're traveling with little kids, you should be packing heavy. There's
a lot of stuff to keep the kids happy in Europe, alright. I got over my fanatic "pack light"
stuff a long time ago with little kids, and I learned anything mom thinks
is worth bringing is probably worth bringing, I mean just between you and me, so rent a car, you know, have a car from
airport to airport, and take a few extra bags, and the family will be much happier. Remember, when you have a car, you can be
a lot more flexible. You can you drive from one spot to the next, and it just
makes a lot of sense. I mentioned climate change, with or
without climate change, you've got to be prepared for the weather, and I would just anticipate some violent
weather over there, and the key is you don't let the weather dictate your
sightseeing. You got to get out and do it. You want
solid shoes, you want Gore-Tex jacket, you want an umbrella, you got to have the
right gear. In Europe they say there's no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing,
and that's very wise, that's very wise. So, you want to be able
to get out, and even more of concern than the the rain to me is the
heat, it is really hot over there. I don't know my Celsius is very well, but
I do know that 28 equals 82, Celsius to Fahrenheit. That's all I need to know, if it's over
28 it's hot, it's over 82. And it's not
unusual to find a climate like this, where in France everything is over 30. That means this is
a very hot day, an uncomfortably hot day. I do my Mediterranean traveling in the
spring or the fall, and I go north of the Alps in the middle of the summer, and I
highly recommend that. You can go to the Mediterranean in the summer, but it's really
really hot. You'll have air conditioning but it's
still like a blow furnace when you go outside. I was in Germany last year for three
weeks, and every day was close to a hundred degrees in July. That's
unprecedented in Germany. Every day it was that hot, it was muggy,
and there was a monsoon thunderstorm in the afternoon. This is just a new pattern. So you will
find in your travels, violent weather, lots of rain, and lots of heat. Many times
I've got this, just because many times you're in an outdoor restaurant all of a
sudden the clouds came, it got dark and you got a monsoon, and everybody scampers for the tent. Get out and have a good time regardless
of the weather, bottom line. If you wait in your bed and
breakfast for the weather to get good, you're never going to wake up that
little hill. Just get out there and the weather will
change three times during the hike. The main item of bulk in your
luggage is clothing, and the biggest thing in your clothing is your shoes. I mean, look at the size of my shoes
there to my little bag, that's a big deal. I think it's really important to have
practical shoes. My guides in Europe often have very
impractical shoes, and they're out every day on the cobbles, and climbing the
ruined castles, and so on, and and I'll never forget this guide here, I just
wanted to make a photograph to compare. I think it's really important to
sacrifice a little bit of style and just have good solid shoes. I love my Eccos, I
love a good solid sole, I don't need high tops, but I do want a solid good sole. I want shoes that I can go through
puddles in and not get all wet, it's pretty important. Now the question,
"do you bring more than one pair of shoes?" I would think long and hard about
bringing a second pair of shoes. If you need a second pair of shoes bring it, but
it should be a light one. A lot of times I bring a second pair of shoes just
because I think it's expected but I don't use it. Generally I use the same pair of shoes,
I have one pair of shoes. Some people go, "oh man that is barbaric." I
take them off at night, they breathe. Shoes are big. Get a well-worn-in,
well-tested, favorite pair of shoes and use it. The main item of bulk again, shoes and
clothing, when you take less clothing it doesn't mean you wash more, you just
wash a little as you go. And you've got a limited wardrobe, and you're traveling
so fast nobody's going to notice that except for your travel partner, and he or
she has the same problem. So just make an agreement where you
don't complain about each other's limited wardrobe, and you're packing light. It's quite easy to pack light, this is
what you need, right here, laid out on a bed. For a lot of people, they like to
compartmentalize. I think this makes a lot of sense. I don't have time to get into all the
details on packing, but I would remind you, philosophically, don't have this
mindset where you're prepared for every scenario. This is an American thing, we like to be
prepared, we bring an extra one just in case two people want to use it, or you
lose it, or ones broken, or maybe you want to loan one out while you're still
using yours, no, just bring one. If you need another one you can buy it. Assume they have it over there. Pack
for the best scenario, not the worst scenario, that's
fundamental. If you lay at home thinking, "what all this stuff might I need," you're
going to pack way too much stuff. Look at the packing charts, we've got em'
in our program, and just pack the bare essentials. In fact, it's fun to have to go buy
something in Europe, it's really fun to have to branch out and pick something up. People like to compartmentalize, these
packing cubes are one of the most popular items in our travel store. Again,
they know where their sweaters, are where their keys are, where their electronic
gear is, and so on. Compartmentalize in your bag. I don't
have a lot of credibility among women when it comes to packing light, so it's
just smart for us to have a woman who's a great traveler and a great guide give a
talk about packing light for women, and we've got a wonderful talk on our
website in the travel talk section by Sarah Murdoch about packing light. I hope that you can enjoy that talk,
whether you're a man or a woman it has a lot more information than what I'm going to share
right now about packing. When it comes to electronic gear, I used to say, "minimize
the electronics, no electronics." That was a long time ago, now I love electronics,
there's, nothing wrong with electronics, electronics empower you in Europe. You
want to know how to get the gear going in Europe. There's two issues, converting the power and plugging it
into the wall. I have never had a piece of electronic gear, that I can remember,
that didn't have a built-in converter. It's not an issue these days, you'll hear
about converters, 110-220 volts, and so on. I don't even bother with that, I mean, if you
looked at the fine print you'd see 110-220. The issue is, can you plug it into the
wall? That's what you need, and this is a very simple thing. In Britain and Ireland, you got the big three rectangular
prongs, boom. Everywhere else, you've got the two
little round prongs, boom. Technically, there's a little part
on the switch of one that has an odd device, but I don't-- I just ignore
that, just keep it real simple. It's good advice just in general on your travels, two plugs, and that will cover you everywhere. My electronic gear; I love my laptop, I
love my phone, I love my camera. That's basically it.
When you're traveling, you want to get online. There's all sorts of great ways to get
online, there's all sorts of media, you can enjoy those movies you can download,
you got your music, you got your Skype. There's all sorts of reasons to have a
good computer, or a tablet, or a smart phone where you can get online,
depending on your style, but it's important to be online in Europe to
travel well. There are little guilty pleasures that
all of us should feel free to bring, okay, I want you to be hardcore about packing,
but if you have some little treat you want to bring along, bring it. My guilty pleasure is my noise
reduction headphones. I love these things. I would rather go
economy class on a plane with noise-reduction headphones, than business
class without. There's a lot of rumble on the plane, I've got lots of good things I want to
listen to, when I'm wearing my noise-reduction headphones nobody talks
to me. There's just some beautiful reasons to
have your headphones on, and when you're in your hotel room, or you're in the
back of a tour bus, or whatever, you can enjoy beautiful quality sound with your
noise-- with your quality speakers. So, everybody should be able to bring
their fun little extra. as far as toiletries go, there's not a lot of
reason to bring a lot of toiletries. Frankly, I'm kind of surprised people
need so much stuff in their travels. I like to have a toiletry bag like
this, we sell these like hot cakes. They hang in the
bathroom, because a lot of times you don't have a lot of hard surfaces. When I
lay out my toiletries, it's pretty skimpy. It's pretty basic, and I'm pretty fanatic
about that, and I think that's all you need, so, without getting into all the
details, I'll just remind you, you can travel very light when it comes to
toiletries. Don't bring everything you need with you
from home, look forward to running out of toothpaste, yeah now you got an opportunity to go into Bulgarian department store, shop around, pick up something you think
might be toothpaste. That's part of the cultural experience,
isn't it, that's part of the cultural experience.
When it comes to washing your clothes, it's a reality we all gotta deal with,
and you've got options. You know, you can pay the ransom and have
the hotel do it, you can wash it in your sink, or you can go down the street to
the laundromat. When you go to the laundromat, you can
pay extra for them to put it in, and fold it for you, and come back later, and
pick it up. Sometimes, they even have a service where they
pick it up at the hotel and drop it back to the hotel, which is quite nice, or you can sit there like a local person
who doesn't own a washer dryer, and you can just do your little work and, write your postcards, or whatever, while your launder is going. Hotels will tell you if there's a
laundromat nearby, it's not the first time they've had that question. If
there's not a laundromat nearby, it's fine, do it at the next stop. Sometimes
there's no laundromats in town, but it's not really an insurmountable problem, you'll get your laundry done. It's cheap when
you go down the street to the laundromat, it's free when you do it in the sink. I
just roll up my sleeves and think of it as exercise. I wash whatever's dirty in
the sink. Usually there's a sign right next to
the sink that says, "don't wash your laundry in the room." That needs to be interpreted
as, "we're classy joint, we've got expensive furniture and floors, we don't
want you hanging stuff out the window, and we don't want you dripping on our
wood." Alright, but you're paying a hundred
and fifty bucks, you can wash your stuff in the sink, I give you permission. Again, just do
it thoughtfully, wring it really tight, snap it a few times, and hang it over the
tub, and you're doing fine. By the way, I don't bring shampoo I just
use the-- I don't bring a laundry detergent, I just use the shampoo from
the "itsy-bitsy " in the hotel, and it works just great. That's the one "itsy-bitsy" I use,
otherwise, I bring my shampoo and soap from home. Hang it up and in the morning it should be
alright. By the way, before your trip wash everything out ahead of time, and straighten it out as best you can, and see what it looks like when it's
dry. A lot of shirts just don't work, and you
have to iron them, and a lot of shirts work great, and you should favor,
obviously, those shirts that wash and wear well with the sink. You want to have a money belt. A money
belt is important, whether you wear it everyday or not, you should have that
ability to tie your valuables under your clothing in a money belt, because theft
is a big problem for travelers. And of course, when you're packing, a big an element of that is having your
information. This family is having a great trip, because mom has the right
guidebook, and she's using it. She did not skimp on guidebooks. Guidebooks are
a 20 dollar tool for a 3,000 dollar experience. They're
worth buying, and they're worth carrying, and if they're any good, they'll pay for
themselves on the shuttle in from the airport. Now, you don't want to just carry a
lot of paper, that can be a real problem, and you see a lot of people have a
library in there, and it's a third of their bulk. Get serious about
ripping those books up. It's a ritual for me, I get out of box cutter, and I tear
those books up, and I staple them, and I put a big plastic or a tape binding
on them, and I've got my little versions <i>of the big books that cover just the
places I'm going to. So rip the heck out</i> of those guidebooks. A lot of people
think, "oh that's sacrilegious." These are tools. Your guidebook should be a mess
after the trips over, and of course you can always buy another one, right. Okay, so you got your Moleskine, you got
your personal office, you got your ripped up guidebooks, you got your tourist information,
with rubber bands, it's all right there. Have the information, but keep it light.
It is so important to pack light, it really is. Think about it, you'll never
meet anybody who brags that, "every year I pack heavier." With experience, you get
serious about the beauty of packing light. Thank you. If you've enjoyed this video,
you'll find lots more at ricksteves.com, and on my Rick Steves YouTube channel. Happy travels, and thanks
for joining us.
