How to Pack for Long Term Travel in 2024 (CARRY-ON ONLY) | Packing Tips and Checklist

packing carry-on only can seem daunting at first but if you figure it out it can be very freeing in this video we're going to show you how we lived out of nothing but carry-on bags for the past six months hey everybody i'm nick this is ali and for the past six months we've been traveling europe and southeast asia with nothing but carry-ons we get questions all the time about how the heck we did it so we wanted to make this video to break it down for you everything that you guys see in this video we purchase ourselves we're gonna link everything we can below so it's easy and convenient for you if you do purchase through those links you'll be supporting this channel we're gonna break this video down into three parts what we packed an overview of our bags and then how we packed and if you stick until the end we're gonna tell you what items were absolute musts and what items were absolute busts let's go one what we packed so in terms of what we pack there are three main categories clothing toiletries and miscellaneous items to get started let's talk about clothes yep and before we actually show you what we brought we thought we'd give you a few clothing tips so the first thing is we were packing for multiple seasons and climates which ranged from spending winter in the alps to sweating our butts off in bangkok thailand this might not apply to you just depending on what type of trip you're taking but if you are doing extended travel you need to be prepared for all type of weather across all types of seasons yep and that kind of leads into the next point when i'm packing for extended international travel i like to think layers first of all because items that are really really big are going to take up a lot of space in your bag but you can add layers as you get cold and take them off as it gets warmer the second thing is you'll you'll want your clothing to be lightweight right lightweight packable and then the final thing is wrinkle resistant all this stuff is going to be rolled up or folded up and crammed into a tiny space you want something that you'll be able to pull out of your bag maybe shake out a little bit and then hit the road or just be wrinkled the last tip is mostly for you ladies but can also apply to men capsule wardrobes if you've never heard of it go on pinterest but you want all of your tops and bottoms and items to mix and match so it's really great to stick to solid colors and not so many prints so that your skirts and jeans can go with your different tops that way you have a lot of different combinations of outfits and it doesn't feel like you're constantly just repeating the same outfit all right we're going to dive into showing you what we actually brought we'll start with ally so in terms of items that i brought i will caveat that i really love clothes and i struggled a little bit on what exactly to bring so this may seem like a lot for a carry-on but i'll break it down by the numbers and i promise that it all fits so to begin with my socks i only brought three socks they're ankle socks nothing special and then for bras i brought three i had a bralette a sports bra and then a regular everyday t-shirt bra that way i had options based on what i was wearing [Music] 10 underwear these are cotton and moisture wicking so that they're like really comfortable to wear and i brought ten just in case there was a minute before we got to a laundromat one sleep shirt so this is what i wore to bed every night and then three pieces of swimsuits i brought one pair of bottoms and then two tops that way it felt like i could change them up and mix and match and feel like i had more than one swimsuit five t-shirts including one graphic tee and one cropped tee so you can tell they're all kind of in the same color family very neutral they kind of mix and match two tank tops these also doubled as my workout tops when i was active or we were doing some type of hike two thermal long sleeves both neutrals as well for layering two dresses one short and one maxi this could also double as a really nice dress for if we had a really nice dinner out one night a maxi skirt so another bottom option for me to be able to wear during the day two leggings one athletic and then one more like everyday wear both black two jeans one blue and one black and then two sweaters one long sleeve and then one short sleeve for cooler weather that i could layer as well and then three jackets a blue jean jacket that's more of like my style everyday wear this is my kind of iconic item a rain jacket that's packable so it comes down really small it's a patagonia jacket we'll link it below and then this this is my puffer jacket my winter jacket it folds into a nice donut this is from madewell i don't know if they actually sell this version anymore you might be able to find it on ebay but it turns into a down winter coat and that's all my clothes so another item that kind of falls under clothing is our shoes and shoes is kind of difficult because they're really bulky so you want to make sure whatever you pick they're versatile and they can serve you multiple purposes first and foremost you need a good pair of tennis shoes these can both be hikers everyday wear athletic shoes i went with a pair of columbia my advice to you is maybe not to pick a pair that's white these went through multiple rounds of washing machines in different airbnbs across the world my next pair was when we had nice weather 60 degrees fahrenheit and above i would wear a pair of sandals these are birkenstocks neutral color love them they're great to walk in they're my favorite sandal and then the next is a pair of cheap flip-flops i used these when we were at the beach by the pool or if we were staying at hostel i would use these in the shower these are from target they were like five dollars so these were my initial shoe options kind of bulky but they've all served their purpose okay time for my clothes you'll probably notice right off the bat i brought a few less things than ally but i did still try to follow the capsule approach so that i could mix and match and that things would go together so uh underwear i had nine pairs of boxer briefs these are saks moisture wicking love them very nice had six pairs of socks varying lengths uh these are all merino wool had two merino wool tees i'm wearing one of them and then that's the other one two graphic tees i had two short sleeve collared shirts these are kind of quick dry moisture wicking as well one long sleeve button up great for a nice dinner one sweater and then in terms of bottoms i have the jeans that i'm wearing right now pair of shorts also kind of moisture wicking a pair of sleep shorts they're basically like lightweight running shorts but i use them only as my sleep shorts and then this is a pair of joggers and then uh this next category i wanted to kind of separate it because i pack them in their own individual packing cube and that's workout gear the reason i pack them separately is just to avoid uh getting like dampness from sweat or like the odor on my other clothes i'm a marathon runner so i wanted to be able to run while i was gone that's kind of the rationale there so i had uh two pairs of running shorts either one of these could also double as swim trunks a dry fit tank top a dry fit short sleeve and a dry fit kind of technical long sleeve finally this is basically a i guess you could call like long john sort of a a base layer for skiing or cold weather activity i primarily used it for running but it did come in handy when we were skiing in germany all right next up we have jackets now one word before we dive in eddie bauer did not sponsor this video but everything i'm about to show you is from eddie bauer i really didn't plan that first up we have my favorite jacket it's this down puffer jacket from eddie bauer it's great it uh honestly even when it's like 50 degrees outside it doesn't make you feel too hot and yet when it's like 20 outside it keeps you nice and warm this is a great item it also packs down really small it packs into one of the pockets i didn't always pack it into the pocket it also just sort of crushes down real small so i would sometimes shove this into my backpack next up is a thermal kind of fleece mid layer i would layer these two a lot and this one's really nice as well finally a rain jacket it's got a hood packs down pretty small as well okay shoes i brought three pairs of shoes these were my daily drivers these are ultras technically they are trail running shoes i bought them because they made really really great walking shoes they're lightweight there's really no like fuss or anything about them just a kind of a simple construction they crush down really small if you ever need to pack them so i liked that and i love them i literally just pulled them off my feet that's how much i like these for running shoes i used the nike infinity reacts i wore these exclusively for running and then finally i brought a pair of sandals these are nike sandals as well to be honest with you i am not much of a sandals person i probably only wore those like five times all right moving on to toiletries my main tip with toiletries is when you're packing don't think that you need to stock up on toothpaste for your whole trip toothpaste is everywhere guys you can pretty much buy any toiletry and restock up as your trip goes on i'm gonna walk through some of the basics that me and nick share and then move on to things that are more specific for each of us so starting we both have our toothbrushes and toothpaste of course um first aid kit lots of hand sanitizer bring your own tylenol you can find this around but it's always nice to have some handy immediately as well as we got some tums and a small first aid kit just to stock up pre-trip um we also both uh brought some vaseline this is kind of a cure-all salve it's great for dry spots but then you can also put this on like small cuts and that kind of thing as well for other liquids that are loose or maybe in a larger container and you need to move it to a small travel size um we got these goo tubes like silicone tubes from amazon that are really great because they're tsa approved and they have this little like flip top and they're squeezy we love these we both have our own razor for razors if you are going to bring them i would suggest bringing a couple of the extra replacement heads just so that you don't have to buy a whole new razor as you're going some clippers these are some really nice clippers nor can um but bring a really nice pair of these we shared a face soap from clinique this is just like a bar face wash soap that was super clutch you could also use it as like a body wash in a pinch but this is a must-have in my case it comes with this nice travel case that you can just put in and out the shower it was easy to pack and it lasted our entire trip i personally had some micellar water um in case we had you know long travel days and i couldn't wash my face i could like put this in my hands and kind of refresh myself and then a spot treatment um we ate a lot of gluten in certain places i'm looking at you italy so in case you have a breakout this spot uh stuff's really great it's from origins and then a face moisturizing stick this is a coco kind all over moisturizer stick it's solid moisturizer i could just like put it on my face um but that's kind of really simplified my face step system um but all these products are really nice and packable to start the trip i did bring shampoo and conditioner now most airbnbs and hotels also have shampoo and conditioner but if you're like me and your hair doesn't always agree with those it's always nice to have a backup plan so i like to keep some small tubes of shampoo and conditioner on me then i personally have some hair care products um this is just kind of like an all-in-one styling cream and then some hair oil um dry shampoo if you're a person who doesn't need this then kudos to you but my hair looks horrific on day two this shampoo powder by aveda or any other type of shampoo powder was phenomenal i had one bottle pretty much last me the entire trip um much longer than some of the like aerosol spray can ones so i would highly suggest if you are a big dry shampoo user to look into shampoo powder dry shampoo powder um for packing for long extended travel i had a hair brush this is just a travel size hair brush scrunchies hair ties hair clips you know just things to pull my hair back and then nick had his own personal hair gel working mold stuff this is some redken um deodorant and then nick also brought his own electric razor so men you might need this as well but this is kind of a travel size phillips um really powerful it came with some heads or whatever those are called he brought those as well and then i also personally brought quite a bit of makeup that's just my personal preference but you could probably simplify from what's all in this bag um but i did bring this and pack it on me so i mean this this is pretty much the gist of the toiletries we carried at any one given point we both did have our own bags this was nyx it's this roll-up toiletry bag from osprey i'll say this is a really great bag because it actually rolls up and there's a hook that you could hook it in the bathroom so if you're staying in like a place that doesn't have a lot of cabinet space or counter space or you're in like an airbnb or a hostel it's really nice to have something that can hang up and it has a little mirror in there as well for me personally i carried a majority of our liquid items so i had a clear kind of tsa approved toiletry bag that all of our liquids could go into and i carried this in my backpack so when we went through the airport tsa pre i didn't get as hassled as much about liquids because they could see everything that was in the bag so if you are going to carry a lot of liquids i would highly suggest putting them in some type of clear you know shower bag or container like this just to try and save you some hassle on going through airport security and that's pretty much it for toiletries okay miscellaneous aka everything else pretty much uh so much of our bags was miscellaneous stuff and i will caveat this section i'm not going to go through all of our camera gear we did film all of our trip but that can be a separate video so let's just dive right in we have a little packable umbrella got a packable day pack this is an item that took a lot of space in my bag but it was worth it i wanted to run a couple marathons so i brought this osprey hydration pack it's got the a little bladder in there and a straw and everything um but i also used it to store a lot of my items speaking of had a little uh headlamp never used it and then we had this it was a cool buy uh on ali's part this is like a door lock thing if you're ever in a situation where your door doesn't lock very well um we just did not find ourselves in that situation very awesome safety yeah it's still a cool item we'll link it down below uh next up i found this from tim ferriss and honestly i love it it's i don't know what you call it it's just a spiky ball but football but yeah you rub your feet on it and it just like relieves all the tension and pressure anyway i uh digress something very handy and you can get this actually when you get over there but just like a spare shopping bag we would crumble this up and stick it in our bag a couple of eye masks in case you're in a situation without curtains or whatever um headphones so uh i had a pair of air pods had a pair of nicer kind of in-ear headphones then ali had these very nice sony noise canceling super slick headphones this handy uh charging brick extension cord comes in very handy it's not a converter but it's got usbs there and multiple places you should have seen some of the like rigs we had trying to charge things and like some rooms only have like one plug-in and you're like using this extension and it was very funny not up to code uh kind of staying with electronics computer charger iphone charger adapter gosh this european adapters one we've had for like five or six years this is like the one i think the big thing too when you're looking at adapters is the voltage isn't that right because what what about this one was in particular made it work it actually convuls convulted converted the voltage whereas some of our others didn't like this one although i love it as a travel adapter and get this on amazon for like 19 bucks or something it's got all the different configurations um and usbs and usbc but it doesn't convert the voltage yeah so maybe take that in consideration when you're looking for adapters uh we have both of our macbooks this i won't open this up or anything but this was just a handy kind of catch-all for cords and cables and stuff like that it's by travel on really nice um you're not going to get very far without these so don't forget your passports ali was the keeper of the passports got our vaccine cards those were very important in a lot of places in europe this is a handy osprey kind of document organizer um a couple other useful things you might need this is just copies of our important documents passport vaccine cards driver's license that sort of thing i like to just pack some extra zip locks just because you never know and then dryer sheets i'm almost out but static cling is like my arch nemesis so a dryer sheet can come in handy either to freshen your stinky uh bag or to remove some static from your clothes another electronic item that i had personally was my kindle thank you shelby for the birthday present uh i used this pretty much every day of the trip i don't know if i could have gotten by plane rides or boat rides without it i definitely read a lot on our trip so this was very much in handy so if you're a reader you need it one thing that nick missed when he was talking about his running is i personally brought these which are these uh resistance bands so that i could work out and have a little bit of resistance um so those were also handy i use these a couple of different times we also had these microfiber towels in case we were at an airbnb or a hostel that didn't have towels or we went to the beach uh let's see what else hats running hat for nick and we both brought beanies i brought my own hat you need these if you're going to be out hiking in the sun you definitely want to bring something that can help protect your head and then what is this that is like a uh that i think uh in the skiing community they call it like a turtle fur or like a buff but this was just for like very cold weather running or like skiing stuff like that i did not have one no uh one very clutch item obviously we live in a world of masks most of the time we wore k95 or surgical masks but the very few times that you know cloth mask came in handy lululemon has the best fitting cloth masks that you can think of they're so form-fitting easy to breathe in these are a definite win in my book in terms of just like cloth masks also we had a pair of gloves i also had a pair of gloves at one point but they went bye-bye at some airbnb somewhere that i left them behind so gloves a big thing when you're thinking about doing extended long-term travel is remembering if you have any prescriptions or necessities in terms of health that you need to have through the duration of your trip so for example nick needs epipen so we needed to make sure that we had updated epi pins for him i have a medication that i need to make sure to get six months worth of that medication for the trip this is probably what took up the biggest bulk of random items in my bag i wear contacts these are dailies so i had to bring six months worth of daily contact so it equated to being about what like seven of these uh seven of these boxes took up so much space but it was one of those things that kept paying off because as i used it i got more space in my back so that was really nice uh bringing some bug spray now you can find bug spray a lot of different places but we brought some because those kinds of items can kind of be expensive um overseas or you know in asia and in different places so we just kind of brought our own and it ended up lasting us pretty much the whole time let's see what else jewelry i'm a again like clothing i'm a big accessory person so i got this really cool fold-out jewelry organizer it folds flat held all my earrings bracelets necklaces and it rolled and just stuck in the bottom of my bag these could have also gone with toiletries but i kept them here but it's my hair accessory so this is a blow dryer very tiny i think it's called it's eva nyc but it's a very very small micro hair dryer and then this is a straightener curling iron duo again you need a converter for these to work but it was nice to have them a day pack for me now this is different than the one i actually had on the trip mine bit the dust with about three weeks left in our trip so i had to leave it behind somewhere and i bought this one it's pretty much the same thing you want something that's cross body i prefer something that's in front of my body so that i am protecting it you just want to make sure that whatever you're using it's it's not just a bag on your shoulders because those are the ones that get snatched the easiest and then nick's favorite item um and something that's a must if you're doing long-term travel you need a really good water bottle some that you can bring around make sure you stay hydrated um this one's insulated this is by a walla really great water bottle and that's all of the extra stuff that we packed i know that that was really really fast and a whole lot of information but all of these products at least the ones that we can will be linked below and if you have any questions you can leave something in the comments and we'll make sure to get back to you um but that's pretty much what is left in our bags after clothes two our bags all right let's talk about what bags we use for this trip in particular we went with carry-on size roller bags and personal item size backpacks for previous trips we usually bring like larger backpacks that fit all of our stuff we prefer our osprey bags but for this particular trip we knew that we needed to carry a bit more stuff and one of the backpacks needed to be a camera bag for nick and we didn't want to pull the double turtle with two backpacks each so this is why we landed on having a roller bag and a backpack yeah i absolutely did not want to double turtle so our backpacks uh kind of our decision criteria for these first of all was that they'd be small enough to fit underneath the seat on an airplane um a key decision factor was having a pocket for a water bottle um water resistance you know if we were walking through rain that's that's kind of key and then it's called a trolley sleeve but basically where the pocket on the back of the bag could slip over the telescoping handle yeah so i got my particular bag from a website called everlane and i really like it because it fits a whole lot of stuff it's very wide and there's quite a bit of pocket so there's some great built-in organization to the bag and my laptop set on my back so it's not as water resistant as this bag so having my laptop closer to my back and a little bit more protected was important if i wasn't going to have a truly water proof bag so this was a really great buy i think it was like 80 dollars not bad at all this was a little bit more of an investment this is the peak design everyday 20 liter backpack i have never spent so much money on a backpack before it actually costs more than our like main bags but i love it i'm gonna use this bag forever um mainly i use this for our camera gear and i'll break all that down in another video but um just a couple quick features i love the quick access at the top here laptop sleeve like ally just mentioned the handles are really really sturdy like the zippers straps all of it chef's kiss very very nice um what else is there to say yeah those are our backpacks let's move on to our main bags uh for our main bags we went with the monos carry on pro this is the largest allowable size uh to carry on onto an airplane it's got these tsa approved locking zippers which i'm a big fan of tough polycarbonate shell it's water resistant it's not waterproof we learned that through experience great sturdy wheels i mean one of the decisions for us was we were going to be walking through cobblestone streets in europe a lot and these bags like the wheels on these things stood up to the test the handle very smooth i like the telescoping handle and within the bag great organization nice compression straps so they can deceivingly hold a lot of stuff um love these bags yeah they're definitely a top quality bag as you can tell ours kind of taken have taken a beating so monos if you want to send me a new one i really like this tan color um but they're very dirty but they held up to a lot over six months so i have nothing really bad to say about these bags they did their job absolutely yep let's pack them three how we pack okay now before we pack these things no there's a lot of debate about packing cubes not packing cubes i would say we're team packing cube um hybrid but compression cubes the kind that actually like pack your clothes down tight we also um are pro like rolling so with that combo in particular you can save a lot of space yeah and not everything of mine goes into compression that's what what i mean by hybrid like there are some things that are just too bulky to go into a compression cube yeah some things that just make more sense because they can lay really flat so i do a mix let's pack so boom that is it our bags packed everything for six months all right for those of you who stuck around till the end we have a little bonus section for you we call it must or bust we're going to talk to you really quick through the items that were musts or very useful to us versus items that were a bust or just completely worthless in our opinion you want to start yes my first must is this aveda dry shampoo powder holy grail product for me i have to have it it's amazing it lasted dry shampoo powder lasted pretty much the whole trip you need this in your life if you need dry shampoo powder okay my first must item is this a walla water bottle uh ali ordered it from me off of amazon what i love about it is push of a button springs open uh it's got kind of a gulping uh what would you say mouthpiece there so it's great also this is dual walled stainless steel so it keeps your drink really cold i love it it was a really great item okay my second must is my sony noise canceling headphones i'm a nervous flyer if you're a nervous flyer you need noise cancelling headphones they make things so much better and there was a couple of times nick actually used these to sleep in when we were in an airbnb that was a little too loud uh aka cypress um but these are really really great and i am on my second pair now okay my next one is this epica travel adapter i've had a lot of travel adapters but i love that this one also includes usbc and four usb slots underneath i this this thing is very useful and it's i think like 20 bucks on amazon okay before we go to busts i have one more kind of bonus item i made the rules so i'm gonna break them uh we actually bought this along the way on our trip but when you're traveling for six months as opposed to a short trip you might want to watch some netflix you might want to catch up on some shows so get yourself a cheap hdmi cable and plug your computer or whatever into the tv or airbnb hotel hostel whatever clutch all right let's move on to our bust items my first bust item is this micro hair dryer as cute as she may be the size of my palm i only used her like five times now would i consider taking her again on another six month trip maybe i can't just let my hair air dry and look fabulous i'm very jealous of everyone who can so this is still iffy but it took up so much room and for five times i don't i don't know if it was worth it yeah yeah i like that you assigned a gender as well okay uh my first is this headlamp look i i use this at home like when i run and stuff but i think one of the things i didn't think about i thought oh i'll use it when i run if i get up early in the morning most of the places we stayed were cities cities are well lit at like all times dumb dumb idea okay my next one i brought too much jewelry you guys like too much this organizer is great now if you're a girl that just wants to accessorize wonderful i ended up wearing the same pair of earrings and the same necklace over and over again because i didn't want to dig to the bottom of my suitcase every single time just to trade out a necklace i didn't wear any of this none um so good concept poor execution on my part bust my second bust item is this very inventive but never used it door lock thing i guess both of my bust items are small so that's good but my perspective is if you're not going to use it why bring it if you're traveling carry on only i know mine definitely took out way more room than yours did yeah that's for sure awesome thank you guys so much for watching i hope this video was helpful to you uh please consider subscribing if you're interested in more content like this or to see the vlogs of our travels and if you're interested in seeing what we pack in our camera bag click this video right here see you next time you

Channel: Away Together w/ Nik and Allie

Views: 546,560

Keywords: PACK, packing, packing cubes, pack with me, minimalist packing, packing for long term travel, long term travel, packing for digital nomads, how to pack, what to pack, packing for europe, packing for southeast asia, packing with only carry on, packing for long trip, 6 month packing, travel packing, backpacking, carry on packing, packing cubes vs no packing cubes, packing tips, long term travel tips, Awaytogether, awaytogether with nik and allie, nik and allie, travel, pack hacker

Id: cGmYYLolD5A

Length: 35min 4sec (2104 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 29 2022