Packing Tips

Adapted from Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door, Betty Winslett's Travel Kiosk, Steve Kropla's Help for World Travelers, Felicity's Travel Tips, Doug Dyment's Art and Science of Traveling Light, and Fodor's FYI: Planning your Honeymoon.

• If traveling with a partner, pack half of your clothes in your partner's suitcase and half of your partner's clothes in your suitcase. If one of the bags is lost, you each still have a variety of clothes.

  Packing Light Rule of Thumb "If you think 'I might need this,' you're likely mistaken; if it's 'I can't survive without this,' you may be right, but second guess yourself." -From Doug Dyment's onebag.com	Always pack and extra day's worth of clothes and at least 2 days of underwear in your carry-on bag in case your luggage is lost. Take many thin layers of clothes instead of bulky sweaters, etc. When you are cold, add a layer, when you are hot, simply remove a layer.
• Wear your bulkiest clothing items when you travel to avoid packing them.

• Take along some still-presentable older clothes that you plan to discard anyway. Abandoning them along the way makes room for souvenirs.

• Pack at least a week's worth of prescription medicine in your carry-on bag, especially if you need the medication daily, in case your luggage is lost.

• Make a list of all items in all pieces of luggage (including your carry-on). This list will help not leave items behind you as you re-pack your suitcase at various locations and if your bags are lost or stolen, you will have an accurate list of the missing items. Carry this list with you instead of packing it in your suitcase.

• Put your name and address inside your luggage to aid with luggage recognition in case your bags get lost and the outside tags are pulled off. Include the address and phone number at your destination as well as your home address and phone number. Some people prefer to list only their phone numbers on luggage identification tags because of thieves who look for home addresses on luggage in order to rob the houses when the occupants are traveling.

• Attach an identifying mark to the outside of our suitcase to set it apart from all other luggage. Examples: a brightly colored piece of yarn or ribbon tied to the handle or a colored luggage strap that fits around the suitcase.

• All checked luggage must be unlocked, but if you are traveling overseas, do not leave your bag unlocked after the security check. Ask the airline personnel how to make sure that your bag is securely locked after it has been screened by security. (The zip ties that the TSA uses to secure checked luggage can be pulled apart by hand - not very secure.)

• Most airline luggage screening machines will not damage camera film unless it is super high-speed film (1000 speed or higher) or professional grade film.

• Know the three-letter code of your destination airport (LAX, JFK, LHR, etc.), and verify it on the (often computer-generated) luggage tag before your bag vanishes down the conveyor belt.

• Eliminate items from the list whenever you can: parkas aren't necessary in North Africa, nor are shorts in the Andes. For that matter, shorts are culturally inappropriate in many countries.

• Take extra travel tags off of your luggage. Extra tags - even decorative tags - could confuse the baggage handlers and your bags could wind up in Tasmania instead of Tanzania. Also, country tags and other travel tags indicate a wealthy traveler and makes your bags a target for theft.

• When doing laundry in your room, roll wet clothes in a towel, and wring the towel tightly (with clothes inside), to speed the drying process. Then hang the clothes to dry and go to bed.

• If some clothes are not dry when you need them in the morning, follow the army's example and put them on anyway. Damp clothes, though uncomfortable at first, dry remarkably quickly next to a warm body.

• Clothes made with Coolmax® (or some similar fabric) dry quickly and keep you cooler in summer climates and warmer in cold climates than clothes made of cotton. Although clothes made with Coolmax are a little pricey for a student budget, you can wear them in the USA too - they are plenty stylish. Check Magellans, and Travel Smith and Ebay for possibilities.

• Bundle wrap your clothes for packing to lessen wrinkles.

• Nylon underwear does not breathe and invites fungal infections in tropical climates.

• Don't break in a new pair of shoes on your trip.

• Pack your bags 3 weeks before leaving on the trip. Then wait a week and repack, taking out 1/3 of what you have packed. Wait another week and take out some more. By doing this, you will identify items you don't NEED after it has been packed in a suitcase for a week and you didn't miss it.

• Weigh your suitcase by standing on a bathroom scale, noting your weight, then picking up the suitcase while you are on the scale. Subtract your weight with the bag from your weight without it to find the weight of the packed suitcase.

• Overweight bags incur charges from $70 to $400, depending on the airline. You must reduce the weight (leave things behind) or pay before you are allowed on the plane.

• More tips of varying usefulness at 1,000 Tips for Trips