Traveling Light without Compromise

Before diving into my next trip adventure I want to showcase a travel packing tip I learned and highlight some of its benefits. This isn't a major revelation or anything, but nonetheless it may be helpful to some, so here it goes.

Basically the long and short of it is, it's all about travelling minimally with a backpack instead of a suitcase. Quite the simple concept really. Reduce your items and use the space efficiently.

There are some major benefits to it all, the main one being not having to spend additional time checking your bag before a flight or waiting for it to offload from a plane upon landing. Your time is valuable on vacation so it's best to conserve it as much as possible. The less time you spend in the airport messing with luggage, the more time you can spend at your destination.

An additional benefit is that you can sometimes get away with not paying for baggage altogether. Airlines do not charge for a single bag that can be stored under a seat. I travel with a 40L backpack, which is way bigger than what can fit under the seat, but nonetheless I was rarely charged for it. When the airline thinks that the overhead compartment is going to be full they start going through the crowd to make sure that people have paid for carry on luggage and they also begin looking for bags that may need to be stored below. I've watched them do this multiple times and have noticed that they always start with wheeled luggage first, as those bags tend to be the largest of the carry on luggage and are also less accomadating in the overhead compartment due to them being hard shelled with wheels. Basically the wheels take up more room and the bags don't squish at all so less can fit above. You may even be able to squish this backpack into the Airlines guide box if they ask you to, even when the backpack is full. That's not possible with hard shell luggage bags with wheels.

Same size but treated differently

Backpacks are often Eyed by staff as well but staff members generally start with hiking bags that have additional top compartments that show above the persons head and shoulders, or bottom pieces that hang down past their lower back and waist. A 40L carry on bag like mine holds a lot but almost looks like a normal backpack when I'm standing in line.

Here I am wearing it. Hmmm... this may explain my horrible posture?

I once had a staff member ask me to turn around and show them my backpack but they said it was fine once they saw it and quickly moved on to a pair of hikers with large packs with the additional top and bottom compartments I mentioned previously.

The bag holds a lot of stuff despite being a reasonable size. I used it for two different 7 day trips and was able to get by pretty easily without any sort of compromise. These were summer trips mind you so I wore a lot of shorts and t-shirts, but nonetheless I was still able to pack a couple of pairs of pants, a light jacket, a long sleeve plaid shirt, two dress shirts for dinners, two extra pairs of shoes beyond my hiking shoes (which I wore on the airplane), and an extra (small) carrying bag for day trips. I packed as light and minimalistically as I could but I also didn't feel like I was missing anything during the 7 day trips.

One key to the bag I have is that it has just one main compartment, which makes it pack like a regular small suitcase. It also opens up fully from the side rather than the top, which makes it easier to access items. I would recommend looking for these features when deciding on a travel backpack.

Example of top fill w/ seperate compartments

In my opinion, dividers aren't helpful in a travel bag because all they do is take up space, which means that you either have to sacrifice room in the bag and therefore items, or the bag needs to be larger and/or more bulky in order to accommodate the extra dividing material. Ultimately, separators create the illusion of providing more organization but really just result in them holding less items.

One open compartment on the other hand makes the bag lighter, less bulky and provides for more space for clothes. Additional compartments often aren't all that useful really because they don't actually hold anything more than maybe a book or laptop and some pens - all of which could be stored in a backpack with a single compartment anyway. What does it really accomplish?

If you want things separated then you can always just buy one of those suitcase block bags to go inside the main compartment as well. They also take up space but at least they can be removed as needed.

When I talk about dividers I mainly mean large separators in the middle of the bag that are common among normal school backpacks. The bag that I use does have a small separated portion at the top for small items, which is helpful for small items that you need access quickly, like headphones, sunglasses, an eReader...etc. It's also a hard top, which is good for protecting breakable items like glasses.

We have both styles of backpack as you can see from the photos above. My wife bought hers first and chose a smaller 30L pack with seperate compartments meant to hold a laptop and notebooks and stuff. She has used it on the same 7 day trips that I mentioned above and swears that's it's all she needs. She also says that she likes the separate compartments as well, though I'm not sure what she uses them for(?). In my opinion its a great backpack for a 1-3 day business trip but not so much for a 7 day vacation since she can't pack a jacket in it and really has to be extra conservative in her clothing choices (i.e. super minimalistic). I typically end up carrying some of our extra stuff as well or she may need to forgo items she wants to bring if I don't have additiinal space, which has happened in the past (ex. An extra dress or jacket). Ultimately, if you want to travel light without compromise my recommendation would be a 40L single compartment backpack like shown in the photos previously. Good luck and safe travels.

Well thats it for now. Until next time, thanks for stopping by. Let me know in the comments if you have any other "travel light tips."