We are named after a suitcase, so we get asked about packing constantly. Here is the list we send every traveler — nine days or nineteen, Puglia or Antarctica, it barely changes.
The goal is not minimalism for its own sake. It is that you can carry your own bag up a flight of stairs in a hotel with no lift, lift it onto a train rack without help, and find your charger in under ten seconds. That is the entire philosophy.
The rule that does the heavy lifting
Pack for four days, not for the trip. Almost every hotel we use has laundry, most towns have a lavanderia, and washing four things in a sink takes eleven minutes. A nine-day trip and a nineteen-day trip need the same suitcase.
What actually goes in
- Four to five tops that all work with everything else. Pick two colours and stay inside them.
- Two bottoms plus one that dresses up. Nobody on your trip will notice the repeat. Nobody has ever noticed.
- One layer that is warmer than you expect to need — a thin down or fleece. Mountain evenings, over-air-conditioned museums, desert nights.
- One genuinely waterproof shell. Water-resistant is not waterproof, and Scotland will explain the difference.
- Two pairs of shoes. One you can walk 12,000 steps in on cobblestones, one for dinner. A third pair only for hiking or beach trips.
- One outfit you feel good in. There is always one dinner where it matters, and you will be glad.
The small things that save the trip
- A packing cube for dirty clothes, not for organising clean ones.
- A power bank and a two-metre cable — hotel sockets are never near the bed.
- A universal adapter with two USB ports so you charge everything from one plug.
- Any prescription medication in its original packaging, in your hand luggage, with a photo of the prescription on your phone.
- A folded tote bag. Markets, beaches, the bakery, the bottle of oil you did not plan to buy.
- Earplugs and a real eye mask. Old towns are charming and loud.
What to leave at home
Full-size toiletries — every hotel we book has decent ones, and what it does not have you can buy on day one. Jeans for hot climates. Three books when your phone holds a library. "Just in case" outfits, which is a category that has never once earned its weight. Hairdryers, which every hotel has.
Carry-on, always
Whatever else you do: medication, one change of clothes, chargers, documents and anything irreplaceable travel in the bag that stays with you. Airlines lose roughly six bags per thousand. That is rare, right up until it is your bag on the first day of a nine-day trip.
The weigh-in
Pack the whole thing three days early, then carry it up and down your own stairs twice. Whatever you resent carrying comes out. This test has never once been wrong.
