This three month trip to Europe will be our longest venture away from home. As a result, we’re investigating various tactics and products to support such a long trip. An additional challenge is to keep everything in light, Carry-On-Only suitcases. So I’ve decided to discuss some of the approaches we’re trying out. I’ll let you all know what works well, what doesn’t, and how we “course correct”.
I used to travel with as much as I could, especially if I could check a bag for free. So many trips I returned home to unpack shoes and outfits than I never wore. And this is not unique to me.
During COVID I stumbled across a podcast by theminimalists that has (and still does) have a HUGE impact on how I live my life and what thoughts I indulge. One major change is one of my life-long views, what my kids called a “Momism”:
“It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”
Pretty much the polar opposite of minimalism. This probably began during years of college poverty and really blossomed during my career in IT (ahem, backups?).
So, learning about minimalism and the freedom of letting go of things caused a major shift, including my ideas about packing.
Both Tom and I have Tumi 21” cases. We love them. We’ve used them on all our previous travels, stateside and international and they’ve held up well. Tumi even personalized the bags. However, they are not particularly light. Empty, Tom’s Tumi weighs 11.6 lbs while mine weighs 12.8 lbs. that’s about half of the allowed weight on many European airlines basic airfares – for even a checked bag.
Furthermore, airline travelers in 2022 and 2023 lost luggage at high rates, making checking luggage a risk, particularly for a flight that begins a cruise or a trip with multiple destinations. In Greece we will be taking four ferry rides, which means hauling luggage up and down ramps. Italy, Germany, Switzerland, & France will include many train rides, again hauling and hefting luggage. For all of these travel instances, we decided that Carry-On-Only would be best for us.
So I began a quest to find the bags that I could carry the most while not requiring me to check a bag. More on the next Blog Post…..