The wife and I will be heading to Athens, Berlin, and Amsterdam for almost 2 weeks. One of the biggest questions we have is how much should one pack? After talking to friends, family, colleagues and reading what I could find online, the resounding theme is to pack light. If you don’t have to check your baggage, you can save valuable time, money, and mitigate any lost luggage issues. Sounds pretty good to me…
I have a carry-on roller bag from REI that I like but I felt that I was losing valuable space from the frame, plus I’m not even sure it fits the requirement for international carry-on (although, I haven’t really checked). I decided to check out The North Face Base Camp Duffel Bag so we picked up the small size from Backcountry.com. I tried packing it last night to get an idea of what I could fit and I successfully managed:
- Pair of Jeans
- Pair of Khakis
- 3 button down shirts
- 1 merino wool sweater
- 1 ¼ zip fleece (100 weight)
- 5 cotton t-shirts
- 5 boxer briefs
- 5 pairs of socks
- Light rain jacket
- Size 9.5 shoes
- Toiletries
I’m pretty happy with the results. There’s some wiggle room left over so I could probably fit another pair of pants. I’ll probably dial back on the amount of t-shirts since I’ll have to do a little bit of laundry in the sink of our hotel room anyway.
For comparison’s sake, I tried putting everything in my REI bag and it was tight. It did fit everything though, and it does have exterior pockets leftover but, it’s also a lot heavier…
