This video is an excerpt from a much longer European Travel Skills talk.
To view other topics or to watch my Travel Skills Talk in its entirety, visit ricksteves.com,
or check out my Rick Steves YouTube channel. Thanks.
Thank you for joining us, I want to talk about packing light.
My name is Rick Steves and I have spent a third of my adult life living out of a
9 x 22 x 14 inch carry-on-the-airplane size suitcase, and I'll tell you, you're
going to learn now, or you're going to learn later.
It's important to pack light. I don't care if you're going for two weeks or
two months, winter or summer.
You need to pack light. You don't have a mule.
If you do have a pack mule you are abusing your spouse, okay,
every person should generally be able to carry their own stuff, and they should
pack assuming they got to carry it. Now,
when you travel around Europe, you see a lot of people with a lot of gear, and you
wonder, "why do they need so much stuff?" I mean look at this.
I hope she's going to use all that. Now, I live out of a bag that I can get up that
donkey path and into Civita Di Bagnoregio without a lot of effort and
that's really, really important.
Good travel means you're going to have to walk. If your trips any good,
you're not gonna have a hotel right in front of your tour bus, or right in front
of the train station, and a lot of Europe is inaccessible. You can't get buses into
the center of town these days,
so, you need to be mobile, and if you need to buy a porter everywhere you go,
that's bad style, and it's going to put you in a real bind, so just get serious
about packing light.
here's the reality, you come in by train, and you've got to get that bag out at
least to the taxi rank, probably to the subway, and then on to your hotel.
this is a shot from one of our tours, I took this tour just as a participant
with my family.
Lisa's there in the front, one of our guides, and I like to show this shot
because this is a shot
travel or tour promoters generally don't show, the reality of tourism.
You gotta unload your gear, load it up, walk out to the tour bus, and so on,
and as I mentioned, if your tour is any good, the bus will not park directly in
front of the hotel. You want to be buried in the old town with your hotel, and that
means the reality of getting out to the bus, getting out to the
train station, whatever, so you'll want to be mobile.
when I'm traveling, you've got a big choice. Do you want a roller suitcase or
do you want a suitcase that has a grip that has hidden padded shoulder straps
that hangs on your back?
I still use the backpack hanging on my back, which is a soft-sided suitcase, and
I like it because it is a couple pounds less,
it is a little less expensive to buy, and when I'm on an airplane,
I can always jamming in the overhead locker because it's not a hard frame, and for
me that's a real advantage.
I'm the last person on the plane, I like to be the last person on the plane, and
I'm never unable to jam my bag up above. If I had a roller bag,
that's a little bit of a different story. If you need to have a roller bag,
that's okay. Someday I'm going to need a roller bag. As long as I'm strong enough
to carry it on my back, I will, okay.
I find in my office, among the men
it's kind of half and half, half of us carry it on our back, half use a roller bag.
among the women, most women like that roller bag. So really either way, and just
because you have a roller bag doesn't mean you can pack heavier,
that's a key thing, right. Now this is my home for four months out of the year.
The bag is something we've designed, it costs about a hundred dollars. If I could
get a better bag for five hundred dollars, I'd buy it in a heartbeat,
because this is my home.
It's a lot of living, and I find that this bag has everything we need.
It's a self-imposed limit, 9 x 22 x 14 inches, that's as big as I can carry out
of the airplane, very important.
It's got a very smart configuration of pockets, and I hang it on my back with
those padded shoulder straps.
I just love it. These people are very mobile and when you're traveling by
train,
you need to be mobile. I will remind you if you're traveling by car,
you can be packing a little heavier, because you can use the car to get where
you want to go, in most cases. But if you're traveling by train, you got to get
serious about packing light. On our tours, and we take a lot of people on our tours,
this group here looks like a reunion for one of our tours,
people just like you guys, we do not allow anybody to check any bags. 9 x
22 x 14 inches, that is the max.
Last year we took twenty thousand people on 800 different tours. For some of those
people, that was a radical concept, "what, 9 x 22 x 14 inches for my whole trip?
That was my cosmetics kit." Nope, that's everything because-- and it's kind of
tough love, and for years I've been forcing people into this beauty of
packing light, and I think, "am I comin' down too hard on him?"
I drop in and visit them a week into their trip and I asked them how's it
going, and
they're always thankful. I've never met anybody who was mad at me for making
them pack light.
You're going to learn now or you're going to learn later the importance of packing
light. So you can see these people here, these are people who take-- this is one of
our tours, a small group from one of our tours, and we got six people here, they've
all got their roller bags, and they've all got day bags.
The roller bag day bag thing, that's really your world, whether you're taking
a cruise or a bus tour, or going on your own,
you got your big bag, you leave it on the ship, you leave it under the bus, you
leave it in the hotel room, and you got your day bag for out and about.
Here's me coming back from a two month trip.
That's my world. When I leave home,
I always think, "this bag is so light, I must be forgetting something,"
and I go to my Europe Through the Back Door Book, and I look through the packing list,
and it's all there.
You don't need to pack heavy, as I was talking about. Whether you're going for
two weeks or two months, whether you're going winter or summer, whether
you're a man or a woman, rich or poor, old or young,
it's all the same. You will do yourself a huge favor if you pack light.
You got your big bag, you got your little bag.
Now I do like to accommodate the reality that you're going to get things as you go.
All right, I come, I leave home really bare bones, I'm beyond getting
tourist souvenirs, but a lot of people understand what they're going to buy,
they're gonna buy their beer stein, and they're gonna buy their
whatever all around Europe, and I like to have what's called a hideaway tote.
I leave that in the car, I leave that deep stored on the bus, and that's where
I put my stuff I don't want to carry into the hotel every night,
all right. Very nice, it lets you still be packing light even though you're cheating
and you're gathering stuff as you go, and then when you fly home you can fly home
heavy, and you've got this big bag that you can check on to the airplane. If you
can enjoy the luxury, however, of not checking things onto the airplane,
you're doing yourself a huge favor. With climate change, more flights are
canceled in Europe these days,
you need to be more flexible, and you need to be able to go to the airport, and
be able to roll with the punches. And if I've got my bag with me,
I can hop on an earlier flight, or I can take a canceled flight, and jump over
here, without wondering, "where the heck's my bag?"
Just last year, I missed two planes in Frankfort. Not my fault,
there was a thunderstorm, it closed down the airport, it happens a lot. So, if you have
your bags with you, if you can handle that, you become a more resilient traveler.
if you're packing heavy, you should go by car. One thing I've learned, if you're traveling with little kids,
you should be packing heavy. There's a lot of stuff to keep the kids happy in
Europe, alright.
I got over my fanatic "pack light" stuff a long time ago with little
kids, and I learned anything mom thinks is worth bringing is probably worth
bringing, I mean just between you and me,
so rent a car, you know, have a car from airport to airport, and take a few extra
bags, and the family will be much happier.
Remember, when you have a car, you can be a lot more flexible. You can you drive
from one spot to the next, and it just makes a lot of sense.
I mentioned climate change, with or without climate change, you've got to be
prepared for the weather, and
I would just anticipate some violent weather over there, and the key is you
don't let the weather dictate your sightseeing.
You got to get out and do it. You want solid shoes, you want Gore-Tex jacket,
you want an umbrella, you got to have the right gear. In Europe they say there's no
bad weather, just inappropriate clothing, and that's very wise,
that's very wise. So, you want to be able to get out, and even more of
concern than the the rain to me is the heat, it is really hot over there.
I don't know my Celsius is very well, but I do know that 28 equals 82, Celsius
to Fahrenheit.
That's all I need to know, if it's over 28
it's hot, it's over 82. And it's not unusual to find a climate like
this, where in France
everything is over 30. That means this is a very hot day, an uncomfortably hot day.
I do my Mediterranean traveling in the spring or the fall, and I go north of the
Alps in the middle of the summer, and I highly recommend that. You can go to the
Mediterranean in the summer, but it's really really hot.
You'll have air conditioning but it's still like a blow furnace when you go
outside.
I was in Germany last year for three weeks, and every day was close to a
hundred degrees in July. That's unprecedented in Germany.
Every day it was that hot, it was muggy, and there was a monsoon thunderstorm in
the afternoon.
This is just a new pattern. So you will find in your travels, violent weather,
lots of rain, and lots of heat. Many times I've got this, just because many times
you're in an outdoor restaurant all of a sudden the clouds came, it got dark and
you got a monsoon, and everybody scampers for the tent.
Get out and have a good time regardless of the weather,
bottom line. If you wait in your bed and breakfast for the weather to get good,
you're never going to wake up that little hill.
Just get out there and the weather will change three times during the hike. The
main item of bulk in your luggage is clothing, and the biggest
thing in your clothing is your shoes.
I mean, look at the size of my shoes there to my little bag, that's a big deal.
I think it's really important to have practical shoes.
My guides in Europe often have very impractical shoes, and they're out every
day on the cobbles, and climbing the ruined castles, and so on, and and I'll
never forget this guide here, I just wanted to make a photograph to compare.
I think it's really important to sacrifice a little bit of style and just
have good solid shoes. I love my Eccos, I love a good solid sole, I don't need high
tops, but I do want a solid good sole.
I want shoes that I can go through puddles in and not get all wet,
it's pretty important. Now the question, "do you bring more than one pair of shoes?"
I would think long and hard about bringing a second pair of shoes. If you
need a second pair of shoes bring it, but it should be a light one. A lot of times
I bring a second pair of shoes just because I think it's expected but I
don't use it.
Generally I use the same pair of shoes, I have one pair of shoes.
Some people go, "oh man that is barbaric." I take them off at night, they breathe.
Shoes are big. Get a well-worn-in, well-tested, favorite pair of shoes and
use it.
The main item of bulk again, shoes and clothing, when you take less clothing
it doesn't mean you wash more, you just wash a little as you go. And you've got
a limited wardrobe, and you're traveling so fast nobody's going to notice that
except for your travel partner, and he or she has the same problem.
So just make an agreement where you don't complain about each other's
limited wardrobe, and you're packing light.
It's quite easy to pack light, this is what you need, right here, laid out on a bed.
For a lot of people, they like to compartmentalize. I think this makes a
lot of sense.
I don't have time to get into all the details on packing, but I would remind
you, philosophically, don't have this mindset where you're prepared for every
scenario.
This is an American thing, we like to be prepared, we bring an extra one just in
case two people want to use it, or you lose it, or ones broken, or maybe you
want to loan one out while you're still using yours, no, just bring one. If you
need another one you can buy it.
Assume they have it over there. Pack for the best scenario,
not the worst scenario, that's fundamental. If you lay at home thinking,
"what all this stuff might I need," you're going to pack way too much stuff.
Look at the packing charts, we've got em' in our program, and just pack the bare
essentials.
In fact, it's fun to have to go buy something in Europe, it's really fun to
have to branch out and pick something up.
People like to compartmentalize, these packing cubes are one of the most
popular items in our travel store. Again, they know where their sweaters, are where
their keys are, where their electronic gear is, and so on.
Compartmentalize in your bag. I don't have a lot of credibility among women
when it comes to packing light, so it's just smart for us to have a woman who's
a great traveler and a great guide give a talk about packing light for women, and
we've got a wonderful talk on our website in the travel talk section by
Sarah Murdoch about packing light.
I hope that you can enjoy that talk, whether you're a man or a woman it has a
lot more information than what I'm going to share right now about packing. When it comes to
electronic gear, I used to say, "minimize the electronics, no electronics." That was
a long time ago, now I love electronics, there's, nothing wrong with electronics,
electronics empower you in Europe. You want to know how to get the gear going
in Europe. There's two issues,
converting the power and plugging it into the wall. I have never had a piece
of electronic gear, that I can remember, that didn't have a built-in converter.
It's not an issue these days, you'll hear about converters, 110-220 volts, and so on.
I don't even bother with that, I mean, if you looked at the fine print you'd see 110-220.
The issue is, can you plug it into the wall? That's what you need, and this is a
very simple thing. In Britain and Ireland,
you got the big three rectangular prongs, boom.
Everywhere else, you've got the two little round prongs,
boom. Technically, there's a little part on the switch of one that has an odd
device, but I don't-- I just ignore that, just keep it real simple.
It's good advice just in general on your travels, two plugs, and that will cover you
everywhere.
My electronic gear; I love my laptop, I love my phone,
I love my camera. That's basically it. When you're traveling, you want to get
online.
There's all sorts of great ways to get online, there's all sorts of media, you
can enjoy those movies you can download, you got your music, you got your Skype.
There's all sorts of reasons to have a good computer, or a tablet, or a
smart phone where you can get online, depending on your style, but it's
important to be online in Europe to travel well.
There are little guilty pleasures that all of us should feel free to bring, okay,
I want you to be hardcore about packing, but if you have some little treat you
want to bring along,
bring it. My guilty pleasure is my noise reduction headphones.
I love these things. I would rather go economy class on a plane with
noise-reduction headphones, than business class without. There's a lot of rumble on
the plane,
I've got lots of good things I want to listen to, when I'm wearing my
noise-reduction headphones nobody talks to me.
There's just some beautiful reasons to have your headphones on, and when you're
in your hotel room, or you're in the back of a tour bus, or whatever, you can
enjoy beautiful quality sound with your noise-- with your quality speakers.
So, everybody should be able to bring their fun little extra.
as far as toiletries go, there's not a lot of reason to bring a lot of toiletries.
Frankly, I'm kind of surprised people need so much stuff in their travels.
I like to have a toiletry bag like this, we sell these like hot
cakes. They hang in the bathroom, because a lot of times you
don't have a lot of hard surfaces. When I lay out my toiletries, it's pretty skimpy.
It's pretty basic, and I'm pretty fanatic about that, and I think that's all
you need, so, without getting into all the details, I'll just remind you, you can
travel very light when it comes to toiletries.
Don't bring everything you need with you from home, look forward to running out of
toothpaste, yeah now you got an opportunity to go into Bulgarian department store,
shop around, pick up something you think might be toothpaste.
That's part of the cultural experience, isn't it,
that's part of the cultural experience. When it comes to washing your clothes,
it's a reality we all gotta deal with, and you've got options.
You know, you can pay the ransom and have the hotel do it, you can wash it in your
sink, or you can go down the street to the laundromat.
When you go to the laundromat, you can pay extra for them to put it in, and
fold it for you, and come back later, and pick it up.
Sometimes, they even have a service where they pick it up at the hotel and drop it back
to the hotel, which is quite nice,
or you can sit there like a local person who doesn't own a washer dryer, and you
can just do your little work and, write your postcards, or whatever, while
your launder is going.
Hotels will tell you if there's a laundromat nearby, it's not the first
time they've had that question. If there's not a laundromat nearby, it's
fine, do it at the next stop. Sometimes there's no laundromats in town, but it's
not really an insurmountable problem,
you'll get your laundry done. It's cheap when you go down the street to the laundromat,
it's free when you do it in the sink. I just roll up my sleeves and think of it
as exercise. I wash whatever's dirty in the sink.
Usually there's a sign right next to the sink that says, "don't wash your laundry
in the room." That needs to be interpreted as, "we're classy joint, we've got
expensive furniture and floors, we don't want you hanging stuff out the window,
and we don't want you dripping on our wood."
Alright, but you're paying a hundred and fifty bucks, you can wash your stuff
in the sink,
I give you permission. Again, just do it thoughtfully, wring it really tight,
snap it a few times, and hang it over the tub, and you're doing fine.
By the way, I don't bring shampoo I just use the-- I don't bring a laundry
detergent, I just use the shampoo from the "itsy-bitsy " in the hotel, and it works
just great.
That's the one "itsy-bitsy" I use, otherwise, I bring my shampoo and soap
from home.
Hang it up and in the morning it should be alright. By the way, before your trip
wash everything out ahead of time, and straighten it out as best you
can, and see what it looks like when it's dry.
A lot of shirts just don't work, and you have to iron them, and a lot of shirts
work great, and you should favor, obviously, those shirts that wash and
wear well with the sink.
You want to have a money belt. A money belt is important, whether you wear it
everyday or not, you should have that ability to tie your valuables under your
clothing in a money belt, because theft is a big problem for travelers. And of
course, when you're packing, a big
an element of that is having your information. This family is having a
great trip, because mom has the right guidebook, and she's using it. She did
not skimp on guidebooks. Guidebooks are a 20 dollar tool for a
3,000 dollar experience. They're worth buying, and they're worth carrying,
and if they're any good, they'll pay for themselves on the shuttle in from the
airport. Now, you don't want to just carry a lot of paper, that can be a real problem,
and you see a lot of people have a library in there, and it's a third of
their bulk. Get serious about ripping those books up. It's a ritual for
me, I get out of box cutter, and I tear those books up, and I staple them, and I
put a big plastic or a tape binding on them, and I've got my little versions
of the big books that cover just the places I'm going to. So rip the heck out
of those guidebooks. A lot of people think, "oh that's sacrilegious." These are
tools. Your guidebook should be a mess after the trips over, and of course you
can always buy another one, right.
Okay, so you got your Moleskine, you got your personal office, you got your ripped
up guidebooks, you got your tourist information, with rubber bands, it's all right there.
Have the information, but keep it light. It is so important to pack light,
it really is. Think about it, you'll never meet anybody who brags that, "every year I
pack heavier." With experience, you get serious about the beauty of packing light.
Thank you. If you've enjoyed this video, you'll find lots more at
ricksteves.com, and on my Rick Steves
YouTube channel. Happy travels, and thanks for joining us.