How to Travel for a Month with Carry-On Only

We have been traveling with our kids since they were three months old.  Our son recently flew his 150th flight and with the exception of two trips, we have packed carry-on bags only.  You might be asking yourself “Why?”

There are lots of benefits of flying with carry-on bags.  The airlines never lose your luggage.  You aren’t overwhelmed with baggage on arrival.  You can easily take transit to and from the airport.  For us, the biggest reason is that it is sometimes the only way we can get on our flight!

OK, let’s start this with full disclosure…Matt works for an airline, and with that comes flight benefits which we try our best to take full advantage of.  We fully recognize the awesomeness of this benefit and try to never take it for granted!  This is how we are able to travel as much as we do and it is a true gift.

However, there is always a catch!  The catch here is that those flight benefits are for stand-by tickets.  That means that we can list for a flight, but we only get on that flight if there are open seats available.  It’s like playing the “stand-by lottery!”  There is always a risk that we won’t get on the flight and we will have to look at Plan B ( or Plan C,D,E…you get the idea).  It’s an adventure!  An adventure we are always willing to take.

So, how does packing fit into this?  Imagine that the flight is fully boarded and the gate agents are calling for four missing passengers over the PA.  “This is your final call.”  Our family of four stands patiently and quietly by the desk secretly hoping that no “party of four” comes running down the hall to catch their flight.  The gate agent looks at us and says, “Do you have checked bags?”

This is the make or break moment.  “No!” is always our answer.  This late in the boarding game, there is no time for ground crew to board our bags.  That would cause a delay.  Not gonna happen.  So, armed with 4 carry on bags (plus a couple handbags) we grab those boarding passes and off we go!

I realize this is a long intro into our first Travel Tips entry, but I want to give you some context as to why we cram a month’s worth of travel necessities into one 21.5″x 15.5″ x 9″ bag.

 

How do we do it?  First of all, what you pack for a trip is a very personal thing. I realize that what and how we pack may not work for everyone, but here is our method and theory behind the madness:

Choose the Right Travel Clothes

Some clothes make great travel clothes, some not so much! Things we look for in travel clothes:

Dark or heather colours: Black, navy or heather grey t-shirts hide food spills and dirt.  That is the goal here.  You want to try and sneak a couple days of wear out of the clothes you bring.  For the kids, dark printed patterns work well to hide all sorts of spills!  For myself, I tend to bring neutral solid colours rather than prints because they can be mix and matched and layered and still coordinate.  Add patterns and variety by adding a scarf. Scarves pack up small and can double as a blanket or a pillow on the flight.

Quick-dry fabrics:  Although I love my 100% cotton t-shirts and jeans at home, on the road they take forever to dry hanging over a chair in the hotel room and they don’t keep their shape well after being wrung out in the bathtub.  We all have a couple pairs of “travel pants” that are nylon and can be worn on the trail or around town and dry in a couple of hours after washing.  They also are virtually wrinkle free! ( I admit to still packing one pair of jeans, because I am addicted!)

Layering pieces: My favourite layering piece is a light puffy jacket.  You know, those thin down coats you see everywhere?  They are perfect for travel!  They pack down to nothing (some even come with a handy little stuff sack) and they keep the wind out better than a bulky fleece jacket.

The next layering piece is a light, breathable rain coat.  The puffy jacket with a rain coat over top is the perfect combination when it gets cold and drizzly!

Do Laundry Regularly

I hate to break it to you, but in order to pack light, you are going to have to do laundry!  We pack a 4 day rotation of clothes.  That’s 4 tops, 4 bottoms, 2 pairs of pajamas (they definitely get worn twice) and usually a hoodie or sweater. This means that every third day we do laundry (or longer depending on how long we can live with a stinky shirt!).  I always carry a small little bag of powdered laundry detergent with me. It’s heaven when our accommodation has a laundry facility, but more often than not, I use the bathtub or sink.  This leaves the fourth day as a laundry drying day.  There is no better way to class up your hotel room than by hanging laundry over every surface!  It usually takes a day to dry (sometimes less depending on the type of fabric)  because hand wrung clothes start out a lot wetter than clothes wrung out in the washing machine.

Use Stuff Sacks and the Rolling Technique

The kids carry their own backpacks with all of their own clothes and supplies.  Now, I don’t know about your kids, but my kids are not very good at folding clothes or keeping things tidy!  Their backpacks would be an absolute disaster of clean and dirty shirts, pants and underwear all mixed together if it weren’t for stuff sacks!  They have a different stuff sack for pants, tops, pj’s and socks and underwear.  They also have a dirty laundry stuff sack.  Whenever we arrive somewhere, they pull out their stuff sacks for easy access and can find what they need quickly.

You can opt to buy packing cubes which are also great.  Here is my take on packing cubes.  If you are packing a suitcase, they work really well because of their rectangular shape.  For backpacks, I find that they aren’t as space efficient as stuff sacks.  Stuff sacks do exactly what they should, they stuff into whatever shape you need, including the rounded bottom of your backpack.  We have a few mesh stuff sacks that we purchased from MEC, but honestly if you can sew a straight-ish line, stuff sacks are pretty much the easiest thing to sew.  Cheap and easy!

When filling those stuff sacks we opt for the rolling method.  Again, it comes down to filling rounded spaces in your backpack.  Rolling instead of folding truly saves space!

Choose Comfortable Shoes

Ugh…I struggle the most with shoes!  They take up so much space and depending on what kind of trip you are taking, you need more than one pair! When you are space limited, always go for comfort!  Our go-to travel shoes are Blundstones.  Comfortable, durable, can be dressed up if needed but also work on the trail.  (note: for a hiking trip, we take our actual hiking boots). If we are traveling to a warmer destination like South East Asia, then we opt for running shoes.

If a second shoe is needed, it is usually a sandal.  I personally prefer Birkenstocks, but for the kids I bring something waterproof and comfortable like Keens or Teeva.

Tip: Always wear your bulkiest shoes on travel days.  This way you only have to leave enough space in your bag for a pair of sandals.

Pack Liquids and Gels That Don’t Leak

In a carry-on bag you are limited to containers of no more than 100ml of liquids and gels.  This is the biggest issue with carry-on only!  For some things like shampoo and conditioner, I just buy it when I get there or use what is supplied in the hotel.  I don’t bother trying to pack my own.  For other things, like sunscreen, I like to bring it from home.  Depending on where you are, sunscreen can be very expensive to buy on the road and they don’t always have the brand you want.

At first, we struggled with finding small plastic containers that didn’t leak.  We found that Nalgene makes small containers (60ml) with screw top lids that do not leak.  They are also a handy size to throw in your day bag.  We swear by them! I fill a few of those up with sun screen , face wash, and face cream and away we go!

Keep the Toys to a Minimum

Here is where our packing has really evolved as the kids have gotten older.  When they were little, they each got a small, fabric zippered toy bag that they could fill with whatever toys they wanted for the trip, as long as they fit in the bag.  This was their favourite part of packing!  Caliper Kid usually filled his with Lego and Purple Pixie filled hers with her favourite Schleich animals and Lalaloopsie girls.

Now that they are older, they don’t really pack toys at all.  They just want their devices!  So, they each have one device along with a small pocket battery pack and a charging cord.  They upload audio books from our local library before we leave and listen to those on the flight as well as during quiet times of the day.  They have a couple of games and movies as well.

Odds and Ends

The only other items on our travel packing list are travel journals with pencils and pencil crayons for sketching, a couple decks of cards, a first aid kit, reusable water bottles and a good family read aloud book that we read together at night (that is a tradition that continues whether we are at home, abroad or at sea!). Other items packed are trip specific (ie: binoculars when going on safari or sailing, swimsuits when going to a beach destination…)

What bags do we take?

Most of the time, we use backpacks.  Here is why.  They are easiest for the kids to carry  (no need to worry about stairs or escalators!).  They are also more versatile and easier to manage on uneven sidewalks than a wheeled suitcase.  They can be emptied out and double as day bags for the kids if needed.  Lastly, some airlines have weight restrictions for carry-on bags and backpacks are way lighter than a wheeled suitcase! The key things we look for in a pack are:

• a comfortable hip belt to take the weight off of the shoulders
• adjustable shoulder straps
• easy access to the main compartment
• lots of pockets and pouches for organizing your personal items

Matt and I also bring one small handbag each.  I carry my camera day bag and he carries a small day pack that we use for easy access items during the flight like snacks, headphones and personal devices.  Both these bags double as day bags throughout the whole trip.

I use a MEC Aria 40L women’s pack and a Lowepro Photo Hatchback BP 150 AW II.

Matt uses a MEC Zephyr 50L pack

The kids both have Deuter Fox 30 packs, but when they were younger they used REI Tarn 18 packs.

And that is pretty much it!  We use this same method for when we are traveling for a week or for a month.  It’s really not complicated, you just have to be OK with wearing the same set of 4 outfits or get really good at mixing and matching those 4 tops and bottoms!

To conclude these ramblings I will say that it is always better to pack less than you think you are going to need and don’t stress too much about it.  My rule of thumb is, “If in doubt, take it out!” If you need more clothes when you get there, it’s a great excuse to go shopping!