Pack Light Field Test

Validating Your Europe Packing List
What luggage and how to pack your bag.

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Backpacking Europe is old school, and so totally ridiculous in function and in form.
The b/w photo from the last century shows two girls in the Munich, Germany Hauptbahnhof (main train station) struggling to get their big bulky backpacks mounted, in 1982.
My color photo shows a threesome waiting for boarding call at Stockholm docks, 2006, comfortably with their hand and roller luggage. This is the luggage of 97% of travelers.
The trio is about to cruise the overnight ferry to Helsinki, Finland. Me too, for the fifth time. What a magnificent ship, great food, and party galore. Believe it or not, you can make Helsinki a day trip from Stockholm with overnight forth and back ferry trips. If you drink make sure to stock up in the on-board duty free shop.

Carpe diem. Vivere bene! Gratia Deo.

This is chapter 6.1. The entire book is published free on-line by the DIY traveler, author, photographer, and webmaster —yours truly— with help from my daughter Stephanie and good friend Paula in Haarlem, Nord Holland, Netherlands. Questions, comments, complaints, and contributions are welcome. Please click footnote. Patronage at my euro-shoppe™ keeps this site on line. Updated 29 March 2017.

Be cool or be a pack mule.

PACKING FOR EUROPE IN FOUR PARTS

This Europe packing list chapter is presented in four parts on the web:

6.1 Pack Light Field Test.

Validating Your Europe Packing List.

6.2 Personal Care Items.

Pack Your Toothbrush and Toilet Paper.

6.3 Travel Supplies for Europe.

Small Stuff Packing List.

6.4 Bringing Valuables to Europe.

Not in Your Luggage or Purse.

Closely related subject matter is at:

5. What To Wear in Europe .

Your Best Travel Clothes for Every Occasion.

7. Luggage for Europe:.

Get Wheels and Let It Roll!

And here is the MOAPL, the Mother Of All Packing Lists:

    Last Call:.

Travel Prep and Pack Lists for Europe.

BASICS

What you pack for a trip to Europe is less important than how much you pack for your trip. So before getting into the "what" let's consider the "how much." The purpose of the Pack Light Field Test is to see if you can actually haul around the stuff that you want to haul around.

PACK LIGHT FIELD TEST

Why?

Packing for a European trip is one of the most difficult things for Americans to grasp. It is not like taking a vacation in the USA. You can't just load up the trunk of the car and drive off.

For a trip to Europe you take the minimum amount of stuff you will need. What is the definition of "need?" I define "need" by example. That is, if your desired stuff does not fit in a 22" suitcase plus a shoulder bag you do not need it. Anything beyond that is self-immolation.

The cardinal rule of packing for Europe is that you carry it or pull it to get it there. This means that everything you bring you haul by yourself, and all of it at one time. Then you do it all again at each stop after you arrive. Again and again, when boarding most trains you must carry your bag up a few steps, or a whole flight of steps, and then get it into the overhead luggage rack six feet from the floor. If you grunt when you lift, stop right now.

The Rule of Pack Light, Very Personal

This exercise originally appeared in the first edition of my book, How To Europe: The Complete Travelers Handbook. That was 35 years ago. I have coined it the Pack Light Field Test. This test has been endorsed by a famous travel guru by way of plagiarism. He copied it to his web site and boastfully wrote it up as if he had invented it. Based on that act of stealing my work and then lying about it you could say that my Pack Light Field Test has been peer reviewed and approved. However, the dork did it without credit or thank you.

Pack light is easy to say but difficult to execute. Because it is a big trip and maybe your first trip out of the country your gut feeling is that you need to pack "everything" and maybe even two of "everything" just in case. This is encouraged by web sites from self-proclaimed travel experts showing loads of pictures of all the clothes and shoes to bring. These sites look like Macy's catalogs, talking about fashion and not looking like an American. Form over function. Fantasy and idiocy. For clothes to wear, including photos of locals, tourists, my daughter, and me, see chapter 5.

Use the other side of your brain. Analyze your basic needs, pack them up, and take this test.

Testing Time

OK. Let's start right now. Get your drawers on.

First, pull up my on-line packing list and print a copy. You are going to want to scribble on it. Last Call: Travel Prep and Pack Lists for Europe is the best Europe packing list, ever. I should say that because I wrote it. This list also originated with the first edition of my book decades and scores of trips ago. My packing list has been tried and tested and polished for 2016. It has also been pinched by so many aspiring web travel writers that I can't count them. Few of them were even born when I wrote the original.

Pack everything you plan to bring, stuff your pockets, put on your hat and coat, open your umbrella, (raining or not), check the time, and walk one mile away from home with the whole load. Then, pretending you are trying to catch a train, run or walk home. If you can make the round trip comfortably within 45 minutes you have packed light. It is best if your test course includes a short, steep hill or several flights of stairs, upwards on the return leg.

That's it. Simple. Try it now or learn the hard way — on the job.

If you are of the metric persuasion the test would be one kilometer in 28 minutes. If you do not know metric from Shinola I suggest a visit to my chapter 27 Europe's Metric System: Grams, Meters, Liters, Centigrade — because you are gong to need it.

Travel Pals

Make sure that all of your traveling companions can pass the Pack Light Field Test. If not, old friends may soon become lifetime enemies.

Travel Clothes

A rundown on your clothing list was suggested in chapter 5, complete with photos of locals at What To Wear in Europe: Every Occasion's Best Travel Clothes. That is only about 2/3 of your pack. Your suitcase must also be a miniature bathroom closet, laundry room, drugstore, tool box, photo gear headquarters, office supply, and library of guide books, maps, and dictionaries. This is all in addition to your clothes. Good luck!

Airline Baggage Fees — Big Bucks

Another critical packing issue has come up in the last decade. Back in the "good old days" the international airline free baggage allowance was seemingly unlimited. Two bags weighing up to 70 pounds could be checked. Carry-on was size limited but several pieces could be brought on board. There were shopping bags everywhere on the return flights from Europe. People had a field day in the duty free shops before boarding.

Airlines are now charging for most checked luggage and are strictly limiting carry-on to one piece of luggage plus a "personal bag" to hold your laptop, back-up underwear, emergency sandwich, and such. The airlines are making so much money with luggage charges and other new fees that the amount of loot exceeds their luggage allowance. Your first stop should be the web site of your airline to read the carry-on or cabin luggage allowance. The checked luggage fee could easily exceed the cost of your luggage or even your plane ticket. Ouch. And you pay both ways, going and coming home. Ouch! Ouch!

Backpack or Rolling Luggage for Europe

Chapter 7, Luggage for Europe: Get Wheels and Let It Roll!, has details about what kind of luggage to use. My illustrated essay is based on decades of domestic and international travel.

Some people still try to go like burros. Please, this is not your trip over the Himalayan peaks. Europe has paved sidewalks. So why does every "travel guru" and wannabee promote and sell backpacks on their websites? Duh. Follow the money.

Rolling luggage can save you grief galore as you walk to your hotel on a hot muggy day in Rome. The shirts of the backpackers will be soaking wet and stinking like a locker room. Be cool with wheels.

I saw a mirror on a street in Wexford and paused for a self portrait, known as a "selfie" in the new American lingo. All of my worldy travel possessions are in my knee-high roller bag and shoulder bag. I traveled for a month around Britain and Ireland with this load, on wheels. The bungie cord is very handy for keeping my shoulder bag tied down when I want to roll it rather than carry it. Notice the X on my luggage. That is visible at a hundred yards so it is easy to spot on the airport luggage-go-round. So many bags look alike these days that it is hard to find your stuff. The wool fedora hat and the leather bomber jacket served me well on a drizzly May trip around Guinness Island, sometimes known as Ireland. Drats, I left the hat on a train in Edinburgh, Scotland a few weeks later.
See chapter 7 Best Luggage for Europe: Get Wheels and Let It Roll! for my advice on choosing luggage.

NOW, WHERE IS THAT DANG PACKING LIST?

This web page served as a introduction to packing light, including a simple user's manual for the Pack Light Field Test. Actually, the user's manual is just a few paragraphs. Some writers are able to assemble a WHOLE BOOK on the subject of packing light. No kidding. I have a couple of those books, collecting dust.

For more specific packing details please continue to part 2 of this chapter, Personal Care Items in Europe: Packing Your Toothbrush and Toilet Paper. Most of it is in your bathroom or on your dresser right now. But before you throw everything in your bag look over this essay to see if you really want to do that.

Part 3 of my packing tips covers the traditional stuff you need on the road. See Travel Supplies for Europe: Small Stuff Packing List.

Lastly, part 4 discusses the vaulable things you need to bring with you. These include your passport, credit cards, cash, camera, and other ID and valuables. The key message, which bears repeating repeating repeating, is do not put valuables in any luggage, backpack, day bag, or purse. Carry them on your person. Documents and funds go in an inside pocket on your body, not in a porous hotel safe. See Bringing Valuables to Europe: Not in Your Luggage or Purse. Your camera should be in your hand and attached to a leash around your neck, ready for action. Else, why did you bring it?

Last Call

If you want to skip over all the verbiage in these chapters and go straight to a complete packing and to-do list, I have just the thing for you. This total punch list has everything you need, Last Call: Travel Prep and Pack Lists for Europe. Come back to part 2 later to see why you need vinegar and vodka. No kidding.

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Have a good trip!

Selections at

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