Here are my five top tips for how to pack when backpacking:
1. One large rucksack, one smaller rucksack, one bum bag – I have always taken a 65 litre bag with me on my travels and have found this to be plenty! Ensure your big bag opens either in the middle or from the bottom too, so that you can get to all the hard reaching places without having to completely unpack each time!
Your smaller rucksack can double-up as a day bag, or one you can take on a few days trek when heading out on excursions; most hostels will have a free luggage storing service for your large rucksack in these areas. This day bag will also be the place you can store more valuable items that you want to hide away in your personal locker if you’re heading out for the day and can’t squeeze your big rucksack into the locker space.
A bum bag is essential for storing your passport and other personal items to keep them close to you at all times!
Make sure you pop a bin bag or carrier bag in for dirty clothes/shoes.
2. Packing cubes – These will change your life! You will not realise how useful they are until you go for it! Living out of a backpack for months is far from ideal, but packing cubes make this much more bearable when trying to search through your rucksack for individual items as they compartmentalise your bag. If you are on a super tight budget, try using small carrier bags to separate out your packing, however, nothing compares to the real thing, and you can find many well-priced packing cubes on the high-street. You will soon be converted!
3. Refillable water bottle – Most hostels will offer a facility to fill your own water bottle with filtered water (often even free). This will help you save massively on costs, keep hydrated, and also save our planet one small step at a time!
4. Documentation copies – Take multiple photocopies of your passport, some passport size photos for visas, your travel insurance documentation, and a list of your vaccination history (plus a copy of your yellow fever vaccination if applicable) in a small plastic wallet. Hopefully you won’t need any of these, but it is better to have them just in case!
5. Pack light – This is a piece of advice you will be relieved you followed! Not only should you bear in mind you have to lug your bag with you from hostel to hostel, bus to bus, but you will also want to pick up some extra bits and souvenirs along the way which you will be gutted if you don’t save space for! Remember about the weight limit for the plane too!
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