What to take

The best advice I can give on this subject, and the second of the Three Great Travel Commandments, is the following: Travel Light. I know you’ve heard it before, but I doubt you believe it. Consider this: every first-time traveler I have asked has said that they wished they hadn’t brought so much with them. Every one. Please, please, please, believe me. I have met Australians who have been traveling for six months with a daypack. I once made a two-week side trip from London to Cadiz, Spain, via Madrid, Paris, and Granada, also with a daypack. The freedom was incredible.

I truly believe that the most important thing you can do to ensure an enjoyable trip is to bring only what’s genuinely necessary with you. Clothes are the worst culprit - bringing too many will make you feel that you spent two months doing nothing but carrying a giant mass of dirty laundry around Europe. I can think of one idiot who brought so many clothes on his first trip that he had to pay an excess baggage fee. (I’ve learned my lesson since then.) You will be happiest if you bring no more than what you can carry on to the airplane: a large, well-made daypack or a small travel pack. If you can carry all that you’ve brought around a museum, you’ve done just about right on the weight.

I can practically hear the snorts of disbelief and derision as you read this: “Yeah right, pal, like I can really live two months out of a day-pack.” Well, no, actually you can live out of a daypack indefinitely. You honestly can. Someone once said: “Figure out exactly what you need for your trip, then bring twice the money and half the clothes.” Words of wisdom. Some of the benefits of packing light:

- You don’t have to check your bag when flying, and therefore never lose control of your things. While others may have their bags sent to Zambia, you are sitting pretty. This is no joke. Having your bags lost is a miserable experience. Never check anything you will need during the first day or two in a new country.

- You can spend more time, if you so choose, looking for accommodation, and don’t have to fight that common, desperate desire to accept any place to stay just so you can take off your damn pack. Believe me, you’ll appreciate this greatly when you’re on the road.

- You aren’t chained to a bag. After a week of travel with too much stuff, that’s how it feels, and it gets worse. For example: You have a lpm train. You would like to spend the morning in a museum or a park. With tons of stuff you either have to leave your things at your hotel or hostel, if possible, and return there before catching the train, or leave your things in a locker or at the left-luggage office in the train station, and then go back out. When you’re light and mobile, you just put on your pack, go where you want to go, and only go to the station to catch your train.

- The mental strain is less. You’ll understand it better once you’re in Europe, but a big bag is just a major headache to worry about, almost like a traveling companion you hate. There is a definite feeling of release after you find a place to leave your stuff, roughly equivalent to being let out of school. If you have a really big bag, the feeling is like being let out of a cage.