Packing before your gap year: avoid our mistakes
Packing is not an easy issue even for former flight attendants like us, and when it comes to an entire gap year, it can lead to a serious headache. We have travelled the world for over a decade! How comes we are just so terrible at packing? In this post we explain our initial mistakes and how we were able to overcome them. In poor words, we explain how we learnt to pack the optimal backpack for a gap year around the globe.
How comes we were not able to pack for a long journey?
On one hand, we guess we got some bad habits during our time as flight attendants. In fact, we used to carry plenty of weird and useless items, even when we stayed just a couple of nights away. On the other hand, we needed some time and effort to fully understand that if we wanted to travel the world in total freedom, we needed to change our perspective.
Should I leave my favourite shoes? Or my favourite hand moisture? What about that dress that would be perfect in case we decide to party? I absolutely can’t leave my trekking shoes at home! After all, we are going to an exotic place, and we might go on an adventurous excursion. Despite there was a time when everything seemed to be essential to us, the mistakes we made gave us the great opportunity to understand that our attachment to material stuff was simply irreconcilable with a gap year around the world.
Our packing mistakes during our time as flight attendants
Certainly, when we were flight attendants, for some weird reasons we could not fly without items that nobody would honestly even consider taking on a trip, such as a juice blender or an electrical water heater.
Every month we were on a different schedule, repeating the same activities, but in different parts of the world. As a result, after the first years of excitement, we slowly started feeling projected in what we call a “gypsy routine”, which is the controversial feeling of repeating the same actions and habits in different places, while missing simple normal life aspects, like sleeping in your bed or cooking in your kitchen.
Probably, this is why we ended up travelling with weird stuff, like kitchen tools or our entire toiletries collection, even on very short work shifts.
Let us tell you a secret: it’s better not to ask a flight attendant for any packing tips! After all, how could they be packing gurus for an entire adventurous gap year around the world, if they normally just stay in 5 stars hotels for a couple of days, and you never see them with a small suitcase?
When we started our first gap year, people wondered if we were moving somewhere or if we were just visiting. Back then, we started our big journey with two very heavy suitcases, two handbags and the camera equipment.
Following a short period, spent struggling to carry all that heavy load, the photo here below shows how we ended up a few weeks later. Finally, we were able to open our eyes on something very basic: we just didn’t need most of our belongings.
We gave away to charities about 90% of our stuff, we bought two smaller backpack/trolleys, and we finally felt freedom running through our veins.
How we passed from heavy giant suitcases to a smaller and smarter backpack
First of all, keep in mind that packing is not so hard. Secondly, pack only what’s really essential! Just pretend that you will be away for less than a week. There are laundry services all over the globe!
Even in the most remote places of the planet, you will find a laundry service or local people willing to wash your clothes for a few dollars. So, why spending a lot of time packing and unpacking an uncomfortable heavy suitcase, when you can be free and use local laundries everywhere on this planet?
Suddenly, we understood we needed to switch our minds on a different mode, focused on four basic concepts: freedom, lightness, saving money and happiness. Although we are not into politics, we would like to share with you one of the best quotes of the former president of a small, big country, Uruguay. We refer to Pepe Mujica, who said:
“Either you’re happy with very little, free of all that luggage because you have happiness inside, or you don’t go anywhere. I am not advocating poverty, I am advocating sobriety. We have invented a mountain of superfluous needs, shopping for the new, discarding the old. That’s a waste of our lives. When I buy something, when you buy something, you are not paying money for it. You are paying with the hours of life you had to spend earning that money. The difference is that life is one thing money can’t buy. Life only gets shorter. And it’s pitiful to waste one’s life to lose freedom”.
Welcome new freedom!
Let’s think about it for a second: how many times have you bought useless items that you don’t need, maybe even with the money that you don’t have? Or maybe you didn’t use a credit card or a loan to borrow some money from the future to buy your needless stuff. In that case, how many hours did you have to work to buy it?
Once we stopped buying useless items that we didn’t need, we started noticing some important advantages: more money at disposal, that we can use to travel, more freedom because we stopped consuming systematically, and immense happiness to be free, while feeling lighter than a feather in the wind.
That said, the above mentioned quote is not the only reason why we passed from heavy suitcases to a smaller backpack/trolley. Another reason is that it’s the best option for a long trip that includes several environments. In fact, you can pull it, but when you need to travel on a motorbike or when you need to walk on an unpaved road, you can simply carry it on your back.
Just make sure you do not exceed 10 kg of weight, first of all because you will need to carry it, but also because many local low cost airlines will charge you an extra fee for your luggage, according to the weight.
Packing for a gap year, what to include, in our opinion
When we travel, we now always carry 3 basic items: a money belt, one piece of light hand luggage and a light backpack/trolley.
1) MONEY BELT: to keep your money, credit cards, passport.
2) FOLDING SMALL HANDBAG/BACKPACK: small light folding bag or backpack that you will carry on-board the aircraft, train or bus. You also may use it later to go to the beach or on an excursion. In case the airline policy is very strict and doesn’t allow two pieces of luggage in the cabin, you may fold it and put it, together with its content, inside your backpack.
3) BACKPACK/TROLLEY: it should weight less that 10 kg when full.
List of items inside the backpack/trolley
- 1 pair of flip flops
- 1 universal adaptor
- 1 head light
- 1 small sewing kit
- 5 t-shirts
- 1 t-shirt with long sleeves
- 2 shorts
- 2 short dresses (women)
- 1 sarong (you can use it at the beach, as a scarf or as a blanket)
- 5 pairs of underwear
- 2 pairs of light and short bras (women)
- 1 swimming suite
- 1 long sleeve waterproof light hooded jacket
- 1 shower microfiber towel
- 1 natural soap (that you can use for both your body and hair)
- 1 sunscreen (when the journey includes a boat trip, carry it inside the hand luggage)
- 1 set with a plastic spoon/fork/knife
- 1 small medical kit (small scissors, gauze, band aids, disinfectant towels, antibiotics, thermometer, antihistamine pills, aspirin, pain killer, diarrhoea blocker, vomit blocker)
- 1 emery board to file your nails.
What to wear during a long flight or a long distance bus trip
- leggings (women)
- light sport long trousers (men)
- light hooded waterproof jacket (you can tight it around your waist if it is hot, but you will use it in case of cold air con)
- trekking or training shoes.
It is advisable to wear long trousers and long sleeve shirts when you travel long distances by bus or train in Asia or South America, because they usually keep the air con very low and also to avoid unpleasant bites of bedbugs, which unfortunately reproduce themselves very quickly, especially inside carpeted means of transportation in hot climates.
Because we are massive coffee and tea drinkers and due to the fact that we decided not to get vaccinations, we love to prepare our own hot drinks, using our own bottled water. This is why we still have one last favourite item from our flight attendants times: a small water heater.
Inside the small folding handbag/backpack
2) FOLDING SMALL HANDBAG/BACKPACK
- 1 set earplugs and eye sleeping mask
- 1 small case containing: toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, small moisturizer, deodorant, small refillable container with liquid soap (all liquids and gels must be less than 100 ml if you fly)
- mobile phone and charger
- laptop/tablet and charger
- small wallet with small amount of money for the day (the rest will be inside the money belt)
- sunglasses with cover
- pen
- small agenda with essential numbers, including the numbers to call in case your credit card gets stolen or lost.
General additional tips before you leave
Tell your bank you are leaving for a long trip abroad (they might block your credit card if they suspect someone stole it or copied it).
Have two credit cards with you and keep them separated and far away from metal or electric objects.
Do always carry your passport with you inside your money belt, even if on a bus or train trip. Do not leave it inside your backpack.
Backup your documents and personal data (dropbox, pen drive, etc).
Take a waterproof backpack cover. And, last but not least: if in doubt, leave it out!
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