Many people want to travel light, but not everyone can achieve this or know how to do this. Traveling light is more than just bringing less items, but also about doing things in a systematic manner. In this case, we shouldn’t just toss in fewer things into our luggage. If we do this, we could end up lacking some essential items. When traveling light, it is important that we have a proper packing list that includes all items we need. Things that we pack should be organized by categories.
The most important things would be complete documentation, including passports, plane tickets, ID card, driving license, travelers checks, vaccination certificates, credit cards and others. Without proper documents, we may even be prevented to enter a country. There are also touring items that are essential during a trip, such as sunblock, sunglasses, pens, papers and smartphones that are loaded with navigation and hotel booking apps. Obviously, clothing and toiletries are also things that we need to carry and they often take up much space.
Travelling light is great when we are on a budget. There are many things that we don’t need to carry. As an example, toiletries, spoon and snack can be purchased in supermarkets in the destination country. It may be necessary to cross everything that are essential in daily lives in any country, because they are likely available in destination areas. Before traveling, we should also arrange to stop mail delivery and get our pets cared for. This will allow us to travel with lighter load both on our luggage and mind.
When traveling light, it is recommended to bring only a single canvas backpack for each person. This will require us to have complete preparation. The canvas bag should be easily carried into cramped minibus, especially if we go to less developed countries. Our canvas bags should have more than a dozen of inner and outer compartments, similar to pockets, so more items can be brought without significantly increasing the bulk volume. Comb, reading glasses, band aids, small water bottle and medications may need to be accessed easily, so they can be placed in outer compartments.
Critical documents, such as passports would need to be kept in secure locations, but can still be accessed quickly. We may need to pull them out quickly when taking train or do other things that require locals to show their ID cards. The best place to bring passports and other essential documents is in our clothing, especially in an inner pocket. This will make sure that our documents won’t fall off and we will still be able to pull them out immediately.
In this case, we may need to purchase comfortable clothing that have inner pockets. As an example, there could be inner pockets with zips inside normal pockets of our trousers. Check number should be stored in different places than not in the same location with the travelers check. With these simple steps, we should be able to travel light before our big trip.