Packing for Europe
Packing for a seventh month long trip to Europe is tricky. We wanted to pack light, especially since we would be hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) with most of our belongings on our backs. But we also wanted to keep it organized so living out of a suitcase or backpack for months was a little easier.
The key to packing light was realizing we would be doing hand wash almost every evening. This meant that we didn’t have to bring very many changes of clothes. We’ll probably get very tired wearing the same thing day after day, but it was worth the sacrifice to reduce the amount of weight on our backs. We’ll be traveling by train the majority of the time so we’ll be carrying our packs a lot. In Europe, elevators are not the norm, especially for the small little places we’ll be staying, so we expect to be carrying our luggage up and down many stairs.
To help keep things organized, we used packing cubes (paid link). In addition to helping with grouping things together, the compression cubes saved some space by pressing out the air. Having packing cubes in a variety of colors made it easier to remember which items were inside them.
We’ll start by showing exactly what Ann brought and where she packed each and every item. Then we’ll explain what Keith did differently.
1. What we wear on travel days
3. Sojourn Main Compartment - Medium Black Compression Cube
4. Sojourn Main Compartment - Medium Blue Compression Cube
5. Sojourn Main Compartment - Medium Green Compression Cube
6. Sojourn Main Compartment - Medium Orange Compression Cube
7. Sojourn Main Compartment - Medium Orange Non-compression Cube
8. Sojourn Main Compartment - Small Black Compression Cube
9. Sojourn Main Compartment - Small Orange Compression Cube
10. Sojourn Main Compartment - Other
11. Sojourn Top Compartment - Toiletry Kit
12. Sojourn Side Pouch - Water Bottle
13. Sojourn Front Compartment - Laptop Bag
14. Sojourn Front Compartment - Other
16. Backpack Bottom Compartment - First Aid Ziplock
17. Backpack Bottom Compartment - Other
18. Backpack Main Compartment - Medium Gray Non-compression Cube
19. Backpack Main Compartment - Other
20. Backpack Top Pouch - Ziplock Bag 1
21. Backpack Top Pouch - Ziplock Bag 2
22. Backpack Top Pouch - Other
23. Backpack Front Pouch - Other
1. What we wear on travel days
What we don’t have to pack is what we are wearing. So we have one of our outfits on along with our heaviest and largest footwear, our hiking boots. The packing list below assumes Ann will be wearing one of her hiking shirts, one set of underwear, one pair of socks, one pair of hiking pants, her belt, her money belt, and her Apple Watch.
Inside her money belt is her passport, spare cash, along with backup debit and credit cards. In one zippered pocket of her pants are her cell phone and back up SSD drive. In the other zippered packet are her stickers and her small, slim wallet, which contains her driver’s license, main credit card, main debit card (for ATM withdrawals), and her cash for the day.
If the travel day is cold and/or rainy, warm layers and/or rain gear may be pulled out of the luggage and worn.
2. Our luggage
The bags that Ann packs all of her gear into are the Osprey Sojourn Porter 46 liter (paid link) and the Osprey Sirrus 36 liter backpack (paid link). The backpack straps onto the front of the Sojourn.
The Sojourn has shoulder straps and a hip belt to make carrying the weight easier. All the straps can be tucked away, so the Sojourn can also be carried like a suitcase by the handle, so the straps do not get tangled or caught on anything when we are having our luggage transported. We stowed the straps away when we had our luggage brought onto our transatlantic cruise for us.
The Osprey Sirrus Backpack is what Ann will be using for long hikes and what she will carry all her gear while hiking the TMB.
3. Sojourn Main Compartment - Medium Black Compression Cube
Inside the main compartment of the Sojourn, Ann has mostly packing cubes. The medium black compression cube contains her sports gear. This consists of her bathing suit, padded bike shorts, Peak Design phone mount for a bike (including the additional sizing spacers - paid link), a velcro strap for her pant leg when biking, a bandana (for wearing around her neck while biking or hiking), and a small camp towel (16.5” x 36”) for washing up afterwards. Most of the time a camp towel will not be needed, as most of the places we are staying should have towels. However, when we are on the TMB, your own towel is required when staying in the mountain huts.
4. Sojourn Main Compartment - Medium Blue Compression Cube
Inside the medium blue compression cube is Ann’s rain gear, both a high quality rain jacket and pants. Ann bought the Patagonia Torrentshell 3L rain jacket and Black Diamond Stormline Stretch rain pants.
5. Sojourn Main Compartment - Medium Green Compression Cube
The medium green compression cube contains one of Ann’s two other outfits (for a total of three). It includes a hiking shirt, a pair of hiking socks, one pair of underwear, one sports bra, black leggings, a hiking thermal top, and a pair of gray spandex shorts with pockets. The leggings can be used to look a little nicer than hiking pants when going out to dinner or they can be used as a thermal layer underneath her hiking pants. The shorts can be used underneath the hiking pants while hiking, if chaffing becomes an issue.
6. Sojourn Main Compartment - Medium Orange Compression Cube
The medium orange compression cube contains Ann’s other clothing outfit. There is a pair of hiking pants, another hiking shirt, another pair of hiking socks, and another pair of underwear.
7. Sojourn Main Compartment - Medium Orange Non-compression Cube
In the medium orange non-compression cube is a pair of Teva sandals along with a carabiner. The sandals can be worn around the inside of mountain huts where hiking boots are not allowed. The carabiner is used to attach the sandals to the outside of Ann’s backpack while hiking the TMB. The sandals can also be worn with the leggings as part of a slightly nicer outfit to wear to dinner instead of wearing hiking boots or trail runners.
8. Sojourn Main Compartment - Small Black Compression Cube
The small black compression cube contains the items needed at night. It contains a t-shirt and spandex shorts to sleep in, earplugs (paid link), another bandana, and a sleeping bag liner (paid link). Even though Ann already has a pair of spandex shorts packed, she wants to make sure she has a clean, dry pair to sleep in. We will be staying in shared rooms for some of the mountain huts on the TMB, so the ear plugs may be needed if other people are snoring. The bandana will be used as a wash cloth in the mountain huts. Although the mountain huts provide pillows and blankets, they require guests to bring their own sleeping bag liners. This helps the spread of bed bugs, as the mountain huts don’t have the resources to wash all the sheets every day.
9. Sojourn Main Compartment - Small Orange Compression Cube
The small orange compression cube contains Ann’s puffy coat. The compression cube really helps to keep the puffy coat compact. However, it is not good to store the puffy coat compressed, so Ann takes it out of the compression when we are not traveling or hiking so the coat can retain its loft.
10. Sojourn Main Compartment - Other
In addition to the packing cubes, Ann also stores her Canon Powershot SX70 HS Camera (paid link) along with her Rode external microphone (paid link) in the main compartment of the Sojourn, padded by the clothing in the packing cubes. She detaches the microphone from the camera to make sure microphone mount doesn’t get crunched.
11. Sojourn Top Compartment - Toiletry Kit
Ann’s toiletry kit includes a 2 oz bottle of Campsuds, dental floss, spray bottle of rubbing alcohol, small electric toothbrush, small ziplock bag, hair brush, hair bands, retainers and case, 16 oz bottle of rubbing alcohol, small tube of toothpaste, tweezers, 1 oz tube of vaseline, and 1 oz tube of zinc oxide. The Campsuds is for hand washing clothes, washing her body, and washing her spork utensil. She’s expecting to use what the various hotels provide so the 2 oz should last the whole trip. The rubbing alcohol is what Ann uses for deodorant, cleaning her laptop screen, cleaning glasses, and can be used to disinfect wounds. She is pretty sure that the spray bottle is not enough to last the whole trip and the 16 oz bottle was the smallest she could find for a backup. The vaseline is for preventing chaffing and the zinc oxide is for quickly healing any chaffing that might occur. After having some bad chaffing on the Appalachian Trail (Day Three on the Appalachian Trail - July 31, 2019), Ann doesn’t travel without these two items.
12. Sojourn Side Pouch - Water Bottle
Tucked safely into the stretchy side pouch of the Sojourn is Ann’s main water bottle, a 3/4 liter.
13. Sojourn Front Compartment - Laptop Bag
In the front compartment is Ann’s laptop bag containing her electronics and paperwork. Besides her 13.6 inch MacBook Air, she has her Canon camera battery charger, a spare Canon camera battery, a spare SD card, an SD card reader, a Peak Design wrist strap (paid link), earbuds, SSD external drive (paid link), a portable charger (a Nitecore Energy Brick NB10000 - paid link), a pen, reading glasses, a single recharging cord with a three-way splitter (paid link), and a small watch charger (paid link). In addition, she has a small ziplock bag that contains a lens cloth, another Canon camera battery, and an extra Peak Design dongle to attach her Canon camera to the wrist strap. The charging cord is USB-C to USB-C with a USB adapter on the one end. All of our electronics use USB-C, including the watch charger. Keith is carrying the universal plug adapter (paid link) so we can plug into American, UK, and European electrical outlets. The small ziplock bag is for quickly grabbing when we go on hikes or walks. Having the lens cloth inside a plastic bag prevents it from getting damp either with sweat or rain as we hike. The SSD drive is where Ann stores her photos and videos.
In addition there are some papers. These include her International Drivers license, a printout of her packing lists, a printout of our itinerary, and some items that some of our tours required, like the luggage tags for our Princess Cruise, the luggage tags for our Cotswolds Hike & Bike Tour along with laminated maps of our hikes that they sent us.
14. Sojourn Front Compartment - Other
For extra peace of mind, Ann has an AirTag (paid link) stored inside a zippered pocket inside the front compartment of the Sojourn. Since there are times when someone else will be handling our Sojourn bags, it is nice to know we can track where the bag is.
15. Sojourn - Attached
To help us identify our bags and to help with getting our luggage returned to us in case it is lost, we attached brightly colored luggage tags (paid link). The tags have a slot which displays our name. You have to peak under the flap to be able to see more contact information. That keeps that info a little more private and away from the eyes of passerby’s.
Also attached onto the zippers of the main compartment and the front compartment are TSA locks (paid link). This is for added security when our bags are transported by others and when we leave our Sojourn bags in Chamonix while we hike the TMB.
16. Backpack Bottom Compartment - First Aid Ziplock
Moving on to Ann’s backpack, she keeps the first aid items in a ziplock bag which she stores in the bottom compartment of the backpack. There it is out of the way, but handy when the need to use it arises. Inside the ziplock she has a 4x4 inch sterile pad, band-aids and butterfly closures, anti-diarrhea tablets, antihistamine, first aid tape, pain reliever (both acetaminophen and ibuprofen), safety pins, a spare ziplock back to use as an ice bag, a sharpie with duct tape wrapped around it, paper (in case we need to leave a note), a fire starter stick, and a sparker (for starting a fire).
17. Backpack Bottom Compartment - Other
In addition to the First Aid Ziplock, Ann also keeps her emergency bivvy (paid link) in the bottom compartment. It is small and fits inside a small drawstring bag. Another item that she may never need, but conveniently located in case of an emergency.
18. Backpack Main Compartment - Medium Gray Non-compression Cube
Ann stores her Altra Peak trail runners in a medium gray non-compression cube. The packing cube keeps the dirt from her shoes contained.
19. Backpack Main Compartment - Other
Just loose inside the main compartment of her backpack is where she stores her small day pack, an REI Flashpack 22 liter. She uses the small day pack for short hikes or strolling around town, when she doesn’t need to carry much weight. For longer hikes, she uses the Osprey backpack.
There is also a Peak Design camera clip (paid link) attached to one of the shoulder straps of the Flashpack. This makes carrying Ann’s Powershot camera easier while still being convenient. This is a clip that is addition to the one attached to her Osprey backpack.
Ann also has a compactor bag that she is using as a waterproof liner for her backpack. We originally bought pack liners, but, even though they are thinner and lighter, we decided they are too noisy and might bother others in the mountain huts, so we switched back to the cheaper, compactor bag alternative.
20. Backpack Top Pouch - Ziplock Bag 1
In the ziplock that Ann labeled Bag 1, she has gloves, sun gloves, headband, a ziplock bag to protect her Powershot camera, and a rechargeable headlamp (paid link). These are items she would use during a hike or strolling around town. The ziplock bag will keep these items dry.
21. Backpack Top Pouch - Ziplock Bag 2
In ziplock Bag 2, is Ann’s hydration items. These include electrolyte tablets, water filter, water purification tablets, and a collapsible water bottle (Cnoc - unpaid link). The water filter fits onto the Cnoc bottle for filtering water. She can either drink it directly from the filter while it is on the bottle, or squeeze it into her main water bottle. The ziplock bag will keep these items clean and dry.
22. Backpack Top Pouch - Other
Other items Ann stores in the top pouch are her sun hat, her sunglasses, spork (paid link), and insect head net (paid link). She leaves these items outside of a bag, because she is less concerned about keep them dry than keeping them handy. The spork is kept clean inside a drawstring bag. The spork, along with our pocket knives, are for eating food that we may pick up at a grocery store or convenience store.
23. Backpack Front Pouch - Other
A small, compact nylon shopping bag to use when picking up something at the grocery store or packing a lunch in.
24. Backpack Hip Belts
In the hip belts of the backpack are sunscreen, chapstick, a small pocket knife (paid link), an Allen wrench, and a small package of tissues. The Allen wrench is for adjusting the Peak Design camera clip on the strap of her backpack. The tissues are inside of a ziplock bag just to make sure they stay dry.
25. Backpack Rain Cover Compartment - Toilet Ziplock Bag
In the rain cover compartment, inside a ziplock bag, are the necessities in case Ann needs to use the great outdoors as a bathroom. Inside the ziplock bag is a small, lightweight shovel (paid link), a small amount of toilet paper, a pee cloth, and another ziplock bag for dirty TP. Ann bought a bidet with the hopes of not carrying toilet paper, but the bidet did not fit on the Cnoc bottle. She still can use the pee cloth, which would attach to the outside of the pack after use to dry until she reaches a place to wash it, but that won’t work for number two. Keeping the toilet bag in the rain cover compartment keeps it as far away from our other gear as possible, so as not to contaminate anything.
26. Backpack - Attached
Attached to the backpack are a few items. These include Ann’s Garmin InReach device (paid link), the Peak Design clip for attaching her Powershot camera, a small container of hand sanitizer, and a tick remover (paid link). Also, just like the Sojourn, which attached a brightly colored luggage tag to help identify our bags.
27. Trekking poles
Ann’s collapsible trekking poles (paid link) during travel days are strapped onto the Sojourn, next to the backpack, with the ends of the poles inside one of the side pouches of the backpack. For extra security, a carabiner attaches the straps of the poles to a loop on the backpack.
28. Comparison to Keith’s Packing List
Ann’s fully packed bags weigh 35.6 pounds. Keith’s bags only weigh 28.6 pounds. Here’s why. First of all, he is not carrying camera gear or a laptop, so no camera, no camera batteries, no camera battery charger, no phone bike mount, and no Peak Design clips or wrist bands.
Instead of a laptop, Keith is carrying an 8.3 inch iPad mini. The iPad is handy to sign documents with (which we need to do on occasion). We also use it to watch YouTube videos, especially ones that we download, since YouTube does not allow downloaded videos to a laptop for off-line use.
Instead of Teva sandals, he brought a light weight pair of water shoes (paid link) that he’ll be using as slippers for inside the mountain huts. Ann didn’t think those would work for her because she’s had trouble in the past with plantar fasciitis and needs more arch support.
There are a few items that Keith is carrying that Ann is not. These include Merino wool t-shirts, the universal electrical outlet adapter, a razor with extra blades, and some extra medications. The wool t-shirts can be worn for multiple days before needing to be washed and also reduce how often the outer hiking shirt needs to be washed. The razor will be shared with Ann, with blade set aside for her use only. Keith bought along some dramamine for sea sickness as well as some heart burn medication.
The universal adapter (Epicka World Travel Adapter, Model TA-205 - paid link) can plug into an American outlet, a UK outlet, or a European outlet. Then we can plug items into it using the American outlet, USB outlets or USB-C outlets. Most of the time we plug our charging cords into the USB-C ports to charge most of our electronics. One of the USB-C ports is a higher speed, which Ann normally needs to charge her laptop. The only time we need to use the American port is when we are using the Canon battery charger.
Keith’s luggage is slightly different from Ann’s. He is using an Osprey Sojourn Porter 46 liter, just like Ann, but his backpack is an Osprey Stratos 36 liter, an old one that he already owned. It is very similar to the Osprey Sirrus 36 liter that Ann is using. Keith has not found the REI Flashpack to be very comfortable, so he switched his daypack to an Osprey Scarab 22 liter.
Well, that’s it. That’s all we packed. We will be leaving some of our luggage in Chamonix while we hike the TMB, but we’ll explain how we split our gear in a later post. We hope this post helps you pack light for your next long trip or at least gives you some ideas to think about.
Check out our related video: Packing for Europe
(Ann)