Packing

When packing your bags it is always smart to pack light. I could not stress this enough. Packing is always a hard thing to do when going on a trip but when you leave the country you must think of everything. You need to do some research on what the weather might be like while you are there. I went to Europe over the summer so I brought a few shorts and a few pairs of pants. I also only brought one sweatshirt with me. This I did not pack in my suit case because it takes up room. Instead I brought it on the plane with me to use as a pillow.

When deciding how much of what to bring, I went with what I would need for one week. You will be able to do some laundry and besides nobody will are if you haven’t done laundry in a week because every other tourist is in the same boat you are. Also, In Europe for example it doesn’t smell to nice anyways so nobody will notice if you smell a little.

To save more space pack things that can be mixed matched. Shirts you can wear with 2 or 3 different pairs of pants or shorts. I bought a lot of dry fit shirts so I wouldn’t have to worry about ironing. Also they fold up rather small so you can bring a few more of them. A tip that I received while I was there was to roll your clothes. When you roll your clothes you can fit them better into a suitcase.

Another suggestion is to pack once then unpack and see what you really don’t need. Then pack again. You should never pack for what might happen you should only pack for what you know will happen. You can always buy something there if you need it.

Lastly you will want to pack lights because you will have to carry it yourself. After my trip I had three bags, one suitcase, a duffle bag and a book bag. My suitcase weighed 75 lbs and I don’t know what the other bags weighed but I do know it wasn’t fun. I spent about two hours running up and down stairs of the tube stations in London to catch the trains I needed. It wasn’t fun and by the end of it my back was killing me.