How to pack for a round-the-world adventure
One question seems to be top-of-mind for everyone after we share our travel plans: “how do you pack for a year?” Here’s how we thought about what to pack and what we ended up bringing:
- Set the rough itinerary: What you pack for long-term travel is totally dependent on where you’re going. After college graduation, Jessie traveled around Southeast Asia and New Zealand with two of her best friends, Katie and Shalini. While it was a phenomenal trip, they had to bring large, 80 liter backpacks due to the difference in climate – 90 degrees and humid throughout Southeast Asia and the dead of winter in NZ. So, we took a slightly more strategic approach when deciding where we wanted to go to. We opted for a “year-round summer”, so we can rely on the same type of clothes no matter where we are
- Decide what type of traveler you want to be: There are a million different ways to travel – ranging from basic budget traveling to luxury travel. We’re erring on the side of budget/mid-range travel, which means only bringing what we really need and what we can comfortably carry on our backs, especially given we’re going on several multi-day hikes that will require us to travel lightly
- Pick a backpack: Finding a backpack was the most important decision we made from a packing-perspective because 1) we’re stuck with it for the next year and 2) it limited what we could bring. After reading a lot online, we enthusiastically settled for the 40 liter Osprey Fairview backpacks. We bought them on Black Friday and saved a few bucks. The Osprey backpack is super high quality and small enough to fit in the overhead bin, which means we won’t have to ever pay to check our luggage (fingers crossed, knock on wood). For our daypack (what we’ll bring when we’re out exploring), we’re using a Patagonia backpack that Jessie got from work
- Make a list of what you need and buy what you don’t have: We checked out the weather at our destinations (per step 1), read a bunch of travel blogs (special shout out to EarthTrekkers), and made a list of what we thought we would need. We had some of this stuff, but decided to buy many of our clothes new to make sure they would last for a year (and endure weekly sink washes). We spent a lot of time at REI and on Amazon to prepare for the trip
What we packed
Clothes (all fast dry, light weight – 1 set for each of us)
- 5 t-shirts
- 2 tank tops (Jessie)
- 2 long sleeve shirts
- 1 fleece
- 1 raincoat
- 2 pairs of pants
- 2 pairs of shorts
- 1 pair of comfy pants (Vuori)
- 1 pair of long underwear
- 1 exercise dress (Jessie, for “nice” occasions)
- 1 bathing suit
- 7 pairs of underwear
- 3 bras (Jessie – 2 sports bras, one normal bra)
- 6 pairs of everyday socks
- 1 pair of hiking socks
- 1 pair of hiking boots
- 1 pair of waterproof hiking/trail running shoes
Toiletries
- 1 hairbrush
- 1 nail clipper
- 1 tweezer
- 2 toothbrushes (one extra soft one to preserve Jessie’s gums)
- 2 travel toothpaste tubes
- 2 disposable razors
- 2 deodorants (we use the same one, but really like it)
- 2 lipbaums (shout out to our wedding welcome bags)
- 2 pairs of glasses and sunglasses
- 6 months’ worth of contacts (Jessie has dailies which take up ALOT of room, Doug thankfully has monthlies)
- 1 set of reusable silicone tubes that have shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and sunscreen lotion
- 1 pack of Wet Wipes
- 1 travel clothesline
- 1 pack of travel detergent sheets
- 1 sink stopper
- 2 travel towels (one shower-sized, one beach-sized)
Medicine (we hopefully have more of this than anyone else would need)
- 6 months’ worth of Jessie’s medications
- 3 months’ worth of Malaria pills (for India, Indonesia, etc.)
- 2 rounds of Cipro (for travelers’ diarrhea – we’re going to be eating lots of street food so this is a good one to have…)
- 1 month of Diamox (acclimatization medicine for high altitudes)
- Multiple miscellaneous antibiotics
- 1 bottle of Advil
- 1 bottle of Tylenol
Electronics
- 1 Laptop
- 1 iPad
- 1 Camera
- 2 Kindles
- 1 Hard drive (for backing up photos)
- 1 Portable Mophie charger
- Chargers galore
Potpourri
- Travel documents (passports, extra passport-sized photos, visas, vaccination cards, international drivers licenses)
- 1 deck of cards (we’ll have to learn new games while we’re eagerly awaiting for Katie and Andy to come play Euchre with us)
- 1 notebook and a pen
- 1 Steripen
- 2 reusable water bottles
- 2 sets of packing cubes (these are lifesavers)
2 thoughts on “How to pack for a round-the-world adventure”
Cards are definitely a critical bring
Six months later and we just figured out how to reply to comments. Dice have replaced cards as of late. Get ready for Yahtzee in Turkey