If you’re planning on taking an airplane – at least once – you need to know about the airlines luggage restrictions (same for buses and sometimes even for trains). If you have your own car though, you can bring everything you can think of. So let’s say you take the plane and only your carry-on is free – of course you don’t wanna spend another 50€ (~60$) on top just for another piece of luggage – so mostly your carry-on needs to weigh less than 8kg (~17,5lbs) and it can’t be longer than 50cm (~19,5inch) which makes it hard for you to pack only what’s necessary. If you do have another piece of luggage included I would recommend to check your backpack in at the airport and just bring a small purse on board – only filled things that you’ll need while you’re in the plane. I can speak of myself as a very impatient person that gets easily annoyed – for example if I have to carry around more with me than I need. So please plan in advance what you’re gonna be doing in the airplane (in my next post I’ll give you some examples on how to survive a long distance flight). I used to pack so many things “just in case” I needed them – but I never did. Now I’m only bringing earphones, headphones, a charger plus adapter, a sleeping mask, my money, my passport, all the other important documents that I need, my camera, my small 2in1 tablet/laptop, an empty plastic bottle and a small plastic bag including hand cream, lip balm, deodorant and disinfection gel. That’ll all fit in a small backpack or purse.But if there is another bag included that you can check-in – and in no case I would bring more than one checked bag – you’re free to pack everything you want but with most of the airlines the bag can’t weigh more than 22kg (~48,5lbs).

Now it’s important to know what kind of bag you’re checking in: a suitcase or a backpack. You need to plan in advance on what you’re gonna be doing on your trip: You can be boring and just check-in a hotel where you can easily bring a suitcase since you’ll never have to walk around with it. But if you’re planning on backpacking or at least on walking some long distances a suitcase can be super annoying really fast especially if it’s heavy. But also huge backpacks (70+liters) are not made for walking days because that wouldn’t be good for your back. I would recommend to bring a backpack between 50 and 70 liters to make sure you have enough space but not too much to bring unnecessary things. Again: If you’re bringing a suitcase you can literally pack everything (as long as it’s allowed in the airline restrictions) but if you’re trying to pack a backpack – that can be really tricky, I know. You’ll have to get used to only packing what you need and first of all, you need to know what is it that you need. The first few times backpacking you’ll always pack more than you need and you’ll bring home half of the stuff unused but you’ll learn from it.