Update: Travel Lean
Hi all - this post has been a work in progress when the internet was down... I'm finally getting around to putting it online!
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I’ve been asked a few times now how the one bag travel is going. While I am stuck 4 hours in transit at Miami International Airport (whose acronym MIA is rather ironic), what better time to capture my thoughts on the matter. So after nearly 5 weeks, what do I think of travelling with only carry-on luggage?
Life is much simpler with one bag. It’s always with me, I know exactly what is in it and where it is. I particularly like the three compartments of the bag I have. I keep my clothes in the bottom compartment (this ensures a softer padding against my back when used as a backpack). I purchased an inner pocket designed to exactly fit one of the compartments, and most of my clothes get packed into this, then inserted and strapped down with the luggage straps inside. This light-weight cube is very versatile - when reversed, it becomes a day backpack (not waterproof, sadly - and repacking all clothes is a bother...). When we had a two-day excursion, I was able to use this and leave the Tri-star at our hotel, sizing down even further (there was a bit of walking so losing some of the weight of the bag was an advantage!).
The middle compartment has my jeans and sarong providing extra padding for my laptop. When going through security, this makes it quite easy to extract the laptop. The front compartment has a separate zipped section (taking one third of the compartment) with another specifically sized inner bag to fit, that contains my two other pairs of shoes, ezy-line clothes line and plastic cutlery set. The remaining two-thirds of the section has three small bags: first-aid/laundry, plugs and chargers, and toiletries (again, placed at the top and thus easily removed for security checks). I also keep my windcheater here for easy removal if I get cold (hasn't happened yet!).
I don’t use the front zipper pockets much – I have some papers in one, and sometimes I squeeze my rain jacket into the curved larger pocket – but occasionally this may make it harder to fit the bag into the overhead compartment on a smaller plane. I have also discovered I can roll the rainjacket lengthways and squeeze it in over the laptop. I am pleased to say that lifting and placing the bag into said overhead luggage areas has been easy every time. I haven’t been challenged once on the size of the bag – and clearly I look lively and strong enough for nobody to question the weight.
Sadly, this is an issue. The bag can be anything between 9-11kg (depending on whether I am wearing my lighter clothes or jeans, etc), which when standing for over an hour in customs’ queues (less than an hour seems a pipedream!) makes me long for something on wheels (that said – many of the cases with wheels don’t fit all overhead compartments – often leaving me with one to myself!). Such long processing times also mean I gain nothing on waiting for checked luggage, which generally beats people to the luggage hall. I was also aware that as I would be travelling in groups, I would have to wait anyway while their luggage came through.
Today, though, I did discover an advantage of having only carry-on. The queue to check in at American Airlines was horrendous (think of a line of people all with two large suitcases each stretching the length of the departure lounge! Yes, that is probably some further indictment on American tourists!!), but when I queried whether I needed to stand in line, as I had only carry-on, I was directed to a shorter queue to just get my boarding pass.
Other discoveries include the fact that I can pack my bag from hotel mayhem to out the door in about 15 minutes. This is most conducive to having a bit of a lie-in of the morning, which we all know I am rather partial to! ;-) And while I can’t lock the bag as such (I am tempted to buy a Samsonite belt with coded TSA lock, which would go around all three zips tightly and provide some security to prevent tampering with the luggage), the bag is so small and light that it would be easiest to take the whole thing, rather than steal from it!
The other key issue that has worked in my favour in South and Central America is laundry. It is extremely cheap (like $4) to get laundry done here, so that hasn't been too much of an issue. Rather than fill my hotel room with wet socks, I have instead just paid for laundry. I don't expect that to continue when I get to the US or Europe, sadly. Packing the dirty washing is a nuisance though. I collect it all in one zip-lock bag, but this makes it a little inflexible to pack in the back third of the case. The less dirty washing, the easier the case is to pack and vice versa.
Many people are amazed at the size of the bag, and I've lost count how many times I've been asked where the rest of my luggage is. I do miss a smaller back pack, which I suppose I could use instead of the handbag, but walking around with a handbag makes you look more like a local. In South America I was often stopped and asked directions by locals (particularly in Rio). The handbag is also quite deceptively large; I can put my raincoat, a 600ml bottle of water, sunscreen, bug repellant, etc into it. It too gets quite heavy, and is a bit off-balancing if negotiating any difficult terrain.
The biggest sacrifice, however, was reducing my toiletries to carry-on regulations. The shampoo and conditioner should hold out until the USA, as will the face products, but I opted at the last minute to not pack liquid soap, thinking this would be in the hotels. I forgot about cheap hotels, though. Only little cakes of soap, so I have been going through the body lotion like there's no tomorrow! I have bought a bottle of Nivea and used it all up, plus what I had with me. Shopping for toiletries is quite fun, though, in other countries and languages - and in truth, most products are from globalised companies. I bought a very nice sun cream in Rio which turns out to be a Johnson & Johnson product, as well as noticing plenty of Dove and Rexona deodorant options.
I'm not sure if that answers all your questions. Please feel free to post more in the comments and I will do my best to answer. There is a sacrifice, certainly to one-bag travel, and if I wasn't covering muliple climates it would be a little easier, I think. I believe I would pursue it on the next trip, and that probably speaks more than all the above!
For now, Aveline. xxx
