<p>You’re right! Okay, I need to fill up a backpack and weigh it… see how quickly it hits the 6 kg. </p>
<p>Plus, I’m confused about the laptop thing. D is NOT carrying her laptop. Apparently she can’t just add 2 extra kg to the total weight (according to the person I spoke to on the phone). Seems kind of ridiculous. I wonder if they really ask to see the laptop when you go through.</p>
<p>I checked it out and made a mental note to pick one of for D. She has a few weekend excursions that others have recommended she bring an extra duffle or bag for. This one looked great if anyone is looking for one.</p>
<p>H and I both use Camelbak (from REI) without the water bladder- very light weight and all sizes and styles for women. Very versatile. The laptop fits and you can travel far with all the adjustable straps, like running through the airport or hiking up a mountain.</p>
<p>Debruns: you want to make sure the money belt is wide enough to carry her passport. Currency isn’t really the issue, presuming that she’s making periodic ATM withdrawals. It’s the passport, the railpass, the student ID, the credit and the debit card that need to be carried on one’s person at all times and that one really doesn’t want stolen. Rick Steves sells one that’s made of silk, which is breathable and dries fast.</p>
<p>Don’t forget to have them make photo copies of passports / other documents Leave one with you and email one to themselves as this can be accessed from anywhere. It is also a good idea to have the “calling from outside USA” emergency # from the back of credit cards written down somewhere.</p>
<p>I’ll ask my D which airlines she flew but it’s too early in the morning to call her right now! I made her take a money belt and she pooh poohed my warnings. Then one of her friends was robbed on a weekend trip and stuck in another country while she got a new passport. Suddenly it all made sense and I was redeemed.</p>
<p>Debruns, yep, that’s it. I wore a moneybelt backpacking around Europe 30 years ago, and I’ve worn them ever since through Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The only thing you can’t do is wear a dress and expect to access your documents in public!</p>
<p>LoL Sop14smom, that and the bra pouch make me smile. My D just bought a couple of summer dress’s for her trip, but I think being diligent and not too trusting will help.
Another student was telling us that a friend of theirs in London had a cute guy talk to her and make conversation at a station and while she was enjoying that for a minute, his friend took her luggage which wasn’t in her hand but beside her. She felt so angry and annoyed with herself but you can’t foresee everything.
I think for guys, the “zip-socks” are pretty nice, they usually wear socks and they hold a card/money pretty well. My husband used them to play tennis and run outdoors also. I am going to order the money belt, even if she wont use it for some reason, I will probably have an opportunity to do so.</p>
<p>I also use a bagalenni as my purse when I travel and put it inside my backpack. I take out the little wallet - with ID - and slide in a small accessible pocket with my phone. That way i don’t have to fish for anything or take it out, etc. The backpack just goes through security. No loose phone in a bin, etc.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I think young women (and some of us older ones too ;)) are more interested in looking fashionable than protecting our ‘stuff’. Not a chance on this earth my D would be caught wearing a money belt, a security bra, or anything else that makes her feel like an old lady. It doesn’t matter that she knows her granddad was pick pocketed in Barcelona (twice, once even while wearing a money belt), or that she’s seen the videos of the ‘gypsies’ doing their thing on You Tube. </p>
<p>Puzzled88 we did end up getting the etech bag in red for 25% off and I got a upromise 7% rebate, not bad at all. She will take it to UK in the Fall.</p>
<p>We have the Rick Steve’s convertible carry on and they are wonderful. We each used one as our primary piece of luggage and it was so easy to carry. We managed to get get everything in it that we needed for a two week trip to Italy and it felt great not having too much with us. We’d land, grab our bag from overhead, and then hit the ground running. They run about $99, although you can find them on sale at Rick’s website or on other discount sites as well. My kids have sinced used them, too, both bringing them to Spain.Again, this as their main piece of luggage. They hold up beautifully and I highly recommend them.</p>
<p>Someone on here turned me onto this bag and it’s awesome. It’s very big but can be made small when empty. The backpack straps can unclip and slide back into the bag itself.</p>
<p>Edit - I see someone already posted this! maybe Puzzled was the one who told me about it too!!</p>
<p>Personally, I think it’s unfashionable to be stuck in a train station at 2 am with no money, no rail pass, and no passport. Give me a money belt any day. Just sayin.</p>
<p>Our daughter flew RyanAir extensively last fall when she was in Spain. (RyanAir is notorious for having the strictest carry-on enforcement in the world. Checked bags pay more than people to fly RyanAir.) What she found was that while rigid bags and all roly bags were carefully measured (they have a rack-thing they make you put your bag in to make sure it’s within the specs) they don’t measure backpacks (up to a reasonable size.) She took her backpack everywhere and it was a lot bigger than the specified dimensions. She flew Lufthansa once, too, but I didn’t aske her about the bag limits.</p>
<p>When we travelled internationally in December, no one seemed to care about the dimensions of our carry on bags…but they were weighed at each boarding…and we’re taken away if over 8 kilo.</p>
<p>My D was worried about Lufthansa because her International friends said they were the worst and don’t compare them with flying to the UK or Italy, etc. She was also warned about this at her study abroad meeting. Weight was emphasized the most, but they cautioned that unlike checked luggage, you wont be able to carry it with you, it’s just not paying more. I guess if she was a more seasoned traveler, she wouldn’t be as anxious about it.</p>
<p>It’s the only thing I bring when travelling. The dimensions on the website make it seem like it may not be allowed as a carry-on, but, in practcie, if you don’t stuff it to the brim, it should be just fine. It’s also really easy and comfortable to carry, especially if you have to move from place to place once you reach your destination. I really can’t say enough good things about it. It’s going with me again on a two-week trip to Europe.</p>
