So back to topic - Has anyone been through the Lisbon airport lately? Have heard it can be a nightmare though varies from day to day. Pointers?
Yes, it’s as bad as you’ve probably read. When you get off the plane you have to get in line to use the terminal to scan your passport and fingerprint- skip those first two and head downstairs because there are more terminals down there that no one tells anyone about. Would have saved us 45 minutes in that line.
If your fingerprints don’t take which for most people they don’t, you’ll be in the manual line which was another 2 hours- nothing you can do about that.
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And if you are flying back home through Lisbon, be aware that there is a second passport control screening after the initial TSA like check. It took us two hours to get through that second customs that line.
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It is normal in many countries for there to be a passport check on exiting the country. But two hours waiting for that seems like an unusually long time.
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Yes, we are used to the process in Europe but the Lisbon airport creates a bottle neck with not close to enough staff to process everyone in any kind of reasonable time. A number of people missed their flights when we were flying out and the guards were yelling at people who were trying to cut the line to make flights. We would have cut it close ourselves but our flight ended up being delayed.
We flew into Porto which was a breeze. Left through Lisbon on a flight to Spain. The lines were terrible. Allow extra time if you’re leaving Lisbon via plane.
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Okay, I am confused about what bag to bring to our trip to Africa. We always travel with a soft sided carry-on Travel-Pro suitcase. Travel light, never check bags, no problem. But the instructions say that a “soft pack down bag weighing no more than 15 kg” is required. And when I google what kind of bag to bring for African safaris, light aircraft, Eastern Africa, it says a duffle bag with no frame or wheels. So what the heck? Wondering how to do this. Any recommendations? Trying to figure out how you fit two weeks of clothes into a carry-on duffle bag, small enough to put in an overhead compartment.
Maybe reach out to the travel company you are using for guidance.
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Frequent safari goer here- I use North Face 42L Base Camp VoyagerDuffel. It has back pack straps too that come in handy. Perfect size to fit in light aircraft holds incountry where they do not like wheels or frames for these small planes. I check it for International flights so do not have to lug around during connections. Most safari camps provide laundry service. - put in bin in room and returned that evening. I use packing cubes and can fit everything needed for a 2 1/2 week trip. I carry on a small back pack and a small shoulder computer tote that carries a change a clothes and a small pharmacy - just in case 
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Hope this helps.
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Generally, they do not want hard sided suitcases. I take a wheeled duffel - and carry it on the entire way from US. The times we have done it, we were weighed as a group - our entire family x kg/person with a stack of luggage. As a photographer, I need everyone else to be underweight because my gear gets heavy.
you don’t need a lot of clothes - they will do laundry (not underwear). Your day will be : 6:30-morning safari (wear dirty duty cloths), breakfast out or back at camp, down time (this is when I would shower, nap, charge devices, download photos) (change to non-Safari comfortable clean clothes, 1pm-lunch, downtime (see above), 4pm - afternoon tea, safari drive (wear dirty dusty clothes), sundowner (happy hour watching sunset), return to camp, dinner, bed. You don’t really need more than 2 sets of Safari clothes and plan to re-wear the clean stuff since it is only a few hours.
Take socks and underwear as needed or plan to wash them in the sink (I think many camps even provide washing powder, but I like the laundry sheets since they aren’t another liquid).
depending on where you are going, plastic bags might be banned. Dm me if more q’s.
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I looked at buying the Micato bag on eBay, because it looks like a very nice bag. But it seems too large to use as a carry on bag to stick in the overhead on our Delta flight. Is that correct?
The agent I talked to seemed to know about as much as I did, sadly.
That does help, I’ll check into that bag. Hopefully it will fit in the overhead, because we’d prefer to lug rather than check. Great information there.
I see the MICATO bag with wheels on ebay @$50. I’m sure you could buy something similar, new even.
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If you normally use a wheeled suitcase that fits in the overhead bin, a duffel or backpack without wheels or frame that fits in the same overhead bin will have more interior space and weigh less. However, on smaller aircraft, the overhead bins may be smaller.
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It’s a nice bag, for sure, but I think I have to get something smaller to fit in the overhead. One description I saw said it was 27 inches, though it doesn’t look that large.
Yeah, I saw that about plastic bags. Large fines, that was surprising.
Ha, I guess you only travel with skinny people with light bags, right? 
The eBay description is 28x14”. The camera angles can make it look smaller. Micato wheeled ebay bag.
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Overhead bin size limits are often 22" * 14" * 9", so a bag that is 28" long would not fit the carry-on criterion.
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