I’m leaving for a long trip on Friday. I’ve spent the past weeks deciding what to bring, and if choosing between two items, they each go on my kitchen scale and I pack the lighter one. some of the places we’re staying have laundry facilities, but we go for 12 days w/o access to any, and laundromats are scarce in Austria and Germany.
If I were you, I’d make sure that I could easily pull out anything that I really wanted to have on the plane in case the airline makes you check the bag, and have a handy tote to put it all in.
I’ve never read this thread before now. It so happens that my daughter and her spouse are taking off on a plane right now, on Lufthansa for a 20 day vacation in five Balkan countries. When they texted me from JFK, they said they each just have a carry on bag. I was amazed. I don’t think I could accomplish that.
@threeofthree i think it’s really hard to pack for a trip like this.
You need to pack for at least 2 seasons, need cold weather clothing and no access to laundry.
Also don’t think you need to worry about to lugging bags around as Viking will take care of that. I found that most of my fellow passengers had big bags.
I hope you can find the correct size bag. I know I was out last minute buying another piece of luggage!
I think we are just going to have settle for 2 small carry-ons (Just bought 2 smaller ones) and 2 medium bags (had to purchase a 2nd). There is a laundry right off the dock in Regensburg where a lot of the passengers take an hour to do a load…we that day fairly free so I hope to take advantage. Some folks do hand wash in their bathrooms but that just isn’t appealing to me.
Oh, I didn’t realize you are going on a Viking cruise. We did the Grand European 3 years ago and I did handwash some undies and socks in the sink, not a biggie, everything dried overnight. As I recall, they had radiant floors in the bathroom so you can let them dry on top of towels. We let them wash a few pieces of clothing, and it wasn’t so expensive relative to the trip. Convenience also played a big part.
Maybe I shouldn’t admit this but on both of our river cruises, I packed old underwear and threw it away! We always seem to have extra and instead of having to throw it away at home, I’ve saved it for vacation Made room for souvenirs!
I had enough clothes that I didn’t need to do laundry. I did pack some detergent, I’m glad I did. My husband bit into a filled chocolate, the filling went all over his clothes.
I could have sent them out, it was easy to wash in the shower. There’s a clothesline in the shower, plus the heated floors. His stuff dried overnight.
The one thing I saw on both of our cruises is that people packed cute clothes for dinner but did not pack warm enough clothes for the weather. We went at thanksgiving time, on our second cruise, it snowed. On the first, I went to uniglo and bought base layers in Amsterdam! I brought them and used them on the second cruise!
Last long trip I was on was to first a HOT equatorial country, and then to a winter wonderland. I had a lot of light weight clothes I knew I would never wear again. I left them at the Peace Corps hostel and my DD said they were snapped up quickly.
I also bought Exofficio underwear which dries VERY quickly…and is pretty tiny to begin with. I took four sets for a four week trip. No problem. Easy to wash and they were Almost dry after rolling in a towel.
On these trips, I also wear some clothes more than a couple of times. Like my jeans and shorts…and dresses. No need for a bunch of different ones.
I’m going on an almost five week trip and I’m putting aside my clothes now (because it will be summer where I’m going). Everything rolls up well. And everything is machine washable (we will have washing access). But I don’t intend to do laundry more than a couple of times.
I’m hoping to keep it light! And easy.
We all have our own packing ways to do things! Do what works for you.
I have a friend who liked to go to thrift shops to buy clothes for travel and he’d always donate them as he traveled so he’d come how with very few clothes. It worked for him.
On our trip to Asia, I took an old pair of sneakers and then threw them away at our last location and had more room in my suitcase to bring things home
Here’s an article about carry on sizes from my Apple News feed, I heard it wasn’t paywalled. In the future, since I’m not always aware, could you check before you post. I will always gift a link if I can but it’s not easy to always check
Made room for souvenirs!
