How we’re packing for our ten months abroad
Here’s the skinny… we’re travelling internationally for ten months. Three grand legs, Greece/Turkey – Thailand/Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam – Italy/France. Three months, four months, three months. Clearly, we’ll be needing some stuff.
Here it is:
These are our three checked in bags. The two Eagle Creek (light blue) cases mass 25 kilos (for Tina’s) and 28 kilos (Ted’s). The dark blue bag on top is Elliotte’s, and masses in at 18 kg. (Incidentally, Elliotte’s bag is the one I took across eastern Europe for six weeks, back in 2004; a good bag, and I’m very happy to be able to use it again.)
In total 71 kilos, or 156 pounds.
For Air Transat (which gets us from Toronto to Athens), we’re allowed three bags, 30 kg/66lbs each. Cool.
For the probable carrier between Istanbul to Bangkok, Turkish Airlines, the allowance is 20 kg for each bag. We might have to fork over an extra 30 Euros for overage. The cost of doing business, and the cost of not flying Emirates (which is cheaper and has a 30kg allowance).
The short of it is this; I think we’ll be OK.
But having done quite a lot of research into what to actually pack, and bring with us on a RTW trip, I was generally disappointed to find little really good information. When I asked around on the LonleyPlanet forums a while back, I was pretty much laughed off the plane with our first blush packing list. “Too much stuff, just pack carry-on” they cajoled. Well, I’ve packed carry-on only for a couple of trips and that played well enough as a solo pack packer. But I’m a family man, now.
Loose Extras
- PFD for Ellie (We’re spending a lot of time in and around water, and she’s going to be safe, damnit, with a properly fitting flotation device.)
- Booster Seat or Ellie (We’ll be renting cars all over the place. safety first!)
Shoes
- Ted’s – leather hiking shoes (which double as “dress” shoes”), hiking sandals, $2 flip-flops, water shoes, jogging shoes.
- Tina’s – hiking runners (which double as jogging shoes), Merill walking sandals, hiking sandals, flip flops, water shoes.
- Elliotte’s – hiking runners, hiking sandals, flip flops, water shoes