Packing for Europe

My trip to Europe started months before the actual flight. Buying cool stuff and researching everything I could think of was a big part of the fun 😀 In the end I managed to get my backpack down to 10 kg for 10 days, plus hand luggage of about 4-5 kg. How? Read on…

Before I start, I want to give credit to these guys -> https://thesavvybackpacker.com/ . Your site is awesome and has all the information anyone could need for planning a trip to Europe! I mainly worked off this list: packing-list. They include many links for cool stuff to buy that will make your trip more comfortable, unfortunately most of it is via amazon which doesn’t really work in South Africa due to shipping time and costs.

I’m using a fairly old model deuter 55 + 10 liter bag, which I prefer for this type of trip over my osprey mainly because it has a cover for the straps, the day pack zips onto the bigger pack and I feel less sentimental about it than my osprey – I’d be really sad if my osprey got lost or damaged!

Here is what I packed followed by the final packed pack:

If there are too many confusing lines on the previous image, here are some more detailed descriptions and pictures:

Clothes

3 Packing cubes containing clothes rolled up for better packing efficiency. The 3 packs contain: Scarves + throw-overs + rain jacket, bottoms, shirts.
A few laundry pouches for dirty clothes
Red bag with non-sneakers shoes, and also climbing shoes (not in the picture)
Grey bag: Underwear and socks

Bathroom

Bag with a hook to hang up containing:
shampoo, hand cream, dry shampoo, shower gel, sunscreen, cream, soap, tooth brush, tooth paste (not in pic), cloth, small loofah, microfibre towel, rehidrat (in case of dehydration), zambuk (for dry lips)

Electronic accessories

Chargers of all kinds, powerbank, external hard drive, macbook accessories, extra sd cards for my camera

Med Kit

Just the essentials for wounds: Detol, earbuds, plasters, tape, cotton pads, scissors, safety pins and alcohol pad

Jewellery and daily medication

In-Flight / Sleep

Inflatable travel pillow (u shaped), ear plugs, tissues, headphones, sleeping mask and meds for: headache, nausea, heartburn and anxiety

Daily travel

Tripod, Camera, sunglasses, hat, foldable shopping bag, rain cover for backpack, med kit (with the contents as above), money bag, travel notebook, pen, plastic cutlery

Extras

I had the space.. so why not 😀 Multi-tool with bottle opener and small knife, more tissues, flash light, rope which can be used for clothes line, extra zip lock bags, extra foldable backpack, locks for hostels, sleeping bag liner and some sachets: cappuccino, hot chocolate, tea and instant oats

And finally, this is what the bag looks like from the back, covering the backpack straps:

That’s all of it! All packed into the backpack, total weight of about 15kg. Checked in 10kg – basically everything except my laptop, electronic accessories and camera.

Published by Mercia Malan

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I am a software developer who loves dancing, rock climbing, photography (as a hobby) and board games. I try to go outside often to climb some stuff or to see some pretty thing. I have a strong database / BI background, specifically around Mongodb and Apache Spark and I’m currently working with Scala, attempting to learn functional programming.

One thought on “Packing for Europe”

  1. Wonderlik. Ek was nog net twee keer oorsee …. in die 70’s en in 1998 en as ek nou weer sal kan gaan sal ek baie malkliker kan pak.

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