My wife and I just returned from a mini vacation. This vacation was not like any other because we decided to travel light. What I mean by traveling light is that we decided to use regular backpacks only to put our clothes and travel items in. I have been doing a lot of research on simple traveling and wanted to put it in action to see how we would do for an 8 day trip to central America. Well it turns out it that using one bag was a huge success. We both managed to bring what we needed and never felt dirty or tired with what we were wearing or with our activities on our leisure time.
I discovered for myself so much freedom in traveling light. The airport was a breeze with all the security checks and customs. Anytime that we needed something it was very easy to find because all of the things we brought with us were between our feet when on the plane or in a bus. I did not worry if I forgot something because I had way less to keep track of.
To also keep with the traveling light idea we had very few plans on what we were going to do while on the trip. This was a first for myself because I tend to always want an itinerary and have things set up in advance to make sure we get the tickets needed for an event or whatever. This time it was different. We just made sure we had a place to stay and had our plane tickets. We then just took it as it came, and it was great.
We ended up meeting great people and we were invited to multiple trips to different areas of the country which we would not have been able to go if I had everything all mapped out in advanced. It was impossible for the weather to spoil our trip because we had nothing set up to do. So when it rained, which it did, we were able to enjoy it and sit inside a bar talking with the locals with out a care or sitting inside reading and relaxing with no stress. Without having an agenda we were able to be less stressed and could really enjoy our surroundings and each other much more.
Now since this was the first time traveling light we were a little unprepared for some things. So we decided to make a list of everything that we brought so that way we could take notes about what we would add or subtract from the list. We each have one and so next time we travel light we can have a reference.
Here is my original list.
"Ben's Travel Packing list 8 days travel"
Clothes:
3 - underwear +3 socks
2 nice shorts
gym short + Swim trunks
1- jean
3 - t -shirts
1 - polo
1 collar shirts long sleeve button down
Black tennis shoe
Scarf
Long sleeve black zip shirt
Bracelet + necklace + wedding ring
handkerchief
Stuff:
Back pack
Water bottle
Phone + charger
Headphones
Book/e reader
Notebook + pen
Passport (+copies) +Ids +Credit card/cash
Pack towel
Sink stopper + clothes line + laundry bag
Sunglasses
Toiletries:
All - in- one - Soap
Sunscreen
Toothbrush + Toothpaste + floss
Razor+ Shaving oil
Deodorant
Contacts + case
Glasses + case
Things I would have changed: -/+
- Packed only 2 t-shirts and neither being white because it got stained quick
- Would not have packed gym shorts and used swim suit as casual shorts
- Would have taken more button down shirts so to convert to short sleeve and opened the button more when hot or close when colder.. could not do that with t shirts or polo
- Would have liked some kind of watch to track time better
- Bug spray
- Little flash light - power went out the night before we left... packing up sucked!!
- Nail clippers
- Some kind of hat to protect from the sun.
Traveling light was a great experience for us both and I am now looking forward to the next trip we have so I can make the changes above and also learn new things for traveling even lighter.
I found freedom in keeping travel simple and every little bit of freedom we can find will help all of us enjoy life a little bit more and that sounds great to me. So the next time you travel think about how you can lighten your load a bit and see what happens, see how much you can truly enjoy more freedom.
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