One of the most important packing light tips is to pack items with a few different purposes. The list of essentials from our travel packing tips is what you will be using whenever you travel somewhere. To ensure that you will not forget anything, our most important travel packing tip is to make (or find) a printable checklist of items that you need to pack, as well as things that you will need to get done before each trip. Whether you are traveling alone or with one or two friends, these road trip packing tips will minimize the amount of prep work.
With just a few of the best packing tips, you will be learning to pack for a road trip experience so it is more awesome than awful. This trip packing checklist helps you ensure that you think about all the things that you may need to pack – those essential items that you will need to enjoy your vacation, and the trip necessities that make the journey go a little smoother. Make sure you bring accessories, such as a belt, a scarf, or sarong (which you can use as things like a blanket for an airplane, cover up on the beach, or throw on top of a dress for a cooler night), as well as a fold-up bag or a duffel bag to hold whatever additional items you may pick up during the trip. Another small emergency plan, should your suitcase disappear, is (if traveling with others) make sure you put a few extra clothes in your traveling partners luggage, and vice versa.
In general, packing clothes items you can wear on a variety of occasions, or combine with other items to make new outfits, is a smart way to pack efficiently. Use packing bags to help pack bulky clothing items like skiing equipment effectively. Use them for packing clothes and bulky items, and for dirty laundry storage, to maximize your space when you get back. If you are planning on taking one of those tiny, one-use Ziplocs with you on a trip–when packing for a winter trip in Europe, for example–make sure to carry it around with you to avoid it taking up all of your space (and weight) in your bag.
If you are using this particular packing strategy, packing cubes also make it easy to condense your stuff and pack a capsule wardrobe for your travels. Packing cubes ($25) are also slightly more cumbersome to pack with if you are checking just one suitcase and you need to keep everything TSA compliant. Pack a travel-sized liquid laundry detergent in case of an emergency, and you do not have to worry about having any extra clean clothes at all (but will need to be concerned that there are any laundry facilities available for your use).
