Deciding to travel light was an important step in preparing for our 8-month around-the-world trip. We set ourselves the limit of 7 kg each, so 14 kg together. And everything had to fit into two 35-liter backpacks, to travel with carry-on bags. In this article, we share with you the contents of our bags. What did we put in our backpacks for traveling for 8 months?
Find the itinerary of our 8-month around-the-world trip:
A few clarifications to better understand our choices. First, we decided not to sacrifice our desire to travel with good photography equipment. We took two large cameras, which represented a significant portion of the total weight of our luggage.
Next, we only stay in hotels, typically mid-range. We don’t camp. So, there’s no need to carry a tent, sleeping bag, or even a mosquito net. If you’re satisfied with using just a phone for taking photos, the weight of our photography equipment can be replaced with camping gear.
Finally, we’re not the type to travel without a first aid kit. We prefer to be proactive rather than reactive and make compromises on clothing rather than medications.
Also, for such a long journey, we prioritized practicality and didn’t pack specific outfits for formal occasions (no shirts or evening wear!).
Here is the contents of our luggage. When we established our list of things to take, we created 7 categories.
Bags
Don’t forget to take into account your suitcases, which represent a significant weight of the total. We each traveled with a 35-liter bag weighing 1.15 kg and a small 10-liter bag weighing 45 grams. This small bag folds and fits inside the larger bag during air travel, but it’s very convenient for walking around and sightseeing.
We also made sure to bring a padlock each and a luggage scale to check that we didn’t exceed the 7 kg limit before each flight. We also took carabiners for our small backpacks and phone straps for securing our phones in less secure countries.
Clothes
This is the category where we were most flexible and it allowed us to not exceed the 7 kg limit. We each took:
- 1 pants,
- 1 undergarments,
- 3 shorts,
- 3 short-sleeved t-shirts,
- 1 long-sleeved shirt,
- 1 swimsuit,
- 4 underwears,
- 4 pairs of socks,
- 1 raincoat,
- 1 down jacket,
- 1 sweater,
- 1 cap,
- 1 lightweight neck gaiter (30 grams).
In total, we had 4.2 kg of clothing for two people. It’s important to consider that we wear some clothes on ourselves during the flight (so they are not included in the weight, even though we listed them).
At first, the idea of traveling with so few clothes is frightening, but it’s impossible to bring enough clothes to change every day over such a long period. It’s just a matter of doing laundry regularly!
Of course, if vanity is your weakness and it’s impossible for you to travel without a variety of outfits, prioritize clothing and make compromises elsewhere (such as with computer equipment). Traveling should remain enjoyable, and it’s important not to exceed the limits of what feels too uncomfortable for us. We have no problem wearing the same t-shirts for several months, but we can’t leave without a camera, hence our decision to sacrifice more on clothing variety.
And besides, it’s always possible to buy new clothes along the way to replace a t-shirt that we’ve been wearing for 6 months. That’s why we left with clothes we already had for the most part, and that weren’t very expensive.
Health
We have taken the essentials, like a razor, deodorant in a tube, a 75ml toothpaste, a small toiletry bag, some tissues, toothbrushes, earplugs, solid shampoo, a few band-aids, Marseille soap for washing our clothes, a few bottles of saline solution, nail clippers, a sleep mask, a thermometer, some cotton swabs, dental floss, a comb…
We had taken a small pair of scissors. Scissors are allowed on planes if the blades are less than 6cm, but an overly zealous security agent confiscated our scissors on our second flight…
And then, a good quantity of medications, including:
- broad-spectrum antibiotics,
- anti-nausea,
- anti-diarrheal,
- Malarone (malaria medication),
- Diamox (altitude sickness medication),
- an antacid,
- pain relievers (Doliprane or Tylenol),
- an antihistamine (Zyrtec),
- migraine relief tablets (for Benjamin).
We also took an Ultralight Steripen to disinfect the water, but it failed us after only two uses…
Since François is prone to motion sickness, we also took motion sickness glasses.
It’s always safer to distribute medications across both suitcases when traveling with others and to bring prescriptions that list the names of the molecules rather than the brand.
We also took a roll of toilet paper. We thought it might be unnecessary, but in India, several hotels didn’t provide it (or took 24 hours to supply it to us…).
In total, the health category represents 1.7 kg. It may seem like a lot, but it’s for two people and it doesn’t only include medications! The razor and its charger alone weigh almost 200 grams…
Electronic equipment
It’s our heaviest category after clothing: 3.9 kg. But it must be said that we didn’t limit ourselves too much. We took:
- two cameras and their chargers (a Nikon Z5 with a 24-200 lens and a Nikon Z50 with a 16-50 lens),
- a GoPro,
- a tablet with a foldable keyboard,
- a universal adapter,
- an e-reader,
- two USB plugs.
We don’t count the phones, which we carry on ourselves during the flights.
We decided not to bring an external hard drive. To back up and duplicate our photos, we bought a 500GB micro-SD card, which is in the tablet, and subscribed to a 500GB Cloud storage plan where we upload all our photos every evening. With Cloud storage, all we need to do is ask someone back in our home country to copy the photos onto a computer or an external hard drive that we provide. This way, we can be sure that our photos won’t be lost, even if we lose all our belongings.
Our Cloud subscription was included in our VPN subscription, which allows us to securely connect from anywhere in the world, access content from any country, and bypass censorship in certain states, notably China. Very handy!
Administrative documents
This category represents almost no weight because we have almost everything with us at the airport. But it’s a crucial category, and it’s better not to forget anything! We left with:
- our passports (the most precious item when traveling),
- withdrawal, debit, and credit cards: preferably, take at least one credit card if you’re renting a car (it allows you to skip the rental company’s insurance) and, if possible, cards from different banks,
- a few bills in US dollars (it’s better if the bills are in near-perfect condition, which is essential in some countries),
- a few bills in euros (but the European currency is less useful than dollars),
- a copy of your passport (which we always keep with us),
- a few passport photos (useful for certain visas),
- a driver’s license and an international driving permit,
- the yellow fever vaccination certificate (depending on the destinations; some countries require it if you have recently traveled to tropical areas, which is likely to happen if you’re traveling around the world),
- the electronic visas, which sometimes need to be presented in paper format…
Leisure activities
This category is more or less important depending on what you enjoy doing in your free time. We took:
- a notebook and two pens,
- a Zelda mini video game console,
- a deck of cards,
- a headlamp,
- contact lenses for snorkeling,
- an ultra-lightweight sarong (115 grams), useful for going to the beach or the pool,
- headphones (and a headphone splitter to watch a movie together),
- a photo of our family (it weighs nothing but can help in case of blues.
In total, this item represents 0.7 kg for us.
Diverse items
The lightest item for us (200 grams) and mainly related to cooking: a 80cl plastic water bottle, plastic cutlery, two rubber bands, a roll of tape, kitchen clips, and plastic bags (Ziploc type). The Ziploc bags have been very useful for compartmentalizing our belongings without adding weight to our bags. It’s also an excellent way to keep passports dry and protected from the rest of the suitcase.
During the trip, souvenirs and various purchases will be added… which will undoubtedly weigh down and clutter the suitcase a bit! Hence the necessity of asking oneself the right questions before leaving.
Find all our tips and tricks for traveling light, choosing your bag, and knowing what to pack:
And if you’re hesitant to embark on a journey of several months, find the reasons that pushed us to take the leap!
