Packing For Your Trip
As any seasoned traveler will tell you, packing for your trip is an essential part of the travel experience. How much and what you pack and don't pack can impact on how much you actually enjoy that travel experience
Practical Packing
Everyone has their own viewpoint on what to take on a trip, but there are some basic rules that are unlikely to put you wrong.
- Pack Lightly - this is the most obvious but also the most ignored piece of advice. If you don't need it don't take it Ò there's nothing worse that dragging surplus to requirements luggage through crowded airports, on the Tube during a summer heatwave, and on your rain-affected stopover in the hills of Thailand. A good way to eliminate those weighty 'luxuries' and minimize the threat of hefty excess baggage fees is to lay everything for your trip out and then discard non-essentials. Repeat this process with the remaining items. Remember - if you do leave something behind, it can always be replaced in the UK.
- Pack Smartly - Minimise wasted space by taking clothing that can be worn in more than one environment and by purchasing items such as roll-up rain coats and travel sleeping bags and towels that have been specially designed for travelers. A multipurpose item such as a decent Swiss Army Knife will prove invaluable on your travels.
- Spread the Risk - If you pack all of your essentials - toiletries, medicine, money - in one bag, chances are it will be the one that is lost. Trying to get an airline representative motivated to find your lost luggage at 3am at Heathrow is not a pretty sight, so take copies of important documents, carry money on you, and utilise a day-pack with back-up essentials.
- Buy Good Luggage - no, it doesn't have to be Gucci, but it is amazing how many people spend thousands of dollars travelling, but insist on using their parents' old suitcase or backpack from the summer of '79. Of course these bags do a wonderful job of disintegrating after a dose of tender love and care from the airport baggage handlers, springing a leak so that your stash of condoms falls out as you queue in customs, or making your carefully packed suit smell like the dog's blanket.
- Use A Checklist - Who wants to spend a 24 hour flight wondering whether or not they packed the travellers cheques or if their contact lens are still in the bathroom unit? The eBigOE Packing Checklist has been designed to help you complete this task as painlessly as possible.
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