Developing a Packing Strategy

Packing for a trip around the world can be a tricky venture. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to plan things in such a way that you will always be at the optimal temperature. If you’re mixing up hemispheres in your journeys, or visiting a variety of landscapes, then it becomes even more difficult to plan your trip around weather. If you’ll be trekking in the Himalayas, or taking a safari in the Sahara, then maybe you’ll want to plan that aspect of your trip around the weather. But for everything else, you’ll just have take what comes.

And therein lies the problem: what do you pack for? I’m a strong believer of the packing light school of thought. During my recent RTW, my girlfriend and I made it our mission to have the smallest, leanest packs possible. Whenever we saw people lugging packs larger than they were around, we couldn’t understand how (or why) they did it. When you’ve got to run to catch a bus, or trying to get on the bus once you catch up to it, a massive pack is a huge (pun intended) inconvenience. Sometimes there’s no place to put it. If your pack is large, you will get separated from it more often, as it rides on the roof or in the back more often than not.

So if you can’t plan an extended trip around the weather, and you don’t want to bring too much, what can you do? With some smart planning and packing, you can bring enough to manage any situation long enough to re-outfit yourself on the cheap wherever you are. Here’s how.

Layering is the key to keeping warm without a lot of bulk. A strategy that worked for us was to bring a pair of thermal underwear, a long-sleeved shirt, and a thin micro fleece. The fleece comes in handy all the time. Even in the middle of the desert it gets chilly at night, and planes, trains, buses, or airports can be ridiculously cold. When combined with a thermal underwear and a long sleeved shirt, you can handle a sudden drop in temperature that might happen as a result of a new destination, a change in altitude, or just a drastic weather change. And the thermal underwear and fleece pack very small and won’t take up much space in your pack at all.

If you’re going to be in a cold place for an extended period of time, just head to where the locals shop and pick up some winter gear. It won’t cost nearly as much as that North Face jacket you were tempted to buy before leaving. Also, you won’t have to suffer the indignity of lugging it around in the middle of summer, just so you can wear it when you hit the high altitudes. If you plan on ditching your winter gear after you move on to warmer climes, then quality isn’t much of an issue. And traveling isn’t as glamorous as it sounds, so you don’t have to win any style contests when you’re on the road.

If you follow this simple strategy, you can be confident that you won’t freeze when the weather changes because your clothes are versatile and can be layered for warmth, while taking up minimal space in your pack.