Pack lightly– or ultra lightly! – for more travel freedom

Bill looked up from booking our flights for a one-week trip to England. Ryanair had the least expensive flights, but we’d pay extra for carryon bags.

“Can we do it with just a personal item each?” he mused.

That sounded like a challenge! We usually fly with a carryon bag and a personal item.

Over the years, we’ve been packing increasingly less – from heavy checked bags to carryon rollie bags to carryon backpacks – but we´d never flown with just a personal item. With Ryanair’s notoriously stingy baggage allowances, our one personal item must fit under our seat, no overhead storage allowed.

Our trip involved flying from Lisbon to Manchester, driving to Sheffield for a concert, and taking the train to Liverpool to discover The Beatles’ origins. In rainy, cold November. Could we pack everything, including rain gear, into a personal item?

Challenge accepted!

Find the right bags

Ryanair has notoriously the smallest baggage size allowances.

First step: we measured our various bags to see what fit Ryanair´s 40x25x20-cm personal-item requirements. (Since November 2025, Ryanair has enlarged those measurements to 40x30x20-cm.)

We had one small backpack that would work but needed another. At Decathlon, I bought a tiny daypack for just 6.90€ – perfect for a test run. 

You may have sensed that we follow the airline rules about bag sizes. We do. I think that if airlines simply enforced the rules they already have about the number and size of bags people take as carryon, there would be no more issues with enough overhead-bin storage.

However, I’m not above bending the rules! I wanted to try a cunning plan I’d read about. Neck pillows don’t count as baggage if they are worn. I bought a plush neck pillow, removed the foam, and packed the cover full of clothes. It looked lumpy and obvious. I wasn’t sure I´d actually use that trick unless I was desperate. I didn’t want to have to carry my clothes around in a neck pillow while taking the train or walking around.

Advantages and disadvantages of packing lightly

When we measured our bags at the airport, I discovered my bag was actually smaller than allowed! Bill’s (right) was perfect.

Packing lightly offers many advantages:

• Buy cheaper airfares on short-haul flights.
• Ignore checking in at the airline desk before a flight. Go straight to security.
• Ignore the baggage claim area after arrival. Be first to the car rentals, taxi stand or bus lineup!
• Your bags are less likely to get lost. However, airlines have been known to lose even carryon bags when they force you to gate-check your bag. This happened to our nephew when he came to visit us in Portugal, as well as to a young woman we met at the lost luggage counter in Lisbon. The smaller your bag looks, the less likely you’ll be forced to gate-check it. We’ve found that backpacks are less likely to get pulled aside for gate-checking than rollie bags. Many times we´ve seen airline staff come down the line at the boarding gate, asking people to gate-check their carryon-sized rollie bags, then skip over us, and ask the people behind us to check their bags.
• It’s much easier to get around with a backpack, rather than suitcases trailing you like a ball and chain. When you land, especially after an overnight flight, you may have to keep your bag with you until it’s time to check in later. With hotels, you can usually leave your bags at the front desk, but that’s not always possible if you’re renting an Airbnb-style apartment. It’s also easier to hop on and off buses, trains and ferries, or schlep your luggage up narrow guesthouse stairs when there’s no elevator. Dragging even small rollie bags over cobblestones or streets-that-are-really-staircases (Athens, Lisbon, Porto – I’m looking at you!), gets old fast. Not to mention the noise bags make rolling over cobblestones.
• Make last-minute changes to travel plans, like getting on an earlier flight or when flying standby, without having to recall checked luggage.
• Have less stuff to keep track of in hotel rooms.

We arrived in Manchester with our small personal items. Now to see if we could last the week with the few items we packed.

Of course, there are some disadvantages too:

• Fewer clothing ensemble choices.
• Less space for cosmetics, Dyson hair blowers, laptops, books, souvenirs.
• Can´t fly with scissors, Swiss Army knife, hiking poles, or liquids bigger than 100 ml, such as wine or olive oil.
• Not everyone can carry a backpack.
• Doesn’t always work for people with mobility or other health issues.
• Doesn’t always work for families with small children who need lots of equipment.

Evolution of a light packer

For our 2025 three-week trip to Greece, we packed for carryon only: my 40-litre green backpack as well as my mid-sized wire-and-mesh reinforced travel purse as a personal item. Handy for cobblestones and on and off ferries, including to the island of Hydra where no cars are allowed and most cargo goes by donkey or mule.

Our packing methods have evolved over the years. My interest in ultralight packing began in 2015 when my daughter Rachel and I did a backpacking trip in Killarney Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. I bought a book on ultralight packing and learned a lot. I actually cut my toothbrush handle in half!

The next year, I spent a four-day long weekend with my friend Andrea in Whitehorse, Yukon, and took a medium-sized daypack. That worked well, since I flew standby and was able to hop across Canada on earlier flights more easily.  

In 2017, our two-week trip to Greece would begin with an overnight flight to Athens. That’s when I got serious about packing lightly for a longer trip. We landed early morning, but couldn´t check in to our apartment until 3 p.m. so we had to carry our bags around the city all day, up and down staircases, and over cobblestones. Our carryon-sized daypacks worked wonderfully! We truly felt nimbler and lighter.

Near the end of that Greece trip, while waiting in a small island airport, we got chatting with another couple. She finally asked where the rest of our luggage was. Had it been lost?

“No, this is all we have.”

“Oh, do you buy all your cosmetics when you arrive?” she asked.

“No, in fact I have allergies and can´t tolerate perfumes so I definitely bring all my own,” I replied.

She looked shocked and her husband looked jealous. They were on their honeymoon, admittedly, but they each had a huge suitcase and a smaller carryon rollie bag, plus another large duffel bag. She also had a huge tote bag and he had a daypack. She admitted that one bag was full of shoes.

Pride may be a sin, but I felt proud of our light packing methods!

Living in a van for two years (with winters in an apartment) during Covid further shaped our ability to travel with and acquire less stuff.

Weather, activities and other considerations

Taking public transportation, such as buses, ferries and trains, (Liverpool Lime Street train station above) is easier when you pack lightly.

When deciding how lightly to pack, there are certain elements about the upcoming adventure to consider, starting with the weather.

Weather: Will we need rain jackets, umbrellas, and warm boots? Or bathing suit, sunhat, and flipflops? It´s easier to pack lightly when one pair of footwear will suffice and the weather will be the same throughout the trip.

For rain, many people recommend ponchos, since the thin, inexpensive ones take up little space. That’s true, but I really dislike ponchos. They flap in the wind, water drips into your shoes and the plastic gets in the way when you bend over, spilling water into your bag. Most importantly, they don’t keep the rain off my glasses. I much prefer a small travel umbrella, especially in a hot climate where a rain jacket feels like a personal steam bath. Hats with wide brims also keep rain off your face and glasses. For our England trip, it would be rainy and cold the whole time, so we took rain jackets and umbrellas.

Activities: Will we be lazing on a beach, touring cities, hiking, going to fancy dinners or operas or theatre? Activities dictate clothing, footwear and equipment needs.

• Beaches: A lightweight wrap or sarong can also be a beach blanket or even a skirt for casual situations. Flip-flops can also be worn in showers, to protect your feet if you’re staying in hostels or anywhere with shared bathrooms. Microfibre towels dry quickly and pack small. Sunhats should be worn on the plane. Pack extra sunscreen in 100 ml reusable bottles.
• Shopping: Pack a collapsible, foldable bag with a zipper or an ultralight backpack to use for daytrips, grocery shopping, or bringing souvenirs home if you succumb to artisan wares.  
• Footwear: Take one pair of shoes, two max. We generally take lightweight walking shoes, which do double duty when hiking. (Unless, of course, the purpose of your trip is a mountain, rough-terrain, multi-day hike, when you’ll absolutely need hiking boots.) For hot destinations, we also take sandals with a backstrap, which do multi-duty to protect our feet in showers or on rocky beaches, hiking, and general walking around. Dark-coloured walking shoes or sandals can go out to dinner in nicer restaurants.

For our trip, we would be going to several casual music concerts and sightseeing in three cities, so one pair of walking shoes and casual clothing would suffice.

Places with special dress codes: Many monasteries, churches, mosques, and conservative countries have dress codes for men and women – generally modest clothing that covers the shoulders, midriff and knees. Women often must wear a scarf over their head and a skirt.

In Malta, St. John’s Co-Cathedral sold paper skirts and shawls to women who were scantily attired. In Greece, the Meteora monasteries required women to wear skirts, so my friend Kathleen and I brought them. (It turned out to be so cold that we welcomed the extra layer over our pants!) Often, it’s culturally respectful and polite to dress modestly even in outside spaces, such as hill tribe villages in Thailand.

Research the places you’re going so you know what to bring. We’re going to Morocco in April, so I’ll pack a lightweight scarf and long skirts. Not only is this required in some buildings, but it also shows respect for local cultures and reduces unwanted attention, especially for young, blonde women. Our trip to England did not involve any special dress codes.

16 tips for packing lightly

I wrote out and printed our itinerary with all the needed booking details and places we want to see. A small journal (right) fit nicely into my tiny purse, as did my passport.

Over the years, we’ve learned through trial and error how to pack more lightly. Even if you’re checking a bag, these tips can help lighten your load.

1. Pack ahead, not at the last minute. You’re more apt to pack unnecessary stuff if you’re in a panic. If lists help you, make one.
2. Pack 3- or 4-days worth of quick-dry, wrinkle-resistant clothes and plan to do laundry. Even if you have a dryer (clothes or hair), quick-dry clothes will dry faster, getting you back out exploring sooner. I pack 3 pairs of underwear for a week, 4 for longer trips. If you find yourself looking at something and thinking “Maybe…” or “Just in case…” or “Nice to have…” then leave it behind.
3. All tops should match all bottoms. Pack a bra that matches all tops. I pack two bras if I´m going somewhere hot and sweaty, otherwise just one.
4. Pack thinner layers. Leave bulky sweaters or fleeces or jackets at home.
5. Pyjamas: Do you need them? A t-shirt and shorts that can also be worn in public on laundry day might work. When we went to England, we wore our long underwear and t-shirts as pyjamas. If you’re staying with friends or family and must appear decent for your morning java, a fleece jacket can double as a bathrobe, to cover your braless state.

My toiletries consist of the usual, plus my one remaining TowTab (white dot in the centre), nightguard and ear plugs in a plastic case (right), a grey microfibre eyeglass cleaner, a corner of bar soap wrapped in plastic, and a foldable pill box my friend Andrea gave me. I need to find a smaller dental floss and deodorant.

6. Toiletries:

• Buy tiny bottles and pots (100 ml or less) for shampoo, face cream and the like, so you can pack just what you’ll need. No need for a honkin´ big tube of toothpaste or a full bar of soap or enough face cream for a month if you´re going to be away for just a week.
• I buy screw-top bottles (Nalgene brand is best). Flip-top bottles have done me wrong – even in carryon luggage they have exploded with air pressure changes, making a huge mess. Leave room for expansion; don’t fill right to the brim. I dislike GoToobs – the plastic is too thick and you can’t squeeze out the last bit. Wasteful.
• I’ve had fun experimenting over the years to find the smallest amounts I can pack. I buy a small bottle, fill it with my body lotion or shampoo, then use it at home until it runs out. How long did it last? Can I take a smaller amount?
• Some people recommend buying what you need at your destination, but I can’t do that. I have sensitive teeth and get migraines from fragrances, and finding Sensodyne and fragrance-free products is often difficult. But if you can use any old toothpaste or perfumed shampoo (like Bill) you can make use of hotel freebies and buy more travel-sized toothpaste as you go.
• Avoid liquids where possible. I slice a corner off a bar of soap; it lasts a long time and doesn’t count as a liquid. You can buy bars of shampoo (although I haven’t found one I really like), deodorant and sunscreen. I tried the filmy thin sheets of shampoo and soap but found they quickly got gummed up and fused together when you actually use them in a shower. Laundry detergent sheets, however, are great!
• Purell, baby wipes, and toilet paper: always!
• TowTabs: I love these little compressed cloths – just add water and they expand into a facecloth. But I can’t find any more in Portugal!

7. Regular medications: I take photos of my prescriptions, and then promptly repackage my pills for travel. I know – you’re supposed to keep medications in their original containers, but those pill bottles and blister packs take up way too much space! Depending on your medication list (mine is long), pillboxes can take less room. In all my years of travel, no one has ever uttered a peep about my lack of original containers.

8. First-aid kit: I pack the basics that we’d need quickly, without having to find a pharmacy at 2 a.m. I’m talking Imodium (diarrhea), Gravol (nausea), bandages (cuts and scrapes), and Polysporin (dirty cuts and scrapes). I’m allergic to peanuts, so I always have my EpiPen and Benadryl handy in my purse. Unless you’re in the wilderness, you can buy as needed. The rest of the world has pharmacies too.

I have enough room in my liquids bag (left) that I pack most of my other toiletries in there too. My pillbox, nightguard, eyeglasses cleaner, and laundry sheets go in another Ziploc – good for organizing and to easily see the contents.  

9. Ziploc bags are your friends. I should have invested in the company decades ago. They´re light, mould to the size of their contents, and you can easily ditch them if you don´t need them anymore, whereas you wouldn´t throw away a lovely cosmetic bag.

10. Electronics: Buy a multi-use adapter that has USB and USB-C ports. Leave your laptop at home, if possible. After lugging mine around, I finally realized I can make do with my phone and a small notebook for most trips. Leave heavy chargers at home if you can. Bill charges his razor and toothbrush and they last two weeks. We have a little Sony point-and-shoot camera, but we often rely solely on our phone cameras.

11. Use lightweight compression sacks. They squish fabrics to half their size. While packing cubes are great for organizing, they do take up space and weight; lighter Ziploc bags may work just as well. When I’m packing sandals, I put each one into a filmy-light vegetable bag.

12. Books: If, like me, you must have reading material, get a lightweight e-reader or load books onto your phone. My tablet that I use for an e-reader was relatively heavy so, for our England trip, I loaded books onto my phone and found it worked much better than expected. Alternatively, take a cheap physically small paperback you won´t mind ditching when finished. Many hotels have a leave-one-take-one bookshelf.

When you travel with carryon backpacks, and you’ve strained your back, your husband (left) can carry both! My tiny purse (right) surprisingly managed to fit all the essentials

13. Guidebooks: No need to carry a heavy guidebook that covers more than you will see on your trip (and screams “tourist!!” when you haul it out on the street). I type out my own itinerary, plus info about the places we´re going to see, and print that (two pages per side, double-sided). Or, take Rick Steves’ advice and rip out the pages you need from the guidebook! I know, I know. It´s sacrilegious to rip up a book, but Rick actually encourages his readers to do that. I have followed his advice. Only with his books, of course. He even sells little covers with removable spines so you can keep the ripped-out pages together.

14. Paper is my biggest challenge. I love books and often buy them as souvenirs. Ditto for post cards. And I pick up pamphlets everywhere. I´m learning to be more selective, and I mail post cards and cull my pamphlets before heading home, but it´s still my Achilles heel.

15. Overnight flight: I pack an inflatable travel pillow – never one of those big foam things. I´ve never understood why anyone would want to lug that thing around during the rest of their trip. 

16. Heaviest clothing: Wear jacket, sweater, hat, hiking boots on the plane, so they don’t have to fit in your carryon bag. Try on all those layers beforehand to make sure they fit and don’t get bunched up. We have even worn our bicycle helmets onto the plane – they’re hats, aren’t they?! If anyone looks askance, just say you’re expecting heavy turbulence.

So, what did we pack for this challenge?

Lightweight compression sacks are magical for freeing up space! It allowed me to travel with just a personal item. 

Here’s what went into our personal-item bags:

• Compression sack with two pairs of underwear (wore the third pair) and socks, long underwear, two nice shirts for concerts, long-sleeved t-shirt, warm tuque, light gloves.
• Ziploc bag with toiletries, ready for security. After security, the Purell went into my jacket pocket.
• Laundry detergent sheets 
• Face masks, ear plugs
• Papers: itinerary, travel info, car rental voucher, concert and tour tickets (printed required)
• Umbrella
• Refillable water bottle  
• House keys
• Charging cords, converter with USB ports

Here’s what I carried in my tiny purse, which fit into my personal item:

• Wallet with credit cards, ID, cash etc.
• Passport
• Phone
• Small journal, pens
• First-aid kit: EpiPen, Benadryl, bandages, alcohol wipe, Gravol, Imodium, pain relievers, safety pin
• Lip balm, ½ emery board, cough candies
• Toilet paper, tissues

Here’s what we wore on the plane:

• Underwear, socks (and bra for me)
• Quick-dry travel pants
• Long-sleeved t-shirt
• Necklace and earrings (I wore the same all week.)
• Lightweight black jacket (just for me; not Bill)
• Mid-weight puffy jacket
• Rain jacket
• Walking shoes

How did we do?

People complain about Ryanair’s baggage policies, but they do encourage travelers (some grumbling, mind you) to pack less stuff.

We did surprisingly well! I honestly thought we packed just the right amount, even with my smaller-than-allowable bag. I did not use the travel pillow trick. I did get tired of wearing the same pants every day; with more space I would take an extra pair. Handwashing underwear, socks and t-shirts every other day worked just fine. Of course, this was an easy trip to test packing with just a personal item, since we wore our bulky outer clothing all the time.

When we arrived by train in Liverpool and then in Manchester, we easily walked around with our bags until it was time to check in to our hotels. For the return flight, I managed to squirrel away all my booklets and pamphlets, some in my jacket pockets.

Next challenge: our 12-day Morocco trip in April. During the day, it will be hot in Marrakesh and the Sahara Desert and warm in Fez, but will cool off everywhere at night, so the weather won’t always be the same. The trip is nearly twice as long as to England. I will need long skirts for modesty, pants to ride a camel, a headscarf, and shirts that cover my shoulders.

We will fly EasyJet (our first time) there, with a more generous 45x36x20-cm-sized personal item. However, we return with Ryanair, so we still must pack for its smaller allowance.

Can we do it? Stay tuned to see!

We accepted the challenge to pack ultra-lightly in November 2025. Find out where we are right now by visiting our ‘Where’s Kathryn?’ page.