Is Minimalistic Travel The Only Way to Go?

Is a Teeny Tiny Personal Item Realistic for Every Trip?

There’s something oddly satisfying about boarding a plane without lugging a beefy carry-on suitcase. Walking briskly out of the airport without having to wait at baggage claim is pretty freeing, too. However, is minimalistic travel the way to go every time you board a plane? Can you travel for weeks on end to an entirely different part of the world and not feel restricted with just a single personal item as your companion?

The answer to this question will probably differ depending on your level of tolerance for minor inconveniences, as well as your willingness to wander around with variously sized pieces of luggage. In some cases, bringing nothing but a very small bag can save you money on airplane fees, but it’s not always worth the hassle of finding the “perfect” bag that all airlines will tolerate.

You may also assume that minimalist travel has everything to do with time and nothing else, but that’s not always the case. A longer trip doesn’t always mean you’ll need more luggage. Conversely, a shorter trip doesn’t always mean you can fit all your stuff into the equivalent of a small backpack. There are a wealth of circumstances that may impact your ability to really enjoy yourself while packing minimalistically.

And, of course, I’ll share some of those circumstances with you here, as well as my experience (and my “almost experience”) with packing minimally. I think it’s a really cool way to see the world, but I do accept that there are times when I’d rather have the convenience of having more stuff packed in a checked suitcase rather than just a tiny carry-on.

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What It Feels Like to Bring a Giant Suitcase on Vacation

First of all, I have definitely gone on a vacation where I’ve done too much packing and brought a suitcase that was entirely too large for the trip. When I traveled to Iceland, I made the mistake of thinking I need a huge suitcase because I was flying internationally. I hadn’t flown out of the country for quite a while, and I just had it in my head that I needed a ponderously and hilariously large suitcase.

The fight I took came with a checked bag, so I figured it didn’t really matter if I brought a big bag with everything I could think of packed in it, as long as I didn’t exceed the weight limit and the size limit (it was a Delta flight; they seemed fine with my giganticus suitcase). I was also taking a road trip through Iceland, so I wouldn’t need to worry about stuffing the suitcase on a train, walking around with it endlessly, or chucking it in the back of a taxi.

Overall, the suitcase wasn’t really a hassle, so I’d say that if you’re going on a road trip in another country and have no qualms about hauling a suitcase in and out of the car each night, there’s nothing wrong or difficult in taking a big bag. Strangely enough, however, the suitcase I took was actually too big. I packed absolutely everything I thought I might need for cold weather, and there was still a lot of room in my suitcase.

Looking back on the experience, I can say that having a big suitcase along with you isn’t terrible. However, I would have been better served by bringing a suitcase that actually fit what I was trying to bring with me. I didn’t need the large checked bag. A medium checked bag would have sufficed, and I have since bought a medium checked bag, just to avoid this issue again.

The (In)Convenience of Checking a Suitcase

After having traveled to several corners of the world on transoceanic jet airlines, I can say that there are some times when checking a suitcase is really convenient, assuming you have a fair amount of things you’re bringing with you. When I traveled to Vietnam, I found it quite convenient to travel through the airports in Taiwan and Vietnam without any luggage, allowing the airline staff to get it from place to place.

However, when I traveled to Colombia, which had no layovers and got me from Los Angeles to Bogota in one flight, I wouldn’t have minded having a carry-on suitcase with me. It would have actually sped things up a bit when I got to the baggage claim area. My flight to Colombia had a checked bag included with the price (we splurged on upgraded seats for that trip), so I just figured, why not? I’ll check my bag.

I would say that the hassle meter, as far as checking a suitcase or having a carry-on is concerned, is a little bit in the carry-on’s favor. Despite the convenience of having someone else worry about your luggage while you travel, having a carry-on does mean you can deplane at your destination and get on with your day rather than wait for baggage claim.

However, if you’re traveling in such a way that a carry-on is impractical and you do need the extra room of a checked bag, there’s certainly nothing wrong with checking it, especially if you don’t mind the extra fee and would feel inconvenienced if you weren’t able to pack a lot of things for your trip. Honestly, I would advise against trying to stuff a ton of things in a carry-on and expecting to sail through the boarding process. Heavy and over-stuffed bags will definitely cause you problems, especially when you’re boarding a small regional airline with stringent carry-on rules.

A Tip for Going the Minimalist Way

I believe the best way to pursue a minimalist travel style is to arrange access to a washing machine or laundromat during your travel. Yes, you can wear clothing for multiple days, but some of us are smelly, and it’s just not comfortable to wear a shirt five days in a row. I don’t care how many advertisements I get about a particular material being smell-resistant.

When I wear something on vacation, it gets dirty, whether that’s actual dirt, sweat from various activities and tours, or just the regular smells of the area. Do I want to smell like a camel the day after I ride a camel? No, I want to wear something clean. so the people who sit next to me on my next day’s tour don’t have to hold their noses the entire day.

Many hotels – even if they’re not luxury-level establishments – have laundry facilities or will handle your laundry for you while you’re out and about. I paid the equivalent of a few dollars to have our clothes laundered when we were at our hotel in Hanoi. We sent them off one day, and they came back the next day, all clean and folded in a bag.

Having our clothes laundered meant we were able to travel easily with a carry-on-size suitcase, and we never needed to deal with wearing clothing more than once. This was important because many of our tours and activities were high-energy, so our clothes got dirty each day. Rather than packing a gazillion t-shirts, though, we just packed enough for half a trip and then had our clothing laundered a little more than halfway through the vacation.

Minimalist Travel Isn’t for Everyone But It’s Still Cool

I think the concept of traveling internationally with a single tiny bag is a really cool idea, and I’d love to truly embark on a trip one day with nothing more than a backpack. Interestingly, I did plan such a trip in 2020, but COVID-19 intervened, and all of my travel plans were canceled. I had a little purple bag packed as my personal item and another small bag for walking around town, but then the Pandemic happened . . .

I was planning on spending several days in Paris, walking around, taking tours, and seeing all the things I wanted to see with nothing more than a little shoulder bag and a spot in a little room I’d booked that had a view of the Eiffel Tower. I’d already found a place where I could get my laundry done, and I planned on wearing stuff that would fold up neatly (like t-shirts and tights).

Even though I wasn’t able to go on my trip, I think my logic and plans were sound. The bag I had wasn’t even a roller bag. It was a true personal item that was easily carried on my shoulder. I double-checked all of the size requirements, and my bag would have easily fit under the seat with some room to spare. And that’s about fifty percent of the battle, I think.

As long as you’ve got enough clothes or access to a laundry facility while you travel, I think it’s entirely realistic and sort of exciting to travel with a really small bag. Just make sure that you measure and double-check the size requirements for your personal item on your flight, and you can enjoy minimalist travel, as well as choose the least expensive fares that don’t come with access to a carry-on or checked luggage.

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