Do You Need a Backpack for Day Trips?

Can You Embark on a Day Trip Adventure With Just a Few Things In Your Pockets?

There’s an entire segment of the traveling population out there who prefers to travel with as little baggage as possible. Often referred to as minimalist travel, it becomes quite a freeing and easy way to get around, knowing you don’t need to worry about big heavy bags dragging you down every time you move from place to place.

However, we’re going to focus on one particular part of travel and the need for bags, rather than the whole of it. We’re going to take a look at the day trips you might take from your hotel or short term rental and whether you need to haul around a big backpack, or whether you can literally just stuff your pockets with the items you’ll need.

Obviously, the number of items you might want to take with you will change depending on the activity you’ve planned, but you might be surprised at how little you can actually take with you and not miss while you’re out for the day. You may find it particularly convenient to carry just a few things with you when you’ve arranged for an active tour or something that will have you walking for much of the day.

There will always be travelers who can’t stand the thought of boarding an airplane without their giant shoulder bag or huge backpack because of a fear of not having something with them when they need it. However, it might feel a little less stressful to leave things behind when you consider that you’re only leaving things for one day and not an entire week, a month, or anything longer than a few hours.

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What Do You Absolutely Need on a Day Trip?

Obviously, you’ll need to take medication if you take it regularly, and you’ll need a dose while you’re traveling. I don’t think the concept of minimalistic travel ever really involves discussions about medication. If you need it, take it. But beyond those items that are absolutely necessary for your health, what do you need to take in addition to them that will help you along the way?

In my experience, the number one thing you should always take is money. Not identification cards or credit cards, but cash in the local currency of whatever country you’re traveling in. I did break this “rule” when I visited Iceland, but since that country is virtually cash-free, I felt fine just carrying around a Visa, just in case I needed to buy something.

The second thing I always carry is a few napkins or wipes. I like to get individually wrapped wipes when I’m traveling in countries where I’m not always sure I’ll have access to toilet paper when I’m using the toilet, but a small package of tissues works, too. I usually stuff a bunch of napkins in a plastic bag and put the bag in my pocket. I’ve definitely gone through several tissues over the course of a long day and have never been sorry I packed them.

Other items you might find useful will often depend on the amount of time you’ll be gone on your day trip and the available facilities where you’ll travel. For example, if you’re particularly concerned about the battery life in your phone, an extra battery for it couldn’t hurt, but turning on the battery saver function and turning off data can help immensely in extending battery life.

Water is another excellent item to take, and you might want some sunscreen if you’re headed out to a sunny area or your plans call for a lot of time spent outside. However, remember that you might not need to carry a bulky water bottle around if there are water fountains where you’re traveling, and you might not need to carry sunscreen if you’re headed for some indoor museums for the day.

What I Carry When I Leave My Hotel for the Whole Day

When I’m on a city tour, I tend to carry money and tissues with me, and I may also carry a tube of lip balm if I’m in a dry country. When I visited Colombia, we took a walking tour of Bogota that took us around much of the city and through museums and some historic neighborhoods, and all I had on me was some Colombian pesos and some tissues.

I didn’t even bring sunscreen because it was really overcast that day, and our tour was on the second half of the day anywhere when it wasn’t really sunny. I did put sunscreen on before we left, but I didn’t keep reapplying it as I might if we were headed out to the beach or somewhere really sunny. I also brought a credit card, but I fully intended to use pesos along the way since I wasn’t sure if I would have the opportunity to use credit cards.

The only other things I might bring with me are water, a hat, and a battery for my phone. I take hundreds of photographs every day, and that’s actually what eats into my battery life. It’s not scrolling social media or making calls or texting. It’s all the photographs. If I’m going out on a day trip where I’ll be gone for at least six hours, I’ll often bring a power bank.

For the hat and water, I’ll wear a hat that I can fold up or that can hang on a string off my neck, so I don’t need to carry it in a hand when I’m not wearing it. I also try to bring small bottles of water or inflatable bottles when I know I’ll have access to drinking fountains. Like when I visited Rome, they had tons of drinking fountains, so I didn’t need to lug around a giant bottle with me to survive the day.

Examining What You Expect to Receive on Your Tour

If you’ve booked a tour for the day where the providers have written up an itinerary for you, one of the most convenient things you can do is read through it to see what amenities have been planned for the day. Will you stop for food? If meals are included, there’s a good chance they’ll include water or some type of beverage. You might not need to bring a giant water bottle.

Some tours even provide water bottles, and they’ll tell you this in the description. When we visited Cambodia, our daylong tour of Angkor Wat included quite a lot of water. Every time we got back in the SUV after visiting the next temple, there were a few new bottles of water for us. We didn’t need to carry any bottles around with us because the tour provider hydrated us particularly well, which was nice because it was in the mid-90s for the entire day.

If your tour provider is taking you to a restaurant or providing you with snacks, the food can also eliminate the need to carry around protein bars or nuts. Sure, it’s nice to have food with you, but you may find it more convenient to rely on the food you’re given on the tour than to carry your own food with you, unless you’re facing an allergy and you must carry your own eats.

Take a look at everything you plan to take with you, and then examine the itinerary for your tour. Eliminate anything you expect to have when you return that isn’t money. If you expect to be well-fed while walking around on a city tour, don’t bother to load up with enough snacks to get you through the winter. If you’re walking around a city anyway, you can always buy something to eat if you’re absolutely desperate. It might not be the most economical food decision, but it might give you the opportunity to try some local food on the fly.

Going With a Pair of Tights or Pants With Pockets Instead of a Backpack

I actually take it a step further sometimes when I travel and leave the bag or backpack behind completely. If I’m going on a tour where all I’m taking is some tissues and some money (which is very common), I’ll just wear a pair of tights with pockets. I can usually stuff a tube of lip balm in there, or I can also rely on the Chapstick that my traveling partner always has in his pocket.

In some cases, I will carry around a shoulder bag, but it’s always a really lightweight one with beefy zippers. If I decide to take an extra battery, I usually take my shoulder bag with me, too, and then I end up putting a few more things in there, too, but nothing to make it feel like I’m lugging around a piece of luggage. My bag has wide straps, and the bag itself is really lightweight, so it’s really just that battery in there that weighs anything.

If they ever make a smartphone that has a battery that lasts an entire day without requiring a full charge in the middle of it to sustain constant photographs, I’m definitely going to buy it. But right now, I do tend to take along an external battery I bought in 2016 (yes, it’s still kicking!) when I worked in a facility that didn’t have any outlets. I find it convenient when I’m on a tour where I can leave the bag in the car and just charge my phone while we’re traveling between destinations.

I don’t know if I’ve ever actually taken an entire backpack on a day trip, either. In all of the adventures I’ve had over the years, whether they’ve been guided or not, the most I’ve carried with me has been that small bag with the huge zippers. The small bag is about as long as a 16-ounce bottle of water, too, which has allowed me to carry water with me, too, when I’ve felt the need (my inflatable water bottle is ideal here).

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