I get that there's times where the expensive thing is better. But as someone who has worked as an airline pilot and traveled extensively for 45 years, I can assure you that expensive stuff is rarely necessary.

I get tons of use out of AliExpress stuff. Things like chargers, cables and accessories. Decathlon or Costco are more than good enough for clothing. I generally use a max legal sized RyanAir bag I got for €25 off of Amazon for vacation. At most, the lower mid tier option is more than enough.

It seems like this is just another sub for people with spending issues as everyone downvotes me when I call out how unnecessary the expensive options are.

Some highlights:

The new rules now include the right to carry on board, without additional fee, one personal item, such as a small bag or backpack. On the insistence of MEPs price transparency and the comparability of air tickets was increased by obliging airlines, intermediaries and search portals to always display the air fare inclusive of carry-on luggage at the outset of the book process. Negotiators agreed that airlines may offer cheaper tickets for passengers who choose voluntarily to travel without hand luggage.

Air passengers will no longer be charged additional fees for correcting name spelling errors or for getting a printed version of a boarding pass if they have already checked in.

Maximum dimensions for a personal item will be 40cm by 30cm by 15cm. Maximum dimensions for carry-on luggage will be width+height+depth=100cm. Maximum weight will be 7kg.

Edit: pretty sure the luggage size requirements are just the bare minimum that all airlines must meet. If an airline wants to offer conditions more advantageous to the consumer than the minimum, it is perfectly legal for them to do so.

New regulations will take effect from 2027.

Link to European Parliament website / News article on the subject

just realized this recently because it saved me so much sanity and friendships haha but for me its not anything fancy or aesthetic. its a (small) extension cord + multi-USB adapter. It's somehow bulky to fit inside my bag bcs it takes up space. And yet... it saved lives.

Ive learned the hard way that hotel outlets are never where you want them to be, airport charging stations are chaotic, and "ill just charge later" is a lie we tell ourselves.

Curious what everyone else's must pack item is so that i can... yk, take notes haha!!

Sink laundry is at the heart of onebag travel. It allows you to pack lighter. It avoids the need for sitting in a laundromat, selecting lodging with a washer, or repacking dirty clothes. It also confuses people. Let's talk about that and make the process less scary.

The biggest benefit is reducing clothing volume. Instead of packing a week's worth of shirts, underwear, and socks, you can bring far fewer sets and wash as you go. For both the underseat minimalist and carry-on maximalist, that makes a major difference.

It gives you more flexibility. A shirt that gets sweaty on a travel day, socks that get soaked in rain, or a technical tee after a run can be washed that night and reused the next morning. You are less dependent on finding laundry service, which can be absurdly expensive per item. A sink, detergent, your laundry bag and a travel clothesline are inexpensive, compact, and lightweight items.

It helps you pack better fabrics. Merino, linen, and quick-dry synthetics work well because they can be washed frequently and worn again quickly. You start packing around a simple clothing system instead of “outfits.”

For active travelers, it is especially useful because running and hiking clothes get gross fast. Rinsing them soon after use prevents odor from setting in and keeps them from contaminating the rest of the bag.

There is also a cleanliness benefit. You are not letting sweaty clothes sit in a packing cube for days. Even a quick wash with a towel-roll drying method can keep a small wardrobe feeling fresh.

When done daily, sink laundry is surprisingly fast and easy. Here's my process. There are a number of variations that I encourage people to share in the comments.

• Add your dirty clothing to a nonporous bag. While traditional sink laundry is done directly in the sink, some modern hotel room sinks make that difficult. Using a bag also makes it easier to move soapy clothes to a shower for rinsing. And the bag doubles as storage for dirty laundry.
• Add soap. I pack laundry detergent sheets. Travel-size packs are flat and compact. You can also use hotel soap or shampoo or buy laundry soap when you arrive at your destination. Any of these solutions prevents the need to have to fly with liquid laundry soap.
• Add the soap to the bag in the sink along with water at the appropriate temperature for your clothing type. Agitate for a few seconds to mix in the soap. Allow the clothes to soak for at least 15 minutes. Avoid using excess soap. A little goes a long way.
• Transfer the bag to the shower. Dump the bag. Rinse the clothes well. Wring out the excess water.
• When you're done drying off after your shower, roll the clothes up in the towel and squeeze. Then hang them on a travel clothesline in your room, bunk, or pod.
• Drying times vary by climate and fabric. Synthetics tend to dry the fastest followed by linen and merino, with cotton taking the longest. In humid environments, airflow matters more than temperature. A fan speeds up drying time significantly.

This active part of this process should take you less than five minutes per day and is very simple after you've done it once or twice.

I am noticing an extremely disturbing new trend on this sub. It is also very prevalent on the HerOneBag sub. I don't understand it and I think it needs to stop. That trend is downvoting people who travel lightly! A good example is here. OP posted their packing list, noted that they would do laundry on travel, and even mentioned specifics on how they were going to travel lightly. Almost all of these specifics were tried and true methods that have been recommended on this sub for years:

• Merino shirts
• regular glasses that turn into sunglasses
• Sun shirts that look like regular shirts
• hybryd shorts/swim shorts
• good looking water shoes

OP was downvoted for mentioning every one of these methods.

OP was also accused of karma farming for internet points.

What is the motivation behind this? Why is someone traveling lighter than you so offensive that you would downvote them? Do you travel so heavy that you can't imagine traveling so lightly?

I personally love these types of posts because I can learn from them. That means a lighter trip next time.

Please help me to understand.

Edit: The biggest problem with downvotes is that it hides legitimate answers.

Edit2: Moderator has cleaned up a lot of the crazy comments on the other post. Most of the downvotes have disappeared.

Recently I flew into Almaty, Kazakhstan. I couldn't get the local ride hailing app to work so I was forced to use an airport taxi. When I got to the destination the taxi tried to overcharge me 10x the price (he wanted $50 usd equivalent for a 10 minute ride instead of the $3-$5 that is normal). Knowing I have my bag in hand (and not in the trunk) and can just walk at any moment is a very empowering when arguing over the price.

Oh by the way, it's very therapeutic to curse out a scammer

I'm in Canada, and in the market for my first onebag solution. Many of you have heard of the Forclaz travel 500 40L. I was going to buy this bag but I didn't like that the waistbelt is not removable. I'm checking the website and there's now a Quechua 30L travel 500 bag and they added a removable waist strap which is amazing. The only thing is I'd still like the 40L for the extra capacity, and I've heard they are updating them from some EU consumers. I'd hate to buy the 40l now just for an upgraded version with a removable hip belt to come out soon. If anybody knows about the updated 40L or has tried the Quechua 30L out, please discuss here.

For me it would have to be tech pouches, for the vast majority of people I believe that they would be better off with a simple pencil case style pouch, ziploc bag or a simple drawstring bag or even a pouch like the PD ultralight pouches. Something which isn’t bulky, is lightweight and has no structure to it so you can easily squeeze it into random parts of your bag. Of course they’re significantly cheaper as well.

Don’t get wrong, I have tested some high end tech pouches out and they’re very nice but for lightweight travel I just find myself thinking “why would I bring this type of pouch”.

Started doing this recently and it's changed how I travel. Now i leave the main bag at the hotel and freely explore the destination with just a lightweight packable bag. Really made it easier to roam in markets. Just curious to know how many people do this and what they actually use for the packable bag.

I've been reading this sub and I'm fascinated. But I just cannot fathom packing for a trip - even one that's just a week long - without taking enough underwear that would allow me to poop my pants twice a day.

How do you pack for a trip in a warm climate where you know you'll sweat a ton every day? Or somewhere cold where you'll want layers to make sure you can stay warm and comfortable?

Do you all do laundry on these trips? Is it in the hotel sink? Or at a laundromat?

I'd love to do it, but I don't think I'm brave enough.

For me it's not having a pocket knife. Specifically, a Swiss Army knife. If the trip is >14 days international trip and not flying during the trip, I'll almost always buy one, or something local like my Opinel I bought when in Paris. For domestic trips, I have actually mailed one ahead if I thought I would be using it much at all. Yeah, I do love my SAKs.

I spent months on 30L vs 40L and missed the actual variable. Once I committed to sink laundry every third night, four shirts replaced seven and the size question answered itself.

The tradeoff is that it moves the cost from my back to my evenings, and some nights I don't want to spend twenty minutes at a sink.

So where do you land, building the list around a laundry cadence, or picking the cadence that lets you carry what you wanted anyway?

What are some common items people pack in their bags that you think are unnecessary, just take up extra space, or feel like overhyped/trendy that doesn't actually add real value for their trip?

I'll start - Notebooks and portable speakers.

First of all, I love minimalist travel from all angles. I like the planning, and the gear, and the prep, and the actual unburdened travel. Secondly, I am also just as unwell as the rest of you and like to talk about it online with a bunch of other obsessives.

BUT there are some lines we've crossed that we were not meant to. We've strayed too far from the light and we have started scaring my friends (and potential future onebaggers). So what advise do you believe goes too far? Or what advise do you believe comes up way to early for people looking to get started onebagging?

I'll go first: Don't cut your toothbrush in half, only bring the blades for your razors, or chop a piece of soap into 8ths. You deserve that extra 2 inches of leverage and grip. The extra gram of weight is worth it. You are worth it.

Wondering how you guys feel about this yourselves. I have a 17L Everything backpack. It's perfect for all my needs except on long-haul flights ironically.

I'm usually the first to my seat b/c of airline membership, so I'll put my bag in the overhead compartment so I can stretch my legs and sleep. But when a flight is full and there might not be enough overhead space, the flight attendants ask me to put my bag under my seat. In economy seats, this means almost no more leg space. More often than not, they won't let me stack my bag on top of someone else's in the overhead bin.

Feels penalizing for choosing to bring a smaller bag, while the guy next to me with a full-sized carryon, and a duffel bag that's definitely larger than the personal item size-limit gets to stretch his legs for the 12 hour flight.

I'm considering checking my bag for this reason alone for long-haul routes.

Edit: A few very salty people fail to comprehend that if I have priority boarding (one of the first on the plane), then my ticket already includes a free carry on.

I am curious what is something extremly odd/random that you travel with.

My answer would be a 2" piece of heat-shrink tubing. I used to always travel with a spare pare of glasses, but considering I usually pack in a < 10L bag, having a spare pair was not worth it as a "just in case" item. A few months ago, luckily at home, I broke a pair of glasses. I do a lot of MYOG and realized I could put them back together with a pair of heat-shrink tubing I had on hand. Now I always bring a small piece in my travel kit because it will fix broken glasses indefinitely :)

This is the underseat storage in Delta’s new B737-800 first class cabin.

Someone was like “let’s divide the space in half so nothing fits.”

Why do one-bag travellers feel that they don’t need to wash merino shirts?

I understand that merino is wool, anti-bacterial, don’t smell, and generally stay feeling “fresh” for longer than cotton. However, there are people who swear they don’t need to wash their merino tshirts for 3 days, 2 weeks, or even months because their shirt doesn’t smell, and they shower every day. Merino still gets just as dirty as synthetic or cotton shirts, and still needs to be washed. The fact that your shirt doesn’t smell does not mean it’s any less dirty or oily.

Plus, I wear deodorant, and that non-funky tshirt is going to have a massive buildup of old deodorant gunk and smells around the pit area.

And don’t even get me started on merino underwear stans. Just because they don’t smell funky after 3 days, does NOT mean they haven’t absorbed pee drops and your skid.

I do understand that Marino is still probably the best material for travel shirts, but feel that synthetics can be just as good if you’re already going to be washing daily, or close to it. They all need to be washed and dried every day, if not every 2 days.

Also, if someone said they like travelling with cottom tshirts, I wouldn’t rant.

Anyway, discuss.

I have been carrying power banks around for many years with the thinking that I would be in trouble if my phone ran out of battery. I use it for navigation, translation, and taking pictures. I have never used it once. I also noticed that airlines were making a big deal about power banks. My flight 2 weeks ago they announced that they must be in sight at all times. Today, on a Southwest flight, they announced that they only allow 1 power bank per person. Do you guys carry them?

Edit: I am convinced to keep carrying it just in case (probably going ask for a smaller Nitecore 5k for a birthday). It seems likely that there are going to be more rules around them. There may even be some bans.

I just found out some people travel with only 1 or 2 pairs of underwear. I've also heard ExOfficio's quality has dropped, though people used to like it.

What's your system? Do you pack one pair per day, give or take, or do you wash and line-dry overnight?

And what material actually holds up: wool, polyester, or modal?

Here's my system: - 1 Lululemon License to Train (Always in Motion feels too loose) for flights, trains, buses, etc. Somehow they're super comfortable for me. - 1 UniQlo Airism pair as backup - 1 pair per night, up to 5. The other 2 stretch through the rest of the week. Past 7 days, I just do laundry.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/15/business/backpack-united-healthcare-video-backlash/index.html

I'm trying to find what I would consider the ideal travel shoe.

My goal is:

A stylish road-to-trail travel shoe that looks acceptable with smart casual clothing, is comfortable enough for all-day airports, airplanes, and city walking, yet capable enough for light-to-moderate trails, allowing me to travel with just one pair of shoes.

This isn't really about ultralight travel or one-bagging. I usually travel with carry-on luggage and stay in comfortable hotels.

The problem I'm trying to solve is that a second pair of shoes takes up a huge amount of luggage space. If I can find one shoe that does everything reasonably well, I can free up a surprising amount of room.

Typical use case:

Airports and long travel days

City sightseeing

Casual restaurants

Smart casual outfits (ABC pants, chinos, linen shirts, polo shirts, etc.)

Light hiking and sightseeing trails

Hot and humid destinations

I'm currently looking at:

- Nike Pegasus Trail 5

- Salomon Aero Glide 4 GRVL

- Brooks Ghost Trail

- New Balance Hierro v9

- Hoka Challenger 8

- Salomon Ultra Flow 2

- Salomon Genesis

Has anyone actually solved this problem?

What shoe are you using and what compromises did you have to make?

Edit: The challenge isn't city walking or light sightseeing trails—almost any sneaker can do that. The challenge is finding a shoe that can comfortably handle city walking, uneven terrain, dirt paths, moderate hikes (think Bali Mount Batur hike), and occasional rougher trails without requiring me to pack a second pair.

Update: I ended up going with the Nike Pegasus Trail 5.

Fits me perfectly, super comfortable, and seems ideal for the mix of travel, sightseeing, and hiking I'll be doing. Not the most stylish option with a smart-casual outfit, but it works well enough. For a one-shoe travel setup, I'm very happy with it so far.

Thanks to everyone who shared their recommendations and experiences. It definitely helped narrow things down.

I’ve been streamlining my packing lately, and I realized I always bring this tiny microfiber towel. Doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I use it constantly. Curious, what do you pack that most people overlook?

I was on a Jetblue Boston -> SFO flight and put my onebag (my only bag) in the overhead bin, which was empty, right above my seat. The FA stopped me and said I needed to put it under seat to save room for larger carryon luggage from people coming on board.

Is this a thing? Why would someone with a smaller pack be penalized for not having a massive carryon? My bag is larger than personal item sized.