Packing list for long-term travel

Our Packing List for Long-Term Travel: A complete checklist

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We were super excited about our 6-month world trip to Europe and Latin America before we left. However, we were not at all excited about the packing and luggage aspects of the trip. Is anyone ever? This is especially true for this trip because it was a 6-month trip in which clothes were needed not only for various climates but also for various types of terrain and activities.

So if you ever wish to travel for more than a month or so, we’ve made this mammoth task preparing a packing list for long-term travel a bit easier for you.

In this blog post, we will discuss all that we considered for our luggage and clothing, along with what exactly we ended up packing. We have linked to some items as well so you can find them easily. Plus, we have also mentioned the things we packed for the trip that we never ended up using so you can make an informed decision to carry them or not.


Luggage for the world-trip

While it is best to carry a carryon-sized backpack for your trip so you can be as mobile as possible and not have your luggage weigh you down and cost you money on. We used rucksacks for several trips, after which we realised rucksacks do not work for our 32-year-old backs so we chose to use a suitcase. However, if you can carry a backpack, then this cute Cotopaxi bag a great option. We saw several people on long trips carrying it- makes for a great carry on only option.

One medium-sized suitcase

We did a lot of hit-and-trial over the years to decide what luggage worked best for us. Our luggage of choice became two cabin-sized suitcases (55 cm) that weigh around 10 kg each when filled. That’s what we’ve done for the past few trips because cabin-sized luggage allows us to be very mobile. However, we do not carry these with us in the flight cabin owing to our camera equipment and laptop bags.

So while planning for this RTW trip, we initially thought of carrying two cabin-sized suitcases, which would be a little bigger than usual at about 59 cm each.But we soon realised that since check-in luggage doesn’t come complimentary with a flight seat in other parts of the world, this wouldn’t work. Checking in two pieces of luggage on this trip would mean that we would have to pay for two checked-in suitcases on each flight. This would add a significant amount to our flight costs because we were taking over 15 flights.

So we decided to go with one medium-sized suitcase instead. Now, we not only had to pack in one suitcase for both of us, but we also had to ensure that the weight of the luggage didn’t exceed 20 kg (which is the limit on some buses and flights). Can you even imagine packing this light? Just about 10 kg of luggage per person for a 6-month trip.

After a lot of hits and trials, we were finally able to pack our suitcase. We ended up purchasing a 71 cm Samsonite Softcase that weighs only 2.5 kg as opposed to the general medium suitcase weight of 3–4 kg. The packed suitcase weighed 22 kg.

And now that we’re back from the trip, I can safely say that this worked super well. On the flights and buses that wanted that we have only 20 kg of luggage, we simply wore our heavier clothes and stuffed things in our pockets and our backpacks.

Our luggage for our long-term travel

Two backpacks

Additionally, we were carrying two backpacks between the two of us for this 6-month trip:

  1. A camera backpack: We had the LowePro Tahoe, which we’ve used for years and absolutely loved, especially because it was completely waterproof without even putting on a rain cover. For this 6-month trip, we need a slightly bigger bag, which could also fit a laptop. So we purchased the Lowepro Photo Active BP 200 AW. We like it because we could access our camera, drone, and lenses easily from the sides of the bag. Plus, we could attach our hiking sticks to the front.
  2. A laptop bag: Used the CarryPro HOBO25 for this trip. It fit both our laptops, the Macbook 13 Pro and Macbook Air, like a glove. We removed the side access camera cubes because they were too heavy and instead used that space to store easy-access items. It was a huge bag that fit A LOT.
    Edit: This tore terribly during the trip. We had to duct tape it to survive! We also realised that carrying just one laptop on the trip would’ve been enough.

Personal item

I also carried a personal item—an anti-theft sling & backpack! Funny thing, my entire ANTI THEFT backpack got stolen in Paris (the irony!!) so I ended up purchasing a UNIQLO shoulder bag and a backpack from a local shop in Peru for hiking. The personal item was so helpful for shoving the small but heavy items in last minute to reduce backpack weight/size if it was ever needed.


Picking Long-Term Travel Clothing

Us in Dubrovnik
Us in Venice during our 6-month trip

It might not be possible to fit all the contents of this packing list for long-term travel in a medium-sized suitcase without following some of the tips below. These tips not only aid in packing light but also make your life on the road easier. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; they’re not always easy to follow. We follow as many as possible and break a few along the way 😛

  1. Carry clothes that dry fast and don’t need ironing. This essentially means polyester or similar materials. I know we all like to stay away from polyester because it’s neither very breathable nor sustainable but it’ll be your best friend on such a long trip where you need your clothes to dry in the AC of hotel rooms or even in an Airbnb. Often, you won’t find an iron or won’t have the time to iron so wrinkle-resistant clothing is best!

  2. Lightweight clothing: We always try to carry items that aren’t bulky and heavy. For this trip, it’s became a dire need and this is what we focused on for most of our clothing: the weight. Carrying lightweight clothing allowed us to pack more pieces of clothing than we thought we could.
    Unfortunately, most clothes I ended up carrying were not made of polyester but of viscose, a light, flowy material that does crush. However, it’s not as bad as cotton or linen, which I tried to avoid as much as possible but Modi didn’t have as much of an option. His shirts and pants ended up being made of cotton, mostly though he did chance upon some really nice crepe shirts at the last moment, which do not crush, dry fast, and are lightweight.

  3. Merino Wool: Merino wool is thermoregulating; it keeps you cool or warm depending on the weather. It does feel a bit itchy at first but settles down soon enough. It is ultra-lightweight and since it keeps odour away, one can wear merino clothing again and again without the need to wash it. Both of us were carrying Merino t-shirts for hikes and regular wear. We found Merino clothing in Decathlon and M&S.

  4. Versatile Items: It’s very important to take clothes/items that can double up as different things E.g.
    My daypack doubled as a sling
    My stole/scarf doubled as a blanket.
    Our nightwear doubled as hiking/workout wear
    Our t-shirts (merino) could be worn in any climate

  5. Pack Similar Colours: Pack tops and bottoms that all go with each other so you can mix and match clothing. I like wearing colourful bottoms and hence have carried mostly black and white tops so that the tops go with all the bottoms. You could also carry accessories like belt, scarves, etc. to give multiple looks to a single piece of clothing.

Our Packing List for Long-term Travel

Items we packed in our suitcase for 6 months of travel
Items we packed in our suitcase

This packing list for a long-term trip has details of all the items we packed along with links to them wherever they are available so you can buy them too if you’d like.

Clothes for him

Modi’s clothes are mostly purchased from the brands Blue Island, Snitch and Decathlon. Blue Island has stain-resistant clothing, Snitch has crepe shirts that don’t wrinkle and Decathlon has very functional clothing.

  • 7 shirts: 1 red wrinkle-resistant | 1 blue wrinkle-resistant | 1 half-sleeve beachy | 4 cotton shirts
  • 3 t-shirts: 3 Uniqlo t-shirts that double as casual, workout, and nightwear. These are really light-weight, quick-drying, and wrinkle-resistant
  • 3 trousers
  • 3 shorts
  • 2 Hiking t-shirts: 1 half-sleeve and 1 full-sleeve merino He never wore these and instead simply wore his Uniqlo t-shirts
  • 2 hiking bottoms
  • 2 night suit shorts (they can double as hiking wear as well)
  • 2 swimming trunks
  • 7 underwear
  • Socks: 7 pairs of no-show socks, 2 pair of hiking/warm socks
  • 1 microfibre towel
  • 1 Northface Rain jacket
  • 1 Down Jacket
  • 1 Fleece (we wore this on the flight)
  • 1 Set of Thermals from Uniqlo
  • 1 Belt

Shoes (for him)

Clothes for her

Me wearing comfortable pants and tees for active days and adventures
Carried lots of comfortable pants and tees for adventures
Me wearing a dresses and nicer top for exploring cities
Dresses, skirts and nicer tops for exploring cities

Typically, one doesn’t need as many clothes as I carried for this trip. If I wasn’t a content creator, I would definitely not have packed as many items. I might’ve carried fewer skirts and dresses. But that’s totally up to you. We have just one rule while packing clothing: all our daily wear should fit in one medium-sized packing cube. So basically, all the skirts, dresses, pants, shorts and tops listed below did fit in one medium packing cube except one yellow flowy full-length skirt, which was actually only for photography purposes.

  • 3 dresses: 2 mini and 1 midi dress
  • 3 skirts: 1 red midi skirt |1 white maxi skirt | 1 orange midi ( carried an extra flowy yellow maxi skirt for photos)
  • 3 pants: loose fitting pants
  • 3 shorts
  • 14 Tops: 4 half-sleeve | 2 off-shoulder |1 dressy top | 5 sleeveless tanks | 1 white shirt | 1 pink overlay
  • 2 Merino Hiking Tops
  • 2 Hiking Bottoms: 1 comfy legging (can double as travel wear), 1 trek legging
  • 1 Night Suit: 1 bottom, 2 tops (that double as workout wear)
  • Swimwear: 2 sets
  • Bras: 1 sports bra|1 regular |1 strapless | 1 no-show sports bra
  • Underwear: 7 panties (I also carried 2 shorties because of thigh chafing)
  • Socks: 7 pairs of no-show socks, 1 regular, 2 hiking socks (merino)
  • 1 microfibre towel
  • 1 Rain jacket
  • 1 Down Jacket
  • 1 Fleece (wore this on this flight)
  • 1 Set of Thermals: Top | Bottom
  • 1 Shawl cum Scarf (only because I feel extra cold I carried this with me on the flight and often used it as a blanket)
  • 2 caps: 1 warm beanie , 1 baseball cap
  • 1 pair of gloves
  • 1 belt

clothes for hiking on our 6-month world trip
Can’t do without a rain and wind jacket on big trip
couple wearing winter clothes in Iceland on a long-term trip
In our trusty Uniqlo down jackets


Shoes for her


Sanitary & Hygiene Items for Her

I see hair removal as a huge issue while abroad and have set myself up to be self-reliant, hence packing a million things. You could easily do with just menstrual cups and an epilator/wax strips/razor.

  • 6 Pads: For heavy flow days. I wish I could use menstrual cups or tampons but I find neither comfortable.
  • 2 Uniqlo Period Panties: For day 2 onwards
  • Epilator cum Razor: To get rid of my arm and leg hair
  • Face Razor: Lipstick size razor I go nowhere without
  • Wax Strips: For underarms only (I used the wax strips a few times and found it so painful that I stopped using them)
  • Upper Lip Hair Removal Spring: For upper lip hair
  • Tweezer: For eyebrow hair
  • 2 Nipple Pasties: 1 with support and 1 without
  • 2 Transparent Straps
  • Safety Pins
  • Sewing Kit – Thread and Needle
  • Rubber bands and clips


Make-up for her

I rarely use makeup on trips. However, I’ve still carried some so that if I’d like to look nice someday, I have the option!


Toiletries for both of us

All toiletries we kept were 80 ml or below (mostly 50-60 ml). We either carried travel-sized products or filled them in 60 ml refillable bottles. During the trip, we refilled quite a few of these items.

Medicines

We’ve carried a few basic medicines so that, in case anything happens, we are prepared.

  • Paracetamol
  • Asprin/Disprin for headaches
  • Diarrhoea medicine like Lorapet
  • Emeset/Dramamine if you have motion sickness
  • For stomach gas and acidity, like Pudin Hara
  • For period cramps: Meftal
  • An anti-histamine for allergies: Allegra-M
  • A disinfectant for wounds: Neosporin
  • Bandaid
  • A hydrocortisone medicine for reliving itching skin
  • A reliever for sore muscles like Volini
  • Personal Meds
  • Thermometer

Check out this video of how we packed all these items our suitcase.


Gadgets

Being content creators, we carried a full bag of gadgets. I have listed these below, along with some travel essentials. We packed most of these gadgets in our backpacks.

  • 2 MacBooks, 1 charger : One laptop would’ve been enough for the both of us
  • Cell Phones + chargers
  • Extra basic phone for our home country sim cards
  • Camera
  • 3 Lenses: Tamron 17-28 mm, Sony 50 mm, and Tamron 70-300 mm
  • Tripod
  • Go Pro Creator Kit
  • Go Pro Accessories: Floatie, Underwater Housing
  • Drone + Remote Controller + Extra Batteries + Charger + Extra Propellers
  • Mic
  • Selfie Stick and Tripod
  • Gimbal Rarely used this
  • Universal Power Adaptor
  • Power Strip
  • 2 earphones
  • 2 Hard Disks of 2 TB each
  • 4 SD Cards
  • Rechargeable AA Batteries + Charger
  • 2 Power Banks


Travel Essentials

Our travel essentials were also packed mostly in our backpack (carry on) or sling bag (personal item).


Important Documents

It is impossible to travel without these essential travel documents for international travel.

  • Passports, Old and New (+ xerox copy of passport)
  • e-Visa printouts
  • Travel Insurance
  • Yellow Fever Vaccine: We needed this for Latin America
  • Driving Licence
  • International Driving Permits (IDP): An international driving permit is basically your driving license converted to different languages. It is used in conjunction with a Driving licence, as it is not a licence in itself. I’ve got my IDP from the Pune RTO. It was a headache because the RTO people didn’t check the forms properly on submission and made me return to the RTO 2 more times. Modi’s got his from International Driver’s Association because the Kolkata RTO wanted him to give a Driving Test and he had limited time. It is more expensive but definitely more convenient. Also, it is granted for 3 years as opposed to the Indian one, which is valid for 1 year.
  • 2 Forex Cards: BookMyForex (multi-currency card) and Thomas Cook (one-currency card) The Thomas cook card was our biggest mistake. It is simply not meant for such a long trip because they don’t even have a website or app to refill the card.
  • Currency

Phew! All that stuff has filled up our luggage to the brim. We had a teeny bit of space for souvenirs and a bit of shopping too and we found the amount of stuff we’d carried enough and much needed for our 6-month around-the-world trip.

I hope you found the packing list for long-term travel helpful. If you have any questions, do drop them in the comments section below 🙂

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