How to pack a backpack for a month or longer trip 🎒👝

What to pack a backpack for a month or longer trip – all about your luggage 🎒

Traveling for a long time brings you definitely a lot of freedom and fun. But it’s also an organisational big of a deal with regard what to pack in your travel backpack! Wondering what to pack for Thailand, Colombia or any other country? I’ll help you how to pack for a trip!

The backpack(s)

I would recommend traveling with one big backpack and one smaller daypack. The big backpack will contain your clothes, shoes, household items, toiletry and other non-valuable items. Your daypack 📅 will contain your electronic devices, your passport, some extra pair of glasses and/or your sunglasses, a scarf and other valuable and personal items. When traveling by bus or plane, make sure to keep your daypack with you at all times. I have some padlocks at my daypack too, just to be sure. Better safe than sorry in this case. For the big backpack I recommend 55 litres, for the small backpack I recommend 20 to 25 litres. Don’t stash the daypack to the max, it’s always good to leave some space when you take it for a weekend trip or to take a jacket or something (or food😊).

Use a flight bag 🛫👩‍✈️

For the sake of your big backpack, I would recommend using a flight bag. This is a big bag you can put your big backpack in. If you are going to buy one, make sure you can also lock it with a padlock that you can also use on a flight and in (night)busses. The flight bag protects your backpack from getting (very, very) gross – sometimes drivers just onload the bags and put them in a muddy puddle. The bag will also protect against theft, or will at least make your bag look less interesting in comparison to the other backpacks 😊

You don’t need useless stuff 👜

Being away from home this long, I really got less and less materialistic. I don’t think (or thought) of myself as a materialistic person, and I don’t think I really am/was, but the feeling I have to possess things surely minimises. Traveling makes you think about what is really important in life. This definitely is not: stuff. And this also means don’t pack too much

Pack clothes for one to two weeks – research the climate (& altitude!) on forehand 🌞🌤🏔🌄

But back to the topic! What dó you need to pack. Remember this: you pack your clothes for one to two weeks. When going to a warm climate, for example Thailand, this will include at least 7 pairs of underwear, 3 shorts, 1 long pair of pants, 7 t-shirts or tops. Maybe this doesn’t sound like much, but at literally every street corner in Thailand you can have your laundry done! So, make sure not to take too much that you end up don’t using. You will just carry it around for no reason. The laundry women will be your best friends. And if you need some more clothes, just buy it at your backpack destination, you will have great souvenirs and clothes will – in most cases – be much cheaper as in your home country.

Make sure to check the climate of the country ⛱🌦⛅🕶

Rainy season in South East Asia? You might want to pack a raincoat.
Traveling to the mountains in South America? Even in summertime this can be cold! Research the weather of your destination and also take into account the altitude of the place your traveling. For example, La Paz, Bolivia, at a height of 3.600m can be really cold (yes even in ‘summer’). Also cold are for example the tea farms in Tanah Rata, Malaysia, because these are located quite a bit above sea level (1.440 m). When you are traveling to colder climates make sure to take at least one pair of long trousers with you and a warm sweater. Or you can buy an Alpaca sweater when you get to South America 😉 – great souvenir.