Two pairs of knickers and a packet of crisps

There are two types of travellers in my eyes…. those that over pack and those that under pack. OK so maybe there are three types and there is a lucky minority who have the ‘just right’ nailed down. I am most definitely in the over packers camp and can only ever dream of sneaking my way in to the just right camp but I’m told its pretty exclusive and takes years of practice to pull it off. In all honesty Id rather be the one taking the full sized suitcase for a weekend away than getting myself in front of the mirror and thinking urgh, gosh that’s awful but….you muppet, you didn’t bring anything else so its this or well…. stay in.

You are probably getting the jist of how travelling is for me. One long stressful journey of packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking and thats the week before I even get anywhere and even then I come home having not worn half of the stuff I took. So imagine my surprise when this week I called one of my clients to hear all about her recent trip to Canada and Alaska. I was eager to hear what she had thought of the cruise since it was her first, but was excited to hear all about their Denali experience and their stay with friends in Vancouver. You will be pleased to know that a wonderful time was had, they will most definitely be cruising again at some point which is fantastic but the part I am still reeling about is just how much luggage they took with them.

Two adults. A 5 night stay in Vancouver, a 10 night 5* Alaska cruise and a 5 night Denali Wilderness stay (with tours). Lets have a guess at how much luggage these guys took. 2 cases, 3, 4 maybe?

They took one piece of HAND LUGGAGE each! For a 3 week trip?!! I’m not even kidding. How on earth did they manage that? She did mention that she takes a little wire line with some travel wash powder and washes clothes in the sink each night so they have clean clothes to wear the following day but they pack two pairs of pants each, a tshirt, one pair of trousers, two thin dresses for her a shirt and trousers for him, a comfy pair of shoes and a pair for evening and some snacks for the journey. I’m still in shock a few weeks after this conversation, truly i am….so what I want to know is, just how many people do this? How light have you managed to travel and was it a success? Or a never again failure?