Travel Packing List: What I Actually Pack (and What I Stopped Carrying)
Everything here has survived years of cabin-baggage-only travel. The more useful half of the list is the gear that didn't.
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Packing lists tend to be written by people trying to sell you everything. This one works the other way round. I travel for a living, I don't check luggage, and the list below has been shrinking for years. What's left is the kit that earns its place on every trip - and a section on the expensive gear I stopped carrying, which is where most of the useful lessons are.
The system is two bags: a small backpack that does double duty as hand luggage and my everyday bag, and one cabin bag. No checked luggage. If a trip can't fit in that, I repack until it can.
The Bags
My everyday backpack is the Osprey Daylite. It goes under the seat in front, and once I land it becomes the daily bag - I repack it each morning with whatever that day needs. It's light, it's plain enough not to attract attention, and it has taken years of abuse without complaint.
The cabin bag changes with the airline, because weight limits change with the airline. I rotate between three:
The Osprey Porter 46 when I need to carry the bag long distances. It's a backpack that packs like a case.
A Tumi carry-on for city trips on public transport. A backpack gets heavy fast in a hot climate; wheels on a metro and a flat pavement are worth more than any amount of harness padding. Of the three, the Tumi gives me the best value for how I actually use it.
A Level8 aluminium carry-on when the airline is generous with cabin weight. I reviewed the Level8 Gibraltar after a proper testing, if you want the detail.
Check the cabin allowance before you decide which to bring, not at the gate. Ten kilos carries very differently in a hard case than on your back.
The Tech
I work on the road, so the laptop question matters. For years that meant a 16-inch MacBook Pro, and it was simply too heavy - it also doesn't fit the Daylite well, which meant carrying a bigger bag to serve the laptop - the wrong way round. I switched to the MacBook Neo this year: 13 inches, nearly a kilo lighter, and it handles writing, email and the site without breaking stride. The Pro stays home for the heavy editing.
Cables: only what the trip needs, and never the cheap ones. A bargain USB-C cable that charges but won't carry data is useless the day you need to pull footage off a camera. I carry proper USB-C data cables and nothing else.
Cameras - three, all small:
The DJI Osmo 360 for immersive shots, a GoPro - mine is a HERO 11, several generations old now, and still doing the job - and the DJI Osmo Nano, which weighs about as much as a chocolate bar and clips wherever I need it.
For sound, the DJI Mic 2 travels on every trip. If a trip involves recording a lot of voiceovers, the Rode NT-USB Mini comes too - otherwise it stays home.
What I Stopped Carrying
This section is the one I wish other packing lists had.
The full-frame camera and lenses. I carried a Sony body and a heavy wide angle lens for years. The photographs were better, but the trips were worse for hauling it. The three small cameras above cover everything I publish, and my shoulders have forgiven me.
The drone. I have a DJI Mini 3 Pro and it mostly stays home. Some countries ban drones outright or require permits you won't get as a visitor. Cruise ships confiscate them at security and hand them back on the last day, so it spends the voyage in a locker either way. In my experience it's a liability that takes the occasional lovely photograph. If your trip genuinely justifies one, I'd buy the DJI Mini 4 Pro in the US, or the Mini 5 Pro elsewhere.
Clothes: Pack One Season
The clothing rule that shrank my bag more than any gear decision: travel in one season if you can. My preference is late spring weather, and I plan routes around it. One season means one set of layers.
The list:
Uniqlo tee shirts. I pick these up when I can, they wash well and get more comfortable with age. If you're not near a Uniqlo, a similar option is a Carhartt K87 - a plain, heavyweight cotton tee that survives hotel laundries.
Nike workout gear - dries overnight, doubles as a backup outfit on laundry day.
Merino for travel days. A merino tee for the flight itself, and a thin merino long sleeve in the backpack for when the plane gets cold. Merino stays fresh over a long day of airports in a way cotton doesn't, and the long sleeve weighs next to nothing.
Swim kit, always. Separate swim shorts - not the do-everything shorts, which are always wet when you want them dry - a decent swimming hat and proper goggles. Hotel pools and lidos are, for me, the best free thing in travel.
The Small Stuff That Gets Used
None of it is glamorous, but all of it comes out of the bag on every trip.
Electrolytes - always in the bag. Long flights, hot cities and the odd late night all end better with them.
A small first aid kit and antibac. Plasters and painkillers at 11pm in a country where you can't read the pharmacy signage - that's what this is for.
Packing cubes and small pouches. I own a ridiculous number of pouches, because I like things classified: cables in one, adapters in another, receipts in a third. Repacking the Daylite each morning takes two minutes because everything already lives somewhere.
A cheap second wallet. In a sketchy area, that's the wallet that comes out - a day's cash and one expendable card. The real one stays buried in the bag.
A light rain jacket. Mine is by Under Armour, and I have a Patagonia as well. Packs to nothing, and the late-spring rule means it's usually the only outerwear on the trip.
A few additions worth considering that aren't in my core kit but are worth it for plenty of travellers: a universal adapter if your kit isn't all USB-C yet, a power bank (keep it in hand luggage - airlines require it there), an AirTag for the cabin bag on the days it does get gate-checked, laundry detergent sheets for sink washes that make the one-season wardrobe stretch, and a decent eye mask and earplugs for the flights where sleep is the plan.
The Holiday Packing List Version
If this is a one-destination beach or resort week rather than a moving trip, the same list gets shorter, not different. Drop the cabin-bag decision - take whichever bag you own - keep the swim kit, the one-season wardrobe and the small stuff, and add nothing. A holiday packing list goes wrong when you add things: the extra shoes, the fourth pair of shorts, the just-in-case jumper. Everything above fits a resort week with room left for whatever you buy there.
Cruising Instead?
Ships are their own packing problem - dress codes, sea days, and the drone rule above applies to every major line. I keep a separate cruise packing list for exactly that trip.