One of his biggest tips is packing light. In fact, one of the requirements for taking a tour with his company is that you can only take one 9"x22"x14" (or smaller) bag that weighs less than 20 pounds. Yes this applies to both men and women. Increased mobility, less hassle when taking trains, and accommodating for "European sized spaces" such as car trunks are among many benefits. Here's a good read is from his website that also specifies a packing list.
Basically, for clothes the packing list calls for:
- 5 shirts (S/S + L/S)
- 1 sweater
- 2 pants
- 1 pair of shorts
- 1 swimsuit
- 5 sets of underwear and socks
- 1 set of pajamas
- 1 pair of shoes
- 1 jacket
- 1 tie or scarf
Yes this does sound extreme and suggests doing a little bit of laundry more frequently and your wardrobe consisting of wrinkle free, quick dry clothes. But even Rick can go too far IMO sometimes and even barbaric: "...my body dries out a damp pair of socks or a shirt in a jiffy." Um... nasty.
Our mission? For me and Siew to follow this packing list as closely as possible with some exceptions since we have a toddler and an infant. We will only bring two main bags [1 - MEC backpack; 1 - medium duffel bag;], a camera bag, and a small daypack.
So how did we do? Here are the results versus Rick Steves:
| Item | Rick | Victor | Siew |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shirts | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| Sweaters | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Pants | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Shorts | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Swimsuit | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Underwear | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Socks | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| PJs | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Shoes | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Jacket | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Tie/Scarf | 1 | 0 | 0 |
BTW - we did manage to fit everything in those bags with space to spare for gifts for relatives, a pack of diapers for the little guy, and all our electronics (Netbook, D5100 w/ 18-200mm(3.5-5.6) and 55(1.4), SB-600, GPS, 3 unlocked phones, camcorder, external HDD, iTouch, & chargers for everything).
