Travelling with carry-on only
Our flight to London was on Singapore Airlines and was a code share with Air New Zealand so we were limited to 7 kgs for our carry on bag plus a personal item. Liquids are our main restriction so I took the minimum I needed and brought everything else once we arrived. I have a small backpack that I take with me every time we travel and I used this as my personal item for the plane and had my passport, wallet, kindle, travellers notebook, adventure bag, snacks and water in this. I also used this as my day pack.
The backpacks we use are Tatonka Traveller Pack 35. I would recommend doing your own research to find the right bag that works for you. We looked at a lot of different styles and sizes of bags before we decided on those ones. They can expand out to accommodate holiday purchases and the straps tuck away into the back of the bag if you need to check it in which is what we did on a previous trip. We did a test trip to Auckland for the day when we got the bags to make sure that they were fine to put both under the seat and into the overhead locker and they worked a treat.
What I took:
- Black linen pants (wore on the plane)
- Cream linen pants
- Lightweight puffa jacket
- Lightweight raincoat
- socks x 5 pairs (wore one on the plane)
- Bras x 2 (wore one on the plane)
- Undies x 6 (wore one pair on the plane)
- T-shirts x 3
- Compression socks (wore on the plane)
- Laundry bag (we use Macpac stuff sacks)
- Electric toothbrush charger (hubby had the toothbrush)
- Kindle
- Travellers notebook
- Sunglasses
- Seeing eye glasses x 2 pairs
- Wallet
- Passport
- Adventure bag (I take this everywhere with me and contains nail clippers, charging cables, notebook, pen, charcoal pills, headache pills, spork, etc)
- Travel scales (first time we have taken these and they were a game changer)
- Receipt pouch (I keep everything to make a travel journal when I get home, tickets, brochures etc)
- Money (leftover from previous trips)
- Oyster cards for the tube in London
- Uniqlo round mini shoulder bag
- Day backpack
- Chargers
- Umbrella
- Ear pods (didn’t use them so they can stay home next time)
- Paperwork (plane and train tickets, activities etc)
- Toilet bag (deodorant, moisturiser, toothpaste, hairbrush, hair tie, shower cap, toothbrush, floss)
- Packing cubes x 2
I also took a few small gifts for a friend and my sister and a gift for my niece for her 18th birthday so all up I was bang on 7 kilos.
Once we got to London we were on trains for most of the rest of the trip so on our first day there we went to Boots and got our extra toiletries and we also went to Primark and got some extra t-shirts as we needed some new ones anyway.
What I brought:
- T-shirts x 4
- Night moisturiser
- Leg moisturiser
- Mouthwash
- Eye cream
- Foaming face wash
I also discovered that hotels in the UK/Europe don’t supply a flannel in the bathroom so I brought a 3 pack of flannels in Primark. I also got really hot feet in Naples so I brought a pair of jandals which made it all the way home with me.
Because we had so few clothes, we had to do washing every 4 – 5 days. When I was doing the planning for our trip I scoped out the laundromats that were nearest to our hotel and we did washing in just about every place we stayed. It would normally only take about an hour for a wash and dry and cost anywhere from 6 – 10 euros so we would take our kindles or write in our travel journals or I wrote my postcards while we waited. We would normally do washing after dinner as most laundromats were open until at least 11pm if not 24 hours.
Our hotel in Florence has free washing facilities, you just booked the washer and dryer through an app, so I did washing twice when we were there. Our hotel in Tokyo had a laundry on site which was handy as I just popped down and put the washing on then went back to our room while it did it’s thing. Washing powder was supplied at all the places we went to so we didn’t have to cart any around with us.
I gave us an allowance of 1 kg for any souvenirs etc that we wanted to buy and we came in at 970g. We brought magnets, patches and pins and I got some bookmarks and Christmas decorations.
Our carry on allowance for our flight from Rome to Tokyo was 8kg and we were both just under that. What we didn’t use up from our toiletries we left in our hotel in Rome but I did take the night cream and the eye cream with me. I used my Uniqlo bag for my personal item on the plane with my passport, travellers notebook, wallet and kindle in it
We did a bit of shopping in Tokyo but mostly brought stationery and I brought some linen fabric and to keep to our 7 kg allowance for our flight home, I disposed of the three old t-shirts I took with me as I purposefully took old ones for that exact reason.
Everyone I talk to about travelling with carry on only says they could never do it and it’s not for everybody but I encourage you to give it a go at least once, even if you start out small with a weekend away somewhere. We did 3 trips where we went with carry on and brought a bag home (we have a foldable duffle bag that we used twice and once we brought a suitcase) and we have now done 2 trips where we did carry on only and we are converts. It’s such a breeze getting off the plane, going straight through passport control and customs and not having to wait around for your bag. The other bonus is you always have everything with you so no chance of your luggage getting lost.
Happy Travels!
