Hello everyone,
My partner and I are on a year-long trip. We’re a little over halfway through and I wanted to share our joint packing list and some reflections from our travels.
I also wanted to give a huge thank you to this community and #onebag (cross-posting on there as well). I must have read hundreds of posts before we left and was able to gather such invaluable advice. You’re a huge part of why our travels have been so seamless.
Packing list for a couple
When we started preparing for our trip last summer, I realised that, while there are many great packing list templates out there, the ones I could find were all designed for individual travellers.
Travelling as a couple is different: a lot of our things are shared (toiletries and tech are good examples). I wanted a single spreadsheet that would include both our own items and our shared items, so we could play around distributing the weight fairly.
I ended up building a spreadsheet which I’m sharing here in case it is helpful to other people travelling together: Link to our spreadsheet/packing list on Google Sheets.
How the spreadsheet is set up:
- The spreadsheet has three tabs:
- One master tab (“List of items”) which is the only tab that needs to be entered manually.
- A tab for each traveller (“A” + “B”), each are automatically generated based on the master tab. They include a packing list, three tables summarising the weight in different configurations, and a pie chart showing the total weight distribution.
- The columns of the master tab should be self-explanatory, I’ll just spell out three:
- Carried by: noting who carries which item, A or B, and therefore in which of the two other tabs that item will appear.
- Type: noting which item is personal to one traveler or which is shared between the two travellers.
- Priority: noting items that are either “required” or “optional”. I found having the two options helpful as we were deciding what to take. In the other tabs, there are tables helping to visualise the weights of the bags with and without the optional items.
Any questions or thoughts on the spreadsheet are very welcome. There are probably many ways to streamline it further, but it has worked nicely for us.
Some context to our travel
For those wondering as you go through the packing list, here is what we packed for:
- Travel of approximately one year in the northern hemisphere with anticipated temperatures ranging from -10 degrees Celsius to 30+ Celsius.
- Travel almost exclusively by land and sea (so the 7kg weight limit for carry-on was less relevant to us).
- We left in the Autumn and agreed that we wouldn’t log around heavy winter boots until it was strictly necessary, so we’d buy those on the road.
Our backpacks
Adding a brief note on our backpacks in case it is of interest. After a lot of thinking, we ended up going for the ULA Camino for my partner and the Neo Sambuy for me.
ULA Camino: My partner is very tall with a proportionately long torso. As has been said over and over again in this community, the Camino is a perfect fit for that body type. We ordered it custom in robic. It’s been great altogether, really excellent quality. We’ve enjoyed the expandable capacity too, particularly when we end up carrying food with us.
Neo Sambuy: Less people will have heard about it, so adding the link here. I was going to go for the Patagonia Mini MLC 30L, but I ended up going for the Neo because it is made in the EU and I was ready to pay the higher cost as a result (350€). It’s halfway between the Patagonia Mini MLC 30L and the Black Hole 32L, with an extra pouch underneath that expands for an additional 5L of capacity. Overall, the Neo has worked really well for me although it does have some drawbacks. If people are curious, I’m happy to give a fuller review.
With our backpacks: green and grey ULA Camino on the left and red Neo Sambuy on the right
Reflections
Overall, we have been very happy with what we have brought with us. We spent a lot of time preparing and, as advised over and over again on this sub-Reddit, it’s worth it. For the first few months, we kept turning to one another and saying: “it’s amazing, we really have everything we need”. We’ve also become experts at repacking: when we move, it now takes us less 15 min.
Bag weight: The weights of the bags (8.2kg for me and 12.7kg for him, including water) have felt really comfortable throughout, including when we’ve had to walk for a while with them on our backs.
- My partner isn’t exactly a minimalist packer (e.g., he took more tech than I felt necessary) but a bag hovering around 13kg (including 1L of water) has always felt really doable for him, particularly with a bag of the quality of the Camino. The focus on 7kg may make sense for cabin restrictions, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all, particularly if you’re not flying. Depending on your height, fitness level etc, I think it is perfectly possible to be comfortable with a bag (a bit) in excess of that limit.
- Restocking on solid toiletries (face and body soap, shampoo etc) while travelling has been difficult in the places we’ve been, so in practice it wouldn’t surprise me if we carried an extra ~800g in liquid toiletries between the two of us.
- We’ve recently sent back a lot of our winter things, so we are now a lot lighter than when we set out.
Facing cold temperatures: I had been a little sceptical that combining a merino under-layer, fleece, down jacket, and rain jacket would be enough once we reached properly cold temperatures and heavy snow. Turned out (again), it was excellent advice: even at -10 Celsius, we felt toasty when we properly kitted out. The combination of neck gaiter, woollen hat, and over-mittens on top of merino thin gloves is excellent for extremities. In fact, I rarely wore all my layers, even on the coldest days and I think our kit would have easily carried us through -15 degrees.
Doing laundry: We really adjusted to the rhythm of doing laundry every 4 days or so, mostly in a dry bag and using the burrito towel method afterwards. I thought it would be a bore, but we got in the habit quickly. Laundry sheets are great but have been hard to come by on our travels. Luckily, a friend joined us recently and brought us a fresh supply.
Things we’ve added since we left:
- A comfy outfit for me: I added a simple knee-length merino dress from Dilling to my pack after realising how nice it was to have some comfortable loungewear, including on long trains. As a bonus, it works both as classy PJs and a dressier option.
- Winter boots: We got proper winter boots when we started facing ankle-deep snow regularly. Before that, we were surprised by how long we managed on trail runners with merino socks, even in snow (our feet would get wet but not cold when we kept moving), but at some point we had to upgrade. We actually struggled to find good boots in my partner’s size, so keep that in mind if you have larger than average feet. We strapped our boots to the outside of our bags.
- HDMI cable: We added an HDMI cable to our already quite big tech kit. It’s a bit of a luxury item, but it really is very nice to be able to plug in your laptop to watch a show or a movie on a large screen.
Thoughts on specific items we took
- Packing cubes: I have found having three packing cubes to be optimal. In practice, I typically have one cube holding the more rarely-used items (e.g, swimsuit, neck gaiter, down jacket, thick socks etc.), one with dirty clothes, and one with clean clothes.
- Dilling merino: All the Dilling merino clothing has been of excellent quality and also look very flattering. It’s nice not to feel like a slob when traveling (semi) long-term. It felt expensive at first but I am very happy we took the plunge. The only issue has been with their merino socks. They’re business socks and not meant for sustained use and a lot of walking. I’ve replaced mine with some Decathlon merino active socks which have been great.
- A soap tin: I’ve really liked having a (light but slightly bulky) soap tin. It’s so useful when you have multiple solid soaps for body, hair etc. The one we have has an insert which lets you drain away the liquid. I got us two matador soap bar cases because everyone vouched for them, but I’ve found having a tin much more convenient in bathrooms, particularly when you have multiple solid soaps for hair and body.
- My undying love for Decathlon: Decathlon really is great, so cheap and such incredible quality for the cost. I’ve loved their trekking-travel organiser wallet with the hip belt, it’s so comfortable, has loads of well-thoughts pockets and features.
- Vivobarefoot trail runners: We have been wearing Vivobarefoot shoes for several years now and, like many, I feel like the quality has been going down. My partner’s shoes started to come undone at the seam just a couple of months after purchase and mine now also have a hole. I won’t be repurchasing and we’ll try Altra shoes next.
- Merino tights: I ended up going for Merino woollen tights rather than merino leggings for an under-layer. For the most part, this was a very comfortable choice but predictably the tights are less durable and have started showing signs of strain around the hips. If you’re like me and are between two sizes, my advice is to take the bigger size, you’ll likely be able to use them longer.
- Lululemon Daydrift trousers: These have been amazing. They are comfy and look great (I’ve had loads of compliments, which is nice when you’ve been on the move for a while) and importantly they don’t wrinkle and keep fresh forever (particularly compared to the Uniqlo trousers).
- Sandals: We didn’t use the sandals much in the winter, predictably. We could have left them at home and bought some later nearer to summer. But it has still been very nice to have them when facing grubby showers or night trains, so no regrets there.
Very happy to answer any questions on what we’ve been carrying or takeaways.
I’m grateful to this community for all the advice and support!
