Nine Things NOT to Pack for Your RTW
1: Luggage Locks
Worried about valuables being nicked while you sleep? Why not stick a small metal sign on your pack saying: “Expensive stuff in here”? It’s not like these thieves have knives, right?
Alternatively, put the stuff you can’t afford to lose (passports, cash, card, electronics) in a daypack and use it as a head-rest. Let’s face it. It’s unlikely anyone’s going to want your clothes.
2: Mosquito Net
Newsflash! It’s not just you who knows there’s mosquitoes where you’re going. The guesthouse owners do too. No net in the room? Ask at the desk. Trekking? Most trek organizers will rent or include equipment, including mosquito protection.
Essentially, don’t buy a net unless and until you KNOW you will need one, and what kind you’ll need. (No point carrying a double-bed net if you really need a single-hammock net. Or an all-in-one hammock-net combo…)
3: Rollbags
You need to compress stuff down to fit it in your pack? You’re carrying too much stuff. Oh, yeah, and the rollbag will suck (or rather, cease to suck) inside a month. Guaranteed.
4: Antibacterial Wipes/Cleaners/Whatever
The single easiest way to kill your immune system. Which works, of course, by meeting small doses of local bacteria and getting used to them. It’s too much hygiene, not too little, which makes travelers get sick the second they hit a wet lettuce leaf or a chunk of Thai street meat.
5: Antibiotic Creams
Another great way to screw up your immune system. To avoid infection, clean cuts thoroughly, disinfect with alcohol and/or iodine, cover during the day and allow to breathe at night. This should kill any bug going without – and here’s the clever part – compromising your immune system.
6: Water Filtration Systems
A great idea in principle. In practice? You end up buying water anyway, because you want the cold stuff, you didn’t get the system set up in time or, basically, you just ran out. In most major cities and resort areas around the world, tap water is chemically treated. In places where it’s not, you can generally fill up with boiled in restaurants and guesthouses. If, for whatever reason, you’re drinking unboiled water from a questionable source, iodine’s a last ditch solution.
7: Travel Towels
Sarongs are larger, dry quicker, fold up smaller and are infinitely easier to wash. Plus they double as topsheets, cover-ups, turf markers… Need the cold-climate comfort of a towel? Pack a fluffy one.
8: Travel Underwear
This stuff exists. Seriously, WTF?
9: Hiking Poles, or Anything Hiking-Branded
Where to begin?! Get a stick if you need one. It’s free, organic, biodegradable, and you don’t have to take it with you. This advice, incidentally, applies to almost anything with “hiking” in the title, with the debatable exception of hiking boots — bring only if you’re a serious hiker, already own a pair and intend to do weeks of serious trekking.
Legal Blah: This does not, blah, constitute, blah, advice and is no, blah, substitute for your own, blah, common sense.
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You beat me to it – I’ve had a similar post written for months and never got around to finishing it! Damn you woman, the Christmas beers are officially off!
(ps great post. Travel towels… never needed them. Mosquito nets… like there’s ever anywhere to hang then that doesn’t involve 10m of extra rope and putting nails in a hostel wall… which they don’t take too kindly too funnily enough)
this makes me laugh! i think you forgot the money belt and fanny pack?
I wasn’t entirely sure on the moneybelt. You see… I haven’t used mine. I don’t think I will. But I’m still clinging onto it, tragically.
pmsl…Travel Underwear…still exists! I never knew it existed in the first place.
why would someone get a hiking pole?
I have seen it, believe it or not. Though, to be fair, it’s normally called a “trekking stick”. Why anyone would buy a hiking pole for anything beats me, to be honest.
Nice list, but I don’t agree with point one. I think it’s good to have a lock. But one, which isn’t so obvious… 🙂 Mine is black, just like my backpack.
Lock against thieves on trains? Or lock against baggage handlers? I have to say, the only person who’s damaged our possessions is us (quite regularly)… I do see the point of getting a non-obvious one, though.
It all comes down to using common sense. If you are a traveler you should have it, otherwise, the road will show it to you.
As one still carrying 17kg of stuff, mainly books, I’m in favour of having as little as possible.
I was about to disagree with you about the mosquito net but you added caveat that you should only bring one if you “know” they won’t have them at your travel destination. Not sure why, but we couldn’t find any in Central America, so – if you’re headed there, be sure to bring one!
I was recently at the travel store and saw these small steel-mesh wallets that have a metal rope and lock; you can put your wallet/passport into the wallet, zip it up, run the cable through the bed post or other “secure” item in the room and lock up your important stuff. As the wallet is reinforced with steel fiber, it can’t be cut with a knife. As for my wallet and passport, I usually run a shoe string through them, tie it to my foot, and drop it to the bottom of my sleeping bag; good luck stealing that off my leg!
I had a real struggle finding one in Ternate, for that matter: I think locals tend to rely on fans and coils, rather than using mozzie nets themselves. That’s an impressive tip with the wallet… Ironically, I am now wishing I had a travel plug. Though, given this is the first time I’ve wanted said item in nine months, I’d have chucked it out of the pack if I had carried one anyway.
Hiking poles are good for one thing – my mother-in-law was using one as a collapsable walking stick, she loved it. And looks a bit cooler than a usual walking stick!
Yes! My mother has knee problems, and the doc recommended hiking poles for walking. I would agree wholeheartedly that they do have their uses…
LOVE IT–Spot on!! So true about the travel towels, but not realistic to carry a ‘big fluffy one’ either–takes up too much space and too hard to hand wash!! sarong all the way! we WERE considering lugging the mozzie net with us as last time in india we did end up using it quite a bit (that’s where we ended up buying one), but will have to see if there’s room! as for the money belt–i think that depends on where you are going. major cities in europe, it was definitely a MUST given all those sneaky fingers! Asia, not at all.
Ah, the old moneybelt. I’ve never used one in Europe, even Naples: just have my wallet in the bottom of a bag which I always have an arm over on public transport etc, and that has served me well. Think I did use one once in Johannesburg, years ago… Just bought two fab sarongs in Bali to replace the two we’ve just lost…
Love the list and sarongs are the best, even my 7 year old loves using one. We take 2 or 3 with us when we travel as well as a cheapo big scarf to keep warm on those budget airline flights
Great advice! Personally, though, I love my travel towel — I have long hair that takes forever to dry, so it really helps to be able to suck a lot of water out of it quickly. Can’t imagine trying to do that with a sarong!
I’d never thought of that! So you’d rather travel with a wet towel than wet hair?
– I think of travel underwear as the quick dry stuff.
– For the lock I used one on the over night trains in China. It would prevent someone from taking the bag. It was just a cable with a combo would not have prevented someone from going through the bag just running off with it. I feel just being a western marks you as someone that has more then most people in world
– I used the SteriPen when traveling and worked well till my son dropped it. Would try it again. Seeing all the empty plastic bottles all over India makes you want to help out.
– I have to say I use a money belt whenever I travel because I HATE to find ATMs so I generally exchange at a bank enough to carry me through for a month.
I use the carrying straps to attach bags to things when we’re on trains at night. For precisely that reason: just to stop someone grabbing it while we sleep. It’s worked so far…
Interesting to hear the SteriPen worked for you. We actually drink quite a lot of tap water. How far did he drop it from?
I like to change a lot of money, too, but I tend to leave some concealed in different parts of my baggage, rather than all on my person…
I loved this.
I was considering taking disinfectant, be it a small bottle, and maybe acquiring a net at some point, but will gladly not carry them. Thank you.
The sarong idea I am stealing with both hands, sorry.
Do it! Sarongs are wonderful things…
I did use traveling underwear…I found it to be quick dry and long lasting…5 pairs for the whole year…yep, cleanliness standards definitely change when you’re on the road!
Used a steripen too…until India. I just didn’t even trust it to clean the water there…all in my head I know but it’s there that we gave up.
Great list though!!
Cheers,
Gillian
Steripen is a good tip. And, wow, five pairs for a whole year. That’s kinda impressive. We’re up to eleven months and only two pairs that I started with still on the road.
On Travel Undies.. two words: Quick Dry. 😀 Southeast Asians love their water festivals and I love dry underwear.
Ah! Now, having a tendency to sluttishness, most of mine’s quite aggressively synthetic, ergo quick-dry anyway. But, yes, I can now see the point. For the chaps. And the ladies, too.
Great suggestions. I don’t know if you can get colloidal silver anywhere but NZ, but it is an all natural cream and brilliant for healing – skin leisons, infections. tinea – a miracle cream and not antibiotic. My stepMum healed an ulcer with it and it has cured my tinea which has driven me nuts for years and is worse in hot climates.
Instead of locks on my bags I have used bag ties – the long, plastic covered wire ones. If you wrap them round and round and round, opportunists wont be able to get in. They can be cut, but any bags can get cut anyway. They’ve worked for me so far.
If I’m not going on a long trip I take a couple of very old. thin towels that I can discard when they get too manky.
Thanks for the tip, Robyn. I’ve only come across colloidal silver as an ingredient in a fancy cocktail — the raw stuff, not the cream. So I’ll keep an eye out for it, as iodine and alcohol are fairly nuclear options when it comes to cuts.
lol, great post. A lot of truth in here. You can buy almost anything anywhere so if you really do need it, you can buy it on your travels and enrich the local economy in your own small way. I would agree with the people who mentioned the steripen though. I have used it throughout West Africa and it’s a snap to treat a liter of water. With rechargeable batteries you get a lot out of each charge too. Saves money, no plastic waste, and no chemical taste in the water.
Does it work on (eg) river water? Or would you need to boil that? Much of the tap water in Asian cities is safe to drink — or bug-free but so heavily chlorinated it tastes absolutely vile — so we’ve ended up buying more mineral water bottles than we should do.
You have a cool list of Not to Pack! I will keep that in mind.
Yeah, dude, I’m sure all this stuff works for you, but you don’t need to be such an a-hole about it just because other people might find it useful. I don’t understand why people in the travel blog community have to be so goddamn judgmental.
Yeah, sometimes it’s nice to have a towel instead of a thin sarong, and the travel ones dry faster — just like the undies.
As for the rollbags, I have plenty of room in my bag, but I like to roll up my warm sweater in one anyway — and it’s going on four months now. GUARANTEED.
Err, OK… I’m struggling to see the judgement in this piece. Whereas, of course, calling someone you’ve never met an asshole because you differ with their views on packing isn’t judgmental in the slightest…
Whatevs. Glad your rollbag rocks your world. Happy camping.
Hilarious! I agree with most things on this list, except for the travel towel… I adore mine, and I’m so glad I chose to take it over a normal towel!
We had one. Found it impossible to get clean or, for that matter, dry. And now prefer sarongs, which dry MUCH faster. Whether we will find that the case in Beijing in (brrrr….) October, I don’t know…
I gave in and bought two travel towels recently, I agree about the Sarongs but Border’s is going out of business and they were less than a dollar each, which compared to over $10 was worth it. I’ll at least use it on my cross country bicycle ride. As for the rest of the stuff…thanks for the tips I’m forming my list now, and there are a million lists out there of what to bring but not too many like this with a practical look at what you don’t need.
I’m thinking of doing another one, to be honest. The longer you travel, the more you realise that you don’t actually need anything technical AT ALL…
Excellent post! I wholeheartedly agree, sp on the luggage locks. Every time I used them they were broken by lovely Homeland Security, so no point! =P RT’d it!
Seriously?????? I didn’t know Homeland Security went that far. Thanks for the RT!
Surprising, really – how little one actually needs of special things when travelling.
It is amazing, isn’t it. Given the huge industry around selling them to us…
Love the emphasis on building your own immunity and ditching the excessive antibiotics and antibacterials.
Yes to the sarong. Been traveling with them since I bought my first one in Hawaii at age 13. Can’t beat the versatility.
Thanks for the no-nonsense on water filtration. My aunt gave us a self-filtering water bottle, but I’ve been reluctant to pack it. I’ll feel better about leaving it behind at this point…
My mum offered us her one, as well. We didn’t take it…
We agree with you on most of it, but LOVE our travel towels! Of course, we hated the first ones we had, so maybe that’s the problem? Ours are large and made out of that chamois material, making them super absorbent – much more so than a sarong. They dry extremely quickly, and are very compact and lightweight. (They weigh less than our sarongs). Our first ones were tiny, but much bulkier and more like sponges. Horrible!
I won’t disagree with you on the million uses for sarongs, though!
As for the antibacterial wipes – you will have to pry them out of my dead hands! LOL. I love, love, love those things! But then, I’m also doing a million diaper changes on the go, so… Though we always did travel with them before kids, too. I agree on avoiding antibiotics when you don’t need them, but the wipes we use have a kind of bleach in them. Not an antibiotic like some of the antibacterial soaps. Not only are we rather disgustingly healthy (and SO jinxed now!) but it makes my OCD heart happy… 😉 I’d be more worried about what’s on your tray table on the plane than the lettuce, though. 🙂
Happy and safe travels!
Ah… I’d never have had you pinned as an antibacterial wipes person. But, I guess, if it helps you pscyhologically, it’s worth doing. And, umm, definitely changing nappies without wipes is a bridge too far for any parents…
I so agree with too many travellers carrying their hand sanitizer etc. I used to think no pack towel, but we have been traveling to cooler climates these past couple of years and while I would only bring a sarong to places like South East Asia, a pack towel for us is needed for others like New Zealand, China, Mongolia etc. A good dry off in cold weather is a must. But great list!
Thanks for the comment, guys. I’ve been wondering about the travel towel thing, too, and precisely how well a sarong will fare in, say, Beijing in November, myself. May have to do a revised post once we’ve done some serious cool weather travelling! I’m not normally a fan of cold weather. But Z is.
I HATE travel towels – they feel so icky! They are almost squeeky… ooof gives me the shivers just thinking about them. Normal towels do the job just fine…
Yes! I’ll be interested to see how our sarongs hold up when we get to chilly Novemberish Beijing, though. May have to buy some Chinese towels…
Spot on as usual!
Thanking you, sir…
I think water filtration systems are a must have! I have been to places where I have bought bottled water and I spit it out because it was obviously not purified or spring water. Carbon-filter water bottles are so cheap and simple that I cannot see any reason not to get one. An added plus is that it makes all water taste the same regardless of where it came from. I can drink water in Laos and it tastes the same as the water I drink at home.
As for the mosquito net, for traveling, I think pop-up nets are a lot easier than the box nets that you have to hang. Some of the pop-ups are so light now that they weigh as much as the 10 meters of rope, the hammer, and the nails that one would need to hang the box net.