How to travel cheaply - Part10 - Luggage

This post should teach people what to bring while backpacking around the world and how to avoid selling a kidney for this. Your luggage is closely linked to how you travel, first of all you need to decide if you want to take camping gear with you; and if you want to take carry-on luggage only.

If you camp, you will need roughly 10L more space. If you take carry-on only, you need to limit yourself to ~15pounds/7kg and avoid knives, camping stoves, liquid containers over 100ml.

First item is your bag, usually a backpack. Short and long tours require the same gear, so the backpacks size will be the same for both.

Backpacking (flights/busses/trains), no camping: ~30L
Backpacking + Hitchhiking, camping: ~40L
Hiking, camping: ~30L
Biking, camping: No backpack, take pannier bags instead, ~50L

Cheapest option is to get a second-hand backpack from craigslist or asking friends if they have an old one they dont need anymore. $25-50 are reasonable prices.

Next thing are your clothes. In the previous part I wrote how you just take your normal, comfortable clothes you already own, pack 2 sets (trousers, shirts) and 3 sets (underwear, socks), and thats pretty much it. If you head into the tropics, a pair of flipflops/thongs is all you need, otherwise some light running shoes are fine, or sneakers. A jacket/fleece/wool as insulation against the cold, also depending on your area.

This means you wear ~50% of your clothing at any time, with your backpack only carrying the tiny rest... 1 set of clothing and the jacket, while you wear 1 set of clothing and your shoes.

The clothing should fit nicely into a $5 drybag from your local outdoors store, a 10L rollbag. This keeps them separated from the rest and even after walking through a monsoon rain, you get a set of dry clothes to changes into. You can take 2 drybags, one for dirty; one for clean clothes. This keeps the backpack even more orderly and stinky socks away from the rest of your stuff. ;)

This should set you back $0 for the clothing and ~$5-10 for the drybag(s). If you want to buy brand-new outdoor special-nonsense clothing is up to you, but it not necessary by any means. Only exception I'd say are good shoes/socks for hikers and good bike shorts for cyclists.

Electronics. Most of us will be nerds and love electric toys. Smartphones cover most of the items a traveler needs; GPS, mp3-player, movie-player, phone, camera, wifi/internet device and books.

Some of these lack the quality of their proper counterpart (camera, gps and ebook-reader mostly), so you might or might not want to take the real deal as well. But these items are luxury, even a GPS is not necessary.

Taking electronics with you depends on your personal budget and how much you think you need them. Want pretty pictures and take a DSLR? Can't live without your kindle? Constantly run around with headphones, blanking out noise with your favourite music? All optional.

This is the area you can save a lot of money on, so please keep in mind what you need vs. what you want. I personally love these toys and carry a GPS, kindle, smartphone, netbook, gopro and a camera, but I could just as easily travel with only the smartphone or only the netbook. The only important piece is one wifi-able device that allows you to get information/communication on the road.

Spendings for this are from $0-open ended, your personal choice. Most features should be covered by any cheap smartphone or tablet for ~$100.

Camping gear. If you want to save money and be more independent, it makes perfect sense to carry your own little home with you. You need a minimum of three items for this, a shelter, a mattress and a sleeping bag fitting the climate you head into.

Shelter: Tarps are smallest, lightest and cheapest, but often require trekking poles as support. Best used by hikers. 1-2 person tents are what most people use, with prices ranging from $25 for bottom-line products to $1000 for a brand new hilleberg tent. You should be able to get a reasonably good second-hand tent on craigslist for $50-100.

Mattress: Two options; either foam or air. Air mattresses pack smaller and are more comfortable, but more expensive and require more care in the long run. I'd recommend a foam mattress, $5-10 at a outdoor discounter, cut to your size. They never break and you can even keep them on the outside of your pack.

Sleeping bag: Two options again; either synthetic or down. Down packs smaller and is more expensive and needs more care (keep it dry), while synthetic is slightly larger/heavier but also works when wet. Again, I'd recommend the cheaper option, in this case because most shoestring backpackers head into warm/tropical areas which often have high humidity or monsoon rain, making the synthetic sleeping bag the prefered option anyway. Prices range widely, I did southern Europe with a bag I bought for €8 at Decathlon (European REI) and currently use a €30 bag for an overland trip from Japan to Germany. These are 1-season bags, if you head into moderate climates go for a more expensive 3-season bag; if camping in winter you'll end up spending a lot more than that.

Mattress and tent can be rolled up and attached at the outside of the bag, while the sleeping bag should be safely inside.

Spendings for the camping gear should be around $50-150.

Cooking gear is optional, but I'll explain in a future post how to build your own stove for free, which runs with either wood (free) or high-% alcohol (cheap). No need for a MSR Multifuel for $100+.

Misc items. You always end up with random shit in your backpack, but these are usually personal items that you already own and want to bring. Besides the aforementioned bag, clothing, electronics and optional camping gear, there is not much left. A passport and credit card obviously, maybe a notebook and pen, some games to pass the time, a deck of cards or a chess/backgammon board are great for hostels, your personal hygiene articles (just pilfer your bathroom), maybe a tiny flashlight, and... that's it.

These items should cost you $0, because it's random stuff you already have. A new notebook, pen, flashlight, toothbrush, razor and shampoo costs ~$10 if bought in a discounter, so either way it's not a lot.

Summary:
Second-hand backpack, 30-40L - ~$25-50.
Clothing you already own - $0.
Electronics you already own - $0 (worst case ~$100 for a tablet/smartphone).
Second-hand camping gear, tent/mattress/sleeping bag - $50-150.
Misc items (hygiene, documents, games, creditcard, passport) - $0-10.

GRAND TOTAL: ~$75-360, mostly depending on your electronic needs and if you need/have camping gear or not. If you just fly to Southeastasia or Europe for 3 months, I'd assume that your total spendings on equipment might be $0 or only include a backpack.

A good way to find out what people bring on tours similar to those you plan, is to scour the web for blogs, find people that do it, and ASK THEM! Just something as simple as "hey, saw you backpacked across Thailand/Cambodia the last couple of months, would you mind telling me what kind of stuff you brought with you?"

Many blogs include a gear list or kit list, but you have to keep one thing in mind when reading them: The people wrote them BEFORE they left. This is what someone who plans a big tour that includes a website decided is necessary, most likely overthinking and overpreparing. After reading it, write the author and ask if he would change anything, now that he knows which items of the list he used and which were just extra weight.

Hiking/biking specific gear I'll do in a post each later. :)

Intro: - Asking if there is interest: http://imgur.com/gallery/owNWa
Part1 - Terminology: http://imgur.com/gallery/5XE1N
Part2 - First steps: http://imgur.com/gallery/BxBXR
Part3 - Major concerns: http://imgur.com/gallery/2PPk6
Part4 - Accommodation: http://imgur.com/gallery/Vsvuq
Part5 - Transport(independent): http://imgur.com/gallery/xUIzI
Part6 - Transport(paid): http://imgur.com/gallery/gUTo7
Part7 - Food: http://imgur.com/gallery/pbCza
Part8 - Money: http://imgur.com/gallery/vHX25
Part9 - Clothing: http://imgur.com/gallery/vnsrV

Cheers,
Patrick from http://worldbicyclist.com/