This is the first of a series of posts with travel tips from around the world. I hope you find parts of it useful, or at least somewhat entertaining.
When Dave and I decided to go on a six-month trip around the world, we didn't think too much about the logistics. We committed to the trip as soon as we knew that it was feasible with work, since it was something we've always dreamed about. The packing, though, was not easy.
It was particularly complicated by the fact that we are seeing cities and the outdoors, traveling to extremely cold and extremely warm places, and wanted to backpack and car camp for parts of the trip. Plus, we knew that we only wanted to go around the world once (i.e. we didn't want to backtrack to NYC). I did some quick research on shipping supplies overseas with no luck. So we had to take everything we needed with us on the plane.
Now that we are two-thirds of the way into the trip, how did we do with all of our luggage?
What we packed:
We ended up taking two large suitcases (about 25kg each), two carry-on suitcases (about 12kg each), two day-packs, and one large camping backpack. We were luck enough that my relatives, who attended our wedding in New York, were able to bring another camping backpack with them to Shanghai with some additional supplies. Most of our extra weight came from our camping and hiking gear, as well as electronics and camera equipment.
Even though we tried so hard to pack light, we definitely took a few things we wished we hadn't - two heavy flashlights, dress shoes for Dave, and a few extra dresses for me. It was a lot of weight to be carrying around the world! It was difficult for us to take public transit with our bags, so we mostly rented rented cars or took taxis to and from the airport. My advice? Really only take bare essentials. You’d be amazed to see how much of your wardrobe you can live without!
Packing for flights:
Now that we have our gear for the trip, an equally hard challenge is figuring out how we are going to pack everything up for the 29 flights we’re taking without shelling out for crazy excess luggage fees. Each airline has different weight limits, by number of pieces, weight of each piece, carry-on limits, etc.
Luckily, Dave is Platinum on Delta Airlines (SkyTeam) and got status match with Turkish Airlines (Star Alliance). This meant that we got extra checked baggage allowance on most of the flights that we took (and got to use airport lounges for those flights). For most of the remaining flights, I was able to prepay for extra baggage at a reasonable price.
So far, we've only had to pay for excess baggage fees at the airport counter twice. The first time with SAS because we were silly enough to ask how many bags we’re allowed to check, prompting the agent to question our carry-on weight. The second time, we had to abandon our plans to fly to Nairobi through Cairo on Star Alliance and SkyTeam flights, and had to book a flight with Qatar Airways (OneWorld). Of course, Qatar diligently weighted everyone’s checked bags and carry-ons, and charged for excess baggage at 19 euros per kilogram. Let’s hope that was the last time we whip out our credit cards at check-in.
When Dave and I decided to go on a six-month trip around the world, we didn't think too much about the logistics. We committed to the trip as soon as we knew that it was feasible with work, since it was something we've always dreamed about. The packing, though, was not easy.
It was particularly complicated by the fact that we are seeing cities and the outdoors, traveling to extremely cold and extremely warm places, and wanted to backpack and car camp for parts of the trip. Plus, we knew that we only wanted to go around the world once (i.e. we didn't want to backtrack to NYC). I did some quick research on shipping supplies overseas with no luck. So we had to take everything we needed with us on the plane.
Now that we are two-thirds of the way into the trip, how did we do with all of our luggage?
What we packed:
We ended up taking two large suitcases (about 25kg each), two carry-on suitcases (about 12kg each), two day-packs, and one large camping backpack. We were luck enough that my relatives, who attended our wedding in New York, were able to bring another camping backpack with them to Shanghai with some additional supplies. Most of our extra weight came from our camping and hiking gear, as well as electronics and camera equipment.
Even though we tried so hard to pack light, we definitely took a few things we wished we hadn't - two heavy flashlights, dress shoes for Dave, and a few extra dresses for me. It was a lot of weight to be carrying around the world! It was difficult for us to take public transit with our bags, so we mostly rented rented cars or took taxis to and from the airport. My advice? Really only take bare essentials. You’d be amazed to see how much of your wardrobe you can live without!
Packing for flights:
Now that we have our gear for the trip, an equally hard challenge is figuring out how we are going to pack everything up for the 29 flights we’re taking without shelling out for crazy excess luggage fees. Each airline has different weight limits, by number of pieces, weight of each piece, carry-on limits, etc.
Luckily, Dave is Platinum on Delta Airlines (SkyTeam) and got status match with Turkish Airlines (Star Alliance). This meant that we got extra checked baggage allowance on most of the flights that we took (and got to use airport lounges for those flights). For most of the remaining flights, I was able to prepay for extra baggage at a reasonable price.
So far, we've only had to pay for excess baggage fees at the airport counter twice. The first time with SAS because we were silly enough to ask how many bags we’re allowed to check, prompting the agent to question our carry-on weight. The second time, we had to abandon our plans to fly to Nairobi through Cairo on Star Alliance and SkyTeam flights, and had to book a flight with Qatar Airways (OneWorld). Of course, Qatar diligently weighted everyone’s checked bags and carry-ons, and charged for excess baggage at 19 euros per kilogram. Let’s hope that was the last time we whip out our credit cards at check-in.
No comments:
Post a Comment