Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of only bringing the bare minimum while you travel. This style isn't for everybody and it takes
a lot of self-discipline, but it can be extremely rewarding.
ULTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT BACKPACK
The size of your backpack determines how much gear you can bring so the first step in min-
imalist travel is finding a small pack. The maximum backpack size should be no larger than
50L but serious minimal travelers choose a backpack that's around 25L to 45L.
If you want to take it to the next level, you can seek out backpacks that are specially de-
signed to be ultra-lightweight. Osprey, Granite Gear, and GoLite are three brands that manu-
facture extremely lightweight backpacks that weigh anywhere from 1.5lbs to 2.5lbs. For refer-
ence, most standard travel backpacks weight around 3.5lbs to 5lbs. Additionally, most ultra-
lightweight packs will be top-loading because they're designed for outdoor hiking.
MINIMIZE CLOTHING
Minimizing clothing is the biggest challenge of ultra-light travel because you're forced to pare
down your wardrobe to the bare essentials, so you need to find items that work well in mul-
tiple situations.
First, you can easily wear a pair of pants for a week without needing to wash them. In fact,
you can easily travel with a single pair of pants for an entire trip. If traveling in the summer,
consider also packing a pair of lightweight shorts.
For day-to-day sightseeing, a nice solid-color merino wool or synthetic t-shirt will suffice.
Wool is great because it naturally resists odors, but synthetic materials don't perform as
well—you'll just have to wash more often. You don't need more than two or three shirts. In
addition, bring a casual button-up shirt that looks nice enough for going to bars or restaur-
ants but don't bring anything too dressy.
When it comes to shirts and pants, it is super nice to have fabrics that are durable, light-
weight, and quick-drying. Unfortunately, most clothing made from these fabrics are designed
for hikers and outdoorsmen—which means they're kind of ugly and they look out of place
in urban environments. However, there is a new breed of fashionable performance clothing
starting to hit the market. Three brands making strides in this area are Outlier (outlier.cc),
Outerboro (outerboro.cc), and Bluffworks (
blufworks.com
)
. This new fashion-forward per-
formance clothing does tend to be pricy but they're built to last.
For cool weather, a fleece jacket works well to provide warmth. However, serious minimal-
ists travel with lightweight down jackets. These jackets only weigh a few ounces and they do
a great job keeping you warm. Additionally, they can be compressed into the size of a water
bottle so it can easily it into your backpack without taking up much space.
A rain jacket is optional and you probably don't need one unless you're spending a lot of
time in notoriously rainy climates. Nearly every outdoor company produces lightweight jack-
