Packing Light for Long Haul Trips (with kids!)

Checking baggage is always a risk, especially when flying international to developing countries. It can be expensive with budget airliners that always charge for checked baggage and are strict on weight. It's also a hassle when you're moving about to several hotels, car transfers etc. What's worst, is packing for carry-on only but it's heavy and you're lugging heavy bags throughout the airport. We are able to pack light on clothing because we utilize laundry services at our hotels (or nearby laundromats).

I prefer to pack as light as possible and have learned from our travels throughout 20+ countries as a family of four.  I am solely sharing because I love to help others, I get zero benefit from the items linked!

Packing Cubes

Shacke Pak - 5 Set Packing Cubes - Medium/Small 

What you fit, is what you get!  We recently started using packing cubes, how we ever traveled without these, I'll never know! Hands down, my NUMBER ONE choice for packing. Get packing cubes!!

Each family member gets a medium sized packing cube, and that's it!
Rolling clothes method or laying flat, I've tried both and I don't think one is better than the other. Sometimes, I do both depending on the clothing type and the bulk it creates.

Not all packing cubes are created equally, and some have compression features. This is the set we used. Some families color coordinate and each member gets a set of cubes for their luggage.
Tip:We used the small package cube as a "medicine" bag with medicine, first aid, sunscreen etc and threw that in our backpack (also small enough for a medium purse) for the day to day sight-seeing. 

Hanging Toiletry Bag 

Hanging Toiletry Bag

I used to travel with tons of zip-locks for all of our toiletries which was often messy and frustrating when staying places with limited bathroom counter space. No more worrying about having big enough zip-locks, looking for all our products. With this small bag, everything was in one place, and I could hang it in the bathroom of each hotel.  There was room for all our products and even better, it fits inside the Osprey Fairview 40 backpack with a medium sized packing cube! 

I can not attest to the longevity of this exact hanging bag so any will probably do, but this is the one I ordered and used. 

Silicone Travel Tubes

Gone are the days of paying for over-priced travel size items AND buying re-fillable travel size bottles that are plastic and break (or can't be squeezed!!) We filled ours with sunscreen and other various products.

 I'm not linking the exact set we bought because I didn't LOVE them because they are not smooth enough along the edges for my labels to stick which bothered me and I know other sets come with labels.

Travel Wallet / Waist Belt

Travel Waist Belt

Make fun of me all you want but this "waist belt" was was lifesaver in the airport. It could fit all 4 passports, boarding passes and our money/cards. You could even squeeze in my small iPhone. I'm always panicking "Where are the passports?!" so this easy access pouch was a stress reliever. It was very slim, and well hidden under a shirt so it's not a obvious fanny pack.

When traveling to countries where pick-pocketing is a big concern (pretty much all countries these days), it was also nice to not have to carry any kind of wallet, or purse and have this hidden under our shirt.

Luggage Scale

I had never heard of these until recently but a luggage scale is an amazing light-weight option to keep with you to ensure your luggage doesn't go over the weight limits. With most budget airliners, the carry-on limits are around 7kg! And they won't let you go over, you'll have to pay to check your bag. 

Vietjet even stopped us at the boarding gate and weighed our backpacks for a second time (they did this to others too.) With a luggage scale, you can disperse your weight amongst your other bags and never stress about being over! 

Osprey Fair-point 40

This thing deserves it's own blog post, but this is what we used to backpack our way through Vietnam and Cambodia.  Each kid had their own backpack, and we each had an Osprey. It fits one packing cube and one toiletry bag (or two packing cubes). There is also a laptop compartment that is padded and lots of little zippered pockets that are covered and can't be unzipped by someone else while the backpack is on your back (without you feeling some MAJOR tugging). There is two spots for water bottles on the back which are hard to see in the picture. Another selling point for me, was that it unzips all the way and folds completely open- no digging around to the bottom of the bag! When you're using packing cubes, this means, you can unzip your bag and not worry about everything fall out or showing off your undies when you need to unzip and get things out in the airport. 

What are your favorite travel items? Please share!