Three weeks of trains, ferries and walks fit into one 30 litre backpack. The rule is simple: pack for one week and wash on the way. After ten years of slow travel my list has 34 items, and I use every one of them.
Why one small bag
A bag you can carry on your back all day changes how you travel. You can walk from the station to the guesthouse, take the bus instead of a taxi and step onto a ferry without looking for luggage racks. And you are never tempted to buy things you would have to carry home.
Clothes for a week
- Three shirts that dry overnight
- Two pairs of trousers, one of them for walking
- Underwear and socks for four days
- One warm layer of wool
- A rain jacket that packs into its own pocket
- Walking shoes that also look fine in a restaurant
I wash in the evening, every second or third day. Wool and synthetic fabrics dry overnight even in a cold room; cotton does not.
My tip
Roll your clothes and put each kind in a cloth bag. You find things without unpacking everything, and the bags double as a pillow on a night ferry.
Tilda Brennick
For trains and ferries
- A water bottle you can refill
- A cloth bag for food from the market
- Earplugs and a sleep mask for night trains
- A notebook for tickets, times and addresses
- A paper map of the region
The notebook is the one I make myself now, the Route Journal, with a table of stages at the front. The paper map is not nostalgia: it shows you which ferry crossings and railway lines exist, which a phone screen rarely does at a glance.
What I left at home
A second pair of shoes, a laptop, a hairdryer, travel guides on paper and anything I packed for a situation that might happen. If you need something on the way, you can buy it, and you will rarely need it.
The three things I never travel without
- A small knife with a corkscrew, packed in the checked bag on the rare flight
- A scarf that is a blanket, a towel and a sun shade
- A list of the people I want to send a postcard to
