34 Day Europe Trip with Tri-Star & Co-Pilot

[Shiva]

Hi Birdfeeder and Dorayme:
Kindle? it seems too big --unless you have the slightly larger one. Or it is the angle of the picture---it looks long to me. As i see the screen, it is the one on the right side.
your trip sounds great....would love to hear more about your travel experiences. All those places are on my list of places to go.....good luck travelling!

[Birdfeeder]

@ Shiva - Yes, it's the angle of the camera. I was on the floor in front the bags. Check out Sleeves for Amazon Kindle in TB Accessories. That's what it is.

Thanks to everyone for all the nice comments. I'm off in the morning. I'll share pics when I return.

[pretzelb]

Good with clothes? I'd say you were excellent in packing clothes. I'm amazed how much women's clothing will fit in the packing cubes. I never seem to get enough. Sneakers for jogging kill me each time. Very impressive packing.

[Lani]

@Lani - yes, I had the pharmacist make labels and baggies for all my prescriptions. For OTC, I copied labels myself on the printer. I was planning to do the same with the last 2 bottles, but my printer decided to die this morning.

Ahhh, OK. Printing labels! WoW! For most stuff I just use a permanent marker so you sound neater than me. ;-)

We're allowed 2 carry-ons each!

The irony has not gone past us, that now that you can take two carry-ons with you, you only need to take one! [The Co-Pilot is small enough that airlines consider it a "personal item" that is separate from a carry-on. Like a woman's purse.]

Sneakers for jogging kill me each time.

Having to pack a spare pair of shoes is one of the hardest obstacles to packing lightly. If you have relatively small feet (let's say up to about a size 38/8 for women or tiny for men), you can actually pack your shoes vertically in one of the front pockets of the Tri-Star or Western Flyer. Keeping the main packing area free from shoes really frees you up.

If you're a dedicated enough runner that you take a pair of jogging shoes with you on your travels, you might also consider looking for running shoes that pack easier. It has a lot to do with the materials the manufacturers use. So for example, I just picked up a pair of Asics that has a wide mesh upper that breathes really well. As it turns out, the fabric is also very pliable, so I can squish the tops down on the shoes. I can't do the same with another pair I have that are more like cross-trainers, that's mostly leather. The upper is much stiffer (to provide support for lateral movement), and there's no way I can cinch those shoes down to anything less than the space they take up just standing up.

Finally, there's one more trick and this one's a real sneaky one: If you just can't get your shoes to fit, don't put them IN the bags. Carry them outside the bags! Either tie the shoelaces around the handle of your carry-on and let your shoes dangle like a pair of fuzzy dice on a rear view mirror, or take something like the Tom Bihn shopping bag as your personal item, and slide your shoes in there. If you actually DO have a personal item (like a Co-Pilot), slip the Co-Pilot into a large Tom Bihn shopping bag with your shoes until you get on the plane. You can then just stick your shoes in the overhead by your TB carry-on, or keep them by your feet.

Of course your other option--depending on how much room your normal travel shoes take up--is to wear the running shoes at the airport, and then change when you land.

[Curmudgeon]

Laundry?

How will you handle your dirty clothes? Will you wash each night? Will they go back into the cubes with your clean clothes?

Sorry for asking such basic questions, but I tend to travel to a single spot and just unpack everything. I don't repack until the end so all my clothes end up dirty. I've never had to worry about mixing clean and dirty clothes. I'm curious how those travelers on the move handle this.

[Frank II]

When I travel, I have a separate laundry bag to hold my dirty clothes. This isn't very big as I tend to wash my clothes every couple of days. No mixing of clean and dirty. I also travel with clothes that dry overnight and are wrinkle resistant.

[dorayme]

On packing low profile running shoes, "barefoot running" in shoes like Vibram Five Fingers offer extremely low profile running shoes. I don't/can't run anymore, but my Smartwool Classics are a wonderful, comfortable 2nd shoe for trips. Soft Star Shoes also offer running moccasins in their Adult shoes with vibram soles. My children wore Soft Star Shoes almost exclusively for their first 2 years of walking. I love their USA made custom products.

[Curmudgeon]

When I travel, I have a separate laundry bag to hold my dirty clothes. This isn't very big as I tend to wash my clothes every couple of days. No mixing of clean and dirty. I also travel with clothes that dry overnight and are wrinkle resistant.

So your laundry bag gets crammed back into whichever compartment held the cleans? Along side or on top of your clean cubes? If you have clothes in more than one compartment - such as the large and medium compartments in a Tri-Star, do you keep two laundry bags? Stuff each back into their alloted space?

Again, I apologize if this sounds stupid. Just trying to understand the tricks of the trade.

[Frank II]

First, my clothes are not so dirty--I don't roll around in mud--that they are going to have such an impact on clean clothes.

I usually use the same type of laundry bag you find in most hotels where you can send your laundry out. In fact, that's where I usually get them. And sometimes I replenish during my trip.

I don't care if my clothes are "crammed" back in because they aren't going to be worn until they are washed. As to where they are crammed, it depends on the bag and where there is room. In some bags, there may be a mesh pocket in the lid and I sometimes put the bag there. If not, I find a spot for them. It doesn't matter which compartment they go in when using a multi-pocket bag because they don't go into the cubes until clean. I stick to one laundry bag because I never need more than that.

It's not that complicated. Dirty clothes go into dirty clothes bag which goes into carry-on bag wherever it fits. Nice and simple. Any more and you're over thinking.

[Lani]

On packing low profile running shoes, "barefoot running" in shoes like Vibram Five Fingers offer extremely low profile running shoes. I don't/can't run anymore, but my Smartwool Classics are a wonderful, comfortable 2nd shoe for trips. Soft Star Shoes also offer running moccasins in their Adult shoes with vibram soles. My children wore Soft Star Shoes almost exclusively for their first 2 years of walking. I love their USA made custom products.

I wish I were so brave. Every time I see those "toe shoes" I wind up giggling--they look so goofy!

A second vote for Smartwool socks. I like their really thin ones because they keep your toes really comfy warm, but aren't bulky.

[dorayme]

My classics monochromatic and darker colored so unless people are staring at my feet, they kind of pass off as regular shoes. . . at least they do in my mind. o.O

[jannilee]

I use Eagle creek double sided packing cubes. one side has a mesh front (for clean clothes) and the other side is plastic lined (for dirty ones) The middle divider is designed so that the volume of the cube can be split however you like with no loss of volume - all mesh side, all plastic side or part and part. Easy peasy!

[backpack]

On packing low profile running shoes, "barefoot running" in shoes like Vibram Five Fingers offer extremely low profile running shoes. I don't/can't run anymore, but my Smartwool Classics are a wonderful, comfortable 2nd shoe for trips. Soft Star Shoes also offer running moccasins in their Adult shoes with vibram soles. My children wore Soft Star Shoes almost exclusively for their first 2 years of walking. I love their USA made custom products.

Thank You Dorayme for the Soft Star Shoes link!

[backpack]

So your laundry bag gets crammed back into whichever compartment held the cleans? Along side or on top of your clean cubes? If you have clothes in more than one compartment - such as the large and medium compartments in a Tri-Star, do you keep two laundry bags? Stuff each back into their alloted space?

Again, I apologize if this sounds stupid. Just trying to understand the tricks of the trade.

I started packing with grocery plastic bag labeled with a sharpie for different items.
I graduated to a brand name compression bag which lasted only a couple of trips before the zip closure broke, which prompted me to get zip plastic bags which worked just as well, were less expensive and easier to get.

Then I bought the Packing Cube Shoulder Bag and the Packing Cube Backpack for Aeronaute when they first came out. I used them on numerous trip with the addition of zip plastic bags.

The problem with packing with zip plastic bags is that it takes a day to pack anything in it, I mean 24 hours of nothing but air compressing. It gets old fast and it is impossible on a short notice trip.

On our last trip, I took my Brain Bag with 2 Packing Cube Shoulder Bags in one compartment and the Packing Cube Backpack for Aeronaute on top of a big plastic bag in the other.
We had run out of zip plastic bags and the trip was short notice.

I included 1 or 2 empty plastic grocery bags and one for our snacks.

The one or both of the empty grocery bag are used for dirty laundry, it depends if we had time to do laundry, depending on the length of the trip.

They are closed securely and placed at the bottom of the bag.


Clean clothes always stay in the Packing Cubes so there is no fear of cross contamination.

[Lani]

So your laundry bag gets crammed back into whichever compartment held the cleans? Along side or on top of your clean cubes? If you have clothes in more than one compartment - such as the large and medium compartments in a Tri-Star, do you keep two laundry bags? Stuff each back into their alloted space?

No offense but you are living up to your forum name there, Curmudgeon! ;-)

Friends of mine who "traveload" (my made-up word for people who travel with a load of crap... er... stuff) have actually taken those pop-up hampers with them on their trips. That actually works OK if you're going car camping and you want to just toss your dirty hiked-in clothes into a hamper in your huge family tent, but even when those pop-up hampers are compressed, they take up more room than a Tom Bihn Side Effect bag... so as much as I've been tempted, I don't use those when I travel.

The best "hamper" for light travel is actually a really thin trash bag. I recommend the thin ones you use to line your small office or bathroom trash containers with. They are large enough that they should hold about as much clothes as you take on your entire trip, but they take up absolutely nothing in your travel bag.

Now... if you're staying in one location for your entire trip (let's say a standard hotel room), the easiest thing is to just unpack everything out of your main Tom Bihn (you know, your Aeronaut, Western Flyer or Tri-Star) and turn your room into your home for the duration... and your dirty laundry? Keep stuffing them in the trash bag, and stash the trash bag in your empty Tom Bihn travel bag. That way it's out of sight until you need to wash them. If you want to launder them at the hotel's laundry room, just take the Tom Bihn bag (with the plastic bag full of dirty clothes). Fold your clothes when you're done and stick them in your TB bag back to your room. Voila!

If you're going to be moving a lot during your travels, and maybe you're going to spend nights on trains, airports, youth hostels, what have you, then the main difference is that you won't be able to unpack everything out of your travel bag. In that case, use the plastic bag to create a compartment in your bag's main packing area. As you finishing wearing an item, move it into the plastic bag.

Now... some folks (like me) actually have a "gray area" of clothes that have been worn but are still good to wear again. Typically it's something like a cardigan, or maybe an overshirt. If I don't want to put those in the trash bag with dirty laundry, I might use an in-betweener, like say a Tom Bihn Packing Cube Shoulderbag. And if you really want it to stay smelling fresh, you can keep a small swatch of a laundry sheet in the bag, too.