BootsnAll Travel Community

Only 11 days till I leave and I just packed my backpack with everything I think I will be taking. Total weight: 40 lbs (18.14 KG). I'm taking about 10 lbs of unnecessary crap, but I think having a nice camera and laptop will greatly enhance my experience. Still, my pack is nearly full already (with my daypack stuffed inside), and I haven't even left yet. I'm going to go through everything again and see if I can free up some weight and/or space.

Anyway, my question for the experienced vagabonder is, how much does your pack weigh? Is carrying around 40 lbs totally ridiculous, or am I actually traveling light? Before ripping me to shreds, keep in mind that I'm planning to travel for a year with this gear, in hot and cold climates, which automatically bumps up the total weight at least a little bit.

Sounds a little on the heavy side to me I plan to travel for 6 months and my limit is 10 kgs on departure. I have packed yet [but I will not allow myself to pack over this limit on departure for my trip. It may gain a few pound whilst away . I do not have a lap top and I have a tiny camera

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(with my daypack stuffed inside),

is your day pack filled with stuff as well. or is it just an empty bag within your main pack?

I've tried packing the daypack empty and stuffed in the sleeping bag compartment, and filled at the top of the main compartment. When I packed it empty, there was more room to spare in the main backpack, but I like the easier access that packing it full at the top of the main pack provides. Ahh, the tough decisions of packing.

as long as you feel fine trucking around with 40 lbs on your back, bring whatever makes you happy. i would seriously try to cut it down at least 5 lbs, but maybe you'll mail stuff back. you should also check your airlines weight limits and the fee for heavy baggage.

Don't do it. I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all, but I believe carrying a 40-pound pack -- for a year -- is going to make you miserable. It's going to slow you down and slowly break your will to live. Particularly if you do any trekking. Are you planning to freelance, that you require a laptop? Is there anything else you think you could live without?

I could do without my laptop and camera equipment, but I bought them specifically for this trip, and unfortunately, if I didn't bring them, my trip wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable because I am really into writing and photography.

Breaking my will to live is a scary thought, so I'll go over my stuff and try to figure out if I can leave anything behind. I guess I can always send stuff back if necessary, too.

Wow, this will probably be the toughest decision of my entire trip.

Thed highest we had was 60 (me) plus 40 (my wife) pounds, but that was while climbing Aconcagua with all the mountain gear. Eventually it erroded to about 30 plus 10 pounds. If I headed out for another longer trip staying mostly at warmer climates now, I would not want to take more than 15 ponds each, tops. I met people who had less.

I would recommend you to take a serious look at what you have and cut everything that you think that it may be necessary or can be bought locally. This is all assuminng that you will be traveling in 3rd world countries- things tend to be cheaper and busier there, so it is cheaper to buy things there, you don't have to fight for room on busy transportation, you are less worried about getting your things stolen, etc. Ideally you only have a few inexpensive items with you (with the notable exeption of a good camera)

Have a great trip!

http://lonelyplanet.mytripjournal.com/michelleandcharlie

Hi Dan,

This is month 6 of 9 of my travels, and after that time I've chucked 2 out of 3 bags I started with(well, left them with relatives for later pickup), and in fact tomorrow I'm gonna go through my bag and see what I can throw away/ship back home. I'm not backpacking per se as just living for 2 weeks to 2 months here and there, so I'm a lot less mobile than you'll be, which is why I came with suitcases. But I'm planning on doing a week long backpacking trip in Scandinavia and the thought of lugging all that weight is not something I'm looking forward to! Actually thinking about going to a local store here in A-Dam and getting a 80 liter pack.

I also started with a laptop/point and shoot/(digital)SLR, and the SLR ended up staying back as well, but this might depend on how much you want to photograph something (that you can't do with the P&S), weighted against the constant worry you'll have with carrying all that equipment. It's harder to enjoy the sights if you're either constantly worrying about your equipment or if you see it through the lens all the time.

BTW, I hope your laptop has a big enough hard disk to fit all the images you might be taking with your P&S (and your DSLR?). The one good thing a CDRom would be good for (from reading your blog) is to make backup copies of the content of your laptop. Instead (and this maybe something you might consider) I have an external USB laptop drive that everyonce in a while I make sure to copy stuff to, and so while I keep my laptop in my daypack , my external drive goes with my big suitcase, so in the event I lose my daypack, I still got the precious data in my big pack (at least up to the last time I copied it, which is a whole lot better than losing it all).This also protects you from hard drive crashes and who knows what might happen to your laptop.

Seriously tho, be very mindful of the stuff you think you're gonna need. And then cut the list in half. The water fillable travel weights I brought with me cuz I thought I could work out while staying in places for extended time is still sitting in my bag.

Thanks for the thoughtful advice everyone. I got rid of some of my stuff, and I'm now down to 35 pounds (I think - I'm just using a cheap bathroom scale). This week, I went on hikes of 3 and 5 miles without any major problems, although after the 5 mile hike, I could feel a blister starting to form on my foot. I think I can handle the weight physically, anyway.

I seriously thought about leaving my laptop and camera stuff behind because they are responsible for 13 of the 35 pounds, but after taking some sunset, moonrise, and lightning pictures , I think I'll be kicking myself throughout my trip if I leave the SLR behind. I guess if I'm not using some stuff, I can always send it back.

As far as making copies of my pictures is concerned, hopefully I'll be able to upload them to my website and make backups from there. I do have enough space for at least 5000 pictures on my laptop, so as long as I can find a decent internet connection every now and then, I shouldn't run out. If I find that I am unable to upload as many pictures as I want to my website, I'll start burning backup cds from internet cafes and/or buy an external USB hard drive to copy the photos to.

I'm really not sure what to expect as far as internet access goes, as I will be traveling mostly through the third world. My gut feeling is that I'll find internet cafes easily, but they won't have very fast connections. If that does end up happening, I might just splurge every now and then for a nicer motel that has a fast connection.

So I guess the net of this whole post is that I think I'll be OK with a heavier backpack because of my dry runs at home, and I think I'll be able to handle the large amount of photographs I'll probably shoot because I have my laptop, and I can upload my pictures to my website.

Thanks again for giving your insight.