BootsnAll Travel Community

I'm interested to know how heavy/light your pack is when you are on the road for a long periods of time.
Our combined weight including clothing for cold climes as well as hot, and a laptop and camera and stainless steel bowls for us all is sitting at 79kg. 8kg each doesn't sound too bad to me - but do I need to hone it down even further? (Ditching a beloved maths textbook would drop 3kg straight away!!!!)
Our smallest will carry nothing, the 4yo will carry 1kg, the 6yo will manage 4kg......Dadda bears the brunt with 17kg but he's a strong lad, and having already traipsed round Europe with 20kg (which I would NEVER do again - what was I thinking?), I think I'll manage with the 12kg my pack comes out at (plus I'll get to carry the 2yo when she can go no further!)
Funnily enough, when I packed up JUST my gear - it all fit in a 34l pack and only weighed 7kg - if you think kids are small and won't take as much gear, think again

So what about you? What does your pack weigh?

I'll bet my pack is pretty heavy compared to most of the BnA crowd.

Depending on the length of trip or destination my 60L pack has been as low as 9 kg up to 15kg.

I don't claim to be a light packer, and I'm big, so really it's never seemed too heavy, even at 15 kg.

My husband is an electronics junkie and his pack is always way heavier than mine.

M2M - I've tried to whittle down and I'm still at 11kg (no 4 yo though...) Hard to cull items because before I've set off everything seems "necessary" while I know full well I'll ditch stuff along the way and pick up what I needed but forgot. Still, even if you can't reduce further you'll be able to reassess on the road. Sounds like you've been quite careful about what you've put in, so I'd call it a day and then reevaluate when you're traveling.

Besides - math books are important!!

Best of luck! Looking forward to following your travels.

I carry camping gear and usually some food, so my pack comes in heavy at 27 KG. I've found that I've grown into it over time, so it doesn't seem so heavy anymore. I can't give you advice about traveling with kids, but one piece of general advice is to get everything to fit into one backpack. If you have to carry two packs, it's inherently awkward, your hands aren't free to defend yourself, and it's way easier to lose stuff or get it stolen from you.

When I'm in a hot place and just sent all of my souvenirs in the mail it's about 12k but when I'm on the way home from my final place or haven't posted anything in a while it's closer to 20k. It's really heavy and I'm a 5'5" (165 centimeter) woman. Id' say you're doing pretty well.

going to a place my pack is obviously lighter than returning after buying alot of crap along the way...I think my starting pack weight last summer (only for 60 days) was 13kg...I have to stay under 20 and like to give myself a buffer...I use a huge pack though which weighs a little in itself 75L, but I like to strap a lot of stuff to it...

this time im going for just about 90 days...i anticipate the weight to be more like 16 or 17 kg to start out because I am takign a sleepsac, sleeping bag, and some camping stuff for my time in africa...my buffer will be less than usual so I might just redistribute more to my daypack which goes on my front

Given that I overestimated the electronics weight and that our 76kg includes ten sleeping bags, and in light of your weights, I think we're not doing too badly. Of course the test will be whether we can carry it

my bag fully packed is 30 lbs, or 13.6 kilos. I find it much too heavy to carry around and I definitely need to find ways to pack lighter on my next trip.

My bag is very large and I always over pack so right now it is 23kg which is WAY too much, I'm tall enough and big enough that I can carry it but the bag is a pain in the butt, I am trying to loose as much weight from my pack as possible

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I always over pack so right now it is 23kg

50 pounds? That is way too much. The rock collection may have to stay home.

I usually carry full camping gear - so I tend to come in at 20 - 22 kilos as well.
It's not really a problem though. It's good for your back muscles. I lost all my excess weight that way on my RTW.

HAHA materialistic fools!

My entire pack for my entire life journey = only 9.5 Kilograms which means 21 pounds in American language!

There is nothing NOTHING that I have that isnt completely necessary, and I am fast and elite, you may not even see me as a blur through airports and sprint through train stations. You may not even see me as I plunder through 5 beers and POUND the shots of absinthe.

I live in a universe not like your own, I am a creature whose speed and agility match only legendary beasts. I AM A TRAVELLER!

My main bag was around 17-20kg for most of my trip so far. It was 14.6kg a few days ago and I think I can get it down a bit more.

My weight it a bit more due to the electronics I carry, but it isn't so bad I can't carry it all.

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There is nothing NOTHING that I have that isnt completely necessary, and I am fast and elite, you may not even see me as a blur through airports and sprint through train stations. You may not even see me as I plunder through 5 beers and POUND the shots of absinthe.

True, true. And then you came begging me for a place to sleep and some food on that beautiful deserted beach on Romblon Island, where I had pitched my tent and cooked the fish I just caught from he Ocean.

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quote:
There is nothing NOTHING that I have that isnt completely necessary, and I am fast and elite, you may not even see me as a blur through airports and sprint through train stations. You may not even see me as I plunder through 5 beers and POUND the shots of absinthe.


True, true. And then you came begging me for a place to sleep and some food on that beautiful deserted beach on Romblon Island, where I had pitched my tent and cooked the fish I just caught from he Ocean.

Yeah, too many people turn pack weight into a contest. Just take what you think you'll need and if you find that you're not using something, you can always either send it home or give it away. I'm totally happy with my 27 KG, but if I were doing the type of trip a lot of people do (flying all the time, visiting big cities nonstop and never the wilderness), I'm sure I'd travel with much less.