Have you wondered whether you could pack carry on only for travelling overseas? I went through my carry-on packing list for two weeks overseas, so you can see what I packed. I have carry-on packing tips and more! Join this committed baggage checker in learning how to pack it all in carry-on luggage only!
When I travel overseas, I always check a medium or large suitcase. It’s always seemed easier that way; I can take what liquids I like, and I can also take some nice-to-have items.
But travelling domestically I rarely check a bag – so obviously I don’t have any problem with packing carry on only! Is the need to check a bag for overseas trips all in my head?
For longer, more involved trips, like the six-week holiday we had in Canada, the USA and Bermuda last year, I wanted to take enough toiletries and over the counter medications to last the whole trip, to avoid spending money on things I already had at home, especially since the Australian dollar has a terrible exchange rate. So, in that situation I will always check a bag.
But what about shorter trips? We went to Singapore, London and Frankfurt for just over two weeks last May and for the two of us, we checked one large and one medium suitcase. Travelling over there we packed in the medium and put it inside the large, to allow space for purchases and souvenirs when we came home. We also had carry on size suitcases and a personal item each, although our personal items weren’t maximising our allowance; mine was a sling bag and Michael’s was a small messenger bag.
Which makes me wonder, if we’d taken the maximum allowable size personal item each, could we have done it carry on only? Of course, I did buy two pairs of shoes, a handbag, a coffee table book and a box of skincare in London that I would have struggled to bring home in a carry on situation, but I probably wouldn’t have bought all that if I knew there was nowhere to pack it!
Let’s see how I go!
Replicating packing for that particular trip has one big benefit to packing carry on only – it was spring in London and Frankfurt and the weather forecast was for warm, mostly sunny days. And of course, Singapore is always HOT! This meant I didn’t need to take any bulky outerwear, even though it was late Autumn at home and quite chilly on the early morning in Canberra when we departed. But we weren’t going to be outside for long – taxi to the airport and from then on indoors pretty much until we got to Singapore – which was, of course, warm and very humid, even at midnight when we arrived.
I’ve recreated my packing list from that trip with travelling carry-on only in mind, and this is what I’d pack:
My clothes, including what I’d wear for travel are four dresses, a denim jacket, large cardigan, night clothes, a rain jacket, one pair of leggings, two bras, one pair of sandals, one pair of sneakers, one pair of hotel slippers, five pairs of undies and four pairs of socks.
My accessories are a few rings, one scarf, sunglasses and a couple of Apple Watch bands.
My skincare list is two cream cleansers because I like different ones for morning and night, one balm cleanser, hydrating mask, eye cream, hydrating spray, moisturiser for day and night, facial oil, calming, hydrating and retinol serums, facial sunscreen, and cleansing wipes to use on the long plane flights.
My hair care list is shampoo and conditioner bars, dry shampoo, some styling product, a brush, a comb, a scrunchie and claw clip, microfibre hair towel and my hot air styling brush.
Other toiletries are body lotion, anti-chafing cream, deodorant, foot cream, hand cream, lip balms with and without sunscreen, perfume, body sunscreen, toothbrush and toothpaste, dental floss, cuticle clipper, nail clipper and nail files, tweezers, cotton buds, foot file, scrubbing mitt and deodorant wipes for the long plane flights.
My makeup list is blush, a contour and highlight palette, foundation, tinted moisturiser, setting powder, concealer, eyebrow pencil and gel, eyeshadow crayons, pencil and liquid eyeliner, mascara, face and eye primer, three lipsticks, brushes and small and large lighted mirrors.
My electronics are my laptop, iPad and iPhone, which is in a case with a cross body strap, air pods with silicon neck strap, over ear headphones and Airfly, my DJI Pocket Osmo camera and microphone, a small bendy tripod, a clip on light, a wall charger with AU, EU and UK adapters, three cables, fold out phone/watch/Air Pods charging mat, an EU and a UK power adapter for my hair drying brush, and two power banks – a MagSafe one and a larger capacity one. Oh, and a small InCharge X multiple use cable that I keep with the power banks.
In my handbag I have my passport wallet with our passports, credit cards, Qantas cash card and driver’s licence, fold up shopping bag, glasses cloth, hero clip, pen, and my EDC pouch holding breath mints, travel charm, hand cream, lip balm, shout wipes, tiny mirror, small scrunchie, small tin of medications, SwissCard Nailcare card, tissues and a torch.
Then there’s what I call health and comfort items: my folding medication organiser, compression stockings, my prescription medications, hand sanitiser, handheld fan, tenegui or Japanese towel, nasal decongestant and saline nasal spray, pillow spray, tissues, collapsible water bottle and Yoga Toes.
Finally, there’s all the miscellaneous stuff: a collapsible food container, suction hooks, insulated mug, small and large jewellery trays, laundry sheets and dishwasher tablets, lingerie bag, luggage scale, matches, over the door hooks, folding scissors, sewing kit, and a Sharpie.
That sounds like a lot of stuff to pack – can I do it?
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Firstly, I’ll decide what I need access to on the plane and then what bags and pouches to pack it all in. I’ll need to decide what luggage to use too. More on that later!
I’ve done a video on my long-haul flying necessities, so I won’t go over that in too much detail.
Then I’ll use packing cubes to organise clothes by type – dresses and other clothes in one, underwear in another, and one for clothes I want access to on the plane. And finally, bags and pouches for toiletries, makeup, and other small items.
I reconsidered how to combine some of my usual organising cases and pouches, particularly for my in-flight needs. I usually have a tech case, an essentials bag, and a clear liquids bag in flight, and for the rest of my trip I have a bedside bag in my checked luggage. Since the bedside bag will be in my carry-on this time, and there’s some overlap in what these bags hold I’ve reviewed their contents, and I’ve dropped the essentials bag, by putting things from that into the other bags.
I’ve packed a medium compression packing cube with my cardigan, compression socks, soft bra and one pair of undies for the plane and packed it in my Nomad Lane Bento bag along with my DJI camera and mic, a small bendy tripod, and my tech, bedside, toiletries and liquids bags. I prefer to have the things I want to access on the plane in here, so I don’t have to juggle opening a clamshell hard-sided suitcase at my seat – who else finds that an extreme form of torture? First of all, trying not to drop it on someone’s head as I get it out of the bin, then balancing it across the arms of my seat to unzip it. No thanks!
I started off packing my Nomad Lane Bento bag as my personal item. But I don’t think it’s the way to go. I’ve never found it to be a very useful bag, sadly, because it promises a lot. When I watch videos of people packing in it for a week, I’m like, what? No way! I think my problem is it’s quite structured – it doesn’t have a frame or anything, but every compartment’s fullness affects the limited space within the bag. Here I’ve got so much stuff in the more easily accessible side that I only just managed to squeeze my old, smaller and thinner laptop in and if I was actually travelling, I don’t think my 14” MacBook Pro would fit. Same with the iPad, I used an older one to pack, but my current one is a little bigger. I won’t be using this bag, sadly, because I love the way it looks! But this isn’t the time to be shallow and go for looks over function!
My alternative is Michael’s Pakt backpack. It’s the 35L travel backpack. The Nomad Lane is 24L so in theory it’s almost 50% bigger. I don’t like wearing a backpack, but this has a luggage pass through, so I’ve tucked the straps away and I’d use it like a duffle bag. It opens clamshell but also has zips at the top so if I pack the things I want most access to at the top I can quickly get to them mid-flight.
Everything fits in here, as you can see, and I also packed my handbag and its contents in here, but I’ve decided against that and I’ll carry my handbag separately – I think it will be easier to access passports et cetera if they are in a separate bag, and as you can see packing the handbag makes it very tight. I could put my handbag in my suitcase and just have the contents in the backpack, I guess.
Of course, I’m lucky that I have reasonably high status with the airlines I’m travelling on, plus I’m travelling business class on Qantas, British Airways and Emirates – so a third item is usually overlooked. If I recall correctly, I got on all planes with a rolling suitcase, the sling and my handbag last year. I couldn’t do this on a low-cost airline! If for some reason there was a problem, I would have room in the backpack to pack the handbag and transfer the contents, so I do have a fall-back position.
Then of course there’s underwear, in another packing cube.
I’ll also pack the sandals, hair drying brush, my hanging medications organiser, Yoga toes and power adapters for my hair drying brush. My makeup mirror and jewellery trays always go with me, as does my microfibre hair towel. If possible, I’ll pack a collapsible container, insulated mug, laundry sheets and dishwasher tablets for the apartment in London, and a lingerie bag for washing underwear.
I used the Away small carry-on suitcase for this, but if I had needed to, I have an Away large carry on instead. The small measures 55 by 37 x 23 cm and holds 39.8L. The larger measures 58 by 39 by 24 cm and holds 47.9L. There’s a risk, though, that the larger carry on may not fit some airline carry-on bag requirements. But I’ve never had a bag measured so it might be OK. And the worst that could happen would be that I’d have to check it!
I’m happy that I didn’t need to use the larger Away carry-on, but it’s good to know it’s an option. The personal item was the hardest; I still seem to have way too much in the toiletry/makeup category but I’m just not sure how to minimise there.
Like I said, body lotion is one of the things that gives me a real challenge. I’m slightly fussy about it but not to the extent of only wanting to use one brand. As you saw those two tubes did fit in my liquids bag, but it kind of bugs me still – I guess I just have to get over it. Sunscreen and dry shampoo are two of the other bigger liquids. I don’t think I can do much about sunscreen – other than take a smaller amount and buy whilst travelling but I prefer not to plan to purchase. I must try a dry shampoo powder, I’ve heard the Briogeo one is good – having dark hair I have always thought that a powder version would make me look grey but I saw someone on YouTube recommending it and she had dark hair.
And I really want to find a solution for deodorant that isn’t liquid but isn’t a massive package for a smallish amount of product. Like I said maybe depotting it into a smaller container and using fingers is the way to go and I’ll try it next time I’m really travelling!
Travelling in warmer weather makes it considerably easier to pack light – for our trip to Canada and USA I took four or five dresses, but they were heavier, bulkier fabric. Then I had two pairs of leggings, a couple of pairs of opaque tights, boots and outerwear. And when I packed for this pretend trip one dress was able to be more or less scrunched into a ball to fit into a corner – that’s the sort of fabric I need to consider for the future! I don’t wear jeans but always amazes me that people pack them. I did pack my denim jacket, but it was my one outer layer and it’s so old it’s pretty soft these days.
Michael always takes jeans, and I find they take up at least half a large packing cube each! I keep trying to get him to buy some lighter weight pants for travel, so I’ll keep working on that. Of course, he has waaay less toiletries and nice-to-have items than me, so it probably works out about the same! On the other hand, he likes to take his massive DSLR camera everywhere, even though he never uses it so perhaps that’s what I need to work on!
Let’s see, what else did I learn? Well, I cheated a bit, you probably noticed that I had liquids in places that weren’t my liquids bag! But to be honest, I can’t remember the last time I had to remove liquids from my bag, so I think it’s a pretty safe gamble. And when I have had to remove them, I’ve still had the odd thing, like hand cream in my handbag or somewhere, that didn’t get picked up by security. I did manage to squish them all into the liquids bag, but it was so full it looked ready to burst. If I was travelling with Michael, which I always do when travelling overseas, I could use his liquids bag too. He shares all my toiletries, like toothpaste and deodorant, and isn’t fussy about shampoo so he uses the hotel or cruise ship stuff. I think he only ends up with cologne in his.
I did have a small amount of room left in the backpack and the suitcase, plus the backpack has a hidden expansion pocket so I’d still be able to buy some things while I was travelling – maybe not two pairs of shoes though! And that leads me to another learning about packing – it’s like one of those laws of nature – you will pack to fill the space you have available. So, if you want to reduce the amount you are travelling with, start by setting a target for a smaller bag. For our six-week trip I took a massive makeup bag and sure enough I pretty much filled it!
In preparing for and filming this, I learned some things about how I pack, and I hope I’ve given you some ideas too, so to learn what I packed for SIX WEEKS overseas and my essentials and regrets click here, and to find out more about lightening your toiletry load, click here!
Links to related videos on YouTube
Ultimate long haul flying comfort https://youtu.be/9MyIpZg0bOU
Lighten your toiletry load https://youtu.be/LSQ1YIqq_0A
Packing for six weeks https://youtu.be/9MyIpZg0bOU
Links to products mentioned in this post and video
✈️🛳️ When we travel, we use the following (may be affiliate links):
Similar backpack https://geni.us/fZZiOAb
Mini hand cream for handbag https://geni.us/s8iB5Ga
Folding shopping bag https://geni.us/gfeY8Y
Anker MagSafe power bank https://geni.us/0ESRI
Mesh zipper pouch used for EDC https://geni.us/I3DSu
Japanese towel (Tenegui) https://geni.us/qIxs
SwissCard Nail Care card https://geni.us/NArE8
Secret deodorant https://geni.us/ATHn3
Luggage scale https://geni.us/o8BJqn6
Matches https://geni.us/tPIPdxq
Suction hooks https://geni.us/2grzBi
Collapsible food container https://geni.us/Pxmua
Lingerie bags https://geni.us/ytfjBB
Shout stain remover wipes https://geni.us/mAqR2j
Six in one charging cable https://geni.us/GcCd
Travel tweezers https://geni.us/8Obh99
Folding scissors https://geni.us/sUc2W5I
Yoga Toes https://geni.us/XWQGC
Hair Styling Dryer https://geni.us/d8j5A
Travel toothbrush https://geni.us/U9ATBy
Dry shampoo aerosol https://geni.us/kyzo
Dry shampoo powder https://amzn.to/43Z57Im
Scrub mitt https://geni.us/WsmK1
Cuticle clippers https://geni.us/UIHBbJ
Revlon foot file https://geni.us/zP9a
Nail clippers https://geni.us/RhOLeQ
Metal claw clips https://geni.us/zYruuy
Loose powder container https://geni.us/sVSqy
Clip on light https://geni.us/MA4Ou
Hero Clip https://geni.us/MmIS2RJ
Hand Sanitiser https://geni.us/aRVWv1
DJI Mic 2 https://geni.us/6Vkt
DJI Osmo Pocket 3 https://geni.us/IA65nrv
Foot cream https://geni.us/2Nc2M
Micellar face wipes https://geni.us/qpoS
Scrunchies https://geni.us/WS5rb
Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze and Glow https://geni.us/8UQw
Sandals https://geni.us/C21AqV
Apple device charging station https://geni.us/A785
Over the door hooks https://geni.us/OChBu
Makeup mirror https://geni.us/tEOGHw
Collapsible water bottle https://geni.us/5ecW2
Insulated mug https://geni.us/ATZXa
Silicon cable ties https://geni.us/42mhy
Nomad Lane bag (original version) https://geni.us/mSLbu
Alpaka Tech Case (I have the max size) https://geni.us/Tl7F8l
Airpods neck cord https://geni.us/lYAcs
Anti-Perspirant Deodorant wipes https://geni.us/AgjdAIo
Hotel slippers https://geni.us/1Am7QMb
Nitecore power bank https://geni.us/81BhBsI
Device charger https://geni.us/BOI64Fs
Contact lens containers https://geni.us/TxQzkYY
Matador Soap Pak https://geni.us/OBfatQH
Small pill bags https://geni.us/FHXI8
iPhone 15+ https://geni.us/qXmGW
Medications organiser https://geni.us/8uILo2D
Bose headphones https://geni.us/FsloWJ
Airfly https://geni.us/A7ytd
Tripped toiletry bag https://geni.us/AxQH
Bellroy bedside bag https://geni.us/4s77W
Links to travel hero products
✈️🛳️ When we travel, we use the following (may be affiliate links):
📱 Phone data: AloSIM eSIMs. Use code 7NBZZYI
🔐 Data and device security: NordVPN
🎟️ Tours and tickets: Viator
🧳 Away luggage. Get $40 off and we get a commission if you use this link
🏷️ Air Tags have helped us find lost luggage
🛍️ Mardi’s favourite toiletry bag
🧴Larger containers to decant toiletries into
⏰ Philips Hue 2 can be used as a sunrise lamp
🌅 Philips Sunrise alarm clock
🪝 Suction hooks for additional hotel storage
🧊 Packing cubes
🪞 Folding lighted makeup mirror:
🪭 Handheld fan for warmer climates
💍 We use this hanging jewellery organiser as a travel medications organiser
🎧 Airfly allows Bluetooth headphones to connect to in-flight entertainment
🧳 Level8 luggage
About
We are Mardi and Michael Linke. We’ve been travelling together for over 25 years and we love to share our experiences, showing the places we go and reviewing hotels, airlines and cruises.
Our main content is on YouTube. Click the image above to see it!
