Packing 101: Rollaboards and Day Packs

As you may know, we are famous for traveling on birding trips with two rollaboards and day packs. In this post, I will discuss why we chose the ones we use.

A Confession: 

It is much easier to pull this off when two people travel together. If you are traveling by yourself, it will be harder to pack everything you need without checking.

Another point of view: 

Our son thinks we are wimps to use rollaboards. He opts for a "large backpack," which he hoists easily onto his shoulders. We prefer to delay the hoisting until we spot an open space in the overhead racks on the plane.

First Rule of Luggage:

With apologies to Henry Ford: Choose any color you want, so long as it isn't black. I had the unpleasant experience in Barranquilla, Colombia of returning to the airport at midnight to claim my bag, which had failed to arrive in the checked items. I watched a succession of black bags that looked a lot like mine circulate around the carousel before finally spotting mine. This was before we stopped checking bags, but you may be forced to check a bag even when you don't plan to. Sometimes, the overhead space is full by the time you get on.

Now, we have one bright orange and one bright blue rollaboard. Much easier to see.

Another Rule: Never put anything valuable in a bag that is going to be checked.

Never! Never!

I lost a pair of spare binocs that way. The bag was locked when I checked it, and it was locked when I claimed it. The binocs were gone. Don't trust anyone in the baggage handling chain, included TSA agents.

Rollaboards: Hard-sided or Soft?

We travel with one of each. Both hard sided and soft sided luggage have advantages and disadvantages. Whichever one you use make sure it satisfies the airline rules for sizes. These are not all the same, but generally 22x14x9" will always fit. Some rollaboards are 23" high. (Apologies to anyone who uses metric.)

This site is useful: http://www.luggagepros.com/travel/carry-on.shtml

Hard-sided Pro and Con

Pro: 

• The size is fixed. If you can close the case, you are sure it will fit in the overhead compartment.
• Most such cases come with built-in locks
• Better protection for fragile items, such as spare binocs or small cameras
• Most use the portmanteau style: They open up flat giving you two sides to pack. This makes it easier to organize the items. (More on this below.)

Con:

• These usually cost more than soft-sided.
• They are not expandable

Soft-sided Pro and Con

Pro:

• They are expandable, which is useful on the trip home when you may have gifts, etc.
• They tend to be a bit larger than the hard-sided ones
• Can be had cheaply. The one we are using cost $69 from Amazon. I have found that no luggage stands up to airline handling for long, so I don't like the expensive stuff. YMMV.
• Usually have several convenient outside pockets, good for magazines, etc.

Con:

• Don't have built-in locks. That means you have to keep up with the locks for the entire trip. I toss in a few spares, just in case.
• Not as much protection for fragile items.
• It's easy to overpack one, making it impossible to fit in the overhead compartments. You can see someone working on this on almost every flight.
• Usually have one big compartment, which makes organizing the contents a bit more difficult. Hint: I like to use Packing Cubes. for organization. More on this later when I get to the actual packing.

Day Packs

We each carry a day pack for travel, which we call our "personal item" if challenged by airline personnel. You have to make sure that this will fit under the seat in case you aren't able to store it overhead. Today, with more people carrying on luggage it is often a problem to deal with these. That means that you can't get away with a huge pack.

My pack is a "TSA Friendly" pack, suitable for packing a laptop. This eliminates the need to take the laptop out of the backpack, which is very helpful. Note, if you are a TSA Pre-check traveler you won't have to remove the laptop, at least not most of the time. I highly recommend 

Global Online Enrollment System (GOES)  if you travel outside the USA frequently. This includes TSA Pre-check. Enrollment is a bit of a bother, but well worth the time.

This bag has lots of compartments, which I like. Of course, that means you have to be careful to put everything in its place. Being just a bit OC sometimes helps. This, BTW is where I usually store the passports when we aren't going to need them. Other times, they go in my vest.

Linda uses a different type of backpack, one that is basically one compartment, with a small compartment for important items, such as lip balm. It holds a lot, so we tend to use it for things such as rain jackets that can be crammed into the bottom, with binocs on top,

Note: you should never let the airline have your day pack if there is any alternative. This is where the important stuff for the trip goes.

Travel Vests:

I always wear a vest when traveling. What you wear is not baggage. The airline can't have it. I use this to make sure I will arrive with some insect repellant (in single use packets, not liquid) and emergency meds (Loperamide/Imodium, for example.) The No Check Checklist has suggestions for what to put in the vest.

Note that you can use the strategy of wearing items to save space in a pinch, for example, a hat, or even binoculars and a camera.