One-bag travel is often framed as deprivation. It is not. It is the difference between walking off a plane and being on the metro in eight minutes, and standing at a carousel wondering whether your suitcase made the connection.

The actual rule

Pack for four days and do laundry. This works for a four-day trip and a four-week one, and it is the single decision that makes everything else fall into place. Every additional day you pack for is a day you carry.

What goes in

  • Four shirts or tops, in colours that all work together. Two of them should be able to handle a good restaurant.
  • Two bottoms. One you can walk twenty kilometres in, one you can wear to dinner.
  • Four days of underwear and socks, in merino if the budget allows — it dries overnight and does not hold smell.
  • One warm layer and one shell. Not two of either.
  • Two pairs of shoes maximum, one of which is on your feet at the airport.
  • A small dry bag for laundry, which doubles as a beach bag.

Almost everything you might need on a trip can be bought in the place you are going, usually within a ten-minute walk.

The bag itself

Between thirty and forty litres, with a panel that opens flat rather than a top-loading tube. Straps that tuck away, so it can be a backpack on the walk to the hotel and a bag on the train. Nothing that needs a rain cover.

Check the airline’s personal-item dimensions before you buy, not the cabin-bag dimensions. The bags that fit under the seat are the ones that never get gate-checked, and that is the whole point.

What people over-pack

Toiletries, cables and “just in case” clothing, in that order. Take one charger with multiple ports rather than four bricks. Decant liquids properly. And be honest about the outfit you have packed for the evening that is not going to happen.

Weigh the bag at home, fully packed, and then remove two things. It will still be everything you need, and you will notice the difference on every staircase, in every station and at the end of every long day.

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