How She Packed for a Trip Around the World

The following is Grace's take on packing for a 12 month trip around the world. For Mike's perspective and to find out what he's been carrying, check out his post here. 
 

When we first talked about creating a website to chronicle our travels, we knew that this post (the one you're reading) would be one of the most necessary and desired posts. So, why did it take 11 months to write? 

Could I have posted a list of everything I was bringing before we left? Sure. And I almost did, but then those last few weeks were chaotic, full of planning, buying more gear, and saying goodbye until the last moments, so I never got around to it.

The silver lining is that now I can assure you I really know what it takes to live out of a backpack for a year. After all, I actually did it. So I think I can call myself an expert. 

I had never truly backpacked before, so to figure out what to pack, I did a lot of research, reading blog posts just like this one. (Mike helped too, and deserves credit for all his trial testing. He had his pack, with nearly everything that's in it to this day, packed and ready to go a full six months before we left.) 

I packed conservatively but lightly, and tried to follow my head as much as my gut. Now, 11 months in, I'm proud to be able to say that almost all my assumptions about clothes, gear, medicine, and so on were proven correct. The following breaks down what I used most, what has lasted the entire year and what was discarded somewhere along the way. 

This is much more than a post about what I packed for a year-long trip. It's a guide for anyone needing to pack for a year in one small backpack and not lose his or her mind. 

So, here it is, what’s in my pack:

A note about clothes: Because we were going to be traveling almost exclusively in warm climates, we didn't need to pack for four seasons. However, we did need some clothing for cooler destinations (like autumn in New Zealand) as well as hiking at high altitudes. The key to this? LAYERS. The Mountain Hardwear lightweight down jacket was key. Laying that on top of a long sleeve shirt and then putting a rain jacket shell on top was as insulated as wearing a ski jacket. 

Clothes

• North Face rain jacket
• Mountain Hardwear down jacket 
• Columbia fishing hat (yes, the one from all those safari photos)
• 2 pants (loose hiking pants and snug yoga pants)
• 3 shorts (swapped out one pair for another halfway through) 
• 3 tank tops (a few lost, a few gained along the way)
• 2 dresses (picked one up in Thailand)
• 1 long sleeve shirt
• 3 short sleeve shirts
• 7 pairs of underwear
• 2 bathing suits
• 2 bras
• 4 pairs of socks

Shoes

• Nike sneakers
• Chaco sandals
• Sam Edelman flat sandals
• Pair of rubber flip flops (acquired in Koh Tao, Thailand)

Everything Else

• PASSPORT* (duh)
• Laptop*
• iPad*
• iPhone*
• Necessary charging cords and cables*
• Medicine bag (this included antimalarials, prescription antibiotics in case of bacterial infections, other prescription meds including Ambien, as well as ibuprofen, Imodium)*
• Back-up wallet with spare cards*
• Cheap digital watch*
• Mask and snorkel
• Eagle Creek bra wallet (with license and primary credit card) 
• Makeup - one tube of mascara, one tube of concealer, an eyeliner (I haven’t run out because I only wear makeup about one day per week, on average)* 
• First aid kit (we built it ourselves)
• Sea to Summit microfiber travel towel 
• Silk sheet
• Laundry stuff (sink stopper, small bottles of high concentrate detergent)
• Toiletry bag - all shower/bathroom necessities, including a toothbrush
• In a small Tumi packing cell, I had a few miscellaneous items including batteries, safety pins, and a small sewing kit

* indicates that the item was kept in my second, smaller backpack, which was often my carry on when the bigger bag needed to be checked. 

Lessons Learned

What I Ditched
Luckily, I fine-tuned the hell out of my stuff before we left the US, so I didn't have to get rid of a lot along the way. Here's what I realized I could live without: 

• one pair of shorts that I wasn’t wearing as much
• one t-shirt that I wasn’t wearing and didn’t need 
• a tank top that was stained and stretched out
• a cheap tank top purchased in Thailand ($2) that I wore for a few months

Acquired Along the Way: 

• Sarong in Seychelles
• A maxi dress in Cape Town that I wore a lot but ditched in Melbourne
• A dress/cover up in Chiang Mai that I wear all the time
• Diving mask and snorkel in Koh Tao
• Bathing suit in Ao Nang when ours were at cleaners (sadly I lost it in Raglan, NZ)
• In Bali: sarong, another cheap coverup, and baseball hat in Uluwatu  
• When mom was with us, she refreshed my wardrobe a bit: green shorts, two tank tops, a loose long sleeve pullover, new bathing suit to replace black one
• Trail running sneakers in NZ that I wore for a week before getting a stress fracture in my foot and then sent home with my mom when she visited us in Australia

This doesn't include the baseball hat that I bought and lost in Cape Town, or the sun hat I bought in Thailand and then there away in Singapore. What can I say? I have bad luck with hats. 

Of all the items gained, the only things I still have are the cover ups, sarongs, hat, flip flops, clothes my mom bought (thank god for that wardrobe refresher), and my mask and snorkel (important for diving).

The Essentials

Packing cells are your new best friend. They make packing and organization much, much easier. Our favorite brand is Eagle Creek but there are a few companies out there to choose from. 

Not surprisingly, the things we used most were the clothes, the electronics, and the medicine. 

My biggest realization looking back is that I wasn’t prepared for the tropical, vacation-like destinations when you’re living in a bathing suit and need lightweight clothes. All my initial clothing choices were better suited for flying, trekking, tours, and keeping me covered so as to not offend anyone or attract unwanted attention. In the end, I added a few items that were more day-to-day and cheap enough that I could leave them behind if necessary. 

And then there are the things you’ll inevitably gain along the way. Even though we've avoided buying and souvenirs or mementos, somehow we still ended up with some. Luckily, they're small knick knacks, like the the three bracelets and hand-sewn bags we were suckered into buying from our hiking guides in Sapa, Vietnam. You'll also have to restock sunscreen, toiletries, etc. as you go. Definitely don't try to bring a year's worth supply! 

Finally, it's important to have room in your bag! Do not leave with your pack filled to the brim because that means you have too much stuff, you won't have room for the new stuff you will inevitably acquire and you’ll be forced to throw something away anyway.  

What we didn't use as much as we thought we would:

The laundry kit we brought was used but after a while, we asked ourselves, does the few times we used it pay off for bringing it? it’s small and light, so it's not a huge deal. But, in most places, you can get your laundry done for next to nothing ($1-2) or find machines. Not to mention that there are almost always washers and dryers in Airbnbs. Only in the very remote areas is it necessary to be able to do it yourself. 

Both of the things I brought "just in case I need to dress up" got very little use. I only wore the Sam Edelman sandals about three times and, as stated earlier, the makeup comes out once a week, maybe. Still, neither of them took up much room, so if I had to do it all over again, I'd probably still bring them. 

The silk sheet is one thing I really never needed to use, although I did sleep in it at a few hostels and when we camped in the dead heat of Arizona in August.

All in all, there wasn't much we felt was a waste to bring along. Chock it up to the luxury of time for planning and research. 

My pack at the end of the trip, compared to the beginning: 

Interestingly, a lot of the items that were with me at the beginning have made it all the way around the world and back again, while the items gained have been quicker to vanish or be left behind. 

I'm proud that my pack today looks pretty much the same as it did on the day that we left. Of course, it's a bit beaten up and much dirtier - riding around on dozens of baggage claim will do that to a bag. But it's still with me, which means it was never lost or stolen. It held up during rigorous travel circumstances, keeping all the loot inside safe and secure. 

Overall, I'd recommend the Deuter Women's ACT Lite 45 + 10 Pack to anyone! It's a great bag that has served me well. 

The first time I tried on my pack in REI! (They fill it with bags of sand so you can tell if it fits correctly when it's full.)

If you have any questions about how I packed or need some advice in planning your own adventure, please email me: theyearbetween@gmail.com. 

BONUS: click here to see photos of items in my pack on our "What's in Grace's Pack" Pinterest board

Private Beaches All Day

In Thailand, we saw some truly awe-inspiring, I-can't-believe-nature-made-this beaches. They were remote, hidden, and had even been featured in movies freaking titled The Beach.

The only hiccup? Those "hidden" beaches were found decades ago. We were sharing them with a few thousand other tourists. And, not to be negative, but it's a little hard to enjoy even the world's prettiest beach when you can barely see the water from where you stand on the sand.

And then we arrived in the Philippines.

In Philippines, we saw beaches just as amazing, if not even more ridiculously beautiful. The difference this time was that there were very few people around. Sometimes, there were no people around. (Thanks to Tao Philippines for brining us to remote islands.) 

We found ourselves in a reverse-Castaway situation. We knew there were other people on the island somewhere and that we had a way off... but what if we just sort of hid and waited until they left and then we could stay forever... that was the train of thought. 

Now, I'm not just bragging. This post does have a purpose. (At least I think it does. As usual.)

Before we left Denver, we met a couple who had just returned from a year-long trip and had visited a lot of the same places we'd be going. They told us that they had expected to like Thailand a lot more than they did, since they found it overrun with tourists. And, they told us about the incredible month they'd spent in the Philippines, strongly advising that we added it to our list. Did we listen? Sort of. 

Sometimes in life, and definitely in the travel-life we've been living, you can't just take someone's word for it. You need to go and see it for yourself. Even if you know what you're getting into, you just need to have the experience firsthand. And so, we planned for four weeks in Thailand and just over two in the Philippines. 

Thailand had been at the top of our lists for a long time. The iconic long tail boats, diving in turquoise water, the addictive spicy food... I could go on and on. But because we'd heard from a few different fellow travelers that Thailand was a step beyond well traveled, we tried to keep our expectations in check. Then, before we knew it, three weeks turned into four and we were spending a month there.

We'd never have skipped it. We needed to see it for ourselves. (And we did have some great times. Of course we did.) 

When we left, we found ourselves telling other people how we had liked it, but did think it was hard to find a unique experience since the entire country seems so accustomed to catering to tourists. Particularly of the young, wild, on-their-parents-dime variety. 

And then we arrived in the Philippines. Obvious differences aside (Philippines is a country made up of 7,000+ islands, Thailand is arguably more accessible, etc.), with minimal expectations for the Philippines, we were blown away.

Immediately after arriving in Coron, our first stop, we felt a refreshed sense of traveler-ness. We didn't see hoards of caucasians teens on iPhones or older couples walking arm in arm with their private guide. There were only one or two "tourist shops" on the main road, instead of occupying every other storefront (or worse, every storefront, a la Bangkok's Koh San Road). 

Even though others had offered their friendly advice and told us that the Philippines was better than Thailand - urgently throwing in, "exceptforthefood!" - we still had low expectations for Philippines and very high expectations for Thailand, a county that had been at the top of our list for years. 

We obviously didn't see all of either country. Are there parts of the Philippines that suck? Yes, pretty much every large city. Does Thailand have rural countryside waiting to be discovered? Probably. 

Maybe it's that we didn't try hard enough in Thailand to escape the well-beaten path and pack of tourists.* Maybe Palawan in the Philippines is still a hidden gem. No matter the reason we found Philippines beaches better than Thailand's*, we did. And we felt obliged to share that information with you. 

So, is Philippines the "new" Thailand? I think you'll have to go to both and then decide for yourself. Oh, come on, like you weren't going to anyway... 

* the one exception to all of this is that the Similan Islands, off Thailand's west coast, are pristine and amazing and void of tourists, since only liveaboard trips go there. Come to think of it, maybe the secret to private beaches is just a private boat......