[00:00] Today is the last day of my European backpack trip and tomorrow I'm going to head home and show you exactly how I packed. If you happen to catch my first video you're going to want to be sure to stick around because I've learned quite a bit over the course of this trip. All right so I made it home.
[00:14] This is the bag I used for my three month trip. I went with this bag because not only is it a high quality bag but it also fits within the allotted carry on dimensions for all major airlines. I'm quite broke and sometimes those check bag fees can get pretty ridiculous. So sticking to a carry
[00:30] on size can help save you a lot of money. It's also a wise move to opt for a smaller bag because you'll be hauling it everywhere. Be it public transportation or walk into a hostel when you reach a new city. That bag is going to be with you. I've even had to walk 45 minutes to reach my hostel so you
[00:44] should aim to keep your bag is compact and is lightweight as possible. All right let's get into the contents. So I decided to go with three packing cubes. This one has my shirts, this one has my shorts
[01:00] and this one has my tech gear and some miscellaneous stuff. First I'll go through all of my clothing and then I'll show you everything else I brought with me. So in this packing cube I have a raincoat,
[01:12] a thin quarter zip, two long sleeve athletic fit shirts and one two three four five t-shirts. I also kept my detergent sheets in this packing cube to make my clothes smell better. These are also
[01:28] a nice item to have because they're compact and they'll probably save you a lot of money at laundromats. Almost all of these shirts are athletic material. There's really three reasons for this.
[01:40] The first reason is that this material doesn't really wrinkle. When you're backpacking you're always going to be stuffing your clothes down into a really condensed space and standard shirt types just get really wrinkly. When I was in Zagreb I stained one of my shirts really bad and I had to buy a
[01:55] new one and I went with this cotton one and I definitely regret that decision because I could only really wear it at the beginning of my laundry cycle because after that it would just get really
[02:07] wrinkly when it was in my back. The second reason is that your clothes are going to get smelly really fast. On days where you're sightseeing you're going to be doing a ton of walking and the last thing you're going to want to do is laundry. Sometimes hostels will have a laundry service but typically
[02:22] you're going to have to go to a laundry mat and burn some of your precious travel time. You don't want to be doing your laundry when you could be chilling on a beach in Greece. You just don't. The third and final reason is that these shirts are just smaller. They weigh less and they're going to take up
[02:37] less space and again you want to keep everything as small as possible. So in my opinion athletic cut shirts are the way to go. This is my second packing cube with all of my shorts and pants. The philosophy
[02:50] here is quite similar to my shirts. All four pairs of my shorts are athletic material and my two pairs of pants are very lightweight. One thing I do want to mention though is that if you are traveling between February and early May, probably don't bring a swimsuit. I only wore my swimsuit twice and it
[03:09] probably wasn't worth the space. If you want to see what the weather is going to look like when you're going on your trip and to the places that you're planning on going, an easy way you can do that is go on Google and search the average temperature by month for each city that you're visiting. That'll give
[03:25] you a pretty good range on how high the temperature will be to how low it might get. Finally I would recommend that you pick colors for your shirts and for your pants that you can mix and match really easily.
[03:37] I don't really think it makes sense to have any flashy piece of clothing because it's just not going to match with everything and when you're backpacking you kind of need everything to match because sometimes certain clothing items are going to get really smelly and you can only wear a couple items
[03:53] when you get towards the end of your laundry cycle. For the rest of my clothing I have seven pairs of underwear and seven pairs of socks. I don't think I need to show you that in excruciating detail because it's my underwear. I also brought this warmer coat which was really
[04:08] nice especially when I was getting towards the northern countries and I also brought a winter hat and I picked up a pair of winter gloves when I was in Prague. So once again check that range of temperatures and pack accordingly to when you are taking your trip. One really important item to have
[04:25] if you're staying in hostels is a padlock. Some hostels will provide their own lock and locker system but most will just give you a locker and it's on you to bring a padlock to lock up that stuff.
[04:38] This is the water bottle I use. It has a filter but you probably don't need one because most tap water in Europe is safe to drink. This is my third packing cube. So first up I have my first aid kit which
[04:50] consists of allergy pills, band aids, motion sickness pills, vitamin C pills, some wet wipes, some stain removing wipes, neosporin, tissue, lip balm and nail clippers. Also in my tech packing
[05:06] cube I packed my external hard drive to save all the footage I was capturing, my drone controller and my drone. I want to note here that you should get creative with how you store all of your stuff.
[05:20] For me I couldn't bring a big bulky drone case so I used a sock and an old sunglasses case to put my drone in. And then for my external hard drive I just use an old gum case. Find different
[05:36] things around your room in your house to store your stuff in and it's free. I also brought this all in one charger that has adapters for any conceivable outlet that you may run into. For pretty much all of the EU you're going to have that same two-pronged plug but in other places sometimes you'll have
[05:53] different plugs. So it's nice to have something that's versatile and can be used anywhere. It's also nice just to have one plug because a lot of the time in hostels you're only going to get one outlet or you're going to have to fight other people to get a second outlet so it's nice just to have one
[06:09] thing you plug it in and you can charge all of your stuff at once. I also brought a tripod for my phone, my earbuds, an extra SD card, some spare drone parts, and an SD card reader. Now I'm going to show you
[06:24] everything I put in the top pocket of my bag. I put some of my most frequently used items in this top pocket because this was the most accessible pocket for me so for instance my toilet kit. If I were
[06:37] you I would probably invest in a real toilet kit. I just used this plastic baggie and it worked for me it lasted throughout the trip but everything in there kind of got a little gross and I think it's
[06:50] probably better just to have separate compartments. I'm just super thrifty and that's kind of how I roll so I went with a plastic baggie but anyway in my toilet kit I packed a toothbrush and I think it's really important to have a toothbrush cover so your toilet kit doesn't get super messy, deodorant,
[07:07] another chapstick toothpaste that I actually bought in Austria. Depending on the length of your trip you're going to go through a couple tubes of toothpaste and also a couple toothbrushes but those are easy things to get while you're out and about. Also it's super important to bring your
[07:22] own soap. Almost none of the hustles I stayed in had soap. I just went with a two-in-one soap because it's easier for me and finally also a razor. Also in this top pocket I kept face stick sunscreen
[07:36] an extra copy of my passport and phone numbers to call just in case my credit cards got still and finally this little bag that I kept my face mask, melatonin pills and ear plugs in. I think
[07:49] all three are important especially if you're staying in hostile rooms. Innevitably people are going to be moving around and making noise and sometimes turning the lights on and these things can help you
[08:02] stay asleep or get to sleep. I think it's really nice to have all of these things in one place because you can get to the hostel and just pull out your little sleeping kit and you can have your ear plugs in your face mask and your melatonin pills all in one place and you don't have to
[08:16] rummage around your bag and worry about waking other people up. So I also brought this travel-size yoga mat because I'm a workout fin and it's really difficult to get workouts in while you're traveling.
[08:28] So for me this travel yoga mat worked perfectly. I could just throw it out in the house room or in an Airbnb or wherever and get a solid workout in. Also this microfiber towel I think
[08:40] is imperative. Most hostels will charge between two and five euros for a towel rental and if you're broke like me you just can't be adding on that additional cost every night so I think it's worth it to
[08:53] have a microfiber towel with you because it compacts down. It can get a little smelly but you can also use it on the beach or at a park. I also brought a baseball cap but I didn't really wear it that
[09:05] often in general. I don't wear baseball caps that much so I don't really know why I brought it but if you do bring one if you don't, probably don't. I also brought a laundry bag and I put deodorizing balls in there and that helped a lot with that smell. You really do want a laundry bag so you can
[09:23] distinguish the smelly clothes from a clean clothes. Otherwise if you just throw them on your bag they're all gonna get mixed up and everything's just gonna smell bad. And then also I brought some sunglasses. It's pretty self explanatory. And finally a collapsible day pack which worked super
[09:40] nicely for me whenever I was going on day trips I would pull out this bag and also under this flap when I wasn't traveling I kept my passport and that extra copy of my passport and those emergency phone numbers just because I wanted to minimize the chance of losing my passport. As soon as I checked into a
[09:56] hostel I would always put it there and put it in the locker and not think about it until I went to the next city because you really can't afford to lose your passport. I would turn into an entire day probably at an embassy trying to figure it out and get a new passport. So in my opinion when you're
[10:11] not traveling and when you're not checking into a hostel probably don't keep your passport on you just lock it away in the locker and keep it summer safe. And finally this is the bag that I would always keep on me and it consists of a power bank which I would really consider investing in a good
[10:28] one because when you're traveling your phone is your lifeline and if your phone dies you're kind of screwed because at least for me I use my phone for directions. I use it to find food. I use it.
[10:46] Hi mom. So tell me? Yeah. Oh I'm afraid that I'm going to go to home. I'm okay right now thank you though. Okay yeah. I use it to talk to your mom. You use it
[11:04] to film. I can't. I don't know if you can see it. Now you can maybe see it. Use my phone to film. The point is you don't want your phone to die so invest in a good power bank. Also I kept my microphone on me to film vlogs. If you want to see what a day in the life of someone backpacking Europe looks
[11:20] like you should check those out and also I kept my wallet on me. One important thing to note is that in Europe discover is not very widely accepted. I really almost couldn't find anywhere where it was
[11:32] accepted so make sure you have a visa card or a master card option and a power cord so I could charge my phone. You guys happen to catch my initial packing video. My number one suggested change so far
[11:46] is do not pack white shoes. My shoes are so scuffed. The hookers are great shoes I will say but don't get white ones because they're going to get really messy. Now I'm going to show you how I would prep and
[11:59] wear my bag for a flight. So on to the flight I would wear all of my heaviest clothing to keep my bag looking as small as possible and to avoid a checked bag fee. I would also wear this onto the flight. Now I would take my laptop out and my water bottle and put it into my collapsible bag and make this my
[12:15] personal item and then I would fold away all of my straps on my backpack and turn it into kind of a duffel bag looking thing which is a super nice feature of this bag by the way and yeah nobody ever
[12:28] gave me any grief and honestly I think you could probably get away with having a slightly bigger bag than the allotted dimensions because my bag was on the cusp and it was never weighed or measured
[12:41] on each of my six flights. If you have any interest in purchasing an Osprey bag I'd appreciate it if you'd use my affiliate link in the description. I've really put this bag through its paces and I can confidently say that it's a phenomenal bag. The next video for this
[12:56] channel is going to be a cost breakdown video for my entire trip so if you want to see that and vlogs from every city that I visited you should go check out my channel. In each of those videos I give city specific tips on how to make your money last while you're in Europe
[13:11] so subscribe for that.