The short version
- One 40-litre bag. Five days of clothes. Nothing checked.
- Wear the heavy things on the plane. Pack in fours, not fives.
- Roll anything soft, fold anything with a crease, shoes at the hinge.
Why this matters
The bag you check can be delayed, opened, or sent to a different city. The bag you carry cannot. You also stop paying the €30–50 each way that the cheap fares charge for a checked bag, which on a four-day trip is often more than the ticket.
There is a second saving that nobody mentions. When you pack light, you can walk out of the airport instead of standing at a belt. You can take the tram. You can change your plans at 9pm without moving a suitcase. The trip gets simpler at both ends.
What goes in the bag
Wear the heavy things on the plane, even if it is warm. Trousers, a shirt, a jumper, a jacket, the bulkier pair of shoes, a belt, a watch. That is a day of clothing you are not carrying.
In the bag:
- 4 t-shirts, plus the one you travel in.
- 4 pairs of underwear and 4 pairs of socks. One per day, plus the pair you travel in.
- 1 spare pair of trousers. Dark, no crease you have to protect.
- 1 long-sleeve shirt for an evening.
- 1 pair of shorts and 1 pair of swim shorts if the trip has water or heat.
- 1 light rain shell. It weighs 200 grams and saves a day.
- 2 pairs of shoes in total. One on your feet, one flat in the bag. That is the rule, not a target.
- Toiletries under 100ml, in a clear bag, in an outside pocket.
- Charger, one cable, one adapter if you are leaving the EU.
- One book. One.
- Documents: ID, cards, booking on your phone and on paper.
That is roughly 12 litres of clothing and 8 of everything else. A 40-litre bag has room to spare, which is the point. A bag you can close without sitting on it is a bag you can repack in a hotel room in four minutes.
The five days, day by day
- Day 1, travel: trousers, shirt, jumper, jacket, heavier shoes. All of it worn, none of it packed.
- Day 2: the same trousers, t-shirt one, the jumper if it is cold.
- Day 3: t-shirt two, shorts if the weather turned.
- Day 4: the long-sleeve shirt, trousers, the packed shoes. This is the evening you look like you planned it.
- Day 5: t-shirt three, jumper, travel home in the heavier shoes if they fit better with the bag on your back.
Nobody counts how many times you wore the trousers. Nobody notices. The only person keeping score is you, and you are on holiday.
Roll or fold
Roll the soft things: t-shirts, underwear, socks, swim shorts. Roll tight from the hem, tuck the ends, and stand them upright in the bag so you can see all of them at once. Rolled clothes fill gaps and crease less than a folded stack that gets compressed for six hours.
Fold the stiff things: shirts, trousers, anything with a crease you care about. Fold along the existing creases, then in half, then lay it flat against the back panel of the bag. A folded shirt in the middle of a bag arrives looking like it was folded in the middle of a bag.
Pack in this order: shoes first, at the hinge end, filled with socks. Heavy items against your back if it is a backpack. Rolled clothes in the gaps. Folded clothes flat on top. Toiletries in the outside pocket where you can reach them at security without opening the whole bag.
What to skip
Packing cubes. One pouch for cables and one for toiletries is enough. Four colour-coded cubes in a 40-litre bag eat the space they claim to save, and you spend ten minutes at the other end unzipping them. A travel iron. Steam from a hot shower and a night on a hanger does more, and every hotel will lend you an iron if you ask. Four pairs of shoes. Two is the maximum, and the third pair is a decision you make at home and regret at the airport. A capsule wardrobe sold as a set. It is five grey items for €400.
What it costs
A basic 40-litre cabin backpack is €40–70 and will survive a few years of budget airlines if you are careful with the zips. €100–180 buys a clamshell bag with a proper harness, a warranty, and a laptop sleeve. A hard-shell cabin roller is €60–150. The €15 supermarket holdall fits the sizer and fails at the zip within a year. Two stuff sacks, €10–15, do more than any cube. A bag that lasts: €120–200. Everything else on this list you already own.
The bag is not the hard part. The hard part is deciding at home that four t-shirts are enough. They are.
Do this today
Lay five days of clothes on the bed. Then take away one t-shirt, one pair of socks, and the third pair of shoes. Put the rest in the bag and close it. If it does not close now, it will not close at 6am on Friday.
