Hi r/onebag,

My wife and I just spent 1 month in Europe on an extended honeymoon and had an absolutely amazing time. We visited:

• Italy: Florence (with day trips to the Tuscan countryside and Bologna), Rome, and Lake Como

• Spain: Barcelona and Seville

• Portugal: Lisbon and Porto (with a day trip to the Douro Valley)

• London

Needless to say it was a packed trip with a lot of movement between different places and I was so thankful to have a backpack throughout the whole trip. Here was my packing list:

Backpack: Aer Travel Pack 2

Clothes (packed in Eagle Creek Specter packing cubes):

• 3x t-shirts (2 Vuori Strato tech tees to wear, 1 generic cotton t-shirt to sleep in)

• 1x short sleeve dress shirt

• 1x casual long sleeve dress shirt

• 1x formal long sleeve dress shirt

• 4x underwear

• 1x Lulu ABC pants

• 1x Darn Tough ankle socks

• 1x no show socks

• 1x Patagonia crew length wool socks

• 1x dress slacks

• 1x workout shorts (mostly for sleeping in)

• 1x Patagonia Nano Air (either wearing in transit or strapped to the side of the bag using the compression straps and a carabiner)

• 1x toiletries kit (see below for more info)

Wearing in transit:

• 1x Lulu ABC pants

• 1x underwear (obviously lol)

• 1x t-shirt (Vuori Strato Tech Tee)

• 1x Darn Tough no show socks

• 1x Allbirds wool runners

Tech:

• 1x over ear noise cancelling headphones

• 1x battery pack

• 1x universal charger

• 5x misc charging cables

Toiletries (Peak Designs Small Wash Pouch):

• 1x travel sized electric toothbrush

• 1x beard trimmer

• 1x deodorant

• 1x hair gel

• 1x floss

• 1x comb

• 1x toothpaste

• 1x nail clippers

Other:

• 1x white sneakers

• 1x sunglasses

• 1x backup glasses

• 7x laundry detergent sheets

• 1x Aer Go sling 2

• 1x packable daypack

• 1x carabiner

Takeaways:

• Overall, I was honestly super happy with the amount that I packed. My bag still had a little bit of space in it, so in retrospect, it might have been nice to pack one more shirt (maybe a long sleeve henley or another short sleeve dress shirt) just to give myself a bit more variety with my clothes (it was my honeymoon after all!). But other than that, everything worked out really great. I did laundry every 4-ish days (either sink washing or using the laundry machine in our AirBNB), and I always tried to do it on the morning of the 5th day (i.e. the day I'm wearing my final outfit) so that I had the whole day and evening for things to dry. Despite having mostly quick dry clothes, we did have some issues with our clothes drying depending on the climate (more on that below).

• I know it's not a popular opinion here but I was very happy that I had 2 pairs of shoes. The Allbirds were great for long days filled with walking and sightseeing, but they aren't the most fashionable. Whereas the white sneakers were the exact opposite: extremely fashionable but not quite as comfortable, so it was good for going out to dinner/cocktail bars or in smaller cities where things were mostly nearby.

• I said it above already but man when you're moving around as much as we did, having a backpack makes such a tremendous difference (my wife had an Osprey Fairview 40L and a Longchamp purse). I saw so many travelers having trouble with their large suitcases on the cobblestone streets or struggling to find space in the overhead compartments of the trains (whereas my wife and I kept our bags in our laps when the trains were crowded). At every stage of the trip we were able to move so much faster than all the people around us and it made the whole experience so much smoother.

• With that said, having a backpack rather than a roller does make you more vulnerable to theft. On the train ride from Lisbon to Porto, I got up to get something from my bag and saw that it was open. The person behind me apologized and said they were looking for their jacket then quickly scurried away, and a few moments later I realized they were definitely trying to steal something from my bag. Thankfully the Aer TP2 has so many pockets and zippers that it makes it hard to steal something unless you know exactly what you're looking for: that's actually one of the reasons I prefer the compression straps being over the zippers rather than beneath the zippers like in the Aer TP3 -- it's a great theft deterrent! We were extremely diligent about keeping an eye on our things throughout our trip (I kept things in my sling strapped to my chest and never had anything in my pockets), so it was crazy that I almost got pickpocketed after letting my guard down for just a few moments. We were in a first class carriage so I just really didn't expect it...

• I had to pack dress slacks and a formal dress shirt because we went to a 3 Michelin star restaurant in Rome (I used my white sneakers as dress shoes). It's unfortunate that I only wore that outfit once, but the good news is that I avoided having to pack a blazer by reaching out to the restaurant and asking them beforehand about it. They had a complimentary blazer for me to use for the evening, which saved me a ton of space in my bag! A good lesson that it never hurts to ask about things like that, the worst they can say is no.

• The one thing I really wished I had brought was a travel/portable clothesline for drying clothes. We had access to a drying rack about half of the time, but for the other half of the time, we had to lay them flat or use hangers. I thought that would be sufficient, but some of the climates were fairly cold and/or our housing didn't get any direct sunlight, so some of my clothes developed a weird sweaty smell from not drying properly. My wife swore that she couldn't smell it when she was sitting next to me so it wasn't a huge deal, but one of my biggest fears is being a smelly traveler lol so I'll make sure to bring a clothesline next time just for my own sanity. The smell went away once we got access to a proper drying rack.

• My wife and I debated about whether or not to bring an iPad and I'm really glad I didn't. For the longer flights, the seatback entertainment had plenty of options and most of our train rides/flights within Europe were 1-3 hours so downloading episodes/podcasts on my phone was more than sufficient.