I’ve made a few packing mistakes. But who can blame me? It’s my first ever time backpacking.
If you don’t know already, I recently quit my job in London, packed up my flat and started backpacking through Asia with my boyfriend.
We’re two months into our backpacking travels, with no definite end in sight. Along the way, we’ve realised we could have packed a lot better.
So, here I am giving you some advice. Hoping you don’t make the same mistakes that I did.
Mistake 1: Buying packing cubes instead of compression cubes
This was a rookie mistake on my behalf. I’d watched countless videos of packing for backpacking, and still I made this error.
I was so sure I had ordered the right things on Amazon, but it wasn’t until I went through my backpack with my boyfriend that I realised my mistake.
As he was with his family in Wales before our departure, we met in Stansted Airport, the night before our first flight.
Once I saw his suctioned bags and how many bags he could include within his backpack, I had to laugh at myself. I had one – ONE – packing cube of clothes. That’s all I could fit in my backpack. The alarm bells probably should have rung before now.
I had ordered packing cubes, not compression cubes, that would have allowed for more space. So, make sure you order bags that compress, not ones that just allow you to separate your clothing.
Mistake 2: Packing too many clothes
I think this was always going to be inevitable. During the week leading up to leaving, I went through my pile of clothes every night, reducing the number of items by 3-5 pieces. Until I was left with the right amount that could fit inside my packing cube.
But still, I packed too many clothes. There are clothing items that I’ve worn once in the two months that I’ve been backpacking. And clothes that I haven’t even put on yet.
You might think you’ll need all of the clothes you can pile in, but really you’ll only need a few pieces – and make sure they’re the right pieces.
Which leads me to my next backpacking mistake.
Mistake 3: Not packing enough light and breathable clothes
I packed for style over practicality. And boy, was that a mistake.
I was naive to think the clothes I had packed would be humidity-proof. So now, I’m left wearing the same two tops in rotation because they’re the lightest pieces of clothing I’ve brought with me. Plus, they won’t be soaked in sweat after two minutes.
I’m battling 35-degree weather in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Cambodia, and believe me, the sweat is real. Looking back, I wish I had packed so many more cheap light-weight tops from Primark, rather than stylish waistcoats and summer knitwear style tops from River Island, H&M and Zara.
I’m already planning to send a lot of my clothes home once we make it to Bangkok, so I can go shopping and buy more practical-style clothing that will actual be wearable in this heat.
It’s not stylish to be a sweaty mess, believe me.
Mistake 4: Not considering my warmer clothes that I started out with
We started our travels in Bucharest, Romania. It wasn’t going to be the desert heat of Dubai, or the beach sun of Sri Lanka. So I needed warmer clothes.
During the first few days, I was wearing a thick jumper and a pullover fleece, along with my leggings.
Did I practice packing my backpack with those items included, when it was time to wear my lighter clothes? Of course not.
So I had to get inventive. Those clothes have remained in my backpack for the past two months, never worn again and are taking up valuable real estate in my backpack.
Looking back, I should have layered up with the light clothes I had and brought only the lightweight fleece.
Mistake 5: Not packing a long dress for visiting temples
Temples are a big deal in Asia, and they make up a lot of the tourist attractions in the cities and islands that we’ve visited.
To enter a temple, as a female, you need to have your shoulders and knees covered. This means no strap/tank tops and no shorts/skirts. Which, in 35-degree heat, is a challenging feat.
I’ve been wearing long trousers and my only long-sleeved shirt that I’ve packed. Which allows me entry to the temples, but also makes me overheat like crazy.
If I was to pack again, I would make sure to have a short sleeved, floaty dress that came to my shins that was lightweight but also did the job of covering my shoulders and knees. Either that, or bringing a sarong for my shoulders.
Mistake 6: Not investing in Birkenstocks
Birkenstock sandals are a way of life out here in Asia it seems. Everyone’s wearing them. I didn’t want to splurge £100 on a pair of sandals that I’d be wearing on beaches and dirt roads, but it seems like I should have.
I opted to buy a pair from New Look, that looked pretty similar. However, after a few days of wearing them, the sole was starting to wear away.
A few weeks later and they ended dup in a bin in Koh Samui, Thailand. I’m currently sandal-less and swapping between my £1 Primark flip flops and my running trainers.
As you can probably guess, my £1 Primark flip flops are also on their way out, but holding strong.
Mistake 7: Packing perfume
What a stinker, I know. But, hear me out here.
I used to work in fragrance. Before I left to backpack Asia, I worked for Gucci and Burberry Beauty and lived every day around makeup and fragrance.
So of course, I had to bring my favourite perfume with me while travelling. However, after leaving Dubai, my 100ml bottle of Burberry Goddess has sat in my toiletry bag untouched.
Once I step out of my hotel room, the humidity hits. No perfume is masking the smells of Thailand or Cambodia, mix that with sweat and tropical rainstorms.
Plus, the only perfume I’m wearing these days in bug spray – that stuff is potent enough.
Mistake 8: Packing too much makeup
Sticking with the beauty theme, my next mistake was packing too much makeup.
I packed my entire makeup bag, plus around three blushers, two mascaras, a huge bronzer and about ten lip glosses.
Have I applied makeup since the first week of backpacking? No, I have not.
There’s simply no point as I’d sweat it off as soon as I stepped out of my hotel room, plus there is a lot of exhaust fumes and pollution in the air which mixed with makeup, would not be any good for my skin.
And I don’t want to go back to looking like this with my severe acne.
I know I’ll need it when I eventually land in Australia, but it’s slightly annoying carrying around the extra weight of beauty products that I haven’t used in 60 days.
Mistake 9: Not packing enough face sunscreen
This leads me nicely onto my next backpacking mistake. Not packing enough face sunscreen.
Since I’m not wearing makeup anymore, I need to make sure my face is super-protected from the 35-degree sun.
I had a small bottle of Lancaster SPF 50 face cream with me, which my face agreed with. But I got through that so quickly, and with the heat, the liquid had started to split inside.
I’d tried Super Goop before, back in London but wasn’t a fan of the paste-like texture for my skin. I bought a new bottle of Super Goop in Sephora in Kuala Lumpur, which is a lotion-based SPF 50 face suncream and it’s been working very well.
I just wish I’d brought more of this with me starting out, as I’m going to have to keep buying more as I go, and every time I see a Sephora.
Mistake 10: Packing too many duplicates
This might seem contradictory to the above point, but we’d been warned before travelling that it was hard or very expensive to buy toiletries in Asia.
So off I went on my first flight with four bottles of bug spray, a litre bottle of shampoo and an entire pharmacy in my backpack.
We quickly realised that we probably didn’t need to go to these extreme lengths and (thankfully) haven’t yet needed to use much of the pharmacy we brought with us.
The 7-elevens in Thailand have a lot of toiletries for very cheap prices, plus the bug spray available out here is much stronger than the version we brought with us.
The only thing I would recommend (that was recommended to me) is to bring a lot of sanitary products for your period. Tampons/pads etc. are very expensive and hard to find out here.
I actually opted to buy period underwear before travelling and wish I had purchased them sooner. They’re the best things ever. I haven’t needed to use any period products, and they’re so sustainable and environmentally friendly.
I’d recommend trying these out and seeing how you get on, but I do have some products with me in my backpack as a back-up in case I need them.
Mistake 11: Bringing too much tech
You may already know, but I have a YouTube channel. I also have Instagram and TikTok like everyone else, but I record and make travel content.
I’m vlogging every part of our trip and blogging as I go, so brought all of my gear with me.
I have a vlog camera, a new video recorder, a GoPro, a Kindle, my MacBook, a power bank and every charger and adapter that goes with all of the above. I even have a mini microphone with me, a GoPro stick and a full phone tripod/stand. Not to mention my external hard drive as well.
I definitely regret bringing so much tech with me as it weighs me down, but I thought I would need all of it.
I still couldn’t bring myself to part with any of it if I was to try and repack.
Mistake 12: Buying a raincoat that isn’t a raincoat
Another mistake I made was buying a duster jacket. I wanted to buy a very light-weight raincoat that could fit inside my shoulder bag. So I bought a very light-weight Columbia jacket from ASOS that was waterproof and also UV-proof.
Perfect for when the sun was blazing and I needed protection, without the jacket making me too warm.
However, after getting caught in a rainstorm and wearing said jacket, I was soaked through to my skin. It turns out that my ‘raincoat’ doesn’t do a very good job at protecting me from the rain.
Mistake 13: Not having a rain protector for our backpacks
Another rain-centric mistake we made was not buying waterproof protection for our backpacks.
When browsing for backpacks to buy, we noticed some came with built-in rain covers and others didn’t. It also mentioned on the small print that if you stitched anything to your bag to identify it, this would remove the water-proof element of the bag.
So, we thought our Osprey backpacks were waterproof.
That was until we were in the back of a tuk tuk in Sri Lanka in the middle of a rain storm and our backpacks ended up soaked, with our clothes inside also soaked.
We’re still yet to buy rain covers, but we’ll definitely be needing them soon as we get further into the rainy season of Asia.
Mistake 14: Not packing a tote bag
This one is probably the most hilarious mistake that we made, since I have a ridiculous amount of tote bags at home and that I collected in London.
From free tote bags at events to tote bags I bought from almost every bookstore that I visited around the world.
And yet, I didn’t pack one in my backpack and we could have definitely used one. The only bags we have with us are our backpacks, smaller backpacks and my cross-body handbag.
But none of these are practical when it comes to going to the beach, or lounging by the pool. Something a tote bag would have been very handy for.
Plus, a tote bag would have taken up no room whatsoever. Instead, we rock up to the beach with a plastic bag. So chic.
Mistake 15: Packing too much and not leaving any space
The final mistake I’ve made in these sixty days (as you can see there are many) was not leaving any room in my backpack to buy things.
We’ve been to Romania, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Thailand and now Cambodia. Have I picked up any souvenirs along the way? No.
Because I have zero room in my backpack. There were t-shirts from coffee shops in Sri Lanka and Thailand that I really wanted to buy, but nowhere to put them.
Top tip: make sure you leave space in your bag to pack souvenirs!
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