8 min read
And travel the world with a small backpack.
I’ve written several posts about how to pack into a small backpack and travel the world with it without limitations. In this article I’ll try to summarize and update it all — every piece of gear I actually carry to live and work out of one small bag, anywhere in the world. Fully packed, it all comes in under 7 kg.
The backpack
“Carry-on luggage” size (55 cm × 40 cm × 20 cm) is too big and too bulky for me on longer trips.
If you’re really a minimalist, try to pack into a “cabin bag” size (40 cm × 30 cm × 20 cm), which is the maximum carry-on size allowed by Ryanair/Wizzair without paying anything extra. A 14-inch laptop fits in there too. I traveled around Europe like this for months and it really works, especially in summer. The largest backpack that meets these dimensions is the BetWay Cabin Pro, and you can buy it for example on Alza.
Right now I’m treating myself to some “comfort” and traveling with the Travel Pack 4 Small (X-Pac, 28 L) backpack — the current version. Durable and waterproof. I definitely wouldn’t go any bigger.
Alternatively, if you’re a connoisseur, have a backpack tailor-made to your wishes (it’s really very light).
An indispensable part of my big backpack is a daily, waterproof, tiny backpack — the Travel Daypack bag — which I use for day trips or shopping.
Electronics
My main computer is a System76 Lemur laptop (third generation already); it’s the only powerful and at the same time rugged 14″ Linux laptop that weighs 990 grams. Laptops heavier than a kilogram don’t interest me as a traveler. In this category, the Lemur is absolutely unrivaled.
That said, more and more often I leave even the Lemur at home and travel in a “light version” — completely without a laptop. I just use my phone in desktop mode (plugged into any monitor it turns into a full computer) and carry a small foldable iClever BK08 keyboard, an HDMI-HDMI cable, and an AXAGON HMC-5G2 USB-C dock to go with it. If you want to set this up yourself, I described the whole thing step by step in The Laptop-Free Era Is Here!.
The rest of my electronics:
- One charger — the Arsmel VisaGo 100 W travel adapter — for the laptop and all my USB-A/C devices, and it doubles as an adapter for every socket in the world. It’s reportedly the world’s smallest 100 W travel adapter (GaN, with a built-in voltage display) — just as small as a trivial charger, yet with a full 100 W it easily powers my Lemur (which draws 65 W) and everything else at once. I count every gram, and this is the smallest 100 W I’ve found.
- Two phones — a Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold and a Google Pixel Fold, both with GrapheneOS, with a more or less identical configuration. The Molly client can run as a Signal client, so from both phones at once I can reply to Signal or WhatsApp messages (Business version). The phone is an absolutely key survival device for me (and I can’t buy a Google Pixel anywhere in Latin America if mine breaks). A huge advantage — I use the phones as power banks for each other, so I charge one with the other and vice versa (this also works with the new iPhones). I don’t carry a power bank with me; it’s too heavy and causes problems at airport security checks.
- Two pairs of headphones — the Shokz OpenRun Pro2 (on Alza), great for hiking and cycling (since they’re quality “bone conduction” headphones, I can hear everything happening on the road). For swimming I use the H2O TRI 2 PRO (the quality is lower and I’m not sure it can be dramatically improved for swimming). For important video calls I use the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2.
- Even Realities G2 B smart glasses and the Even R1 smart ring — these help me enormously with navigation and with interactive translation: they write live subtitles of what people are saying in other languages straight into my field of view. The glasses have a discreet display and no camera (so they stay privacy-friendly), and the R1 ring controls them with simple tap and scroll gestures. For me this is the first genuinely useful piece of augmented reality.
- Garmin Fénix 8 Pro with satellite + LTE communication (unfortunately the Inreach program doesn’t work outside Europe and North America) with its charging cable or a handy USB-C adapter. I can no longer imagine any longer hike or cycling trip without my Garmin watch.
- Flipper Zero — the most elite, tiny hacker’s toy. You can back up your hotel key cards, turn TVs off and control them, switch on air conditioners (for example, it once happened to me that a cheaper room without A/C turned out to actually have A/C, they just didn’t give me the remote — and thanks to the Flipper Zero I emulated one 🙂 The possibilities of this device are practically unlimited, if you know them and can use them.
- Oura Ring — this ring annoys me a bit, because I’m already on my third one and the battery still lasts too little. Fortunately it takes up minimal space. (I’m currently testing the new RingConn Gen 3 as a possible replacement.)
- Universal opener, knife, screwdriver, saw — since it’s shaped like a key, it usually slips through airport security for me.
- USB-C car charger — an unexpected thing at first glance, but I often rent a car where it’s missing, and it’s tiny and compact.
- Pebblebee tracking tags (on the phone, in the passport case) — in case I forget or lose it somewhere.
- (Optional) SmartGo Poke FI — global, cheapest Internet (I only take it to Asia and Africa, since all of Europe and all of the Americas are covered by my Paraguayan Personal operator, where I have 80 GB/month). For cheap eSIMs in general, the best prices I’ve found are on Globalyo — I especially recommend their 365-day plans: Global Explorer 100 (100 countries) and Global Explorer 150 (150 countries).
- (Optional) DJI Mini 4 Pro — sometimes I carry a small 249-gram drone with me.
- (Optional) DJI Osmo Pocket 3 — the best portable video recording studio. I carry it when there’s a chance of meeting interesting people I’d like to record a podcast with.
Clothing
I admit I have it very easy with clothing — most of the time I dress the same way, and I just change countries depending on whether I’m too hot or too cold. I’m a Uniqlo maximalist, so I have 95% of my things from this brand. They’re very compact, with the best properties, the smallest number of cubic centimeters, and at a good price. Standardly I have:
- 3–5 ultra-light t-shirts
- 5 pieces of underwear
- 2–3 pairs of socks (otherwise I don’t normally wear socks, only in trekking shoes)
- 1 HeatTech extra-warm shirt / merino sweater
- 1 pair of trousers
- 1 pair of bermuda shorts
- 1 pair of swim trunks and prescription swimming goggles
- 1 packable wind- and waterproof jacket
Once a week I wash my things — in a public laundromat or I rent an apartment with a washing machine.
Down jackets, hiking poles, or other bulky items I always (and quite regularly) rent at tourist centers anywhere in the world.
Footwear
I’m a member of the barefoot religion, so I carry the best Luna sandals or foldable Wildling shoes for getting around the city / short distances. For trekking I use the Vivo Barefoot Magna Forest ESC; in the black version they’re suitable not only for the mountains but are also elegant for giving talks. I’ve also recently become the happy owner of Goral barefoot shoes — they’re expensive, but they come with a lifetime repair guarantee.
Other things
- Toothbrush + toothpaste (something to consider: whether an analog one is enough for you or you want an electric one)
- A cheap sleep mask — for sleeping on planes and in bright rooms
- 2 passports (when I’m arranging visas somewhere, I often have to hand in one passport; similarly, if I want to go to both Armenia and Azerbaijan at the same time, I need two passports…)
- A bunch of my ID and driver’s licenses (I have a lot of them, but they all fit into one small wallet)
- A yellow-fever vaccination certificate (some Latin American countries require it on arrival)
- My personal oddity: a current apostilled criminal-record extract and birth certificate, translated into Spanish/English, in case I want to arrange another temporary/permanent residence somewhere “along the way”
Packing optimizations
- Every time I pack, I check whether there’s something in the backpack I haven’t used for weeks — if so, I usually throw it out
- I try to be a completely USB-C-device-only person. Despite that, I have one classic USB cable (for charging on the plane, in a rented car where there’s no USB-C)
- I have only one pair of trousers (and shorts for while I wash that one pair of trousers)
- I have only one pair of barefoot shoes and sandals. When they wear out, I replace them at the first shoe shop with new ones
- A plastic belt has also made my life easier — I don’t have to take it off at airport security checks (even better is not to use any)
- Everything can be rented (at every ski center I’ve never had a problem renting complete ski gear; in Patagonia I rented complete hiking gear including trekking boots; in Nepal it was even possible to rent swim trunks 🙂
What I NEVER carry
- A power bank, which is heavy and problematic at airport security (instead I have two phones that I charge from each other)
- A towel, shampoo, shower gel — there’s always some at the hotel, and when there isn’t, I go to the pool or the sauna
- An umbrella, comb, swim cap — I don’t understand these things at all 🙂
- No shaving gear — instead I support the local barber scene or live the life of a lumbersexual 🙂
- No papers or books — all flight tickets, certificates, tickets… I have in digital form. And when my phone dies, I have a second one to show it on. The fetish for physical books is romantic, but you don’t want to lug any book around for half a year
- No medicines (at most some “emergency kit”), unless you’re planning a trip somewhere completely outside civilization where there are no pharmacies (which are almost everywhere, even in rural Ethiopia). Local medicines in a given country are usually more effective against local diseases / parasites than the ones you bring with you
