Traveling for More Than Two Months
Traveling for longer than two months can be quite different than shorter trips. First, you need to pack slightly differently. A close friend of mine, and experienced traveler, uses the rule of ‘pack for two weeks, regardless of the length of trip – even if the trip is for a year.’ Unless you know you will be spending time in a single season, you will need to pack for multiple types of weather. If you will primarily be in a warm place, it’s advisable to pack a sweater or cardigan, and a medium-weight jacket, in addition to your regular clothing. In order to save space in your bag with slightly bulkier items, Space Bags can definitely help you. If you’re not familiar with them, they are a large plastic bag that you use to store clothing. Once you’ve put the clothing in, you seal the bag and then press the air out. Thus, bulky sweaters, fleece jackets, or anything else “fluffy” will be storable in a much smaller space. The bags also keep clothing clean, dry and fresh, as they are air-tight.
In general, packing for two+ months of travel depends on your needs. If you will be backpacking around in several places and constantly on the go, your clothing will need to be stronger and better quality. As such, packing two pairs of jeans might be smart for you. If you will primarily be staying in one place, then you’ll probably want to pack some extra clothing. Depending on your body type, it’s not always true that you can buy whatever you need wherever you are. If you’re particularly tall in a country where the average height is, say, 5’7″, you may have difficulties finding what you need. In some countries, the body size of people is just smaller or larger than you, and if you are outside that norm, you may have difficulties (unless you can find a shop specializing in smaller or larger sizes).
For example, a friend of mine went to Japan for a year, and he had to special order shoes from the United States – he’s 6’4″. While living in Buenos Aires for four months, I had difficulties finding shirts because I have a larger breast size than the vast majority of Argentine women. Also in Buenos Aires, I met a lady who was 5’11” – she had difficulty finding pants or skirts, because of her height. As such, if you will be staying someplace and feel you want to buy clothing there, or you may need to buy clothing there (for whatever reason), do a bit of research and decide whether or not you will need to bring more with you from home.
Most experienced, “long-haul” travelers pack very, very light. The longer you travel the less you want to haul a heavy bag up and down stairs. I met a guy who had a pair of cotton pants, a pair of jeans, a couple t-shirts, 3-4 pairs of underwear, a sweater (I think) and a jacket. That was it – and he was traveling through several countries and continents over the course of a year. I met a woman who had a single pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, a skirt, a couple tops, a few strappy tank tops (which doubled as undershirts and club wear), a sweater, a couple pairs of underwear and a jacket. She, too, would travel for months at a time.
On the other hand, I personally like to have more clothing than that when I travel. However, I’ve learned that I, too, detest hauling a heavy bag when I’m moving around frequently. For future 2+ month trips when I’m moving around frequently, I have a new strategy: better quality clothing and more inter-changeable clothing, and enough clothing for 1.5 weeks. For future trips when I will stay somewhere for 2+ months, then I will pack as I have in the past (enough clothing for 2-3 weeks, and a couple sweaters for seasonal changes). I recently went on a nine-month trip, and it included a mix of staying in one city for four months (during late spring and summer), and of traveling around frequently for five months (during winter, spring and summer). The way I packed for the portion where I stayed put was definitely not the way to pack for moving around frequently.
As I traveled, I “shed” clothes in different places – either because the clothing wore out, because I bought something new and needed space for that, or because I simply wanted a lighter bag. On the five-month leg of my trip, I was lucky because I had a friend I could leave things with in London. A couple times, I detoured through London and would leave some things with him – once, when the weather was changing and I wanted to lighten up my assortment of winter clothes, and another time because I wanted to go shopping for brand new clothes, at the very end of my trip. In the end, I bought another piece of luggage to bring home the items I’d purchased while traveling. However, most people will not have this kind of luxury, so you will need to pack a bit more wisely than I originally did. If you don’t, your options are this: leave the clothing behind (regardless of its level of wear) or mail it home. Unless you are absolutely sure you will wear it often or that it won’t get worn out from being worn often, leave your favorite clothing at home. Believe me, you’ll think twice about mailing clothing home after you’ve paid international postal fees.
There are different strategies for packing, depending on whether you will be moving around frequently, and for staying in a single place. If you are staying in a single place, then you do not have the burden (literally) of hauling your bag around frequently. As such, it is fine to pack a little extra. However, if you are moving around frequently, you will appreciate a lighter bag and you will very likely not need many changes of clothing.
White shirts are lovely, but if you can wear them twice without having to wash them, you’re not doing much and/or you are a rare person. This doesn’t mean all your clothing needs to be black. On the contrary, wear colors – just try to avoid anything that will easily show dust, dirt and wear, anything you can’t wash by hand or anything that requires dry cleaning. If you’re moving around every few days, the people in the next city are not going to know if you wore that outfit a couple days ago. As such, if you have good quality clothing, it will stand up to repeated wearing on a regular basis.
In general, you don’t want to have your bag completely full before you leave. There are generally occasions when you need the extra room – perhaps you’re not wearing your jacket on a particular day, or you’re traveling and have packed your jeans (instead of wearing them), you need shampoo and can only find a large container, or just because you buy something. I’ve found it’s a very rare traveler that doesn’t buy a couple things along the way – whether it’s souvenirs, music or new clothing. It’s also nice to have extra space in your bag for when you’re en route to somewhere else, as it’s much easier to be able to stow food and drink in your main bag, than to juggle another bag.
Aside from packing, it’s best to have an idea of what’s important to you while you’re traveling. Are you traveling to see particular sites? Are you staying somewhere because you’re taking a class or pursuing a personal interest? Are you going to a city to study a language? Are you traveling to relax? Even if you’re a religious person, you may get tired of churches and cathedrals after a while. I love art and museums, yet I still find that unless I’m going to a museum that has something specific I want to see, I get tired of museums – as a non-religious person, there is only so much religious art I can bear to view and most museums have quite a bit of it. You can only see so much of any one thing before it starts blurring together. With churches and art, especially, if you’re in Italy or France – there are just so many beautiful churches, cathedrals and art, that it’s difficult to see them all with fresh eyes.
If you are traveling to relax, you may wish to choose a destination that will hold few distractions for you. For some, being in a city is fine, yet others will want a small town or perhaps a beach. You also need to know how you will want to spend your time. Just want to laze away the days in a warm place? Then a beach may be the best choice for you. Do you want to unwind by taking tango lessons? Then the crowded city of Buenos Aires is the best place for you. Do you want to be isolated from everything? Then maybe you want to stay in a mountain-top fire lookout station.
If you are traveling to see particular sites (say, architecture), then be sure to break up that activity with other activities. The extra activity can be based on your own interest (maybe you enjoy going to the theater), or not. When you are traveling with a specific interest in mind, it is imperative to do other activities that will help you see your main interest with fresh eyes. Maybe you just spend part of a day at the zoo; maybe you take a class in dance; maybe you volunteer with children in a local orphanage. The important point is to inject some variety into your routine.
Even if you’re not traveling just to relax, you do need to schedule time to do nothing. If you’re traveling for several months or a year, plan to take mini-vacations during your vacation – spend a couple weeks on a beach, or just stay in the same place for a while. If you move around constantly, you’re apt to forget what city you’re in when you wake up, and all cities will start to blur together. When this happens, it defeats the purpose of your trip, as you could be anywhere. Remember, too, that if you’re traveling for more than a couple months, you absolutely do not need to be moving around every couple days. There is no way you can become familiar with a medium or large city within a couple days. Think of how you live your ‘normal’ life – do you really run around doing a million things each day and rarely take time to rest?
As mentioned previously, even doing things you love can get tiring or uninspiring after a while. It is necessary to just take a day or two where you do little, and just relax – stay in bed, go to the beach for a day, play cards, read a book, nap! I’ve seen countless people need vacations *after* their vacations, because they crammed so much into their holiday and because they didn’t take any time to rest.
In all, traveling for more than two months has its own needs and pacing. You need to identify why you are traveling, and how to balance your priorities with your needs. Creating the right balance (both in your bag and with your itinerary) will create the most memorable, best experience for you, leave you feeling more refreshed and will create a better environment for you to be able to gather new experiences.
