Ten Best Packing Tips for Europe
Written by Elaine
When you travel to Europe, it is a a bit more difficult to know what to pack than it is for a trip to Hawaii or elsewhere in the US. Here is our list of the 10 best packing tips for Europe.
You’ve heard the expression “less is more”. When packing for Europe, that is definitely the case. Bring clothes that you can wear over and over again, even polyester clothing that you can wash out and let dry overnight. Europe is less casual than the US, so bring some smart, dressy-casual wear as well.
Bring comfortable walking shoes; you will do lots of walking. As a matter of fact, bring a few pairs of good walking shoes; you won’t regret it. I make it a rule to never wear white running-type shoes. The only other people wearing them will be fellow tourists. In summer, comfortable sandals or walking shoes are great.
Plan ahead. Start a list of what you want to bring and what you need to buy. Pack at least a few days in advance. Packing at the last minute will ensure that you forget something important and pack a bunch of stuff you will never need.
Use one suitcase per person if you plan to take trains or even rent a car. You will need to put your own luggage on and off the train, and cars are smaller in Europe than in the US, so trunk space is not very accommodating. In Europe, the rooms in 3-star and even many 4-star hotels, are quite small by American standards and there is very little space for extra luggage.
Plastic bags are your friend. Pack underwear and knits in compression bags that remove all the air. You can buy these bags at travel stores, but I just use regular zipper plastic bags and suck out the air with a straw until it gets very flat. Put your extra pair of shoes in a plastic bag, and always put your travel toiletries case in a plastic bag in case something springs a leak.
Know what electrical equipment you need before you go. Europe is on 220 volts (instead of the US 110 volt service) That means if you plug your electrical appliance into a European outlet with an Adaptor without a Converter, the sparks will fly! A Converter converts the 220 volts to 110 volts so US appliances will work (without melting.) An Adaptor works with the converter to adapt the US Plug to match the European outlet. To complicate matters further, not all European outlets are the same. An outlet in Great Britain is nothing like an outlet in France. You can buy a kit that includes a converter and adaptors for all Western European countries. You will need these for your computer, camera charger, hairdryer, hair curler, shaver and any other electrical appliance brought from the US.
Make photocopies of your passport, hotel membership cards and credit cards (with numbers to call if they get lost or stolen) and carry those in a zippered pocket in your suitcase as well as in your carry-on. Once there, keep a copy in your hotel safe.
Don’t pack anything of great value in your checked luggage. Leave your good Jewelry home or wear it every day. Cameras and PDA’s need to be in your carry-on, or you may never see them again.
Don’t bring heavy Guidebooks. Print out info from this or other sites and throw it away when you are finished. Pack paperback books and leave them behind when you are finished.
Before you leave, check the TSA site to review the rules on what you can carry aboard. (It keeps changing) And when they say that your carry-on liquids need to be in a quart sized zip-lock bag, they mean a quart sized zip-lock bag. When they say bottles must be three ounces or less, don’t push it. You can’t bring a 6 oz container that only has two ounces left. They confiscate tons (literally) of stuff every day. And pack some extra underwear in your carry-on… just in case they lose your luggage.
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