Packing Tips for Australia: How To Travel Light

Travel light in Australia is vital for your trip enjoyment. These packing tips for Australia will help you minimise luggage weight and choose the right things to pack for the kind of trip you want to do. Travelling in Australia means spending a lot of time on the road, changing places and accommodations, and going through different climate zones, so packing, unpacking and packing again will be a part of your daily routine.

I have put together these packing luggage tips to help you travel light without lugging around unnecessary weight. We all strive to pack as lightly as possible because we want to travel stress-free carrying heavy and bulky luggage.

When travelling to Australia, there are many baggage weight allowances and restrictions to comply with. And packing is one of those skills we learn, tweak and master until we develop that natural and effortless trip preparation art.

Packing tips for travelling light in Australia

Before going deeper into how to start packing for Australia, you can check out the pros and cons of a suitcase versus a backpack to get an idea of the features, advantages and disadvantages of both types of luggage. The second step is choosing the kind of baggage that suits your travel style and needs.

How to learn the art of packing light for Australia

Although you can learn some essential and straightforward packing tips, packing depends on our personal needs and lifestyle changes over the years. So the best way to develop the art of fill light is by testing different ways on various trips.

From each trip, we learn new things that we can implement on future travels. By picking new ideas and dropping old ones (that do not work any more) and experiencing them, you can transform them into your packing ritual that works well for all trips (or almost all).

I have compiled an Australia Checklist to help you achieve a hassle-free way to travel to Australia, thus increasing the freedom for moving about quickly and handling unexpected situations. Below are my best packing tips for Australia that will show you how to pack light.

1. Tips on how to choose the right type of travel bag

If you are still debating on Backpack or Suitcase, you might have cleared your doubts after reading the pros and cons article. How do you feel about it? Choose the type of luggage according to the degree of comfort. If you are not sure, try to find out more about it, start figuring out how your trip will look like and do this exercise:

• List the places you plan to stay. The more locations, the more you need to pack and unpack.
• Which areas you will visit. Outback, tropical forest, beach, cities.
• List all types of transportation means. Self-driving or public transport or both?
• What activities do you plan? The more you get outdoors, the more you move around.
• The number of bags and weight you can carry about. And walk comfortably.

If you plan to spend time Outdoors, you may need some packing tips for outdoor adventures.

2. Tips for choosing the size of luggage

As for the size of the bags, here are a few tips to help you select the right one:

• Choose a backpack that suits your body shape, weight and height

  An example: if you are thin, 165cm tall, and weigh 45kg, get a 50-60 litres backpack that would be ideal for your body structure. Fill the pack with a max of 10-12kg. While travelling, you will naturally add 2-3 kg to it. Try not to exceed 15kg to avoid overloading your back.

  I recommend the Deuter Backpack Aircontact Lite 50+60l

  Pick a medium-sized suitcase on wheels.

  Any larger size will rob your energy and mobility. Pack the suitcase to max 2/3 of its capacity.

  I love my Samsonite Duffle Bag

• Take one piece of hand-luggage only

  It can be a day backpack or a handbag. This year I started using a multi-purpose pack from Pacsafe.

  I recommend Pacsafe Venturesafe 25l

  Here you can read about my Pacsafe Venturesafe 25l review. I will pick a duffle bag if you prefer a carry-on bag as cabin luggage.

  Check out this fantastic duffle bag from Timberland 22 inches

3. How to pack for Australia with a savvy mindset

The first dilemma we face is what to pack and what to wear when travelling to Australia

We all naturally tend to pack more than we need and use maybe 2/3 of packed things or even less. The first skill for savvy packing is selection. Personal needs vary from person to person, so it is good to start with a packing list template to help you develop your packing list ritual.

• Think of main category items and build your list within these categories. Main categories are:1. Wear and Underwear.
  2. Shoes.
  3. Toiletries and cosmetics.
  4. Gear and travel accessories.
  5. Technology.
• Please list clothes that are easy to adjust regarding colours and function. Example: pick a t-shirt+shorts that can be extended to long trousers, likewise take a vest that you can wear on top of t-shirts. Use a wind-and-rain jacket in one item that can be turned into a warm jacket by adding a fleece vest.
• Choose clothes with similar shades of colours for better combination and washing too.
  Check out my selected Amazon Shop Items for travel wear
• Pack multi-use clothes like a bandana or a Sarong and a body map.
• I prefer functional clothes instead of regular clothes. They protect you from the sun, wind and rain, are way too practical regarding quick wash and dry, and are lightweight. Check out these latest functional clothes.

4. How to reduce at least 30% weight from your packing list

It is a packing skill that you will learn gradually. The more you travel, the better you will become at this because you will experience different things and new ideas on cutting off unnecessary weight on the go. Here are a  few tips for reducing at least 50% of packing weight:

• Use only sample bottles for cosmetics.
• Repackage liquids and gels in multisized containers (20-100ml) instead of large bottles.
• Leave at home non-essential items that you can get when the necessity arises.
• Do not pack more than three pairs of shoes.
  1: walking Shoes or Hiking Boots.
  2. Sandals or flip-flops.
  3. Sneakers or Running Shoes.

5. How to eliminate unnecessary volume from your luggage

Some clothes and personal items are too voluminous and occupy too much space in our backpacks or suitcase. There are a few things that you can do here:

• Replace big stuff like cotton towels with microfibre towels or viscose jumpers.
• Pack a travel bathrobe that is very useful if you go backpacking and stay in hostels.
• Use transparent nylon ziplock bags to store clothes and take the air out of them.
• Never pack folded clothes. Learn to pack unfolded clothes on even layers.
• Use hygienic bags for packing underwear.

I hope these packing tips give you some ideas and guidelines for making your savvy packing list for Australia.

Packing the luggage will help you reduce stress and save time by always packing and unpacking. It will give you more freedom to move quickly and fast on buses, trains and airports. It will save you energy, and finally, it will provide you with the comfort of feeling at home.

And here are my best tips on what to wear on long-haul flights.

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First published in 2018, last updated in Jan 2021

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