Europe Travel: Packing To Save Money
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I've now been asked to deal with the "home front"-the packing and preparations before you leave. And that's no minor topic. It may be hard to believe that the contents of a suitcase can affect your travel costs, but they do, vitally. The tourist who carries heavy luggage and a complete wardrobe to Europe spends a great deal of money unnecessarily. Here's why:
The Burdens of Baggage: A light suitcase means freedom. To emerge from a train or plane in Europe with bundles and boxes in every hand, means porters, means taxicabs, means that the first hotel you pass must be the hotel in which you'll stay. To jaunt along with a light suitcase is to avoid all these costs, to use buses instead of cabs, to make your hotel choice slowly, carefully, and without desperation. With all the decrease in fatigue which a light load entails, you can simply walk out when the man at the hotel counter quotes too high a price-and seek another hotel.
Don't sneer at this freedom. The traveler whose arms are bursting from their sockets with weight, is a prisoner. It costs him dollars simply to get from train to hotel; it costs him tiring effort to shop around and to choose.
A light suitcase means spiritual freedom, too, and an ability to concentrate on Europe in preference to mundane, daily needs. With too many clothes, and too many parcels, you'll spend hours unpacking and arranging your apparel when you check into a hotel. You'll spend hours packing them away again as you prepare to leave. You'll awake on the morning of departure, spend frantic and precious time in packing and wrapping, and finally collapse in sweat on your outgoing plane or train. Moreover, you'll have a disorderly, bursting suitcase-cluttered with dirty and unwashed clothes-in which to search for items on the trip itself.
Remember, too, that these problems increase as your European trip continues.
However heavy your suitcase may have been as you left New York, it'll be twice as heavy as you go along. At every stop of your trip, you'll pick up mementos, gifts, books, papers, maps, souvenirs. Unless you've had a one-third empty suitcase to begin with, you'll be festooned with extra parcels and packages near the end. You'll loop them over your shoulder, you'll squeeze them under your arm, you'll carry some with your little finger-and you'll approach each new city and each new hotel search in a mood of desperation. The first hotel you examine will have you at its mercy.
Make the choice. Decide to live and experience Europe, or choose instead to have an outfit available for every conceivable and far-fetched occasion. Decide to be a frenzied, harried clothes-horse, or a carefree, unburdened world traveler.
If you make the right decision, you'll do the following when it comes time to pack. You'll first buy the lightest suitcase available. You'll then fill it with the skimpiest set of clothing your courage will allow. Having done that, you'll then remove half these clothes from the suitcase, and depart on your European trip. You won't, for instance, take eight complete changes of underwear. You'll realize that four are enough; that there are few less-than-a-week laundries in Europe, and that you'll have to wash out those T-shirts yourself, in any event. You'll recognize how depressing it is to cart a suitcase of dirty clothes over half the continent of Europe.
If you've made too many eliminations of clothes before you start, you can always remedy the over-zealousness in a European store. But don't worry. Whatever you take will be much too much. After many summers of disregarding my own advice, I've finally settled on the wardrobe listed below as perfectly sufficient for a lady traveler to Europe:
4 pairs of nylon panties (you will be able to rinse these out as you travel)
6 to 8 pairs of nylon stockings (or 4 to 6 pairs of mesh "can't runs")
2 petticoats (nylon)
2 bras (also nylon)
1 Cardigan sweater (which can double as a "knock-about" sweater or a wrap for cool evenings)
1 pair of slacks or Bermuda shorts
1 pair of sandals (which can double as beachwear and slippers)
1 pair of good, sturdy walking shoes (sensible heels a must)
1 pair of dressy high heels
1 bathing suit and bathing cap
1 wool or cotton knit, or silk or jersey, daytime dress
1 Wash 'n Wear-Drip Dry cotton daytime dress
1 Wash 'n Wear-Drip Dry cotton traveling suit
1 Wash 'n Wear-Drip Dry cotton blouse
1 wool or cotton knit, or jersey, dress which can double for afternoon and evening wear (possibly a dressy decollete, with a jacket)
1 pair of nylon or dacron pajamas
1 cotton robe Jewelry, scarves and accessories, so that you won't go mad having to wear the same 4 basic outfits in different combinations day in and day out!
1 all-purpose travel coat, which you can carry onto the plane or ship.
Your "traveling to" Europe outfit-you can afford to be wistful about this. Just wear something you like. I'd wear the drip-dry traveling suit.
As you can see, the above list relies heavily on either drip-dry or other heavy-wearing clothing. If you can't find these items in your locality, then at least concentrate on clothing made of crease-resistant materials, and in simple, easy-to-care-for designs. Avoid pleats and ruffles (unless they are the permanent kind, which require no ironing), and leave at home those lovely light, wispy dresses that need constant care and attention to look fresh.
Readers of last year's edition will note that there's been a slight shift of emphasis on my part from drip-dry cottons (which are still highly recommended, especially for hot, humid climates) to wool or cotton knits, or silk or nylon jerseys (i.e. banlons), which I tried out on last summer's trip and found to be marvelous for travel. They pack beautifully. No matter how you roll or bunch them up, they scarcely ever seem to wrinkle, and if they do, you need only hang them up for an hour or so to regain the original shape. (More difficult cases will sometimes come around if you'll take them to the bath down the hall, and steam them there while you shower or bathe). And, they simply never seem to get soiled or dirty-looking, especially if you choose dresses in dark shades.
At first glance, you might think that wool or cotton knits are too heavy to be comfortable or packable (winter travelers excepted, of course). But even in this respect, they proved quite adaptable. I took a bare-backed sleeveless black wool-knit dress, with a jacket that had three-quarter length sleeves. Without the jacket, the dress was quite comfortable, even in the hottest climates. With the jacket, the outfit was heaven-sent for the chilly weather that you'll sometimes experience in Europe, even in summer.
About your purse: later in this chapter, I recommend that ladies traveling by air should take a giant-sized purse, into which they can cram all the heavy articles that might otherwise cause their luggage to exceed the 44-lb. limit. But obviously, you won't want to carry such a purse on your strolls and tours-it will weigh you down and wear you out. Take a second, smaller purse for everyday use; and take only the tiniest purse for evening wear.
A final hint: plan your wardrobe so that the clothes you take can be mixed and matched into a number of different combinations. Usually, I look for dresses that have two matching jackets-a long and a short one. Without the jackets, the dress is suitable for evening theatre wear, dancing, other dressy occasions. With the short jacket, it becomes a cocktail dress; and with the long one, a daytime dress for walking and touring. By adding scarves and jewelry, again in different combinations, the possibilities can be further multiplied.
For men, the packing list can be even more severe, and still perfectly sufficient. If you seek comfort and economy on a summer trip, then this is all you need take (in addition to the normal-weight suit worn on the plane):
3 pairs of shorts (dacron or nylon)
3 cotton T-shirts
3 pairs of socks (at least one pair should be nylon)
2 handkerchiefs
1 sweater
2 Wash 'n Wear-Drip Dry sport shirts
1 Drip-Dry white dress shirt
1 pair of dress shoes
1 pair of canvas shoes
1 light bathrobe
1 pair of nylon or dacron pajamas
1 tweed sports jacket
1 pair of heavy slacks
1 pair of chino slacks
1 summer suit
1 raincoat
2 neckties.
1 bathing suit toilet and shaving articles (adapted for European use, if electric).
Don't take another thing! We've based these lists on long, disastrous experience-on days without number when the weight of our suitcases caused a weight in our hearts. Believe me, you won't mind repeating a travel outfit when the returns in lightness and freedom are as great as this.
Our suggested summer wardrobes (which include articles you'll wear on the trip) will weigh much less than the 44 pounds you're allowed on an economy air flight to Europe. They'll leave plenty of weight, and plenty of room in your suitcase, for all the gifts and articles you'll pick up in Europe; and they'll permit you to carry exactly one light suitcase (if you will only be staunch enough to benefit from the mistakes Arthur and I have made), and no other parcels of any kind, on your European trip.
Next: Winter Wardrobe
Source: Europe On 5 Dollars A Day
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   Beauty Health Fashion TravelEurope Travel: Packing To Save Money
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