Some of us are practically addicted to these little gems of information. Then again, a stack of books can be quite heavy. One good, comprehensive guidebook should do the trick.
Top Tips:
If you are convinced that each of your 11 guidebooks offers unique and vital information about your destination, cart them to your office or the library and photocopy your favorite sections.
Lonely Planet offers mix-and-match guidebook chapters that can be downloaded a la carte on its Web site. This allows travelers to purchase and pack only the sections they need.
Research the location of an Internet cafe or two at your destination before you leave. If you are afraid of not having access to travel information during your trip, you can always find it on the Web.
Must-Pack Items from Our Readers
Clothes tend to make up the bulk of most travelers' suitcases, and reducing the number of outfits you pack can lighten your load significantly. No one wants to run out of clean underwear in the middle of the Brazilian rain forest, but it's possible to find a comfortable balance between wearing the same stinky jeans and T-shirt the whole trip and changing your outfit three times each day like a celebrity.
Top Tips:
If you're going on, say, a seven-day trip, spend a week before you leave keeping track of everything you wear. Make a list, or, if you learn better with visual aids, keep these items together in a laundry basket. Then figure out which items you can do without.
Bring clothes in neutral colors that you can mix and match, and only pack shoes that can be worn with multiple outfits.
Check the weather at your destination before you leave, and pack accordingly. If the weather deviates significantly from the forecast, you can always buy a sweater or rain poncho and keep it as a souvenir.
Many travel supply companies sell small packets of laundry detergent (you can also find these at a laundromat). It only takes a few minutes to wash your clothes in your hotel sink and hang them on a hanger to dry. When you wake up the next morning ... hello freshly washed clothes!
This section applies to you if you've ever packed items such as nightlights, shoe horns, portable DVD players, book lights, coffee makers, fire-safety smoke hoods, hotel-door alarm systems, toothbrush sanitizers or electronic language translators, never to actually use them on your trip. The definition of "necessary" varies from one traveler to the next, so it's important to ask yourself if you will really need your ocean-sound machine to get to sleep each night before you stuff it in your bursting suitcase.
Top Tips:
If you are a travel gadget addict, rotate your collection. Pick one or two that you just have to have and save the others for a future trip.
Keep in mind that some gadgets may call for more room in your luggage than you'd expect; to keep them running, you may need to pack things like spare batteries, chargers, or electrical adapters and converters (for overseas travel).
Yes, things you can buy at home are often more expensive overseas. This is especially true in Europe, so a traveler who's flying across the pond may want to pack extra everything in the interest of saving money. But again -- think of the luggage weight fees. Simple items that you may need but can probably live without, like aspirin, nail polish remover, extra razors or reading material for the plane, can usually be purchased at drug and convenience stores in many destinations.
Top Tips:
Remember that if you decide to buy a lot of your items abroad, you will have to create room in your suitcase to cart them back home. Buy sample-sized items if you can to save space and money.
Instead of bringing a virtual library of reading material with you, buy magazines and newspapers at the airport. Picking out what you want to read will give you something to do as you wait, and you can recycle the items (or give them to a fellow traveler) so you don't have to lug them back with you.
Got your own packing ideas to share? Post them on our message boards!
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--written by Caroline Costello
