Packing · 9 min read
How to Pack for Europe Without Checking a Bag
Fourteen days, five cities, cobblestones and 1930s elevators. Here is the packing list we actually use.
Dana Okonkwo — Co-founder, design · May 14, 2026
The single biggest mistake we see is packing for the weather forecast instead of packing for the buildings. Europe in spring is a 12-degree swing between the morning walk to the station and 3pm on a south-facing terrace, and half the places you sleep will have a staircase and no lift.
So the rule is: everything you bring has to work at 9 °C and 22 °C, and the whole kit has to be carryable up four flights in one trip. That constraint does more for your packing list than any product ever will.
The 14-day carry-on list
- Five t-shirts or shells, merino if you can afford it — it goes three wears without smelling
- Two overshirts or a light knit, worn as layers rather than packed
- One pair of trousers worn, one packed, no jeans (they never dry)
- One rain shell that packs into its own pocket
- Five pairs of socks and underwear, washed in the sink twice on the trip
- One pair of shoes worn, one flat pair packed — this is where most people overpack
Roll, then compress — in that order
Rolling reduces creasing; compression reduces volume. Doing them in the wrong order gets you a hard brick of wrinkled clothing. Roll each item loosely, lay the rolls side by side in a cube, then pull the compression zip.
Keep one cube for clean and one flat pouch for worn. On day nine you will thank yourself for not having to smell your way through the bag.
Fitting the strictest cabin rule
Book on a low-cost carrier once and you'll learn that 55 x 40 x 20 cm is the number that actually matters, not the generous 22 x 14 x 9 inches printed on legacy airline sites. Pack to the smaller figure and you never think about it again.
A soft-sided bag helps here in a way hard shells cannot: two centimetres of give is the difference between the sizer and the gate check queue.
What to leave home
Travel towels, a second charger, the 'nice' outfit for a dinner you haven't booked, and full-size toiletries. Every city on your route sells shampoo.
A note on honesty
We sell bags, so read this with that in mind. Everything above is what we tell friends who ask, and most of it costs nothing. If a cheaper bag does the job for your trip, buy the cheaper bag.
