Don’t pack light! More is more. The case for lugging a big suitcase
If you can afford it, if airlines allow it, why not carry everything you want? Holidays are about indulgence, not making do with less
Why bother packing light? The travel industry is built on the idea that holidays are about traipsing around with a single backpack or a tiny strolley. Airline luggage restrictions are getting tighter . Travel vlogs endlessly judge folding-vs-rolling techniques. Fashion magazines curate listicles of travel-friendly favourites: A silly skirt that doubles as a dress, tiny moisturiser jars, pointless folding combs, sandals that go from day to night (and look ugly both times). What about the travellers who enjoy having all their stuff on holiday?
Breaks are shorter than they used to be — rarely more than 10 days at a time, unlike the month-long vacations of previous generations. We’re all taking more vacay photos than ever before. It only makes sense to pull out all the stops and make them epic. “I loathe the idea of packing when I have somewhere to be,” says Debsruti Basu, 31, an editor from Kolkata. “The idea of stuffing only what I might need is enough to make me anxious.” So, she tends to overpack. For a week-long trip, Basu packs seven options—not sets—with more blouses than bottoms. For a weekend, she packs “enough to exceed an overnight duffel”.
Swarna Datta, 32, an instructional designer from Hyderabad, is on a plane every other week as she travels for family and work. When there’s an event involved, she goes armed with a look or three for each day. Packing is a pain. But on holiday, Datta doesn’t hold back. She lugs sketchbooks and paints too. “Unfortunately, on some occasions, my fear of overpacking makes me underpack. It creates situations that are more difficult to deal with than when you overpack.” On one impromptu trip to Hampi, with a bunch of her women friends, in December, they had a spell of unexpected rain. “We ended up drenched,” Datta recalls. “None of us had packed raincoats or umbrellas. I didn’t have an extra pair of pants, and the clothes refused to dry. I had to make do with the pyjamas that I slept in when we headed out the next day.”
Minimalism is a trap. You never know when you might need an extra pair of sunnies — what if you lose one pair at the beach? Carry the backup heels, the second bottle of perfume, the third pair of swim trunks. Pack the clubbing shirts. There’s no such thing as too much underwear. Why limit options when a vacation is all about giving in to indulgence?
Basu doesn’t plan looks for each day of her vacation. “But there are always last-minute additions and subtractions when packing, and I almost always return with at least one set of unworn clothes,” she says. “It’s still better than being stressed about not having the right thing to wear and being unhappy in a different location.”
Of course, excess baggage costs extra. But pick a flight with a generous allowance, pre-book the excess, use the right credit card, and it’s far from a ransom. And on a driving holiday, why bother with minimalism at all?
Life’s already too short for all the places we want to go, all the things we want to see. Spending time worrying about what to pack, how to fold it tight, what will crease, what dries faster, what matches with everything and what will keep both sun and wind out makes life seem even shorter. To really ruin a holiday, pack a single pair of the ultimate travel shoes — light, chunky, weatherproof, neutral-toned — and after they’ve caused blisters, see how hard it is to find an open shoe store in Europe after dusk.
Besides, where else will we stuff all the things we’ve bought on vacation? Datta picks up the occasional souvenir for friends and family on her trips. Basu gives in and buys what she likes. Holidays were about comfort, not taking the moral high-ground on doing more with less. Tip the scales in your favour on the next vacation.
