How to pack a backpack for air travel

If you’re planning on hiking or backpacking in a foreign country or traveling out of state by plane, here are 10 packing tips to help ensure that your backpacking gear doesn’t get lost, destroyed by baggage handlers, stolen, or confiscated by airport security.

1. Don’t check luggage if you can avoid it

Pack light, pack small luggage and keep your backpack with you on the plane instead of checking bags for the luggage compartment. If you must, take it and pay extra for carry-on luggage if your airline charges extra for it. If your luggage never leaves you, it is far more likely to come with you.

2. Wear your hiking clothes on the plane

Don’t keep your hiking clothes in your pack; Wear them, especially the heavy ones. This will give you more space in your backpack. If you’re very warm, you can take off any extra layers after climbing. The airline can’t charge you for being heavier than normal just because you’re “overdressed.”

3. Buy what you need when you arrive

If you’re having difficulty reducing the size or weight of your pack, remove everything you might purchase at your destination, such as food that is heavy enough, toiletries, and even extra clothing items like underwear, socks, and T-shirts.

4. Send or ship the gear to your destination by post or express shipping

Do you definitely need a special type of food? Are you concerned about your hiking poles? Send them to the B&B using DHL (best for international packages), FedEx, or UPS or drop it off at the post office. Many countries have postal services that will leave a package for you at the post office (called normal delivery), which you can pick up with a picture ID, like a passport. Search the web for county-specific instructions and allow plenty of time for your package to arrive before traveling. It works really well.

5. Don’t buy a travel backpack

If you’re a serious backpacker, don’t be tempted by so-called travel backpacks like the Osprey Pax Porter 65 or the like. farpoint 70 Which have hidden straps or wheels for moving around airports. While convenient for business trips or excursions outside hotels, they are too heavy and awkward to use for backcountry backpacking.

6. Carry irreplaceable items

If you have to check a bag, separate irreplaceable or expensive items like your backpack, sleeping bag, tent, GPS, etc. and take them with you on the plane..

7. Pack your backpack in a duffel bag

If you must check your backpack, pack it in an inexpensive duffel bag to protect its straps and compartments. Why a cheap duffel bag? – so that when you reach your destination you can discard it and not feel too bad about it. You really don’t want to carry an empty duffel bag with you during your trip. It also helps to cover the duffel with colored tape or ribbon so that you can immediately identify it at baggage claim, and so no one mistakes it for yours.

8. Don’t carry stove fuel or trekking poles

Do not try to carry any stove fuel, including ESBIT cubes, on the aircraft. This is absolutely illegal. Also don’t keep an empty liquid stove fuel bottle if you can avoid it, as it may contain residual fuel or smoke and may be confiscated by security officers. Trekking poles are also often confiscated, so pack them in your checked luggage or have them shipped to your destination.

9. Switch on the Alcohol Stove

If conditions permit, use an alcohol stove on your trip. Denatured alcohol, methylated spirits (or “meths”), and ethyl alcohol (190 proof or better) are available worldwide, so you don’t need to pack fuel like an isobutane canister, or worry about finding it at your destination. If you decide to use canister gas, research carefully where you can buy it when you arrive.

10. Do not carry a knife

Do not bring knives, multi-tools or knives. It’s easy to forget if you’re packing on autopilot, but Take Stuff Away (TSA) can take it away, so leave your blades at home.