Now that you know what travel backpack you should carry on your shoulders, let’s have a look about what should go inside! In this post I will focus on clothing.
Travel Backpack: Travel Clothes
If you travel in a country fed by a culture similar to yours you can take your own clothes, as the cultural difference won’t be significant. However for any other kind of destination, don’t take anything else that what you’re wearing on your way to the airport! Do not fill up your travel backpack with your existing clothes but buy directly those ones in the country you’re planning to travel for several reasons:
- Those clothes will get worn out quickly and won’t be washed often
- Those ones are more adapted to the local weather conditions
- There is a chance it will be cheap
- It will be harder to stand out from the crowd hence you will be safer
- You will be more respectful towards local cultures
- What a nice souvenir to take back home if it survives your trip!
Travel Backpack: Adventure clothes
The only clothes that should matter when you pack your travel backpack are technical sportswear: GoreTex jacket, microfiber towel, a swim shorts that don’t get wet you can use in town, merinos wool long/short sleeves T-shirts never smelly thanks to natural antibacterial properties, a pair of lightweight and stretch pants, …
Those technical clothes will change your daily life as they are lightweight and made for the outdoor life while taking a small volume in your travel backpack. It may cost time if you want to buy them on Internet (if you order the wrong size and need to return the product), or it may cost you a lot of money if you buy those ones in an outdoor gear shop. Fortunately Decathlon offers good quality/price sport products for what you need. My socks, shorts, merinos wool T-shirts, my hat and my towel all come from Decathlon. Nevertheless an excellent pair of shoes really matters as much as the quality of your travel backpack since you will carry extra weight on your body.
When you travel your feet, your knees and your back (as well as your muscles, ligaments and articulations) carry between 10 to 20kg of extra load. This extra weight is sudden creating muscle pain, tiredness and a higher risk of injuries. It will take several days to your body to get use to this extra weight and to feel more and more comfortable with it. Stretching after long hours walking will make a lot of sense, as well as the choice of very good quality shoes.
Trail running shoes are often chosen because they are lightweight, offer a good grip and good shock absorption. One of the best sellers in this category is the Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra 2. Unfortunately the soft sole will get worn out faster because of the extra load you carry. Recently I discovered the Scarpa Zen Pro. These stiffer shoes have a stronger sole, hold your ankle and foot tightly, look reliable and will protect your toes from hitting stones making it an excellent choice too!
Travel Backpack: Example of Technical Sportswear
Anywhere I go, here is an exhaustive list of what take place within my travel Backpack:
- Jacket Mountain Hardwear Quasar Lite
- Pants Stretch Salomon or Shorts Quechua Forclaz 500
- T-shirt Merinos long sleeves Bergans of Norway Fjellrapp
- T-shirt Merinos short sleeves Quechua
- Leggings Merinos Quechua
- Hat Quechua
- Microfiber towel Decathlon
- Socks Quechua Forclaz 900
- Eventually my gaiters TSL long
- Shoes Scarpa Zen Pro or Aku Superalp GTX (with my gaiters)
In my next post I’m going to speak about your equipment taking place in your travel backpack
and how to get everything you need for cheap!
