The Art of Packing: Tips From Very Frequent Flyers, Travellers and Adventurers

I recently returned from a trip overseas, for which I’d seriously underpacked. I was so fixated on not overpacking, I went too lean.

I’m not an infrequent traveller, but I always feel I could be packing better: more efficiently, more appropriately, more conveniently. If only I’d had the advice of our round table of frequent travellers before my latest voyage.

Alexandra Carlton, journalist and Oceania academy chair for World’s 50 Best Restaurants

How often do you travel?

Around 10 times per year internationally, and perhaps six or eight times a year domestically.

What are you typically packing for?

I’m always working, but this could mean anything from an adventure-based travel story to fine dining in the Himalayas, to a cruise, to a city stay. I generally have to pack for a lot of different circumstances in one trip.

What is your approach to packing?

I overpack. Always. There’s a special place in hell for people who only pack carry-on and then hold up the security line flinging undies everywhere as they dig out their shampoos and chargers. I pack checked luggage like a grown-up, and then lavishly pack outfits for every scenario and weather situation so I’m never caught short for a casual lunch or a formal dinner or a rainy day exploring a city.

What is your best packing hack or tip?

My ironclad rule is that I only ever pack the day of travel. Never, ever the night before. Doesn’t matter how early I need to get up, that’s the method. I can think of no better way to forget essentials than three-quarters packing the night before but then “leaving things out” because you’ll need to use them in the morning to get ready. Chaos. The rule is: Get up. Shower. Dress. Apply make-up/toiletries etc. And then pack absolutely everything at once.

What do you never travel without?

The correct chargers/plugs for the destination. I have a huge bag full of them in a drawer at home and switch out as necessary. And Voltaren for helping to relieve the inevitable back cramps caused by squishy economy travel.

Andrew Kirk, director Mister Kirky Press Office

How often do you travel?

Monthly. Here, and mostly Europe.

What are you typically packing for?

A bit of everything, but it’s usually work.

What is your approach to packing?

The lighter the better, in all things. Less is best, except for undies and socks. I think about the weather, and I also think in outfits. I always check my bags, even domestic. I don’t want to drag everything around with me if I can avoid it. I also leave space for shopping. I have a little extra bag that folds up small in case I need extra – Longchamp makes a good one. Despite best efforts, I’m a last-minute packer.

What are your best packing hacks or tips?

Check the weather – preferably with someone who lives where you’re going, as well as the local weather service. If you’re taking boots, wear them on the plane. A big square cashmere scarf doubles as a blanket for the plane or an extra layer if it gets unexpectedly cold where you’re going. Bring a technical jacket that scrunches down to nothing in case it rains – it always does. Cashmere and technical fabrics that scrunch into nothing are ideal for colder destinations.

Put shirts and jackets on the same hanger. Or if you don’t have a suit bag, roll your pants and jackets to minimise creases and lay your shirts flat on top without folding. Same for knitwear. Shoe bags keep everything tidy. P Johnson, Jac & Jack, Commas and Issey Miyake make good travelling clothes. Hermes and S Marinella are very good for travel wallets.

I hardly ever use cash, but internationally there are still a lot of cash-only situations. I keep all my leftover currency in separate snap locks for the next trip. I have a house deposit in yen coins.

What do you never travel without?

Lewis – a polar bear-shaped neck pillow. I have annoying skin, so I decant my soap-free soaps into Muji containers. And my Haulier bag – it’s perfect for travelling.

Shamini Rajarethnam, CEO of Rationale

How often do you travel?

This year I’ve been away more than 10 times, spread across domestic travel and international trips. I still have a couple more to go for the remainder of the year.

What are you typically packing for?

A mix of work, family holidays and short trips away. The length of time away varies from weekends to longer two-week trips.

What is your approach to packing?

I am a very organised and methodical packer. I like to make lists to make sure I have accounted for everything I need. Some of these trips include packing for a family of five – I try to only take two July Checked Trunks. I like to ensure that what is packed is versatile and can be mixed for different occasions.

What are your best packing hacks or tips?

A spreadsheet. This can seem a little extreme, but a friend introduced this to me over 10 years ago and this method has never failed me. Particularly if I am on a work trip and need to be across different meetings and events, it’s always good to do a little prep upfront. How formal is the event, will I be on my feet all day, what will the weather be? Do I have to go from one meeting straight to an event? The spreadsheet helps me not to overpack, feel prepared and put together, plus, makes it easy for me by taking the guess work out of getting ready for long and varied days working.

I also love using my July packing cells that I colour code and label for each family member. It not only makes it easy to fit into drawers at our destinations but makes repacking for the trip home easy too.

What do you never travel without?

I’m always looking for ways to reduce bulk, so it’s my Rationale Discovery Travel Kit and my Kindle.

Neha Kale, writer and journalist

How often do you travel?

I travel around four to five times a year, mostly interstate, on assignment. About once a year, I take a trip overseas.

What are you typically packing for?

I usually pack for two kinds of trips: short work assignments and longer stints of travel, where I try to combine pleasure – visiting loved ones or exploring a new city – with research for a story, or my current book project.

What is your approach to packing?

I love the concision of packing, the sense of life being whittled down to my favourite items of clothing and objects. I like to travel with carry-on baggage for shorter trips, and veer towards packing light, prioritising pieces that bring me comfort and make me feel like myself when I’m far away – a pair of New Balance 574s for walking, an oversized denim jacket, a vintage Isabel Marant dress that never wrinkles and somehow works for both day and night.

What is your best packing hack or tip?

I save time and space by rolling up my clothes which, as a bonus, removes the need to iron. If I’m travelling overseas, I also try to edit what I’ve packed ruthlessly, to make sure that I’m likely to wear everything in my suitcase once and always try to pack a swimsuit, in case a hotel pool or a beach magically presents itself.

What do you never travel without?

A set of Moleskine plain notebooks, a Macbook Air and a pair of noise-cancelling headphones.

Greg Walker, retired airline pilot

How often do you travel?

When I was flying for work, I did eight to 10 trips a month. Some would be out and back in one day. Some would be two, three or four days. At one stage I was doing 10-day patterns, but they were mainly up into the tropics so there wasn’t a great need for bulky luggage or snow gear.

What are you typically packing for?

For work. Except you do need civvy (civilian) clothes – layers are best since, depending upon where your pattern may take you, that might be a selection of climate types. Of course, there’s always a chance that your pattern will be amended and you’ll end up somewhere you didn’t anticipate. Maybe you think you’re going to the Gold Coast and you end up in Hobart.

What is your approach to packing?

Minimal. You can economise, especially undies and socks. If you know you’re going to be staying in quality hotels, just take things off in the shower, give them a soap, hang them up and next day they’re nice and dry because of the air conditioning. Air conditioning is important!

What is your best packing hack or tip?

A tailor taught me how to properly fold a jacket. Lay it face up on a horizontal surface. Where you button at the front, bring those two sides together so they overlap a bit. Then fold in from the quarter points – imagine a crease going top to bottom starting just between the neck and the shoulder – and the arms should end up in the centre. Then you just pick it up in the middle and flip it. Same thing with shirts, except you don’t have to overlap the sides.

What do you never travel without?

A pen and notebook. A torch. And a wind-up alarm clock just in case the electricity fails and you sleep through the wake-up call. Pilots can’t be late!

Sofia Levin, Masterchef judge, Seasoned Traveller founder and food journalist

How often do you travel?

There was a time BC (before Covid) and BMC (before Masterchef) where I was intermittently away from home for a total of five months a year. These days I’m overseas three times a year on average, and interstate a handful of times.

What are you typically packing for?

There’s a fine line between work and play in my world: there’s always going to be a component of work on a leisurely holiday. On a work trip, I’m always going rogue and squeezing in more.

What is your approach to packing?

I have what you might call a Type A approach. I lay all the clothes I think I’ll possibly need on my bed and then cull about a third of them. Then I refer to my Master Packing List (yes, it’s title case).

What is your best packing hack or tip?

Have a list. Over many years I have created the Master Packing List: a culmination of different trip styles, envying what others brought away with them and forgotten items. I’m yet to want for anything since using it.

If you’re an iPhone user, invest in an Apple Airtag. You can usually find them online on sale. I pop one in my bag so I always know how far it is from the luggage carousel. I use packing cubes, too. It makes everything organised and easy to find, and you can keep dirties separate from cleans.

What do you never travel without?

Noise-cancelling headphones and a waiter’s friend with a knife – you never know when you might need to chop up some cheese, a piece of tropical fruit or crack open a bottle of wine.

Kate Dinon, partner at Character & Distinction and Protagonist Capital

How often do you travel?

I travel overseas for work two to three times a year, and pretty much monthly to Sydney. I take an annual trip with my bestie, and we take an annual family trip to Europe as my husband is Austrian.

What are you typically packing for?

I’m packing for a mix of work meetings, events, running, downtime and airport/long haul comfort with an attempted modicum of style. Usually it’s one week away for international trips and for domestic, one to two nights max.

What is your approach to packing?

I legitimately love to pack. The packing starts the minute a trip is booked: I make a dedicated Note and start adding outfit ideas and things I’ll need as the schedule firms up, and I save outfit inspo pics. Travel is a good time to try new looks.

When it comes to actually packing, my approach is strict: carry-on only, no matter the length of the trip. It’s like a brutal game I play with myself.

I usually pack the day before in a frenzy, putting everything I’ve listed on the bed and making sure I have enough combinations with the pieces, then paring back. If I only wear something once, I consider that a failure. So, lots of separates, sneakers that do double duty, and wearing the big stuff on the plane – all the usual tricks.

What is your best packing hack or tip?

Wear as much silk as possible. It’s light, layers well, doesn’t crease badly and in fact helps other garments stay wrinkle-free.

If a trip involves an event, I often reserve buying new things until then, getting them delivered direct to the hotel so they’re hanging in the closet, pristine, when I arrive. And because I have a one-in/one-out policy, I travel with something old that I’ll wear on the trip and then donate or gift it before I leave. It’s an extra garment without taking up space, and sort of fills the shopping urge.

What do you never travel without?

A Tide To Go pen for stains; a laundry bar by The Fill for handwashing in hotel sinks; and a go bag for the plane with headphones charged, three to four Acquired podcast episodes downloaded, my Cultiver silk eye mask, and all the little beauty and hydration bits and bobs. I always throw in my bathers too, because you never know when you might encounter a pool or a steam room. And then there’s one fun shoe that might only get worn once, or not at all. I consider it my insurance against the night I didn’t see coming.

Alex Lowther, creative director of film and video for Patagonia

How often do you travel?

I travel on average once a month, but they’re often kind of complicated trips – there’s often film production and/or outdoor sports involved, which means I rarely travel light. I also have two little kids, so simple trips are basically a thing of the past.

What are you typically packing for?

I’m typically packing for work trips, but personal trips often involve sports, too.

What is your approach to packing?

I’m an always-checker, basically. I don’t want to stress about bin space or cart 40 pounds [18 kilograms] of stuff from one terminal to another. I want to arrive at the airport with a bag or two, hand them over, and I want them back when we arrive at our destination. I might be cursing myself here, but I’ve found lost bags are rare.

What is your best packing hack or tip?

I like having my hands free, so I just [travel with] a backpack. In the backpack, I keep a thin pouch that has most of what I need for the flight and fits easily in my seat back pocket. I get to my seat, grab this little envelope-shaped pouch out of the bag, put the bag in the overhead bin.

I’ll often check a big, soft-sided roller (a Patagonia Black Hole 100L, for instance) and a smaller soft-sided duffel. To avoid needing a cart for bags, I keep a carabiner in a side pocket of each. The trick is you stand the roller bag up, clip the carabiner to the grab handle that’s now on top, flip it so the gate is up and clip the same grab handle on the smaller bag into the carabiner; the bag hangs there, it’s now one unit and everything rolls.

The best carry-on travel backpack Patagonia makes is actually a climbing pack, the 32L Cragsmith. In black it’s sleek and maintains its shape; the whole back panel unzips so you can find and pack things easily and it’s the perfect size – fits in skinny overhead bins on regional flights. It has great stretch mesh side pockets and a laptop sleeve against the back.

What do you never travel without?

Baby wipes. Also, alcohol wipes. Both are astonishingly useful. A mask. A layer – planes are always cold. A very stuffable, small backpack for walking around cities or going on hikes.

Richard Jarman, creative director and founder of Commas

How often do you travel?

Last year, I was away for about four months. I do five or six work trips: showrooms, fabric pilgrimages and photo shoots. Then there are the family escapes.

What are you typically packing for?

Work usually means Europe or Asia, where I’m living out of a suitcase. For family holidays or weekends away, it’s usually beach-oriented, with shirts I don’t mind getting wine or pasta on.

What is your approach to packing?

Simplicity. Clothes that easily integrate with each other. Packing light makes me feel clever, it’s like solving a puzzle where the prize is not lugging around an overstuffed bag.

What is your best packing hack or tip?

Lay everything out first, then pair into looks before anything goes in the bag. And packing cubes: utterly unsexy, but life-changing. The bonus space means you can bring something back.

What do you never travel without?

Noise-cancelling headphones, water, Hydralyte. Something to read or watch. I don’t have as much time as I’d like for either at home, so before a trip I stock up – travel becomes my chance to dive in. Recently I rewatched a run of ’70s surf films like Morning of the Earth, which helped shape my last collection. Travel is the best excuse to fill your head with new ideas.

Tash Menon-Verheul, principal of Menon Curatorial

How often do you travel?

Since 2018, I’ve structured my business to split my time between Melbourne and Southeast Asia with Singapore as the main base. Outside of holidays, this has led to clocking up around 35 to 40 trips to the region.

What are you typically packing for?

Splitting my time between two cities means I’ve got my packing routine down to a tee. When I’m in Singapore, I usually stay for at least a week, which combines meetings, dinners and events.

What is your approach to packing?

My packing is as tightly planned as my diary, so I have more time to actually enjoy the city I am in. I have an editable packing list in the Notes section on my phone. If I’m traveling for work, I plan out around five outfits in advance with a couple of extra in tow. I definitely have my running shoes and workout gear. I almost always pack the day of, or at best, the day before I fly.

What is your best packing hack or tip?

For work trips: plan your outfits. I generally have one carrier, with a different outfit for each day, hung and pre-steamed. I also use a small, unused shoe bag for my Airpods, lip balm, phone charger, mints and adaptor, which I can just throw in the bottom of my handbag. My suitcases for the past few years have been from July. I love how functional yet how beautifully designed they are.

What do you never travel without?

My Dyson hair dryer, Airpods and eye mask.

Aleks Bliszczyk, journalist

How often do you travel?

I’m currently seven months into an indefinite adventure. I left Australia at the end of January and travelled through China, India, Central Asia, Georgia, the Arctic Circle (Finland and Norway) and now central Europe. But a long trip like this isn’t a first for me. I’ve backpacked for about six months at a time twice before, as well as several one-to-three month international trips.

What is your approach to packing?

Bring as little as possible, and always in a backpack. I hate suitcases. That shit is so heavy and cumbersome, I like to be agile. Most trips in my life have been carry-on, only to warm places, so that means something like: four tops, two bottoms, one warm layer, bikini, hat, two pairs of shoes and a couple of g-strings – very small and light.

This time though, I’m working with a 50L hiking pack for three reasons: I’m travelling for a fucking long time across winter and summer; I’m carrying hiking and camping gear; I’m moving to Europe at the end of my travels. Many things were culled and sacrificed, and there are many things I’ve since realised I should’ve brought. But no matter how much you prepare it’s impossible to get it 100 per cent right.

What is your best packing hack or tip?

I only bring clothes that can mix and match. Every top must go with every bottom. And the shoes I bring must also go with all my outfits. Exceptions can be made of course for special occasions or specific events or activities, but when packing I lay my clothes out first and make sure they’re all interchangeable. I rarely pack dresses for this reason – too much fabric for too little variation. I also shaved my head right before I left so I didn’t have to pack shampoo or a hairbrush. I really recommend.

What do you never travel without?

I have a shawl that can be used as a covering in places of worship, a blanket on planes or buses, a top sheet if I’m staying in cheap hotels with icky bedding, a beach towel and a picnic rug. Extremely handy. Also earplugs, good headphones and a passport.

This story is part of Broadsheet’s special Aussie Travel Issue, presented by Up, exploring uncommon escapes and remarkable stays close to home.