Brian had a crazy idea for our 28-day trip to Europe (Spain, Portugal, Canary Islands) – what if we ONLY packed a backpack. No checked bags, no dragging a rolling suitcase through the cobblestone streets, just a backpack.

At first, I thought he was crazy (and maybe even a little frustrated with him for suggesting something so obviously ridiculous), but you know what? We did it.

Not only did we successfully pack for 28 days in a backpack, but we did it twice. And one time, we had our wedding attire.

I’m going to combine the two trips to help give you a complete picture of what to pack, no matter the time of year. The first trip we took was in the middle of the summer, but the second trip was during October. That trip included jeans, a jacket, boots, etc, so I feel like it’s helpful to see both examples!

You can view the itineraries from each trip here!
Two-week Spain Itinerary
Portugal Hotspots: Porto, Lisbon, and Sintra
One week in Tenerife, Canary Islands
Viva la Novia! Getting Married Abroad

As far as clothing goes, here’s the TLDR

Summer: I either wore a sun dress with spandex shorts under and sandals or ankle boots or t-shirt and leggings with tennis shoes. I had 5 pairs of underwear, but was able to extend laundry beyond 5 days because I didn’t wear underwear with my athletic shorts (they have built in undies), my black athletic tights (just go commando!), or my spandex shorts. So technically, I had 10 days of ‘underwear’ before needing to do laundry. In hindsight, I wish I had swapped my jeans for another pair of leggings. I felt weird not having ANY jeans, but honestly, it was way too hot to wear them outside the airport.

Winter: I either wore my jeans with ankle boots, one of my two dresses with my cardigan if it was a bit warmer, or my black leggings with tennis shoes. For tops, I had a sweater that I wore as much as I could (switching out the tank top I wore under it to keep it fresh), or my 2 solid t-shirt with my jacket. I rewore everything at least twice before washing!

Laundry: Just plan to do laundry! We did laundry 3 times on our 28-day trip and once during our 2-week trip. The machines are pretty affordable and easy to use, just make sure you have some Euro coins. Every time, we started our laundry, went to get a drink at a bar across the street, and just set a timer to return. Super easy! We also splurged a bit in Tenerife and had our hotel laundry service wash some essentials. I believe it ended up being about 40 Euros, but we decided the time it saved us was worth it.

Cotopaxi Allpa 35L

Ok, now let’s dive into the nitty gritty! I use the Cotopaxi Allpa 35L backpack. I’ve used it on several trips now as my only luggage and I absolutely love it. It’s super comfy (even when I’ve got it packed to the max) and durable. It fully unzips like a regular suitcase, has a wonderful top pack where I store my tech and liquids for easy access at TSA, and has a protected laptop sleeve in the back. I don’t always bring my laptop, so sometimes I use that slot to help transport artwork that needs to stay flat and protected.

And now for what goes in all my bags! These are the exact lists from note I have saved on my phone. When I pack, I just check off each item as I pack it.

This is what I would set out the day before traveling and is what I wore on airport days or train travel days:

• Boots
• Jeans
• Belt
• Compression socks
• Bra
• Underwear
• Solid T-Shirt
• Red cardigan (summer) / Patagonia jacket (winter) 
• Phone
• Watch

For our summer trip, I only packed my Bellroy 6L sling as my personal item. For my winter trip (where I had my wedding attire), I packed a larger canvas tote and put my sling inside of it. The photos I’m sharing are from my summer trip!

Summer Personal Item: Bellroy 6L Sling

• Eye mask
• Airplane snacks
• Portable charger
• AirPods 
• Headphone headband
• Sunglasses
• Advil
• Chapstick
• Dramamine
• Alcohol swabs (If you start to get nauseous, start sniffing an alcohol swab! Your senses will be overwhelmed by the alcohol smell and it’ll block your nausea. I swear by this!)
• Tissue
• Water
• Passport, credit cards, cash
• Hidden inside: alcohol wipes for nausea, phone info, copies of passport/ID, mask (I bring a mask with me when I travel now, not to prevent illness but to help with the dryness of the airplane air! If you’ve got a cough, the dry airplane air is going to make you cough 100000 times more. Wearing a mask can help stop that!)

Winter Personal Item: Canvas bag tote

• Sling with items above
• Water (clipped to the outside of my backpack)
• Plane snacks
• Large Packing Cube: Wedding dress rolled up and Spanx
• Medium Packing Cube: Heels and wedding sandals

Backpack top pouch:

• Switch
• Kindle
• Neck pillow: I bought a TRTL neck pillow and it’s… maybe worth it? It actually has a plastic piece in it so the “pillow” resembles more of a neck brace. While this DOES stop your head from falling side to side, even if you’re not in a window seat, it does not stop your head from falling forward. It’s also not very easy to fold up.
• Temporarily jammed my liquids bag in here for easy access during airport security
• For my winter wedding trip, I also added some sheet eye masks, face masks, and hand masks.

Inside tech pouch:

• Triple charger
• Adapter
• Kindle charger
• 2 USB C (make sure one is a USB A to C, so that you can use it in the airplane/airport chargers!)

Left side of backpack:

The left side of my backpack is where I stored my bulkier items, like extra shoes, my electric toothbrush, my toiletry bag, glasses case, etc.

• Sandals: Black Birkenstocks, super comfy, walked miles in these
• Medium Packing Cube: Tennis Shoes w/ two pairs of short socks (not pictured)
• Rain fly
• Dirty clothes bag
• Glasses case
• Toiletry bag (details below)

Three compartment Cotopaxi Nido Accessory Bag

Toiletries are pretty easy for me, even as a girl, because I’m already a pretty minimal makeup girlie. To travel, I brought along a Subtl stack and honestly, it was all the makeup I needed! I made due with whatever shampoo and conditioner was in the hotel, but I did bring my own dove soap bar for general body washing.

Medicine side:

• Comb
• Tweezers
• Gas x
• Tums
• Extra contacts
• Advil
• Zyrtec
• Dramamine
• Sudafed
• Abreva 
• Melatonin
• Emergen-C tablets

Makeup side:

• Lotion
• Moisturizer
• Chapstick
• Subtle Makeup tower that includes blush, powder, concealer, and eye shadow
• Eyeliner
• Eyeliner sharpener
• Mascara
• Eyelash curlers

Toiletries in the middle:

• Soap bar (I only brought a Dove soap bar as far as shower supplies goes. I used whatever shampoo and conditioner was offered in the hotel)
• Contact solution
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrush (outside of toiletry bag in left side of backpack)
• Floss
• Razors
• Sunscreen
• Deodorant
• Contact case
• Hanz de Fuko hair product

Right side of backpack:

The right side of my backpack held all my clothing items. I did my best to separate things into my packing cubes to keep it all organized.

Outside of cubes in the backpack:

• Rain Jacket

Big packing cube: Summer

• 4 dresses
• 1 Green athletic shorts 
• 1 Black athletic tights
• 1 Black PJ pant
• 3 spandex shorts 

Big packing cube: Winter

• 2 dresses
• 1 sweater
• 1 extra t-shirt
• 2 black athletic leggings

Medium packing cube: Summer

• Swimsuit
• Two T-Shirts
• One black T-Shirt

Medium packing cube: Winter

• 3 long socks
• 2 short socks
• 5 underwear
• 1 extra bra
• 1 PJ t-shirt

Small packing cube: Summer

• 5 pairs of underwear
• 3 short socks
• 2 long socks 

Small packing cube: Winter

• 2 tanks (for under sweater)
• 2 black spandex (for under dresses)
• 2 PJ Pants

One thing worth the purchase? The Gear Aid Hero Clip (medium). This little clip is perfect for hanging ANYTHING. We used to to hang our slings from tables when we went out to eat, to hang toiletry bags from the hotel bathroom doors, to hang clothing, to hang water bottles from the airplane seat back pockets… the list goes on and on.

So I hope this post gives you the confidence to travel with just a backpack! You can 100% do it. Just commit to rewearing outfits, dressing in basics, and doing laundry.

ASK QUESTIONS! If you’ve got packing questions or questions about what’s shown/listed here, I’d love to talk more about it.