Throughout our years of adventure travel and backpacking, our team has learned that there are two things that can make or break your next adventure: attitude, and gear.
Without the right attitude, even the lightest gear won't necessarily ensure that you have an enjoyable trip. Having the attitude that you can and will have a successful, fun trip is the first step you should take - even before packing your suitcase or backpack!
Tips on Making Sure You have the Right Attitude for Travel
- Get in touch with the feelings you have. When you're about to embark on an adventure, it's very common to feel some amount of trepidation. And it's important to not discount those feelings. They exist for a reason! It's time to investigate why you're feeling the way you are. Write about your concerns in a journal to help you organize your thoughts around them, and answer them for yourself.
- Learn more about where you're going. If you feel nervous about the travel itself, it can be helpful to do some research on your destination. Check out some books from the library about the place you're traveling to: travel guides and even novels can help you feel as though you've "familiarized" yourself with your destination already.
- Don't go alone: yet. While solo travel is a dream of many, and one that you can easily achieve if you want to, it's best to dip your toe in the water first! Traveling in smaller groups can give you a taste of what solo travel looks like, while having familiar faces around you for support. At Adventures in Good Company, we intentionally keep our trip groups small, so our travelers have an opportunity to build community with each other. You can view our upcoming trips calendar by clicking here!
- Practice makes perfect. Feeling at ease during adventure travel is a learned skill. The more you travel, the more at ease you will feel in unfamiliar environments.
Packing Tips for Adventure Travel
Next, it's time to take a closer look at your gear and weed out the things that aren't necessary for your travels. Your "just in case" or "luxury" items are fun to have, but can bog down your travel and contribute to feelings of overwhelm. Lugging around heavy suitcases or backpacks can put a lot of strain on you, both mentally and physically.
To shed that weight, begin with the purchase of two important tools:
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A digital scale. Digital food scales are helpful for weighing individual pieces of gear, which you can tally up to get an accurate read on how much weight you're carrying. The digital ones are the most accurate and the easiest to read. Without a scale, it's easy to rationalize your "just in case/luxury" items and believe that the added weight won't make much of a difference. But when you weigh each piece of gear, you will see exactly what these added items weigh, and how quickly those few ounces can add up to pounds.
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A regular bathroom scale. Yes, the dreaded one! Again, digital is the easiest to use and the most accurate.
Now that you have the tools, divide your clothing and gear into three piles:
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The first pile can be labeled ‘must go.’ This would include items such as sleeping bag, tent, food, and those types of items.
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The second pile would be the ‘just in cases’ pile like the extra shirt, pants, etc.
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The third pile would be labeled ‘would like to take’ such as that camp chair or that really cool but really heavy leatherman.
- At this point, you should really only consider taking items from your first pile!
Once you've separated your needs from your wants, weigh everything from the first pile. And get rid of anything that is not useful such as tags, extra rope, webbing, buckles---anything that is ‘just there’ and serving no useful function.
Weigh all the things you eliminated and you’ll see you’re already lighter and on your way to enjoyable active travel.
For more lightweight travel tips, be sure to download our FREE guide to lightweight backpacking! This guide goes into even greater detail about the gear you should consider bringing, what you should leave at home, and even includes a packing list to help guide your gear choices.
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