How To Go On Holiday With Just Hand Luggage

You may or may not know that I am off to New York for 5 days. What you may not know is that for the past five years I have never travelled with more than hand luggage and I was determined to not break this habit. Well the only exception was when I moved to France – but I don’t think I can live in anther country with just a small suitcase to my name. But I’ve travelled to Spain multiple times, summered in the South of France, enjoy city breaks and travelled around Europe for 40 days all with just hand luggage.

The way to do this is with planning. I don’t take too many “just-in-case” things and plan my outfits where I can. So with New York I knew I needed 5 outfits for day time sightseeing, 4 going-out outfits, comfy shoes for the day and comfy heels for the evening. So that’s what I pack – exactly what I need.

So with everything I need put aside the question is how will I fit all of that into this tiny suitcase?!?

The first thing I do is pick the biggest, chunkiest clothing and wear that as my travelling clothes. So my boots, jeans, t-shirt, handbag filled with my kindle, purse, i-phone, makeup, big chunky jacket, hat and scarlf will all be worn in the airport and once I’m on the plan I can stuff it all underneath my seat.

First things first is pushing the shoes to the edges of you case and stuffing them with socks or underwear. In the top section of the case I put underwear and fatten it out as much as possible.

Next I find all the clothes I want to take that are thin and can be easily rolled up. I roll them up tightly and line the bottom of my case with them.

I then take more clothes, roll them up and start lining up the side of the case, leaving a space in the middle.

The space in the middle is for my washbag which is filled with the essentials. I decant my moisturiser, cleanser, toner and nigth cream into mini bottle that are 100ml as I can’t take more than that. Then items such as bodywash, shampoo and conditioner I pop to a shop once I’ve landed and buy them once I get to the country I’m travelling to.

Next I take the item which are too thick to fold and fold them neatly and place them on top of everything else. I then use the belts in the case to flatten everything down as much as possible – believe they are pulled very tightly!

Et Voila! I have packed in my tiny hand luggage sized suitcase – 8 dresses, once pair of jeans, one pair of trousers, 3 t-shirts, pyjamas, underwear, toiletries, 1 pair of heels and a blazer! Which is more than enough for me for 5 days in New York!

Do you usually travel light or do you take a huge suitcase? Do you have any clever packing tips?