10 Things You SHOULDN’T Pack For Europe

Packing for a big trip to Europe is both an exciting as well as stressful experience, and if you're traveling for an extended period with a smaller bag, it's really important that you bring the right stuff and leave the wrong stuff behind. So today I'm going to cover 10 things I don't think you necessarily need when you're traveling Europe. The first thing that you definitely do not want to bring on your trip to Europe is the wrong kind of bag. Traveling with a large bag can detract from your overall experience just because you'll have to have it with you more than you would like, and if it is really heavy, that's going to be distracting from the things that you really want to be focusing on. It'll also be more difficult to store. There's not always a great place to put your bag. On the flip side, I don't recommend bringing a bag that's too small just because you might be constantly missing, you know, that favorite shirt or that favorite pair of pants that you left back home. I recommend bringing a sturdy mid-sized backpack with some kind of waist strap. The reason you want a waist strap is because that'll take a lot of the weight off of your shoulders and help things be more evenly distributed throughout your body. When you're walking for a long time, that will be a lot more comfortable. I've also found that for many people, the size of their bag determines how much stuff they bring. If you start out getting a large bag, you're naturally going to bring more stuff. If you get a small bag, you're naturally going to bring less stuff because you kind of have to. If you know you want to pack lighter weight but you're not sure if you can, maybe just go ahead and lock yourself into the right size backpack that you think you'd like to bring and that will help you shape the rest of your packing list. Something else you shouldn't bring on your trip to Europe is just too many outfits. I think clothes are the number one culprit when it comes to just bags getting too big and too heavy. The reality is if you're traveling by yourself and you're moving around a lot, you really only need a few different outfits because it's okay to wear the same things over and over and over again because you're not seeing the same people every day. There are also usually some type of laundry facilities at hostels, so you're able to do laundry on a pretty regular basis. Something else I don't recommend doing is buying different clothes that you don't typically wear when you're at home. I found when I was traveling, I always gravitated towards those items that I wore the most at home. So whatever your normal everyday clothes are like, try to bring clothes like that on your trip. Something else that's easy to forget is that wherever you're going, more likely than not they'll have clothing that you can buy. So when I started traveling, it was a bit warmer in Europe, but towards the end it started getting cold and all I had packed were just some light longer sleeve clothes that I could layer. So I eventually just bought a larger winter coat because it finally got cold enough to justify having one. While traveling Europe might be a great time to relax and do lots of reading, I don't suggest bringing physical books and magazines with you on your trip. Those are just a lot of weight and that information can usually just be accessed via the internet nowadays. If you have an iPhone or a tablet, you can access thousands of books, thousands of magazines right on that, as well as find all of the travel information that you'll ever need. So leave those big hefty books behind to save room for maybe souvenirs or other things that you might need more. So the next thing I don't recommend you bring to Europe is just any toiletry type items that you can find as you go. So a lot of hostels and budget hotels will already have like blow dryers for you, they'll have towels and washcloths and sometimes even like shampoo and conditioner. Leaving those types of items at home again will just lighten your load all that much more. Towels in particular are pretty big and take up a lot of space, so I recommend just getting those as you go. Some hostels charge a fee of just a couple euros to use a towel, but in my opinion, I think it's worth it. In the excitement of planning a trip, it's easy to overlook the fact that when you're traveling Europe, you're going to be walking every single day and walking a lot. And so I don't suggest bringing a new pair of shoes with you when you're packing for Europe. Bring that good pair of shoes that you've already broken in that are ready to go and that will just save your feet from blisters. I remember my trip, I got blisters the first few weeks because I did bring a newer pair of shoes. If you don't have some good shoes now, maybe just go ahead and buy them. Start breaking them in and going on walks leading up to your trip. Something else I don't suggest bringing to Europe would be your priceless family heirlooms or jewelry, anything that you really care about getting lost. When you're traveling all the time, it's very easy just to leave things behind. I've lost like swimsuits, flip-flops, charging cables. If you bring those priceless heirlooms, just be prepared to lose them. Also, bringing expensive jewelry and that type of stuff does make you a target for pickpockets. Pickpockets are a real thing, unfortunately, and so that's something just to think about and be prepared for. The next thing I suggest not bringing to Europe is just too many devices. So between smart watches, phones, tablets, laptops, cameras, all of that stuff, it can add up really quickly. My recommendation is just to bring maybe two or three devices at most with you. On my three-month trip to Europe, I just brought my phone and my tablet with me. That was more than enough for me. The reason I opted for two devices like that was so that I could always just have internet access. Heaven forbid something happened to one or the other, I would have the other as a backup and I could do all my planning on that. If I was doing the same trip now, I would suggest maybe bringing a digital camera. Less is more, though, when it comes to technology. I suggest keeping that list as short as possible just because you also are usually limited on the number of power outlets that you'll have access to at any given time. Something else I think you should leave behind when traveling is your laptop. Laptops are really big and cumbersome to carry. They add a few pounds of weight and they can be broken pretty easily. Unless you really need your laptop for work or something, I think it's too much to carry with you and can get pretty annoying to have after a while. Other things to avoid bringing would just be any stuff that can get you in trouble with TSA or customs. I'm not going to go into detail here, but I would just say use common sense. If there's something that you're not certain about whether you can travel with it, do some research and see what the guidelines are for those items. For example, I'm going to Iceland soon and I'm planning to bring my big camera with me, so I had to research and make sure I could bring the batteries for the camera with me. At the end of the day, more than the stuff that you bring with you in your bag, the thing that's going to have the biggest impact on your trip is the type of attitude that you have going into it. So, I don't recommend packing the wrong attitude. Come into the experience just grateful that you get to travel in the first place. Be intentional about showing kindness to others and being humble. The bottom line for packing for Europe is when in doubt, you can usually leave things behind because you can always pick up some stuff while you're traveling. If you want to see my complete packing list for what I brought to Europe, you can check out the video that I've linked in the description, but thanks for watching. If this was helpful for you, please give me a thumbs up, but I'll see you guys in the next video.