“He who would travel happily must travel light” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“People don’t take trips — trips take people” – John Steinbeck
“…and people take luggage” – Adventures in Tandem
We all know how difficult it is to pack for a cycling trip. What to bring and then how to fit it into your suitcase. Then how to navigate it all through the airport. Bringing the right stuff and not too much can be more of an art than a science. You want to bring enough clothes so that you aren’t wearing the same thing every day and have a few options; however, you also aren’t taking more than is easy to carry. Here are some tips to help…
First, bring less stuff. Remember that you are on a cycling vacation. So cycling clothes, good rain gear, cycling gloves, sun protection and jackets are important. But for other clothes, keep in mind that you are cycling each day and only wearing regular clothes for a few hours around dinner.
We typically bring two or three cycling kits to alternate between and we hand wash what we wear every day. We generally bring a third pair of cycling shorts so that we have a back-up if the chamois didn’t fully dry. Also, it gives us the opportunity to double up on long riding days.
For off the bike clothes, we bring layers. Short sleeved shirts with a lightweight jacket to double up with. We also tend to use tech fabrics that dry fast. Cotton is heavier, takes longer to dry and wrinkles easier. We try to bring stuff we can mix and match. We alternate clothes throughout a tour wearing most things several times.
Second, be prepared to hand wash your clothes during the trip. Sometimes we stay at hotels or towns with laundry facilities, but more often than not, the easiest thing to do is wash your clothes by hand. Here are some tips:
- Bring a clothesline. There are so many options it’s hard to recommend a specific one. Anything from just some rope and clothespins to something travel specific. We put together an “Idea List” on Amazon with a bunch of different clotheslines, everything that’s mentioned below, and other travel related laundry items. Also, where you hang that clothesline is pretty critical. Make use of any bathroom heat lamps or sun drenched balconies. Finding things to tie your line onto can sometimes be an issue, so having a longer line can give you more flexibility.
- Having a drain stop is a good idea. Many hotel sinks either don’t have a drain stop or have one that just doesn’t work well.
- Bring along some laundry soap. We recently discovered SOAK detergent. SOAK is a Canadian company that makes a liquid soap that you use with cold water and 15 minutes of soaking time and then you drain the water, but you do not need to rinse the clothes. This saves a lot of water while traveling and makes handwashing easier. We have tried it on some stained pants and it worked. Also, we found that the scents are not very strong. (Note that the prices on their website are in Canadian dollars.) Regular laundry detergent works well also, but you have to rinse it really well.
- Having a few hangers with you can also be useful. These fold up hangers can be helpful when the hotel only has those hangers that can only hang in the hotel closet.
- Squish the water out your clothes efficiently. Some teams we know bring along a microfiber camping towel to dry their clothes. The towels are designed to absorb up to eight times their weight in water and then wring almost dry. Alternatively, you could also use your hotel room towels. It won’t work as well, but it works fine for us. We tend to squish out water with our hands (wringing is bad for the clothes), then hang up our clothes for a bit to let gravity drain some water out, then squish out the bottom of the clothes, where all the water gathered. Then we roll them up in a towel and step all over it to get the water from clothes to the towel. Even in humid climates, our shorts are dry over night.
Lastly, pack your suitcase efficiently. We absolutely love Packing Cubes. Packing cubes are cloth gear organizers that zipper shut. They are modular systems for sub-packing your suitcase. It makes finding what you are looking for super fast and easy. There are tons of different ones to choose from online or in department stores. Ortlieb even makes packing cubes for panniers for cycle touring!
We typically each have our own suitcase. Each of us will have four or five packing cubes in the suitcase. Each cube has different clothing rolled up inside. Rolling the clothes keeps them more wrinkle-free and easier to see and access. We might have a packing cube with with cycling clothes, one with toiletries, one with underwear, socks and bathing suit, and one with off the bike clothes. We then throw in a pair of sandals, and voila, we are ready to travel the world!
We hope that this was helpful. We would love to hear what tips you have for traveling light.