Packing Items You Don’t Need In Europe

My friend Elizabeth wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about some items they AREN’T taking with them on their trip to Europe next month. Since I have been blogging about my trip to Europe this month I decided to write a rebuttal post so we can BLOG-WAR it out and see what on her list I brought and what I didn’t. So here we go!

 

1. Carry on roller suitcases. 

DISAGREE. Technically all our suitcases had wheels but we did check our luggage. So I guess this is a agree/disagree really. It’s just easier to not have to worry about it or deal with luggage in the airport. It makes going through security easier. The airline we flew everyone was able to check 1 suitcase for free so it wasn’t a big deal. Actually the luggage I used I had planned to just carry-on and they told me it was too big/heavy so there’s that. I could have sworn I had used that luggage to carry on in the past but maybe not.

2. Tennis shoes.

DISAGREE. Yeah I totally brought these with me. I brought 3 pairs of shoes with me to Europe. A pair of sandals, flip flops, and sneakers. I’m a very casual shoe wearer to begin with. With the amount of walking I knew we would be doing I wanted to bring shoes that I knew I’d be comfortable in and wouldn’t get blisters (ha that happenned anyway).

However we also went in the spring/summer. If I was going to Europe in the fall/winter like Elizabeth I might have packed different shoe-wear. I also was visiting southern Europe and she is visiting Northern Europe so different climates as well.

3. A money belt.

DISAGREE. I did a lot of research about traveling in Europe including some of the accessories to buy. This was one of them. At first we weren’t going to get them as they were kind of expensive but my mom found a 2 pack pretty cheap on amazon so she purchased them. We LOVED using these. It was easy to access our money and passports at all times and not having to dig through our backpack or worry about pickpockets. I actually use these all the time now when I go to theme parks so I don’t have to carry a bag. We also bought packing cubes that made organizing all our clothes really easy!

4. Medication we aren’t currently taking.

AGREE. When you are tight on space and going to be staying in several hotels it’s just dumb to bring things you “might need.” We were visiting big cities and had access to pharmacies to buy anything we might need if we got sick.  If we were going to be in the middle of nowhere I might have thought twice about this. I’m also one that doesn’t get sick often and waits until she is dying before seeing a doctor. (Although I probably just jinxed myself by writing that)

5. Clothes for every single day.

AGREE.  I was in Europe for 3 weeks…there was no way I was going to bring that many outfits. Heck I’m not sure I even own that many outfits!! Even when I’m home I wear a lot of my clothes more than once before washing (shhh don’t tell). In Rome we rented an apartment with a washer dryer and did all our laundry then. We did some other random batches in sinks in hotels. All I can say when I got home I was never more happier to see a washer/dryer/shower.

6. Cellphones.

AGREE. Like Elizabeth I did bring my iPhone to Europe to use as a camera and iPod. I downloaded a ton of Audiotours when I had wifi and listened to them when I visited different attractions on my iPhone. Thanks to the Voxer app I was able to text and talk my family and friends when I had wifi which was pretty often. The travel agent my school used for the Greece trip gave everyone a throwaway international phone but we couldn’t really get them to work right. However it did come in handy because the person we rented the apartment from asked us to call him when we got to the train station so he could meet us at the apartment. We would have figured out how to use a payphone or something otherwise.

7. Things that we could easily buy while we’re there.

AGREE? I’m not sure if I did this. I packed pretty light. I did bring my own toiletries. Elizabeth mentioned not bringing snacks in this tip. I didn’t do that. A bunch of other people in my study abroad group did this and I honestly really didn’t think about this. Besides you never know what will and won’t get through security and I hate buying stuff to have to trash at security. There were times I wished I had more snacks but was able to find snacks along the way.

8. More than 3 pairs of shoes.

AGREE. I brought sandals, sneakers, and flip-flops. Honestly I didn’t have room in my suitcase for anything else.

9. Expensive jewelry.

AGREE. I don’t really own any expensive jewelry.

10. Stuff we might use/wear/need.

AGREE. This kind of goes with the medicine one. I wore everything I brought. Which is kind of scary for me because I usually suck at packing and end up bring stuff that I didn’t even need. There was a floral dress I brought that I only wore a few times and wished I had brought an un-patterned one instead as it would have gone with more of my clothes.

11. A bunch of phrase books for the places we’re going.

AGREE. UGH YES!! I paid $20 for a ton of phrase books I never even used! I got a bunch of apps on my phone that were way easier to use. I wasn’t sure if they would be usable when I didn’t have wifi but surprisingly I found some that didn’t need wifi. I don’t speak any other language besides a little bit of spanish but English is very widely spoken in Europe so we really didn’t have any issues.

12. Anything that we would be devastated to lose.

AGREE. I didn’t even bring my computer with me.

13. High heels and other formal wear.

AGREE. I had no plans to go anywhere fancy. I knew I’d be doing a lot of walking so I needed shoes that would work for that.

14. Travelers’ Cheques.

AGREE. I don’t even think you can get these anymore. My mom almost looked into this HA. We did order foreign money from the bank so we had money when we started because we weren’t sure when we’d be able to find an ATM. But in a way I kind of wished I had just waited and gone to the ATM in the airport as the fees were a lot higher.

15. Books we want to keep.

AGREE. Well I did bring a book I borrowed from a friend but it survived. Most of my books are ebooks I read on my iPad. Yeah I’m one of “those” people.

I guess I agreed with more of these than I thought but it was fun to go through Elizabeth’s list and write my own comments that were a little different. If you need to catch up on my other 31 Days of Europe posts you can go to my landing page!