Ah, summer, when it’s not uncommon to be traveling. Last year, I had some international travel, and one of the things that helped me survive was a keyboard case for my iPad, which enabled me to leave my laptop at home even though I had a lot of writing to do.
This year, I’m traveling internationally again, though it’s a shorter trip this time (six days instead of three weeks). I really don’t want to fuss with having to check bags, so I’m packing very light, which is something of a first for me (I was the college student who’d bring home half my books over Spring Break intending to read ahead in my classes, then never actually open more than one or two of them.)
Fortunately I don’t have a lot of writing that I really have to do this trip, so I’m free to experiment a bit with lessening the electronics load. I’m leaving even the iPad behind this time, and traveling with only a Kindle Fire HDX 7" and a Logitech Keys-To-Go bluetooth keyboard (it’s designed for iOS devices, but it pairs with the Fire just fine).
Leaving some of the electronics behind, combined with the shorter trip, has allowed me to get everything I need into the carry-on and backpack in the lead image. (I’m generally lousy at packing efficiently, so I checked out this post from Primer, and the method worked beautifully. Thanks to the folks at LifeHacker for mentioning it just one day before I had to pack!)
I’ll check back in when I return with some thoughts on how traveling this lightly worked out.
If you have any strategies for traveling lightly, please share them in the comments!
[Creative Commons licensed photo by the author.]