How heavy should my bag be for rtw trip?

breadmonkey

I can't remember how much my bag weighed last time I was away. I'm leaving on Monday and determined to be as light as possible. I'm bringing a 60L. I've heard arguments for using a smaller pack but I'm not shelling out for a new rucksack and I have to bring a bulky pair of hiking boots so will probably need the space.

Initial totting up in my head has me at ~6.5kg without any clothing. That includes the self weight of the bag (3kg).

What's a comfortable weight?

Glowing

Hiya,

Are you male or female?

I'm a girl, and I found that when the bag weighed more than about 12 or 13 kilos, it was pretty tiring ... idealy it'd be no heavier than 11kg.

The key to carrying a heavy load is to use the waist strap on the rucksack, to transfer all the weight to your hips, rather than on your shoulders, it'd kill you that way. In theory you should have no weight on your shoulders at all if the bag is fitted properly.

You'll find you'll need a lot less clothes than you think - don't bring jeans, too heavy and take too long to dry. Those wicking/fast dry teeshirts are very handy cos you can wash and dry them in minutes.

Have a ball!!!!

S.M.B.

You usuaully run into a spot of bother at airports with extra charges when you're over 15kg so I'd try keep into under that.

RATM

Keep it as light as possible, if you can get it down to 9/10kgs then you won't even notice it on your back. If its 10-13kgs then thats still pretty good but anything above begins to get tiresome especially if you tend to walk from bus stations to hostels rather than taking a taxi.
Any clothes you may need for different climates are easily purchased along the way so don't be afraid to leave things out. Agree with previous poster that jeans are a waste of time, way too heavy in warm climates. One warm hoodie is invaluable for overnight bus journeys where they have the air-con on full blast and when up in the mountains at night.

Have a blast on your trip man and make sure to post the odd update here !

Neamhshuntasach

I always bring a pair of jeans for going out at night or just to blend in with the locals. That's all people wear in most parts of the world so it helps you look less touristy. One pair doesn't add that much extra weight if you haven't overdone it on everything else.

Also are the hiking boots really necessary? If you are just doing a one off thing like Machu Picchu then i wouldn't bother with them. They'd only be worth bringing if you were constantly using them for serious hiking.

breadmonkey

Thanks for all the advice.

Glowing wrote: »

Hiya,

Are you male or female?

I'm a girl, and I found that when the bag weighed more than about 12 or 13 kilos, it was pretty tiring ... idealy it'd be no heavier than 11kg.

The key to carrying a heavy load is to use the waist strap on the rucksack, to transfer all the weight to your hips, rather than on your shoulders, it'd kill you that way. In theory you should have no weight on your shoulders at all if the bag is fitted properly.

I'm a guy but I'll be keeping a very close eye on the weight of my girlfriend's pack since I'll be carrying the excess weight! I have my pack adjusted so the weight is on the hips. I couldn't believe how much of a difference it made the first time!

RATM wrote: »

Any clothes you may need for different climates are easily purchased along the way so don't be afraid to leave things out. Agree with previous poster that jeans are a waste of time, way too heavy in warm climates. One warm hoodie is invaluable for overnight bus journeys where they have the air-con on full blast and when up in the mountains at night.

Yeah we're going to have to buy a lot of stuff along the way. We're going from Fiji to the middle of the Canadian winter so it should be interesting to see how we get on there lol!

Neamhshuntasach wrote: »

I always bring a pair of jeans for going out at night or just to blend in with the locals. That's all people wear in most parts of the world so it helps you look less touristy. One pair doesn't add that much extra weight if you haven't overdone it on everything else.

Also are the hiking boots really necessary? If you are just doing a one off thing like Machu Picchu then i wouldn't bother with them. They'd only be worth bringing if you were constantly using them for serious hiking.

Hitting India first so I don't think I'll bother with the jeans. I'd say I'll try and grab a pair in Thailand before hitting Oz/NZ.

I think the boots are necessary. The main reason I bought them was for Nepal but I'll certainly get a good bit of use out of them in NZ and they'll be my daily footwear in Canada! Also they only weigh 1.4kg in total which is pretty good.

Larianne

as light as you can afford! Best of luck on your trip, you lucky thing!

breadmonkey

Thanks!

Managed to get it to 9kgs! That's not including a smaller day bag that will be about 2-3kgs but still pretty light.

RATM

breadmonkey wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice.




Hitting India first so I don't think I'll bother with the jeans. I'd say I'll try and grab a pair in Thailand before hitting Oz/NZ.

9Kgs is excellent, leaves you a bit of space for when the girlfriend decides to go shopping:-)

There's a night market in Bangkok called Lumpini ( it is on the metro line ) which sells loads of very good fake Diesel jeans as well as plenty of other brands. You can pick up a pair for around 400-500 baht if you haggle hard. Otherwise loads of stores in the Khao San Road sell allsorts but the night market is well worth the trip too- there's also a huge food court there.