Having a streamlined packing routine and luggage ensemble is a very important part of preparing for our next snorkleing adventure. If you just grab a couple of random bags tucked away in the back of the closet and toss your items in haphazardly, you’re likely to encounter a fair amount of stress throughout the tour, both mentally and physically. Following this method, finding important items like your passport and traveling cash at a moment’s notice can become a far from relaxing game of “Let’s Pull Everything Out and Scatter it on the Airport Floor”. Similarly, bear-hugging what could very easily pass as a sack of potatoes–but you call it your checked baggage–through multiple airport terminals will soon become an endurance test and leave you breathless, covered in sweat, and with shoulders that can no longer hold your arms above your head. So, to keep you in a comfortable state of body and mind, here are some packing tips!
Hand Carry Luggage
Following most airlines’ allowance of one piece of hand luggage and personal items, the configuration of one suitcase with wheels that meets the measurement requirements of the overhead bin, generally 22 x 14 x 9 inches or 56 x 36 x 23 centimeters, combined with a normal-sized backpack, is ideal. Remember, one of these items should most definitely have wheels, because wheels are awesome and carrying bags is not awesome.
Where rolling hand carry luggage is concerned, my preference is hard-shelled rectangular suitcases with four wheels. Ones that have internal dividers for things like laptops, tablets, passports, and other small items are the best. Also, in the main compartment, it’s nice to have the straps or mesh dividers to hold things in place nicely so that when it’s opened up, everything is as it was packed and not jammed into the bottom in a mass of wrinkled clothes and loose batteries.
Hand Carry Luggage Packing
Airlines around the world require specific items to be packed in certain bags. For example, all batteries, or battery-powered items such as laptops, tablets, and phones, to be packed into your hand-carry baggage. For obvious reasons, things like money, jewelry, and of course, passports need to be in your hand-carried luggage as well. We also recommend picking one easy-to-access pocket for your passport and or wallet so you know exactly where it is at all times and you can access it easily. The same goes for any large amounts of cash you intend to bring on tour; always put it in the same pocket so there’s no panic and confusion later on.
Checked Luggage
Large amorphous duffel bags with no internal organizational structure that require the shoulder strength of a grits and gravy fueled lumberjack to haul said bags from point A to point B, are not the most ideal packing receptacles for your upcoming snorkeling safari with us. Of course, in many places it’s possible to find the free push carts for our larger luggage, but sometimes it’s not, and in these instances, you’ll be left with no option but to laboriously schlepp your shapeless zippered duffel through the airport terminals.
To save our bodies from unnecessary physical stress or strain, luggage with wheels is the absolute best option. Also, I always prefer something with some internal straps and mesh compartments to keep your valuables in place and organized during transit.
