Backpacking for Beginners in 5 Steps

If you would’ve told me that I would one day backpack Europe, like legit carry everything I needed for 2 weeks in backpack, I wouldn’t have believed you. Seriously still can’t believe that I successfully did it and absolutely loved every second of it! I love clothes…so needless to say, I am not usually a light packer and my hubs would be the first person to tell you that. That experience showed me that with enough planning, backpacking is not only doable, but also very freeing. I have put together a quick guide to help you decide if Backpacking is the right route for your next big trip, as well as, given you 5 steps for a successful backpacking experience.

Is Backpacking Right For Me?

The biggest question to ask yourself before deciding backpacking is right for you is, “what is the purpose of my trip?” If you are wanting to stay in cities for longer spans of time, or you are wanting to make fashion statements your whole trip, backpacking may not be for you. Josh and I decided that we wanted to backpack Europe when we were actually in Italy with my family the year before. My family does not travel lightly, which caused some issues (and quite a few laughs) when moving from city to city. While cramped 4 people deep in the backseat of our tiny European van, we told each other that the next time we came to Europe that we would backpack it. Fast forward several months later, we learned that we would be taking another family trip, this time to Austria! We knew that we had to take this opportunity to backpack and see as many cities as we could in a span of 12 days. The purpose of that trip was not to relax in a city for long periods of time, nor was it to look my absolute cutest— it was to explore new cities and explore them efficiently. If you find yourself in the same boat, and you want to push yourself to experience Europe in a new way, I would highly recommend backpacking for your next big trip!

Step #1- Get Equipped

One of the most important things when planning for a backpacking trip is buying the right equipment. This can be overwhelming because there are so many options out there. When I was looking I had a few key things in mind: cost, capacity, and comfort.

Cost: The theme for this trip was “budget friendly”, so when looking for a reliable backpack that checked all the boxes, it was important that I did not blow the bank. Another reason I didn’t choose to invest in a super expensive backpack is because I honestly never thought I would use it again...however I was wrong about that :) After researching the options, I went with a Coreal 50L Travel Backpack for less than….wait for it…. $40!! Seriously, it was such a great price for the quality of the bag. I highly recommend this bag!

Capacity: Figuring out how big of a backpack I realistically needed kept me up a night. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but still it was one of the things that stressed me out most about our trip. I obviously needed something large enough to fit all the things, but at the same time, I didn’t want to break my back while roaming the streets of Europe. I was in a straight up Goldilocks situations here. After ample research, I decided on a 50L and in the words of Goldi it was “just right!” This allowed me to have enough room for my stuff, but also let me have a little bit of extra room….which I will touch on in a bit.

Comfort: This one is a no brainer. I knew that there would be days where we would be getting into cities early and couldn’t check into our rooms until late afternoon, so I needed something that would fit me comfortably in all the right places. This pack had a waist buckle strap with handy dandy zipper pockets, which were perfect for my phone, money, and most importantly, chapstick. Additionally, there was squishy padding all along the back, so I never felt anything awkwardly poking out.

Step 2- Stay Organized

When stuffing everything you need for 2 weeks in a pack (i.e. clothes, shoes, toiletries, itineraries, souvenirs), you need to be organized. When packing, channel your inner Marie Kondo in the sense that everything needs a designated space. To help with this, I highly recommend ordering yourself some travel storage pouches. Each pouch housed different categories of clothing. I used the smallest pouch for our itineraries, Eurail passes, and passports. Using these pouches made for easy and quick packing and unpacking. So rather than your backpack being a bottomless pit of clothing, you can just work out of each pouch. These are a must! Other must-haves include a small bag for electronic accessories and an compartmentalized bag for your toiletries.

Step 3: Mix & Match

When packing your clothes, it is important to keep in mind that you will most likely be re-wearing these outfits multiple times over the duration of your trip. So, mixing and matching is a must and neutral clothing is your new bestie. A rule of thumb for me was every top needed to go with at least 2 bottoms and bottoms needed to go with at least 3 tops. I kept things very simples here, like I said, I wasn’t going for “best dressed” on this trip.

Okay now let’s talk about shoes. This was a reallyyyy hard thing for me to scaled back on, but I needed to be practical here. Realistically, I only had room for a few pairs, so my shoe game was super weak on the trip. But guess what...I was comfortable and I just made sure to not have my feet in a lot of photos :) okay, semi-kidding here...but seriously, I needed to make sure that my shoe choices were practical for walking around. A LOT. I only brought 4 pairs of shoes, one of which were always on my feet: Chacos, tennis shoes that were easily packable aka flexible, a cute pair of sandals, and shower flip flops (hello hostel bathrooms). Trust me y’all, you will live without endless shoe choices!!

Step 4: Leave Room

Do not pack your backpack to the brim. Don’t do it!! First of all, you don’t want to throw your back out day 1 of the trip. Second of all, you want to be sure you can bring fun souvenirs and clothes home with you! Europe has some of the BEST shopping, so when you get sick of you plain black cotton tee one week into the trip, you’ll have a spot for a new cute top!

Step 5: Practice makes Perfect

I cannot stress this enough, you need to practice packing! I must’ve packed my bag 6-7 times before I was happy with everything I was bringing and to make sure that it was not too heavy for me. I walked laps with my backpack around our apartment complex like a lunatic, but hey, it paid off because I was very comfortable the entire trip and only complained about my bag being too heavy like once...or twice (sorry Josh!)

Overview

I hope this guide is helpful for you! Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions you may have about backpacking. I thought this would be so out of my comfort zone, like I didn’t know how I could go without my straightener and my makeup bag for 2 weeks, but I did it! Seriously, I do not think I will ever go back to over-packing for another international trip because traveling without being bogged down by all your stuff is a very freeing thing!