Limit Air Travel Luggage to Just One Carry On Bag

Rupert Parker

The sight of people hauling mammoth-sized suitcases as they wait in the airline queue is a real cause for concern. Travel is stressful enough without the extra pain caused by lugging heavy luggage everywhere. The journey from home to hotel can be made a lot easier and even enjoyable if you cut down your luggage to the barest minimum. Imagine being able check in online, walk straight to the gate, stow your bag in the overhead locker and walk off at the other head without waiting for baggage reclaim. It’s the way to go!

Choose Your Luggage Dimensions According to Airline Rules

The IATA rules state that “Cabin baggage should have maximum length of 22″ (56 cm), width of 18″ (45 cm) and depth of 10″ (25 cm). These dimensions include wheels, handles, side pockets, etc.” In Europe the restrictions are even tougher and limited to dimensions of 55 cm x 40 cm x 20 cm. This is a good general guideline but you should always check with the airline.

Now cases with wheels are fine, but they’re also heavy and cumbersome, and not great for mounting kerbs. If you’re packing light, it makes more sense to go for a hybrid case/rucksack like this Tatonka Flightcase. What’s brilliant is that, although it looks like a normal soft case, concealed within the back cover are padded shoulder straps, so it transforms into a rucksack with a flick of a zip. And if you’re packing less than 10 kg, it’s not a great load to carry on your back.

The Ultimate Lighweight Travel Packing List

The aim is to get everything into one piece of cabin baggage. Nowadays there are often weight restrictions, sometimes as low as 5 kg, so it’s important to pack only the bare essentials. Here’s a basic list for two weeks travel to a warm country:

• Light shoes – wear for travel
• Plastic sandals like Teva
• Light Jeans or other trousers – wear for travel
• 1 shorts
• Swim shorts or trunks
• 1 long sleeve T-shirt - wear for travel
• 2 T-shirts
• 1 short sleeve shirt
• 3 pair’s of underwear – wear one for travel
• 2 handkerchiefs
• 3 pair’s socks – wear one for travel
• Thin fleece – wear for travel
• Waterproof jacket – wear for travel
• Baseball cap – wear for travel
• Washing kit
• Sunglasses
• Book – stow in jacket pocket
• Small towel or fabric wrap

You can keep the weight down by wearing the heaviest items. If you’re travelling from a cold country, this makes good sense anyway.

• Nov 13, 2009
• By: Meagan Drillinger
• TravelAgentCentral

For the second year in a row, New Zealand has clinched top spots at the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards.

Taking the spotlight was Whale Watch Kaikoura, named overall winner. They also won the marine environment category. YHA Wellington City took the gold in the best large hotel/accommodation category.

The awards are nominated by tourists and honor individuals, companies and organizations that make commitments to the local culture and economies, while also contributing to biodiversity conservation. A panel of 13 judges makes the final decisions.

Visit www.newzealand.com

USA

Suddenly the USA is cool again! Be it from Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday last year, or just tightened budgets during the recession, but more Americans (even hipsters) are looking backwards – and foreigners too – and taking in traditional American historical sites, beginning with Washington DC’s freebie zone of museums and heroic monuments.

Suriname

South America’s smallest country, both in area and population, is easily one of its most diverse. Some three quarters of Suriname’s people are descended from Chinese, Javanese and Indian labourers that arrived in the 18th century, and West African slaves in the 17th. Add indigenous Amerindians and Lebanese, Jewish and Dutch settlers, and you have the makings for a lot of ethnic tension, right? Fortunately, wrong. Suriname is known for its peacefully coexisting cultures, most emblematically represented by the country’s biggest mosque and synagogue situated side by side in the capital Paramaribo. With everyone speaking different languages, celebrating different holidays and worshipping in different temples, visiting Suriname is really like hitting several countries at once.

Portugal

Skirting along the southwestern edge of the Iberian Peninsula, the once-great seafaring nation of Portugal today straddles two very different worlds. For purists, this is a land of great tradition, of saints-day festivals where ox-drawn carts still lumber through flower-strewn streets, and ancient vineyards bring sleepy medieval villages to life during the annual harvest. Meanwhile, in other parts of the country, something decidedly more modern is transpiring. Old city centres, long ago abandoned by the young and upwardly mobile in favour of the suburbs, are slowly being revitalised. A new wave of boutiques, art galleries and cafes are finding new homes in once crumbling old buildings, and locals are beginning to rediscover the allure of vibrant downtown areas.