Disclaimer: This post was written in January 2019, if you are reading this post at a later date the information discussed below may be inaccurate. Please check your chosen airline’s information on luggage before proceeding with your flight booking.
Quite often when posting a flight route on Student Holiday Plans, I’ll include a caveat about the different prices for different types of luggage. Although the flights may be as low as the price of a nice meal out, it is often these little price increases that push up the overall expenditure of a holiday. Of course for some longer journeys you just have to pay up for a higher luggage allowance, but spending over half of the cost of the flight either way for a short break is something that can easily be dealt with.
First you have to know what you’re working with. For Ryanair and Wizz Air, two of Europe’s biggest budget airlines, you get the same cabin baggage allowance for free – 40cm x 20cm x 25cm for Ryanair, and 40cm x 20cm x 30cm for Wizz Air. Now this is small, fact. It is smaller than most average-sized backpacks – be prepared to take your tape measure with you if you go out to buy a new small bag! It isn’t however beyond the realms of possibility to save money and travel on short journeys with only this bag. Check out our guide below to packing smartly to save money.
Clothing –
When packing for a holiday, we all often tend to think we need to bring more than we actually do. Of course for many holidays having access to facilities to wash clothes is often not available, but if you’re only planning on bringing your hand luggage with you, you need to pack smart, and often savagely.
The first stop is daywear. It might sound basic, but check the weather of your holiday location before going. If it looks like sun all week, then you don’t need to pack your winter thermals just in case. Always be sure to make room for a thin raincoat or umbrella though, since rain is ubiquitous across all ends of Europe! Don’t pack for what ‘might’ happen either – if you’re travelling with fixed plans in mind for activities, then create your outfits for those days before you pack. Don’t just pack three or four different versions of an outfit for the sake of choice.
If you’re going somewhere with a nightlife that you want to experience, consider items that can double up as day and nightwear. Jean-like trousers are a perfectly example of something that can be worn all day and not look out of place – though beware, denim can be notoriously hard to compactly pack!
Now onto accessories. This can be chargers, brushes or other electronic equipment. These are surprisingly some of the hardest items to pack, as they’re simply not flexible or ‘squashable’. Always pack these things last, since you’ll know what kind of space you’re working with. Detach wires from their plugs if possible, and place them in the little gaps that will always appear. Don’t forget plug adaptors – it’s very unlikely you’ll find these in your holiday destination outside of being overly priced at an airport. As a note, some devices, including laptops and tablets, will need to go through airport security out of your bag, so don’t bury it at the bottom of your bag and forget about it.
Finally, a day sack, or handbag. While in the past you’ve been able to have your hand luggage and a ‘personal bag’ separately, you may now find yourself with just one bag as your carry-on. This may mean that your usual handbag or rucksack will simply be too large to bring with you. You don’t however need to re-pack everything already in your bag into a smaller receptacle. Be clinical with your packing – your essentials are few; you need money or means (debit or credit cards), your house and car key, if parked at the airport (there’s no need to bring all of your keys with you – they’re just taking up room, and you’ll have more to lose if your keys go missing on your holiday) and your passport (which, like your home keys, can easily stay in your main travel bag whenever you’re out of an airport) as necessities. You may also want to consider bringing items including a shopping bag (you may be visiting a country that has a carrier bag charge similar to that of the UK), a small map of your area (though we would advise downloading a map onto your phone that you can use offline), or a pen and small notepad. For such a short journey, everything that you normally have in your bag as ‘just in case’ items are very unlikely to be used, and will just take up room.
Toiletries –
The universal EU rulings concerning liquids (including aerosols, ‘pastes’ eg. lipstick and gels) in hand luggage already place a limit on what you can travel with. All containers must be under 100ml, and must all fit in one 20cm x 20cm transparent plastic bag. If you want more information on this, check out the official information here. This is something that can however be advantageous to the ‘hand luggage only’ traveller. Which such a small existing limit, you can easily make room for more items of clothing, or additional items that you may have had to leave behind.
If you want to make even more room through your travel toiletries, we have a few more tips. Our first is to think about just how small you can go with travel-sized products. For example, while most make up products are under 100ml or are compact, think about collecting a few free samples from locations that offer in-store beauty services, or from online free sample releases – there’s no point packing up your entire make up collection when you only need a tiny quantity of make up in relation to your length of journey. This works especially well with scents and perfumes – a tiny sample of perfume is perfect for a few days away, and saves you from trying to pack up your bulky full-sized perfume bottle in that small liquids bag. If you’re travelling with others, it’s also worth considering splitting up the essential toiletries that you’ll all be using. Things like shampoo and toothpaste can easily be shared, giving everyone more room in their luggage. Of course, if you have a bit more money to spend, you can purchase all of your necessary toiletries when you touch down in your holiday location, avoiding any issues with size and allowing for more space in your luggage. Just remember you can’t bring anything back with you if you do this!
As a last note, if you don’t have enough room in your bag to place your toiletries – in the regulated plastic bag – in the top of your bag pre-packed (or if you don’t have a bag itself), you can always save room and stick the tubes, sprays and sticks into small gaps or little side-pockets in your bag when originally packing, and a spend a couple of minutes before going through security re-packing your toiletries.
We’re going to demonstrate a couple of different luggage options to help you visualise – and actually see- what can be packed – as a note, toiletries aren’t included in these examples.
The first is an over-the-shoulder travel bag measuring (when empty) at 35cm x 20cm x 20cm – this is below the limits for Ryanair and Wizz Air.
This bag has been packed for an autumn/winter journey for 3 days/4 nights. Below the images is an itinerary for the content of the bag:
Content =
3 pairs underwear
2 pairs socks
Thermal tights
Bra
Night-shirt
T-shirt
Jean-like trousers (but not denim – a very bulky material)
Dress
Long shirt (can be worn as dress)
Hairbrush
Plug adaptor
Handbag – containing:
Purse
Passport
Keys
Tablet strips (paracetamol and ibuprofen)
Umbrella
Shopping bag
Pen
This is not considering the items already being worn – bulkier clothes, large jumpers, jackets and coats don’t need to be packed, and even if you don’t need to wear it, you can carry it through the entire experience with no issues. Items including chargers could definitely fit within this bag also (that’s our fault for not checking twice when packing!)
The next bag is a backpack, measuring (when empty) at 40cm x 22cm x 20cm. This time we’re going with a summer trip for 3 nights/4 days. Again, below the images is an itinerary for the content of the bag:
Content =
3 pairs underwear
1 pair socks
2 pairs pop-socks
Tights
Bra
Night-shirt
3 T-shirts
Skirt
Shorts
Jumpsuit
Hairbrush
Plug adaptor
Handbag – containing:
Purse
Passport
Keys
Tablet strips (paracetamol and ibuprofen)
Umbrella
Shopping bag
Pen
While you might not have a coat with you in the summer, you can still carry around a jumper or thin jacket in the same way you can with a bigger coat in the winter. Again, a charger would fit fine in this bag too!
We asked our followers on social media for their favourite tips and tricks for travelling light, here are a few:
Of course, if you need more room for your luggage, there are many options that are offered by budget airlines for additional luggage. Often the best of these can be found when booking your flights – both Ryanair and Wizz Air offer a ‘priority’ package that entitles a passenger to 2 bags in the cabin; your small bag described above, and a larger bag sized 55cm x 40cm x 23cm for Wizz Air, or 55cm x 40cm x 20cm for Ryanair, as well as the opportunity to board the plane first. This is at a cost of £5 and £6 respectively. However, any time after this, this package increases to up to £15 and £10 respectively. Regarding Ryanair, there is however a limit on the number of passengers that can purchase the priority package per flight. This is usually around half of the expected passenger numbers per flight eg. 99 passengers out of 198 expected can obtain priority. If you find yourself on the wrong side of this, then the next larger luggage option is a 10kg checked bag for £10 at booking, and up to £12 afterwards. This bag is at the same dimensions of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm.
There you have it, our tips and tricks for travelling with the budget airlines without having to spend more on bags. Let us know in the comments if you have any advice for the ‘hand luggage only’ traveller!
Bothered by those extra baggage fees with low-cost airlines? Worry no more with our guide to one bag, hand luggage packing, perfect for those short breaks! #travelblog #ukblog #bloggerstribe #blogginggals #seetheworld #handluggage Disclaimer: This post was written in January 2019, if you are reading this post at a later date the information discussed below may be inaccurate.
