Need advice on how to pack light for two upcoming trips. My hubby and I are flying to Puerto
Vallarta Mexico in June 2013 for our 40th wedding anniversary. We'll spend 7 nights in an
all inclusive beach resort hotel. Temps will be low 70's to upper 80's farenheit. Activities
will include morning walks on the beach, golf (rent clubs), spa treatments, poolside relaxing and reading, nighttime beach parties, and some type of excursion (probably catamaran sailing or city tours). We'll have all meals in six hotel restaurants, which require collared shirts and slacks for men, long pants, skirts or dresses for women.

I'm in the process of reading different blogs on how to pack light, which will definitely be a challenge for me. I'd like to pack all our things in two overhead compartment carry on bags plus two personal bags that will fit under the seats in front of us. We now have a 4 pc set of inexpensive softside luggage. The 3 larger bags have 2 roller blade style wheels and 2 "legs". I will describe those first. They have to be pulled rather than pushed down airplane aisles, which is inconvenient, so if I buy another one, I'd like it to both push and pull. The duffel bag measures 19"L x 10" W x 12" Tall. The interior is one open compartment. It has an exterior zipper compartment that runs the full length and depth of the bag. The small pullman style bag measures 20"L (24" including handle and legs) x 14"W x 6 1/2"Tall. The interior has a flap so I can separate items, an elastic criss-cross strap, and a zipper compartment the width of the lid. The exterior has 2 zipper compartments; one shallow and one deep, running the full length of the bag. (The largest bag in this set, which I don't want to use on this trip, measures 26"L (30" including handle and legs) x 17"W x 9"Tall. Designed identically to the smaller version, the interior has a flap so I can separate items, an elastic criss-cross strap, and a zipper compartment the width of the lid. The exterior has 2 zipper compartments; one shallow and one deep, running the full length of the bag. I'm describing it because of another trip I will describe later in this post). The smallest bag in this set is a shoulder tote, measuring 15"L x 6"W x 9"Tall. The interior is one open compartment. The exterior has 2 zipper compartments; one shallow and one deep, running the full length of the bag. I also have two soft mis-matched, non-wheeled, duffel and tote bags.

I also need packing and luggage advice for a totally different type of trip coming up in November 2013. We're taking a 4 week working road trip, driving our vehicle from Texas to Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. Temps may range from low 30's to low 80's farenheit, with possible sunshine, snow, rain, sleet, and/or ice. We'll be staying in 8-10 different hotels, and 4-6 hotels will be for one night only. We'll need to pack bulky items, like cowboy boots, and things that will wrinkle, like starched jeans and starched shirts. We want to carry our clothes and personal things in as few bags as possible so getting in and out of hotels won't be such a chore. So, I'm wondering if we need to purchase more bags, and if so, what kind? I have read that most "travel light" folks prefer the lighter, non-wheeled bags, but we don't plan to "rough it", and I find that wheeled bags work best for us in the kinds of travel we've done. Any particular bag you'd suggest? Money saving tips? What kind of personal bag do you carry on when you fly, and what do u put in it?

Sorry so long, but thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

Hi Debby,
As for luggage, it's rather like shoes - everyone has their own personal favorites that "fit" them the best! My advice is to take a look around on ebags and see what bags appeal to you the most and then search for reviews on those bags. As for planning your "wardrobe" I generally start with one neutral color and then 2 accent colors - say khaki and then blue and rose with the goal that all tops go with all bottoms. For dinner, I'd pack a solid colored jersey or knit dress and a skirt that would pair with the tops I'm packing. Add some fun jewelry and some scarfs, a pair of cute sandals and you'll be all set!

The Mexico trip should be easy, because you won't need too many different types of clothing, and you should be able to pack enough in bags that you can carry on. The only problem I see is that, as already noted, most of the bags that you have are too large.

For a car trip with many stops, I like to use one small bag (personal item size) and a larger bag, so that for most of the stops, only the small bag has to be carried into the hotel and the larger one can remain in the car. Then I swap items between the large bag and the small one as needed. It's easiest to do that if one or two days' clothes are in a single packing cube -- that is, just switch the cubes.

For the car touring trip and the clothes that can't get wrinkled, do what my friend did, her car trip included one day at a wedding, so very dressy clothes. She and her husband had their outfits dry cleaned and kept those clothes in the dry cleaners plastic. Instead of packing them in a bag, they hung them from the back seat hooks in the car and just left them there until the day of the wedding, no wrinkles and still fresh from the cleaners.

I've done the all inclusive week in Mexico beach holiday, I took 1 pr trousers, 1 skirt, 1 dress and about 4 tops that went with both trousers and skirt. That did me for the evenings with a bit of jewellery and nice sandals.
The day time was a pair of shorts, 1 gauze cotton shirt, 1 pr white cotton casual pants, 2 sarongs, 2 swimsuits, flip flops and beach towel.
I never once needed a sweater or cardigan, which was good as I didn't pack one.
I bought a top and beach cover up down there (mostly because I saw them in a shop, loved the colours and knew I'd never find them again). During the day I practically lived in a swimsuit and shorts or sarong. Out on an island and a boat I wore swimsuit, shorts and cotton shirt.

For your AI vacation, I would definitely recommend you carry-on at least a swim suit, travel towel, mini sunscreen and sunglasses (basically what you would need to walk straight off the plane to the poolside) to avoid the common time wasting "your room is not ready yet but a more expensive room is" strategy a lot of AI resorts try to bully vacationers into upgrading everything from their room, meal plan (over priced lobster dinner anyone?) to the minibar contents. Just make sure that they register you first and give you that wristband and then wander off to the pool and enjoy yourselves. Your suitcase is tagged and safe with the front desk. ;-) Let them move on to bully someone else.

My packing list for a Mexican AI resort is very very similar to Paula Bag Lass. plus a shawl for air conditioned restaurants :)

THANK YOU ALL! I appreciate the wardrobe info for our AI beach vaca. I plan to go back and re-read all your posts. I have so many questions... what brand and size travel towel do you prefer (men/link - women/link)? Where do you buy toothpaste tabs? My brain's a little fried right now, but these will be good for a starter...

One travel towel is a large from the Rick Steves web site, the other was a one size only from the Body Shop......it is nearly the same size as the RS towel. I have two others, small and large, different texture, from http://www.discoverytrekking.com/ultralite-backpacking-towel - there is a review on the blog page about these.
Toothpaste tabs I bought from Magellans.com but I believe they can be purchased at other places, there was a thread on this forum about that.

What? Frank "packed what I needed in a 25" wheeled duffel". Well, first of all I just have to record that it has taken me fully 2 hours to recover from the shock of Frank's admission! ;)

But back OT, I've never been to Mexico, but I would not expect to have to bring my own beach towel to an all-inclusive beach resort. Is this something you could leave off the packing list or are they really not provided?

Paula's packing list advice is as good as ever. :). I would add a couple of light sundresses for daytime, but that's just a question of personal preference. When you are trying to reduce to carry on, you need to think carefully about shoes, but a beach holiday is the one of the easiest types of trip to plan for in this respect! Flip flops and maybe some sandals that are comfortable for walking are all you need for day, and a pair of flat sandals in a metallic colour or with some pretty beading or sparkles (if you are so inclined - I am!) is ideal for evenings. Wear the walking sandals on the flight and the other two together will take up no room in your bag. And don't omit the accessories - it's a special occasion trip and you're bound to have at least one celebration dinner, so I'd plan accordingly and throw in a nice summery necklace or something similar that will make you feel special when you wear it.

The only other thing I'd think about, being a sun-shy Aussie, is a soft sunhat that folds or squashes happily in your bag.

Have a wonderful trip!

The place I went to in Mexico (Ixtapa), didn't supply towels for the beach or pool side, mind you this was a quite a while ago, things may have changed since then.
However, towels are a personal thing with me and I even use my travel towels in hotels rather than the ones supplied in the bathrooms. Mine dry me off a lot more quickly than those fluffy white things that hotels supply.

Just got back from a 2-night trip 115 mi from home. I took a rolling duffel and my purse. I only took one item I didn't wear or use, so that's progress! For our upcoming flight to Puerto Vallarta June 11, and car trip later this fall, I looked and looked and finally bought the American Tourister Pop 3 Piece Spinner Luggage Set in Aqua Blue on eBags. I like the look of it and hope it will be really functional, too. For PV, I'm planning to take the 21" overhead carry on plus an under-seat personal carry on (I think Sun Country Airlines under seat limit is 16 x 11 x 8.) I still need to purchase the under seat bag and time's getting close! Ladies, what kind of under seat bag do you like best (Brand? Website? Features?) What do u pack in your under-seat bag? THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELPFUL INFO!

I favour Lug and love my Healthy Back Bag (Big Bag), look small but are spacious and lightweight.

http://www.luglife.com/
http://www.ameribag.com/hb2/
http://www.thehealthybackbag.co.uk/everyday/big-bag

I also like Baggalini bags and would own more than one Kipling if it wasn't so expensive. All of these can be found on ebags.com