The packing list has two main uses.

1. Planning

You can consider the needs of your next trip and list all the special items that the route, mode of transport, destination and activities require.  This can then be refined in the light of the availability of shopping and services.

2. Act as a Checklist

When you are packing to move to the next destination you can use the packing list as a checklist to ensure that everything you brought with you has been packed, and that you have not left anything in the bathroom, the bedside drawers, or in the hotel safe.

Obviously, for use as a checklist you should add everything you acquire during the journey, so that you take all your new belongings with you as you travel to the next destination.

You can keep your lists when you have returned home and use them for subsequent journeys, along with any items that you feel are now essential.  It also serves as a basis to say “I did not use these items, and they are not worthwhile taking along with me next time”.

Depending on the customs regulations in your home country you can either have the list stamped by a customs official before exit, or use it to complete a formal declaration for submission, that will serve as proof that you took specified valuables out of the country with you.  This will obviate any problems upon re-entry with customs attempting to charge you duty on the goods you took out with you.

How

Rather than just dumping everything into a universal list, you may find it works best to list items within categories, such as: Clothes, Toiletries, Food, Medical, Special-interests, General.  Add and delete categories as you see fit.

Test your list with other travellers, your travelling companions, and those that may have expertise in your mode of transport, destination or destination activities.  You can also consolidate lists if you are travelling in a group, to avoid duplicates.  For instance, perhaps one of you agrees to take a slightly more hefty first-aid kit, another one may take a water purification kit and a third member of the group might take a ground-sheet … you get the concept.  If it is done right then everyone carries a little less than they would have if each person had planned independently.

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If you are determined to go to a specific place on a specific date, pick your preferred airline and stay in a predetermined hotel you are likely to pay the most of all.  This is one reason that business travel is so expensive.  If you are prepared to show a little flexibility you can reduce the costs significantly whilst enjoying a higher standard of travel.

Dates

Check whether your proposed dates are high-season, shoulder-season or out of season.  Out of season is cheapest.  But the proviso is that some places can be quite nasty when out of season – their main attractions may even be closed, or the weather could be extreme.  It may be that by moving your date by as little as a week you can realise a nice saving.

Destination

If you want to see the Sistine Chapel in person you have no choice as to destination – it is at the heart of the Vatican, which is embedded in Rome, Italy.  To state the obvious: it is a building and never goes on tour to other places.  And if they are selecting a new pope at the time, you are not going to get in unless you hold the rank of Cardinal in the Catholic hierarchy.

If, however, you decided to see “Italian Renaissance Art” instead then your possibilities broaden considerably – practically any region in Italy will have rich treasures to please you.

Find the nearest transport hub

Some of our best adventures have come from having a variety of modes of transport, even on the same day.  (There are exceptions: One of our team loves flying so much that any journey that can be done by air, however impractical that may be, is going to be done that way.)

For instance, though it is possible to fly to Galway from Dublin, you are going to get a magnificent experience of the Irish countryside if you take the train instead.

Work back from the furthest part of your journey and add the links as you go.  If you are lucky, your chosen destination is a major city that is a transport hub.  But more often than not, you are looking at something prettier and smaller and it may be a problem to find the right hub.

For instance, there a number of wonderful Adriatic cruises that start and end in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  However, getting to Dubrovnik, which is only a minor regional hub, can be expensive.  After doing some further research you will find that it is as much as €200 more per person  than going to Venice.  Then you find out that there are Adriatic cruises that leave from Venice!  (And a number of those cruises stop in Dubrovnik anyway, so you still get to see the city.)

Break the journey at connections

DIY Travel Expert recommends that you break your journey at connection points and make them secondary destinations.  This is particularly true of long-haul flights with multiple connections.  If you stop over on the way there you reduce the journey to a series of shorter hops.

A number of carriers route their flights via their main hub.  If you are flying between Europe, Asia and Africa on Emirates, for instance, you are going to spend some time on the ground in Dubai.  Etihad go via Abu Dhabi.  Qatar will put you in Doha.  You may visit Istanbul courtesy of Turkish.  Who cares if those places are not destinations that you would have picked for your holiday?  You have your main destination picked out already.

A stopover at one of these places incurs zero additional transport cost!  It is almost a free destination.  (Okay, you may have to pay for visas, and there will be excursion costs, but the transport is free.)  In fact, it gets better than that… it is often cheaper to travel via the carrier’s primary hub (even though the distance is further) than it would be to fly direct city-to-city.

You probably do not want to stop over on both the forward leg and the return, so you get to pick.  Sometimes, if the place you are going through is particularly nice, you might want to plan to spend a few days in one direction and just one day, without a sleepover in the opposite direction.

If you follow this advice, instead of minimising your connection time, you may find yourself expanding it so that there is time for an excursion at the carrier’s hub city instead.  It is exactly why they brought you there in the first place, but you can turn it to your advantage.