I’ve started getting into the habit of doing a post-mortem of sorts after we finish a trip. What worked, what didn’t, and what we ended up spending. I always enjoy reading these sort of summaries, but if the nitty gritty of travel planning and budgets aren’t your thing (or you’re not headed to Portugal any time soon), skip today’s post. It is – in the catchy words of Encanto – “a great big roundup.”
I’ve already gone into detail about how I plan our itineraries (Rome; Barcelona) and how we pack for trips. Not surprisingly, we repeated a lot of the same habits so I’ll simply mention a few new things that worked well.
PACKING
I packed everything I’d needed to take out at security in my purse. Not in my bookbag. Not in the front pouch of a carry-on luggage. Liquids, my phone, e-reader, and our passports all went into the purse and nothing else. Gamechanger. Though, sadly, this $3 thrifted purse that I’ve had for years had a zipper break on our final day in Porto, so I’m on the hunt for a replacement before our next trip.
I printed out maps and I printed out a day-by-day itinerary and I put Google Drive on my phone (the itinerary was a Google sheet divided by location so it was easy to toggle to the right page for the day).
I packed L’s clothes as complete outfits. Each packing cube or baggie had a pair of shorts, a T-shirt, underwear and socks. Everything matched. Everything was clean. This worked so, so well.
Here is everything I took with me to Portugal for 15 days:
You’ll spot some packing cubes in there and they worked very well. In general I love packing cubes. I sort my clothes into cubes by type. So the biggest cube had dresses, a smaller one had bottoms, and an even smaller one had socks and underwear. They help keep things organized and, on this trip, it was even more compact since I bought compression cubes. These were good; I’m sure there are better ones out there, but I was happy with my purchase and found them to be good quality.
In my bookbag I packed all my non-liquid toiletries and anything related to the bathroom or bedtime. In the bottom of my bookbag I tucked my PJs, a pill organizer, my One Line a Day Journal, and European outlet adapters. That meant the first night we were in Lisbon I didn’t need to unpack anything from my suitcase. It was all in my purse and bookbag!
We took our own towels! I bought this four-pack from Amazon. They’re lightweight and thin, dry very quickly, and don’t attract sand. They were perfect since we only had carry-ons and didn’t want to be lugging huge bags to the beach.
A few other thoughts in bullet point:
- I took a pair of long jeans I never wore, but it’s impossible to predict the weather for two whole weeks and I knew we’d be doing a lot of activities near the coast which can be dramatically cooler. I also brought an umbrella and rain jacket I never touched. These three items took up a reasonable amount of space since I was only taking one carry-on luggage, but I’d do the same thing another time. I did wear a sweater on the plane and ended up wearing that many times in the evening.
- I packed two of the gauzy, foldable grocery bags that collapse into tiny squares. We used these ALL. THE. TIME. For the grocery store, for carrying souvenirs home, for transporting picnic suppers. I always had at least one packed in my purse and we used them every single day.
- Buying sunscreen there. Everyone told me European sunscreen was better than North American and it was – we were out in so much sun and none of us ever got a burn. It was incredible!
- Bringing “emergency snacks” that don’t melt. I brought one little bottle of mini M&Ms (when my parents were in Africa, they learned this is one of the few treats that doesn’t melt in extreme heat), and a few boxes of Mike and Ike’s. When the M&Ms were gone, I started to fill the tube with a few handfuls of candy and this was amazing for when the kids were tired or grumpy. We’d stop and have a few candies and everyone’s mood magically improved enough to find a real place to stop and eat or enough time to get us back to our apartment for a rest.
MY TOP RECS
I didn’t poll my family before posting this, so their list might be slightly different from mine. Take everything with a grain of salt, since this obviously reflects personal preference. But if I was being asked for Top Five Recommendations, here’s what I’d say:
Lisbon:
- Go to Castro Bakery for pasteis de nata. They were my favourite out of all the many (I refuse to even approximate here) pasteis I tried during our two weeks in Portugal.
- Consider a sailboat cruise; it would be even more lovely at sunset, I’m sure.
- Go to Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara – my favourite viewpoint of the city. We only visited during the day, but I think it would be incredible at night!
- Parque Eduardo VII – this isn’t a spot where you’ll need to spend a long time, but it’s a great picnicking location and if you hike to the top, you’re rewarded with lovely views of the downtown and river. Then wander from the park all the way to the waterfront (it’s downhill!) and enjoy the quaint streets along the way.
- Use Lisbon as a launch point for day trips – Cascais, Nazare (Sintra)
The Algarve:
- Take a sunset boat tour of the caves. This was incredible and the highlight of our entire trip for me.
- Surf lessons; this was A’s highlight from the trip. There are various beaches that offer surf lessons, but the best will usually be found on the western side of Portugal. The beach we went to – Praia Amado – is one of the most famous for surfing.
- Before you go to any beach, research the tides. It really matters in the Algarve. My favourite beach was Praia do Carvalho but I would love to get to Praia do Camilo some day at higher tide. (Praia do Vale de Centeanes was lovely as well – in general, any beach that’s a little out of the way tends to be more fun since the crowds aren’t quite as intense, at least in the high season.)
- Book a place with a pool. This is highly subjective, but the kids adored having a private pool area and with the extreme heat, I’ll admit it was very nice.
- Algar Seco. This is such a beautiful spot, it’s free to visit (and free to park). I think it would be easy to spend several fun hours exploring.
Porto:
- Visit Foz, especially the lighthouse. And if you have kids or just want a bit of fun, try the great minigolf course near the waterfront.
- Watch a sunset from the monastery and then see the night lights of the city from one of the hills in Gaia. Magic!
- Take a day trip to Aveiro/Barra/Costa Nova. There is a lovely beach, and the striped houses are not to be missed.
- If you’re not vegan, try a francicinia and/or bifana. There is also a Castro Bakery in Porto. Indulge in another amazing pastel.
- Take the tram! It’s iconic and a fun adventure (pro tip: get on in Foz; the lines will be much shorter).
THINGS TO DO NEXT TIME
Of course we didn’t get to do everything we wanted to do in Portugal. Here are some things that would be top of my list for the next time (again, I didn’t consult the fam, so they might have different priorities).
- Visit Sintra. It’s iconic and we didn’t do it and that’s FINE. But it looks stunning.
- Go back to Nazare.
- Do another boat tour in the Algarve.
- Spend more time in the Algarve and learn from my mistakes – check the tide tables. If we visited in the off season, do more hiking in the area.
- Go to the top of Clergios Tower in Porto.
- Take a river cruise in Porto, maybe to the Duoro Valley?
- Visit some of the other quaint towns/cities like Evora, Coimbra, Braga. I’d love to see the Chapel of the Bones and tour Coimbra University.
THINGS I’D DO DIFFERENTLY
- Portuguese bathrooms are…not great. It can be hard to find public bathrooms – many people mentioned to me that restaurants are happy to have you use the bathroom without buying something but that wasn’t really the case for us (probably since it was high season). In some places (like McDonalds), you get a code to enter the washroom on your receipt. And most publicly accessible bathrooms that aren’t in a restaurant cost money. Come prepared with change – specifically, coins! Still on the bathroom note, BRING MINI KLEENEX or something else that can serve as emergency toilet tissue. I would say at least 50% of the bathrooms I used had no toilet paper. Also, the bathrooms were generally disgusting (especially in public transit hubs). If you’re able, use the bathroom every time you have access to a nice one. Your hotel in the morning, the restaurant you visit for lunch…
- Check the tide times. I really didn’t consider how much tides impact beach access in Portugal. Of course where I live in Nova Scotia, everything nautical revolves around the tide and we share an ocean, so, duh Elisabeth. It would have made things easier to know when high and low tide were going to hit and plan accordingly.
- I’d buy more energy-dense snacks at the grocery store (things like nuts and protein bars, though the latter was hard to find!), and I’d bring some small collapsible containers or Ziploc baggies from home. It was hard to stay hydrated and hard to stay fed with all the walking and odd timings of things. The kids did great overall and John and I are pretty resilient, but it would have been nice to decant some non-fragile food items that weren’t candy.
MANTRAS
I cycled through three main mantras for the trip (all of which I’ve mentioned on the blog before).
The first: It costs what it costs. I absolutely hate spending money, and a vacation is basically one big spending spree. Worse, for a Canadian going to Europe, the exchange rate is the pits. So every time we’d check out at the grocery store I’d think to myself: Wow, things are so cheap here! and then I’d remember. Right. This is gonna cost a lot more than the register is telling me it will. But we are so blessed to have the resources to do this sort of thing. While we aim to spend – and travel – conscientiously, what an incredible privilege it is to see the world! It costs what it costs. Sure I’ll still try to find ways to cut corners and save money, but not at the expense (pun intended) of a great vacation.
The second: A few enjoyable moments. This one is the most powerful reframes I’ve ever come across. Several years ago, after a somewhat tumultuous road trip to Toronto/New York City, I ended up breaking down in tears at a dive hotel in Portland after I couldn’t bear the kids incessant fighting for one more second. I took a long shower (crying was involved), and when I came out feeling mildly refreshed, I happened to read Laura Vanderkam’s most recent blog post. It was all about managing expectations on vacation and how what she was looking for were a few enjoyable moments. It’s impossible for everything – every day – to be perfect. That is what I want. I feel silly even writing that, but it’s what my brain strains toward. Subconsciously I believe things should work out perfectly. If they don’t, I conclude I’ve failed in some way. But I kept reminding myself on this trip that I was just looking for a few enjoyable moments each day. There were going to be rough periods. And there were – but so few and the enjoyable moments prevailed in excess, likely because I wasn’t as fixated on everyone being happy at all times.
Finally, the day we were at Praia do Amado and John was debating whether to rent wetsuits and surfboards, he finally looked at me and said: You only live once. That doesn’t have to translate into big and flashy decisions, but choosing something because it feels right and expansive and positive and fun. As Elizabeth Craft would say, it’s “choosing the bigger life.” Minigolf in Portugal? Why not! YOLO. A sailboat tour in Lisbon – YOLO. Spending €3 (I also gave her a tip) to get portraits drawn? YOLO. Taking a picnic lunch to an obscure empty street to watch the lights of Porto turn on? Sure! YOLO.
WHAT THIS ALL COST!
I wish vacations were free. Alas, they’re not. I’ve previously detailed the cost of our Rome and Barcelona trips.
Here is how it all broke down in Canadian dollars for a 14-night stay in Portugal – plus two travel days – for four people*. The exchange rate is not great; €100 is about $150 CAD (€ and USD are almost par).
*Some days, when John’s sister was adventuring with us, we paid for the whole group’s transport, tickets, and food so in reality this is for slightly more than 4 people per day.
- Flights: $132.47 each | $529.88 total (Our flights were so inexpensive because we booked on points + have special travel rates because of John’s frequent flyer status; flights to Portugal happened to have an especially good rate for this time period which played a big role in us making the decision to travel there in August. When we had priced things out for Portugal in March, the prices were much higher and tickets to Barcelona were under $100/each…so we went to Spain!)
- Accommodations: $234.03 per night | $3,276.51 total (*these were all booked in June – so very, very late – and during the high season + we tried to balance price with having nice places and knocked this out of the park as each of our apartments was PHENOMENAL)
- Food + Drinks: $935.08 (works out to $16.70 per person/per day)
- Miscellaneous: This was a big category in Portugal since many things only accepted cash. This included souvenirs, gifts, some food/water on the go, the e-Sim for my phone, some public transit (the funicular in Nazare, for example), and the €20 city tax we had to pay at two of our apartments: $870.13
- Transportation: $1,360.75 (train to Faro, train from Porto to Lisbon, 2 car rentals – our days in the Algarve + the drive from Faro to Porto, highway tolls, train to Cascais, bus to Nazare)
- Uber/Bolt: $441.76. We generally use public transit when we travel, but this time it made so much more sense to use a shared car service. It was marginally more expensive than public transit but saved us hours and hours in time. Plus…air conditioning. No regrets.
- Adventures: $495.12 – Algarve speedboat cruise, Lisbon sailboat cruise, minigolf, the Oceanario + Telecabine Lisbon, and Christo Rei
Grand Total: $7,909.23 CAD (~€5,250 or $5,830 USD)
This works out to ~$124 CAD per person for each day of the trip (14 on the ground + 2 travel) – including flights, food, transportation, and accommodations. For my American readers this is about $90 USD per person/day. At the end of the day it was cheaper to visit Portugal in the high season than it was to visit Barcelona in the off season ($125/person/day). I think it’s hilarious that the per day rate is $1 different between our two international family trips. (Though technically, since we occasionally paid for 5 people, it might be more like $120/person/day.)
When John and I went to Rome in 2023 it worked out to $181 per person/day, so I guess we travel more cheaply when the kids are with us!
Your turn. If you made it to the end of this tome, congratulations + a sheet of gold stars. Now I want to hear your best travel hacks and advice!!
Nicole MacPherson
I have been wondering about compression cubes for our Italy trip, I think I’ll give those a try. Thanks for the recommendation! I also keep things that I need to take out at security in my small bag/ purse and I think it’s brilliant.
Elisabeth
They were good; not a HUGE difference from normal packing cubes but I needed more cubes so opting for even a bit more compression made sense. I really liked that these ones had a handle (I did use it some), and that it was easy to look inside and see what was in there (some compression cubes are solid material).
I’m so excited for your Italy trip. The countdown is on!!!
Joy
I’ve really enjoyed reading about your adventures! ❤
Elisabeth
There were certainly lots of adventures and I’m really pleased with how the trip went <3
Jenny
I love posts like this! I traveled a LOT before I had kids, and since having kids, not so much. Your tips are great but I especially love your mantras. It costs what it costs, and you only live once. That attitude, combined with the “few enjoyable moments” insures that you’ll get the most out of your trip.
I’m envious of your cheap airfares!!!
Elisabeth
It’s been the opposite for me. My first trip off the NA continent was also A’s first trip off the continent. I wasn’t on a plane until I was 19! Then we got married and had zero funds and then pretty quickly became parents and so travel wasn’t really in the cards for a while. (And then there was a global pandemic)
I feel like now is the perfect time to travel with the kids? I am just not the sort of person that would do well being up in a hotel with a crying infant or lugging around a diaper bag and stroller. And as A gets older and has more work responsibilities it might get hard to all travel together? Also, once John stops travelling for work, we lose his flying status/quick accumulation of points which makes our airfares so much cheaper.
NGS
What a fascinating post. I will not be doing international travel anytime soon, but the last time I looked, the flights to the places I wanted to go were more than you paid for the entire trip. LOLOLOL. Obviously I need some lessons on finding better ticket prices.
It is a good time to travel with kids, too. You’re right that as they get older it gets harder and harder to schedule. I remember my aunt planning a big trip when I was a junior in high school and saying that she didn’t think we’d be able to do it ever again. And she was right!
Elisabeth
John is the king of the tickets – I have nothing at all to do with finding the deals, managing the points system etc. I am so, so glad we have clearly defined roles in the travel category. I manage the itinerary and managing kid expectations and he handles all the accommodations and transit. We’re a really great travel team <3
And yes - I never know how much time we have left to take adventures like this. Maybe there will be another global issue that halts air travel for years (God forbid), or maybe one of us develops a health issue where we can't travel. I'm so grateful our family has gotten to have these adventures together!
Jan Coates
I still think you’re going to be a travel agent one of these days – great value! And the only tip I have is public libraries for washrooms, no matter where you travel:)
Elisabeth
Awww. Thanks. I’m happy to be your (free of charge) travel agent if you head to Portugal this winter.
A great tip! I’ve used them in the New York Public Library (gorgeous bathrooms), but it never crossed my mind to look for a public library in a foreign city. Genius, and a very appropriate tip from an author.
ccr in MA
I was just telling myself this morning, in regards to planning for an upcoming trip: if there’s a complication that can be solved with money, and you have the money, spend the money and be grateful. I love a bargain, but honestly sometimes it saves so much time and effort, it’s worth it to my overall sanity to just spend the money!
Elisabeth
It really can make all the difference in how enjoyable a trip ends up being. Also, sometimes, I think it’s a bit like investing in good footwear. It might cost more upfront, but in the long run it’s the same or cheaper.
Birchie
Absolutely – travel costs what it costs. I remember feeling guilty the first time that I booked an overnight stay for a trip that was two hours from home…like shouldn’t I just drive back and forth on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday instead of spending $150 a night for two nights…but once I got there and found myself relaxing in a fabulous lakeside condo and spending my time doing vacation stuff instead of driving I quickly got comfortable with finally spending $ for great experiences.
Our family vacation last summer was about $5k for 4 people for one week and our February getaway to the Dominican Republic was also $5k but for 2 people for 4 nights lol. So just under $6k US for 4 people for 15 days…you’ve got us beat!
Elisabeth
I think some of it comes with age, too. Up until a few years ago we literally had to save every penny and stretch it as far as possible when we travelled. It’s hard to get out of that mindset and I think part of me worries that if I start spending frivolously, I’ll undo all my years of frugality (I won’t – it’s engrained in me). But it’s learning to travel differently now that we have more flexibility with funds without feeling enormously guilty. But as the amazing memories accumulate (many of them free), I have come to appreciate – more and more – how precious these experiences are and very much worth spending money on…
Michelle G.
You have so many great tips here, Elisabeth, and I love your mantras. I’m not a great traveler, but thankfully, my husband loves planning and making arrangements. My job is packing, and on our last trip, I packed a monster checked bag with everything but the kitchen sink! 🤣
Ooooh! I see that you have a little check box for being notified when you answer my comment! Yay! That’s so awesome!
Elisabeth
I hope the notification works? It’s a new plugin I added. I tested it twice myself and once it worked and once it didn’t. Sigh. We shall see.
J
I haven’t traveled enough to be really good at packing. I think I’ve traveled more since my daughter graduated from college than in the 20 years before. Maybe not, but it feels like it. Anyway, I tend to overpack. I’m learning. When I went to France in 2022, I kept hearing about luggage getting lost, so I brought a carry on, which I generally do not do. That was stuffed full. Then I also brought a HUGE suitcase full of things. I kept thinking, ‘What if I need this? What if I need that?’ I could have brought 1/2 of the things and been fine. I didn’t wear a lot of it, and it was a pain to lug around. Then last year, when we went to Alaska, I did better…but really wished I had packing cubes. I remember getting SO FRUSTRATED trying to find matching socks, which should be really easy if you roll them together or whatever. But I didn’t. I have since bought packing cubes. One thing I realized in France (more so in Paris than way out at the coast of Brittany) is that if I forgot to pack something, THEY SELL IT. And I love the sweaters I bought there when it was colder than I expected.
I agree with your mantas wholeheartedly, and I also struggle against disappointment when things don’t go perfectly. So good to frame it a little differently and just relax into the day. And I agree, it costs what it costs. I will have dinner at the hotel and make my big meal of the day lunch, that saves money. But I will have a nice lunch.
Elisabeth
Packing is so, so hard. Years ago we went on a trip where I was expecting fairly warm temps. I had shorts and T-shirts and summer dresses. It was FREEZING and I wore the two pairs of jeans and one sweater I bought every day and ended up having to buy a few pieces. That was a major teaching moment for me – look at the weather forecast and diversify what I pack. I’ve also learned how to re-use items as needed so I can get several wears out of each outfit.
Diane
In Taiwan there is no toilet paper in public bathrooms at all and everyone always carries a pack of tissue with them. (Well, maybe in fancy department stores or restaurants, but you won’t find any TP in most public bathrooms) In fact tissues is common swag or souvenir item. I was in Taiwan during an election once, and people were out campaigning and they would hand out packs of tissues with their faces on them.
I love reading trip recaps! That tip about sunscreen is gold!
Elisabeth
I think if I went in with the expectation there wouldn’t be toilet paper I would have fared a lot better. The bathrooms were significantly grosser than the ones in Italy and Spain (at least the places we were). Lesson learned!
Melissa
We have a pile of coins for the bathrooms in Paris if we need them, and the mini pack of tissues in my cross body bag.
I love packing cubes too, but don’t use the compression ones because my limiting factor is usually weight – 7kg of stuff really doesn’t take up very much room. I’ve been trying to work out my packing for our trip leaving next week because it looks like my carry-on baggage allowance will be 7kg total, including my personal item. I don’t want to check a bag though because we have a fairly short time in Hong Kong between flights and our bags might not make it. I do plan to do some shopping though, I can check my carry-on going home. So far my umbrella has not made the cut, and my waterproof jacket will be being worn, at least while I’m checking in when they weigh the bags.
I have never tallied up what we spend for our trips … we do spend more on food (we like to splurge there) and tours because G likes to have a live guide tell him all about what he’s seeing. And of course airfares. You can’t get anywhere internationally from Australia that cheaply. We used G’s points for a trip to Italy once and the taxes on the flights for just H and I cost $1500. We were on a tighter budget when we went to Italy with H, but with the kids finishing school, some of the cash we’re saving from not paying school fees has been rerouted to our travel budget—a much more fun thing to spend the money on.
Elisabeth
I didn’t know carry-ons had a weight limit?! Is that standard with all airlines? My carry-ons have literally never been weighed? Wearing bulky things onto the plane is a great hack, especially outerwear. Plus, I’m always cold on flights so having extra layers helps.
coco
I love this! can you PLEASE breakdown what you packed for 15 days? how can you pack so little? how many outfits per person? did you stay in airbnb? can you itemize if not asking too much. We will go for 15 nights trip in December and wonder how little we can pack as we will be on the road everyday.
I love your mantras… not everyday would be perfect day, we only live once so spend $$ when on vacation.
I also want to learn about your printing the map and schedule… they look so neat. can you share your method?
Elisabeth
I wish I had taken more detailed pictures! I took about 6 dresses, three pairs of pants (a pair of dressy capris, exercise capris – which I wore on the plane there/back, and the jeans I never wore), one sweatshirt (wore it onto the plane and back), rain coat (never wore) and four shirts (one of which I wore on the plane). I packed a floppy hat which I folded more than I should have, one pair of sunglasses, two bathing suits, and a pair of Spandex + oversized T-shirt for sleeping in. I wore a pair of sneakers on the plane, packed another, and had a pair of Bircs for beach days and short-distance walking. And that was it for clothes. I would mix and match shirts and bottoms and tended to alternate dresses one day and capris the next. Travel days I almost always used the same comfy outfit (exercise capris, comfy shirt, sweatshirt). I didn’t find my clothes got very dirty and in all of the apartments we had wardrobes where I could hang my clothes to air out in between uses.
I think L had about 10 pairs of shorts, shirts, underwear and socks – so almost enough to have one clean outfit per day. I washed some of his shorts out in a sink and at our final apartment we had access to a washing machine though really didn’t end up using those clean clothes. He had a coat he never used, and one sweatshirt. He had a pair of Crocs, a pair of sneakers he wore on the plane and another he packed. We all did this (two pairs of footwear packed – one of which was for the beach – and the other worn on the plane).
I rewore some of the dresses multiple times. And I slept in the same thing for the two weeks (I showered almost every night, so they stayed clean). We washed socks and underwear in the bathroom sink as needed.
We didn’t use AirBnB, but booked apartments off Booking.com. We set an upper limit for how much we are willing to spend, a star rating we want as a minimum, and in this case that it had to have air conditioning. We spent hours looking through various options because we wanted to maximize bang for buck (we ended up having amazing accommodations for our needs; we don’t need fancy, so I’d always rather have a clean, functional space over spending a lot for high-end furniture, etc). I read SO MANY REVIEWS. I know what matters for us, so what might be a big deal to someone else (I had to carry suitcases up a flight of stairs) is not a big deal to us.
As for the maps, I detailed my process in my recap about Barcelona and Rome. The only difference was this time I divided the itinerary up by location (Lisbon, Algarve, Porto), and had it in a Google Sheet descending by day instead of written out on paper in hard copy. But the principle is always the same. Do tons of research, drop pins on a map – when I feel like I’ve got the top “must-sees” and some cool “hidden gems” I zoom out and start blocking off the city – or in this case the country – into zones so we do things that are grouped in a close geographic spot. I also try to maximize for when things are free (for example, we went to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona on the day it was free – Thursday – so I chose Thursday as the day to do all the other activities in and around that museum). It takes some mix-and-matching, but I find starting with a map covered in pins and then refining what to do and when works well for our family.
Colleen Martin
Packing whole outfits like that is soooo smart, especially for young boys! I pack their clothes with an outfit designed in my head, then I see them get dressed so differently – these “packages” would help so much! Thank you! Also, the accountant in me loves when you break down costs of trips 🙂
Elisabeth
The packages worked really well for L. And it made it easier to see what was clean/unworn vs. what had been worn. If his outfit was clean at the end of the day, I would repack it and put it back at the bottom of the pile with a fresh set of socks and undies. If it was dirty, we tried to either spot clean (shirts) or hand wash (exercise-material shorts) the item and leave it to dry in the apartment while we were out exploring.
San
I am so impressed with your packing skills, wow. I mean, I do have some “hacks” from all the traveling to Europe that I’ve done but I have not traveled just with carry-on (well, mostly because I always bring things for people and take a sh*tload of stuff back from there when I return LOL).
I really love how well you prepare for the trip with the maps and itineraries and all. I also have Google Sheets on my phone, its’ a little cumbersome to navigate on a small screen, but it’s great that you have all your spreadsheets at your fingertips.