In a lot of ways choosing what to pack for a round the world trip comes down to how you like to travel. Lightweight and ultra lightweight travellers enjoy undeniable benefits from only having a small backpack (ease of movement, no baggage fees/associated waiting around at airports and no pack separation anxiety on public transport).  

We opted for a mid-sized rucksack which meant more equipment, more clothes and of course more weight!

Things I think we got right (for us personally):

• Rucksack – the Osprey Porter 46L was well made, lightweight and the main compartment unzips all the way round. Bear in mind though that in order to be lightweight it doesn’t have a rigid structure so if you don’t pack it right hard items can stick into you and make it uncomfortable to carry. I put a full packing cube (two half packing cubes would probably work well too) in the bottom of the bag which acted as padding for the back area and made carrying the pack very comfortable.

• Keeping things in containers. We used packing cubes for clothes and food storage containers for non-clothing. Everything slotted neatly into the main compartment which made packing and unpacking easy. The food storage containers were strong and waterproof so you didn’t need to worry about things getting crushed or water-damaged but they did add weight (worth it in my opinion).

Things we got wrong:

• Bag weight. When we left the UK my pack weighed 17kg which is too heavy. Almost 3kgs of that was equipment that we didn’t find useful and wouldn’t take again. A 14kg bag would have been much easier to carry and just as useful.

At the end of our trip we rated each of our items for usefulness and decided whether we would take them again.

This is what I had in my backpack when we left the UK.  [Includes what I was wearing]
This is what I should have left behind.
This is what I should have left with.  [Includes what I was wearing]