Ladee's Travels

I put a lot of time in on the preplanning of the five week trip.  The ideas for "What do I take? What do I need?" were experiments in the art of minimalist travel.  Most ideas worked to varying degrees of success and some didn't.  This post covers items that I had with me and my thoughts at the end of five weeks with a carry-on piece of luggage and a backpack.  All product links are affiliate links unless noted. Large tea bags. These are lightweight and easy to pack. I used these when the apartment had coffee, but no filters so we were able to make coffee and buy filters at the store. I also gave two "tea gifts" of the loose Guayusa tea that I carried along with a few tea bags.

The rule for this trip is to only have carry-on.  I'll have a wheeled bag and a backpack.  This isn't easy for a five week trip, although it is fortunate that the climate won't have great variations.  Every ounce and inch counts as I move from place to place.  I've done a lot of study on the major cities, marked maps (in the iPhone) so that it will be easy to get from one place to another walking, by bus, or by subway.  I have several tools in my iPhone that I am testing and will be able to report as to what worked best, what had limitations. Travel tools that I have with me on the iPhone: Currency Tripit CityMaps2Go RATP Lite (Paris Metro system) Rick Steves' Audio Europe 2011 (pick and choose your walking tours and podcasts...nicely organized and easy to use) AirBnB If you can suggest additional iPhone apps that work well with travel, please list them in the comments section. I have also decided to use the iPhone Kindle tool for the tour books....