The No-Baggage Challenge: That’s a Wrap
Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 10.07.10 | 11:28 AM ET
A few weeks back we wrote about World Hum contributor Rolf Potts’ latest trip: a round-the-world spin with no baggage. The trip’s complete now, and he has posted some final thoughts about traveling bag-free:
Once I got into a travel rhythm, the no-baggage aspect of the trip was pretty simple. Two-a-day showers kept me as clean as I’ve ever been on the road, and daily clothes-washings (of my socks, underwear, and t-shirt) kept my wardrobe fresh and odor free. In fact, one of the reasons I started doing these weekly field reports is to have a pretext to comment on the no-baggage aspect of the trip—since it became apparent quite early that not having luggage wasn’t going to add a lot of drama or complication to my day-to-day activities (which meant, happily, that I could focus my journey on the joys of travel instead of the idiosyncrasies of packing light).
So does this mean I’ll spend the rest of my life traveling without bags? Probably not—bags do serve a purpose, they make some aspects of a journey easier, and one can still travel ultra-light while carrying a small bag. Moreover, the No Baggage Challenge was an experiment in traveling light—not an edict that luggage-free travel is a universally superior way to go. That said, I’ll probably continue to experiment with no-luggage travel—if nothing else because it’s fun and liberating and not all that hard to do.
The No Baggage Challenge site has an archive of posts and video updates for anyone who didn’t follow along.