Perfect Packing Tips for Better Business Trips
Even the most ambitious and organized jet setters rarely enjoy packing for a trip. For the business traveler, that lack of enthusiasm becomes a monthly if not weekly grind, and presents unique challenges.
Warm weather to cold, workout clothes in the morning, suit for the conference, team building streetwear that night. Shoes for the gym, shoes for the awards dinner, shoes for the weekend hike. I speak from experience.
For 27 years I’ve trekked across country and between continents, often back-to-back, occasionally wedged in with a family holiday or specialty visit. I’ve packed and unpacked more times than I can count, in every style bag, backpack, duffle, and tote. Travel is wonderful, but not always glamorous. Or easy to fit into a 22-inch roll-aboard.
Knowing how to pack – and more important, how not to pack – can make the difference between an extra glass of champagne at the neighborhood bistro or a lost afternoon at the baggage carousel. As Rick Steves, the popular PBS travel guide and writer, suggests, “On your trip you’ll meet two kinds of travelers: those who pack light and those who wish they had.” Here’s how to be the former.
Pack the Same For a Week as You Do For a Month
I pack the same carry-on luggage for four days or four weeks. Honestly. That requires strategizing wardrobe for a short sales training in San Francisco or a long event in Singapore exactly the same way. It’s smart travel, reduces stress, minimizes risk, and maximizes efficiency. You can do it too, I promise. But let’s start with why you should.
Never Check Luggage (Unless You Have No Choice)
As air travel demands increase and staffing restrictions strain to keep up, we read amore and more checked baggage nightmares.
Checked luggage is costly, time-consuming, and fraught with risk. Bags are often mishandled, misdirected, broken into, damaged, lost, even stolen. Cancelled flights, distracted agents, overworked baggage handlers, customer service lines stretching down the concourse, all increase the odds your checked bag may not meet you at your destination. Or in the same condition you handed it over for safe keeping.
Modern innovations like text alerts and AirTags add a layer of comfort, but when things go wrong they’ll only tell you where your bag went astray, not why or what to do about it.
Unless you’re an elite traveler, airlines charge $35-100 per checked bag, an unnecessary and offensive price gouge to maximize profits. For your investment, that bag may be left for minutes or hours in the rain or scorching tarmac heat, crushed or ripped by handlers, frozen in a plane’s undercarriage, cut open for an electronic device, or abandoned on an exposed luggage cart.
Most of the time your bag makes the flight without issue, but you’ll still waste time at the arrival destination baggage carousel. There you’ll stand while travelers with carry-ons head for their ride shares or public transportation. If staffing is short, bags can take 30 minutes before reaching the belt. If the airline loses your bag, stress mounts with each passing minute, right up to the moment you surrender and head for an office to wait in line before filling out a report and looking up where to buy toothpaste and underwear.
Losing your checked luggage is hard enough under the best of circumstances. Imagine your stress if it occurs on the way to an important meeting or expensive vacation. When will you have time to shop? Are you even near a mall or store to replace the items needed for a successful trip? How much will you have to spend to get by until the airline finds and delivers your bag?
Most carriers, credit cards, and FAA passenger rights rules offer some protection for delayed or lost luggage, but filing a claim takes time and patience, both scarce when the cruise is set to depart or the conference is about to kick off. Who wants to waste that precious time as vacation days tick past or the client is waiting? You may get a little money back, but you’ll never recover that time and stress.
Once the airline finds your bag – if they find it – you’ll either have to return to the airport to pick it up, or stay available in one spot waiting for their delivery during a proposed period of several hours.
Ask yourself if all these risks, costs, concerns, and hassles are worth that extra jacket or pair of shoes.
The Joys of Carry-On
While your fellow delayed flyers wait hours to rebook a cancelled or delayed plane, hoping their bags will make the transfer, you’ll be on your mobile with an airline representative, zipping between gates and terminals to catch the next available ride with your roll-aboard safely at your side.
Facing a short connection, cancellation, or other travel disruption? No worries when you carry on rather than check. Last-minute gate changes, itinerary shifts, or unplanned hotel stays are far easier when your belongings are right there with you. Late arrival at the airport is less concerning without a need to wait in line at the counter or fret over the 60-minute pre-board bag check cutoff. And if you need an extra jacket, toothbrush, or medications in the terminal, mid-flight, or the moment you land, your bag is always in reach.
If you don’t have airline status and are among the last to board, you may still be required to gate check your roll-aboard. But there’s rarely a charge by the airline, and your bag is taken directly from the jet bridge to the belly of the plane. When you land, that gate-checked bag may be brought directly back to the jet bridge without wasting time at the baggage belts. And if it does go to baggage claim, gate-checks are usually among the first to be unloaded.
Everything Goes With Everything
Now that you’ve embraced carry-on only travel, how do you make space for corporate plus personal clothes, shoes, even equipment or a tripod, all in a 22” wheelie and personal bag that fits beneath the seat in front of you. Think matching, stacking, rolling, practicality, and austerity.
Start with classic clothing where each piece goes with every other in flexible outfits. Use a black, navy, or cream foundation then add bits of color or personality. Go with solid or simple patterns in pants, shirts, sweaters, and jackets that stack and scale up or down for any occasion.
Lay out your options at home before putting anything into your roll-aboard. Assemble one core outfit, then choose other items that easily swap in and out for variety and purpose. Anything that doesn’t work with everything else stays at home. Along with specialty items that will only be worn once or with one look.
Snap a photo of each ensemble; if you forget which shirt goes with which pants, just check your phone. The more you travel, the simpler this process becomes. And the more your wardrobe will evolve to make carrying on even easier.
Stack, Roll, and Stuff
Think stack-ability, warm weather to cold and back again. It might be 90 degrees in Rome but freezing on your flight. Or air conditioned in the conference hall but muggy at the team dinner. Layers that work together can be added or subtracted in response to the moment. When colors and patterns are complimentary but also look good alone, you can shed or stack at will.
Choose breathable, wrinkle-free, or “intelligent” fabrics requiring low maintenance and repeat wear before washing. A garment you can use three times takes up a third of the space as a garment that requires dry cleaning after one use.
Rolling is a more effective use of space than folding, and lighter fabrics rarely wrinkle. Underwear, socks, t-shirts, jeans, workout wear, sweaters, etc. can all be rolled and wedged around items that require folding like blazers, dress shirts, and creased pants.
Stuff your shoes with socks and underwear rolled in clean plastic bags. Place those at the bottom of your carry-on along with office items like a second screen, equipment, or supplies. Folded pants or skirts go next, followed by folded shirts or blouses. Rolled items fill the gaps, and accessories slip into crevices. Blazers are folded inside out and placed on top with a toiletry case containing TSA-approved liquids, dry supplies, makeup, etc. Once you get the hang of it, these space restrictions quickly go from frustrating to liberating.
Your Packing List
As a male who delivers a keynote address in the morning then climbs a bell tower that afternoon, here’s a sample list of what goes into my well-planned wardrobe and 22” roll-aboard. On the plane I wear:
1 pair of jeans
1 pair of underwear and socks
1 button-down shirt
1 merino wool sweater or hoodie (good for business or layering for flights and cool evenings)
1 navy dress belt (works with all outfits)
1 pair of casual sneakers (doubles for gym workouts)
1 season-appropriate coat (heavier for winter, rain/wind-proof for other months)
In my small suitcase you’ll find:
1 pair of navy dress pants
1 pair of khaki pants (good for a client dinner, museum, or city walk)
1 pair of khaki shorts (doubles as a swim suit)
1 navy patterned blazer (goes equally well with pants or jeans)
1 cream colored jacket (lighter than the one I wear on the plane)
1 pair of comfortable rubber-soled dress shoes
2 button-down dress shirts, solid white and white with blue pattern
2 pocket squares (creates variety for my navy blazer)
1 pair of soft pants (thin, easy to roll, great for lounging or workouts)
2 thin t-shirts (useful as a base layer, hotel room relaxing, or at the pool)
4 pairs of socks and underwear (higher quality equals less weight, shrinkage, or holes)
1 high quality travel umbrella (I like Davek, but lots of good ones out there)
I also carry three wonderful travel products that maximize my limited packed clothing. The Scrubba Mini portable wash bag combines with packets of SinkSuds laundry detergent and a portable clothes line to assure I always have fresh underwear, socks, and shirts at the ready, even on weeks-long trips.
Bottom Line
Of course there are times you’ll have to pack and check a larger suitcase. That Baltic cruise may offer a formal Captain’s night or costume party, ski gear takes up loads of space, or maybe you’re attending a traditional Indian wedding. But do you really need that purple cowboy hat for a corporate sales outing?
It’s not a question of if you’ll use it but how often, and is it worth checking a bag just to have it along for the ride? All resorts sell sunscreen. Most hotels provide a hair dryer. And if they don’t, you can buy one at your destination for less than the one-way cost of a checked suitcase.
Rick Steves also says, “I’ve never met anyone in my travels who said, ‘Wow, I sure wish I’d packed more!” And if you simply have to buy that leather jacket in Florence, you can always check a bag on the flight home when the stakes aren’t quite as high.
