When I browse in antique shops, I love to look at the vintage luggage. They usually come in sets. People traveled back then with multiple pieces of luggage like vanity cases and hat boxes. (I’d love to travel with a vanity case instead of just my quart-size plastic bag for my toiletries and cosmetics.) Some of the suitcases even have interesting stickers from various European hotels. Maybe EF’s operations staff can convince our ihotels to start providing these colorful stickers. I also like to look at the huge steamer trunks and open them to see these “traveling closets.” People who traveled with expensive luggage like that probably had servants to do their packing. That’s what I want—someone who will come to my house and do my packing before each trip. If you don’t have that luxury either, here is an international travel checklist that I hope you find helpful.

Group leaders should consider offering their students an incentive to encourage them to pack as lightly as possible. Provide your students with a basic ipacking list and think about giving a prize to the student who has the lightest bag. Group leader Mike Curtis commented on Paul Mattesini’s January 28, 2011, post, “Packing Light for Travel”. He weighs all of the students’ bags before they board the bus and they can’t get on the bus if their bag weighs over 45 pounds. He also buys lunch on the first day of his tour for the student with the lightest bag as long as everything on his travel checklist is packed. I stand by the airline counter and keep track of the weight of the students’ bags as they get checked in. The student with the lightest bag gets a crisp $20 bill from me. No one ever returns home from a tour and says, “I wish I had packed more stuff.”