eigenvector

Yes, the classic overland trips. I do enjoy these, and they can start to take up quite a lot of time because you need to stop everywhere and take in the sights (or just wait a few days for your next ride). I'm looking forward to doing China > Europe by land in 2017. Some things just have a natural continuity to them that you can't break up with a flight.

Jeffmiyagi

3 weeks is usually my limit. Those of you who travel longer than 4 weeks, how are you packing? With 3 weeks worth of clean clothes, I basically had to take 2 big suitcases with me. If you're gone for 4 weeks+, what are you doing?

eigenvector

One change of clothing. Wash it or otherwise replace it when you can. If you are travelling for 3 months, you are not so pressed for time that doing laundry is an unbearable inconvenience.

The_Bouncer

One week's worth of scraggy old t-shirts, socks and underwear. Wash them at a motel laundry, or ditch them and buy cheap stuff, whichever is easier/cheaper.

sbm12

I take clothes I like, not dingy stuff, but still do laundry along the way. Generally inexpensive enough and easy to coordinate.

sethweinstein

Eight T-shirts and sets of underwear and socks, one or two pairs of pants plus one to wear on the plane, and a couple of long-sleeve shirts and a thin sweater if necessary for the destination. All fit easily in the main compartment of an Eagle Creek backpack that has a detachable day pack and can be taken as one carry-on on the plane. Then I do laundry (or, ideally, have it done) as necessary.

Seth

sethweinstein

Thanks for the validation. When my girlfriend says "Why can't you go for two or three weeks and then come home for a bit and resume later?" it's nice to know someone else feels the same as I!

Seth

Mauibaby2008

2 big suitcases for three weeks? Lol what do you bring with you 😂

pairofkeets

My longest trip was 3 weeks. I packed about 5 t-shirts, 3 pairs of jeans, 2 button down shirts, 2 sweaters, a light weight down jacket from Patagonia, 4 pairs of shoes, swim suit, 7 pairs of underwear + socks, and a pair of chinos. Fit into 2 carry on sized suit cases. This was for travel in the fall. I did laundry service twice at the hotel and that was brutal. 400 bucks total for the whole trip. This was to Japan and Hong Kong for the record.

For the majority of everyone here who does laundry on the trip, do you just take time at the laundromat or use hotel laundry service? I've done the laundromat the majority of the times I've traveled on holiday but this last time I was too lazy and ended up doing the laundry service. Kinda regret it real talk. But at least my clothes were fresh pressed and saved me the couple hours.

eigenvector

I either plan to stay one night at an apartment rental that has in-suite laundry, or use a public laundromat. In many countries having laundry in your home is a luxury most can't afford, so public laundromats are all over the place and dirt cheap. I would carry just one change of clothing, so pretty well everything can go in one load of laundry. If I am planning to be on the road for weeks or months, I am not packing beyond what can easily fit in a 45 L backpack because I don't want to have luggage I can't easily carry with me without the use of a vehicle. So not just using a backpack, but keeping it small and light enough that I don't mind walking with it all day in a warm climate (15 lbs or less preferably). Not one of those monstrous backpacks the owners of which can barely lift let alone walk with!

I don't use hotel laundry except when needed on business trips as it is simply too expensive for my tastes.

txflyer77

On my longer trips I'm generally not moving around too quickly, so I'll either mix in stays where I have access to laundry facilities or I have time to seek out drop-off laundromats. Especially in Southeast Asia, this is generally pretty cheap.

I also carry some powder detergent so I can wash socks/underwear if I need to. Very useful at the end of my longer trips which generally involve a series of one or two-night stays. OTOH, if I'm two days from my long-haul flight home, I'm probably in a major hub city anyways (TYO, HKG, SIN) so I'll just pop into a Uniqlo and buy some clean clothes to get me home.

The Uniqlo at Causeway Bay in HKG is often my emergency "laundry facility" as I make my way home.

pairofkeets

I should honestly look into AirBnB/Renting apartments instead of hotels all the time. I've been traveling with a Rimowa Salsa Deluxe IATA carry on, a slightly larger Samsonite bag that honestly needs to go, and a Man Pack Xl. I used a Osprey Farpoint 40 initially but I wasn't a fan of the compartment where my laptop went. I might give it a try again though.
Hotel laundry is very expensive, and I feel like chain hotels gouge more for those services than local hotels.

Side note: I always found it bizarre how many people you can find in cities like Tokyo walking around these tourist sites with these huge 90L+ backpacking backpacks, it just looks like a pain.

Honestly with the prices that hotels were charging for Laundry for some things I should have just bought new items. 570 yen for an undershirt, I don't think the Kirkland branded shirts were worth that. But the person I was traveling with didn't want to do the laundromat so *shrug* it is what it is.

Annalisa12

On one 4 week trip I purchased 35 pairs of cheapo $2 undies from a discount store and just threw them away every day instead of washing them.

When I am in one place it is easy as I just get my laundry done at the hotel. It is harder when I am on a tour that moves around as sometimes I might be in one place for only a night so cannot get laundry done. Then I have to take 2 or 3 suitcases. I travel way too heavy.

todderz

I like how this turned into a discussion about laundry.

Longest trip - 6 months riding my motorcycle around the world.

Do your own laundry in the campsite/hotel/river, strap it to the back of the bike and it dries out as you ride.

And it doesn't matter cos when you're travelling by motorcycle every part of you and everything you own is utterly filthy by the end of week two. Some photos look like I have a nice tan, but it's just dirt....

The_Bouncer

That's exactly what I do on longer trips, especially road trips, where I'm constantly moving on. Same with socks. Cheap multi-packs from Walmart or equivalent.