Carry-On Only Travel: 3 Weeks in Europe With Just 7kg

The idea often takes shape at a baggage carousel: 47 minutes of waiting isn't unusual, and the bag tends to come out last. According to the SITA Baggage Report 2024, European airports mishandle 12.3 out of every 1,000 checked bags. Delayed, damaged, gone. Reason enough to skip it altogether.

And the cost. Airline baggage fees across Europe vary by up to 123 euros between the cheapest and priciest carriers. Four flights in three weeks? That's 80 to 160 euros just for luggage. Money better spent on actual experiences.

Rick Steves puts it well: "You can't travel heavy, happy, and cheap. Pick two." Hard to argue with that.

A tomtoc 40L Reiserucksack, TSA Freundlich Groß Handgepäck Rucksack Travel Backpack works well for a trip like this: 40 liters of capacity, 1.4 kg empty. That sounds small, and it is — that's the whole point. The lighter the bag itself, the more room for clothes.

Why a backpack instead of a rolling suitcase? Anyone who's dragged a trolley across cobblestones in Lisbon, Porto, or Prague knows the answer. The rattling. The vibrations through your arm. The broken wheels. With a backpack on your shoulders you're free. Stairs, buses, narrow alleys, none of it matters.

Shacke Packung - Packwürfel 4er Set – Reiseorganisierer Mit Wäschebeutel for organization and two Icebreaker Herren Standard Merino 150 Tech Lite Kurzarm-T-Shirt Hike Naturally as the foundation of the wardrobe round it out. More on the merino magic below.

Here's where it gets concrete — a luggage scale or kitchen scale makes it easy to weigh each item ahead of time:

Clothes (2.1 kg)

• 2 merino T-shirts (180g each)

• 1 lightweight long-sleeve (150g)

• 2 shorts (200g each)

• 1 pair of jeans (620g)

• 5 underwear, 4 pairs of socks (370g total)

Jacket and Shoes (1.6 kg)

• Packable rain jacket (280g)

• Lightweight sneakers as a second pair (320g)

• Walking sandals worn on the feet (don't count toward baggage weight, trick number one)

Toiletries (0.9 kg)

• Everything decanted into 100ml containers. Shampoo, body wash, sunscreen, deodorant. Standard liquid rules apply.

Tech (0.8 kg)

• Phone, charging cable, power bank (must go in carry-on, can't be checked), headphones

The backpack itself (1.4 kg)

Total: 6.8 kg. Under the 7kg limit that most budget airlines enforce.

Missing something from the list? Possibly. But it's rarely missed.

This is honestly the best part of the whole approach. Check in online, boarding pass on the phone, walk straight to security. No queuing at the check-in counter. No standing at the carousel after landing.

On a flight like Berlin to Porto on Ryanair, arriving at the gate 55 minutes before departure is plenty when there's no bag to drop. With checked luggage, it's usually closer to two and a half hours early. That adds up to almost 90 minutes saved, per flight.

On 4 September 2025, Ryanair increased its free cabin bag allowance to 40x30x20 cm, as set out in the Ryanair Bag Policy.

And the EU Parliament voted in June 2025 to ban carry-on luggage fees entirely. Carry on only travel is getting easier, not harder.

One practical tip: squeeze the backpack down a bit before boarding so it slides into the sizer without drama. That avoids unnecessary discussions at the gate.

Porto, Lisbon, Madrid, Marseille. Four cities, three weeks, four flights and two train rides is a fairly typical route for this kind of trip, all without a bulky suitcase.

What worked well:

The merino. Sounds like a gimmick at first, but it works: merino wool T-shirts can go three to five wears before they smell. Hand-washed in the sink at night, hung to dry overnight, worn again in the morning. A laundromat isn't strictly necessary, though it can be worth it — around 4 euros gets everything clean at once.

The freedom. No "where do I stash my suitcase" problem on day trips. Backpack stays at the hostel, grab a foldable tote bag, done. Riding three metro stops further than originally planned, the way it easily happens in Lisbon, is a lot harder to justify with a rolling suitcase in tow.

What didn't work so well:

Souvenirs. A bottle of port wine as a gift simply doesn't fit in 7kg. Mailing it home usually runs around 12 euros — worth it for a gift that lands well.

And a dinner with a dress code, say in Madrid: jeans and a merino shirt are fine at best, not really appropriate. Packing a thin button-down helps here, or just picking a different restaurant works too.

Three weeks of carry-on-only travel through Europe works. Usually better than most people expect going in.

Things worth changing next time:

1. Bring a thin linen shirt (weighs 140g, helps with dress-code restaurants)
2. Fewer socks, more underwear (socks tend to dry faster than expected)
3. Laundry sheets instead of mini soap bars (lighter, no liquid restrictions)
4. Drop the rain jacket? No. A sudden downpour in Porto shows exactly why it stays.

The big suitcase is rarely missed. Genuinely. And the skeptics back home? They tend to want in on the next trip too. Carry-on only, of course.

Curious about trying carry-on only travel: do it. Pack for one week, regardless of how long the trip is. The rest works itself out on the road. And for carry-on dimensions for different airlines, Ryanair hand luggage tricks, or a refresher on airline baggage policies before booking, Kofferly has the current carry-on rules for every European airline.

Minimalist travel packing is honestly one of those things where the hardest part is trusting that less is enough. It usually is.

The r/OneBag community on Reddit has over 370,000 members. That many people can't all be wrong.

Or maybe they are. Doesn't seem likely, though.