One Month, One Bag - Mexico - Personal Item Only Travel
One bag travel and 25 days abroad in Mexico!
This is everything we brought 9 days in Mexico City, 9 Days in Puerto Escondido and 8 Days in Oaxaca. We had a killer time! Our CDMX Travel Guide is available now on our Patreon, Puerto Escondido & Oaxaca Guides coming soon!
Anna
Pack : HyperLight 2400 South West my bag rocks for most camping/travel use. holds everything I want to pack and compresses well enough to fit under plane seats!
Clothing: I wore GFC Trail Pants + Devon Cami, Abduls long sleeved wool shirt & khaki REI shirt + Tevas on the plane (and like, all travel days. only brought one pair of shoes!) these are my first pair of Tevas and they’re okay, I’ll continue to wear them at Tahoe. I prefer Birkenstocks but they just don’t make anything similar. I packed a Hill House Home Nesli Dress, GFC Trail Shorts, Heat Tech Leggings, a cute pair of pants I thrifted in AZ and several bikinis. All my choices worked well for the environments we were in through the month! Packed in Tripped Compression Travel Cubes.
Toiletries: Shampoo & conditioner bars, even face cleansing bars are a travel game changer (we store ours in Matador Soap Bar Cases) Skincare + makeup samples, ibuprofen, pepto pills, NuFace Mini Trinity, Dude Wipes, contacts & solution.
Things That Live With Me: First Aid Kit, Matador Pocket Blanket, Binoculars, Matador NanoDry Packable Shower Towel, Several Sunscreens & Bug Lotion in Matador FlatPak Toiletry Bottles, downy wrinkle releaser spray; my greatest secret & how I travel with nice clothing. tie dye buff that was worn as a headband and tube top. Travel Essentials Shopping List.
Snacks : Always pack more than you’d think, never hurts to have a meal bar on you! The PROBAR Meal Bar collection is my favorite.
Overall, I’m happy with everything I brought, it served me well and keeping my weight under 12 pounds was a personal feat! If I could’ve removed one item it would be the binoculars, love them for road trips but the only time I wanted to use them (dolphin seeing) they didn’t work well with a boat lol I’m feeling like my fanny pack is an awkward shape for consistent use like this, seems better for hikes/small outdoor activities rather than long travel.
Mexico was great and challenging myself to a light bag really benefitted us in the end during a long travel day back home, we were able to process through customs, leave the airport and do TSA multiple times in a just few minutes.
Packed Cotopaxi and strapped the sling on through the airports.
Abdul
Cotopaxi Allpa 28 Bag : This was a new purchase for me as I needed a backpack that would fit under any airplane seat. My first choice was actually the Cabin Zero Military 28 bag but that was sold out and I settled on the Allpa. Overall it was a solid bag with very good utility. I enjoyed the outside mounting points as it allowed me to use my Heroclip to hang my sneakers off the back of the bag, a tote bag with extras and my sling when in travel mode. (Not all at once tho). The only downside of this bag is that it opens like a suitcase. This is one of the primary selling points of the backpack but I found it to be annoying to open and close, especially on the go. I see why this is a welcome feature for others but I’m not sure if I like it or not. At first I packed my sling inside my bag, then when I realized it had some more room to spare under the seat, I started clipping it to the outside of the bag to add 2.5 liters of space. I was pretty happy with that setup!
Aer City Sling 2
Clothing : As always my heaviest layers are worn during travel. My trusty Outlier Slim Dungarees, a synthetic blend t-shirt, my Vermont Flannel and my jean jacket. I kinda regret bringing both the flannel and the jacket as mexico was not cool enough at night to really need it. It was very cool in mexico i mean like not cold enough for layers. I also wear my merino underwear/socks on travel days. Packed in Tripped Compression Packing Cubes.
Packed : 4 t shirts, 2 pairs of lululemon pace breaker 5” lined shorts, 4 pairs of socks (nike dry fit)
Toiletries : Peak Design small wash pouch, shit ton of contacts + solution, moisturizer, toothbrush, mini toothpaste. Toothpaste went fast but a full size is too big!
My first iteration of packing the Allpa 28L was with the sling on the inside. Once I realized how much space I had I added 2.5 L of space by clipping it to the outside of the pack using my hero clip carabiners.
Can’t wait for the next one!