Backpacking through Central America with just a carry-on

As perhaps some of you may know, I am a scrawny weakling with embarrassingly atrocious upper body strength huge fan of minimalist travel, and the unhindered wandering it allows. I haven’t checked a bag onto a flight in a decade or two, and my spine hasn’t crumbled into oblivion under the weight of an immensely overloaded pack that smashes my bones into a fine powder to be whisked away shortly thereafter by a cool breeze. Not anymore, anyway. I have learned my lesson.

And yet, despite the innumerable advantages of minimalist travel, everyone seems to think I’m a crazy person. “Where’s your real bag?” they’d ask, along with “I could never do that.” I’ve given up trying to convince them by now, but I still look with bewildered confusion at their gigantic luggage, wondering what on Earth could possibly be inside. I don’t even know how to pack something that big, let alone carry it.

So, after having returned just days ago from a month in Guatemala, I wanted to provide a concrete example of a streamlined packing list for backpacking through Central America, or really anywhere, with a tiny little pack that’ll fit in the overhead bin on the plane, or conveniently underneath the seat in front of you.

That’s me on the left:

Synapse vs Humongous Monster Pack
He might as well use a wheelbarrow.

That guy was old, too. I don’t know how he did it.

I’ve already written about what to pack for ultralight travel, which is more about how to accomplish this, whereas this list focuses more on the specific items used, and why. Hopefully it’ll provide specific details about what to include, and how this is a whole lot easier than most people think.

A minimal packing list for backpacking Central America

Here’s a photo of absolutely everything I took for a month spent in Guatemala (except for a couple things I forgot to include in the photo), which included everything from jungle treks to city walks; torrential rains, to burning sunshine; and high-altitude chill, to body-temperature heat in 100% humidity. Argh, I hate humidity.

Central America packing list, unpacked
Hopefully this’ll put things into…perspective.

And here’s the gear:

Packs:

  • A Tom Bihn Synapse 25, (reviewed in ridiculous detail here) which is actually supposed to be a “normal” backpack, but if you’re an ultralight travel junkie, it’s juuuust big enough for everything you might need, and it’s quite a nice pack that I thoroughly enjoy. I was especially interested in it because of how it places the water bottle in a centered and zippered pocket, meaning it’s never off balance, and can never fall out. My water bottle is also a filter, so this was a big deal to me, as I don’t want it getting lost. (Normal people will likely prefer a larger pack, so check here for some favorites of mine that are still carry-on sized, and highly functional.)
  • A ChicoBag Daypack 15, which is a packable backpack that stuffs down to the size of a t-shirt or two, so it can hide away in the main pack until you need it.

Basic clothing:

  • 4 t-shirts, 2 of which were made of merino wool (both from Nau, a company which does a good job making travel clothes that are still fashionable), and 2 of which were polyester. Merino wool is generally better (read why here), but it’s pricey, and it’s nice to have at least one or two cheap shirts that you can really beat up and not feel bad ruining.
  • 4 pairs of underwear, all of which were Uniqlo Airism polyester boxer briefs. I refuse to wear anything else (read why here). Certain alternatives could potentially work, but it’s just such a hassle trying non-returnable undies that I just don’t care to bother trying anymore, and these are great.
  • 3 pairs of ankle socks, made of synthetic materials. Merino is probably a better choice, but these are what I happened to have, and they worked fine.
  • 2 pairs of pants, one from Bluffworks (reviewed here), and one from Royal Robbins (another company that thinks travel clothing doesn’t have to look silly). Both were made from synthetic materials, with velcro or zippered pockets so nothing falls out, while still looking quite like normal pants.
  • 2 pairs of shorts, one from Columbia, and one from Royal Robbins, both with zips or velcro for safety. Both were made of synthetic materials, which allowed them to double as swimsuits.

So, if you have only 4 changes of clothes, you could travel indefinitely if you do laundry twice a week or so, even if you only wear each outfit just once (which, given the 100% humidity I was encountering, was exactly the case).

But if you bring 7 or 8 changes of clothes, you can travel indefinitely if you do laundry once a week, which I think is a good sweet spot in terms of variety, packability, and not-too-often laundry errands, which basically anyone should be able to do, and that’s what I generally recommend.

All those people who say “Ah, I see, you’re only traveling for a month, so you don’t need much” simply don’t know how laundry works.

Sweaters and jackets:

  • A lightweight merino wool sweater from Ibex, known as the Shak Lite Full Zip, which I adore (though mine is an older version than the current one). Fleece works fine too.
  • A super lightweight rain jacket, known as the Marmot Mica (the women’s version is known as the Crystalline), which is one of the lightest rain jackets I’ve ever found. Check out a list of others here.

That’s all the warmth I needed on this trip, but if you’re going somewhere really cold, add a down jacket over the sweater. They’re the absolute best for lightweight compressibility.

Footwear:

  • 1 pair of Tyvek shoes, discussed here. Tyvek is water resistant, super breathable, and light weight, so they work nicely as travel shoes (and I only ever travel with one pair), although the particular model I had wasn’t particularly comfortable for all-day wandering on concrete or cobblestones, but I expect others could be.
  • 1 pair of sandals, which are the Chacos Updraft 2. These are lighter than the regular Chacos that everyone recognizes, but they use the same exact strapping system, so they’re just as comfortable. All other currently available Chacos screw up the strap layout (including the original version of the Updraft) and they’re awful and I hate them. Argh. But these are great. Get these if you think Chacos are awesome, but a little too heavy.

Toiletries:

  • I have a full list of toiletries here. This list is long enough as it is. Just take mini bottles of everything so you can take them on the plane with you.

Papers and stuff:

  • 2 books. I’m probably going for a Kindle on the next trip, but I was being cheap.
  • The Guatemala chapter of a Central America guidebook, cut apart and taped like this so it fits into a back pocket so I don’t have to carry around a giant guidebook all day.
  • Passport. Duh.
  • Post-it Notes, because I was being too cheap for a real notebook.
  • Business cards, though I didn’t bother using them.
  • A tiny wallet, only big enough for an ID and a credit card or two. I only carry one card with me at a time, and hide the other one somewhere else, and carry cash in a separate pocket anyway. Eggs, baskets, all that.
  • 1 pen and 1 mechanical pencil. Check out JetPens for great writing utensils.

I didn’t bring a money belt, because I had pants with zippered or velcro pockets, which are pretty safe, but more comfortable.

Electronics:

  • An iPhone 5S. I upgraded to this model because it had the best iPhone camera I could get at the time (because it was going to be my only camera), and the fingerprint ID is a million times faster than typing in a passcode. Oh, and switch to T-Mobile to get free international roaming with no stupid fees (if you’re primarily living in the US, that is). Really, no roaming fees.
  • A phone charger. Weirdly enough, you could probably travel without one, and just make new hostel buddies by asking other people if they have one. Sneaky!
  • A universal travel adapter, which wasn’t necessary, since Guatemala uses North American plugs, but I had read that it sometimes uses others, so I figured I’d bring it along.
  • Headphones, in a “protective case,” which was a breath mints tin.

I didn’t bother taking a laptop, because I’m paranoid about traveling with pricey electronics, and I figured I’d just catch up on “real” work after I got back (it was just a short trip), and since I could roam internationally on my phone at no extra charge with T-Mobile, I could handle basic communications with friends and family without visiting an internet café.

Other snazzy gear:

  • A Grayl water filtration bottle, reviewed here (using the purifier unit, rather than the standard filter). This meant I could fill up from the sink or the river without worrying about silly viruses and what have you. Now I just need to figure out a better way to deal with scorpions than by stepping on them, and I’ll be all set.
  • Sunglasses, in a case. I am utterly blind in broad daylight, as I am apparently part vampire.
  • A Scrubba manual laundry bag, reviewed here. It allows you to manually wash your clothes without having to use a dirty hostel sink, and generally gets things cleaner than a shower wash, though not necessarily faster.
  • 2 energy bars, for reducing the need for pricy airport meals during transit.
  • A 100% linen towel from Outlier. I will be reviewing this in more detail soon, but the short version is that it’s just objectively better than any other travel towel you can possibly find, and if you can handle the price, get it. If you can’t, just pick up 2 yards of linen fabric from any fabric wholesaler and take it to a tailor to sew up the edges. The reason it works so much better than a regular travel towel is that it’s naturally odor-resistant, and even more absorbent, yet still packs just as small, and, shockingly, dried just as fast as a 100% polyester towel I had. I was utterly bewildered when I tested that out.

Packing cubes and other pouches:

  • 1 large-ish packing cube for clothes, from Tom Bihn. This was quite useful in making the pack more functional, because the pack was a “regular” pack, rather than a lay-flat-and-open-all-the-way-around sort of pack.
  • 1 bag for toiletries, known as the Tom Bihn Side Effect. It has just enough organization to keep things in line, and a detachable shoulder strap for hanging from bunk beds or whatever.
  • 2 smaller organizer pouches, both from Tom Bihn; one clear-sided for liquids for stupid airport security protocols, and one solid, both of which can attach with little clippy straps to the interior of their other bags, so you don’t lose them.
  • 1 drawstring shoe bag, so if my shoes are dirty, nothing else gets dirty.

Things I forgot to include in the photo:

  • The phone, as mentioned previously, because it took these photos.
  • A tiny LED flashlight. I could have used my phone instead, but this one had a little clip so I could hang it on a t-shirt color and use it in the bathroom, kind of like a poor man’s headlamp.
  • A collared, button-up shirt for classy occasions. Just a cheap cotton/polyester plaid button-up. The polyester helps it stay non-wrinkly and helps it dry faster if you do a sink wash. I never wore it, because I am not a classy person. But I have hope!
  • One other tiny organizational wallet-sized pouch, also from Tom Bihn.
  • A photocopy of my passport, laminated with packing tape so it’ll last forever. Or rather, until the date expires, and I have to make a new one.
  • An S-biner, which I clipped onto a pant belt loop, to which I clipped my camera. I used one of those point-and-shoot camera wrist straps, hooked onto my phone’s case. That way it couldn’t fall out or get pick-pocketed without yanking me along too.
  • My immeasurable sense of wonder and devilishly infectious charm, because why bother traveling without them? The world would mourn.

Alright, that’s it! Here’s what it all looks like when it’s all folded up and stuffed away into packing cubes and other organizers, with the outfit I’d be wearing unpacked along the right:

Central America packing list, partially packed
Packed up and good to go

You can start to get a sense of how small all this stuff can be once it’s all packed up, and see just how easily it’ll fit into a tiny bag, even though there’s enough gear for traveling long-term, if you do laundry twice a week or so.

And remember, even if you bring twice as many clothes, you still don’t need a pack twice as big, because you’re only bringing twice as many basic clothes, rather than packing twice as many rain jackets and sandals, and so on…so look at that photo above and imagine doubling just the packing cube full of clothing and nothing else. It wouldn’t be that much bigger overall, because only part of the gear list is doubled. So even if you can’t possibly travel with just 25 liters of gear, you could still carry twice as much basic clothing, in a pack of maybe 35 liters, which is still well within carry-on limits.

And here’s what it looks like when it’s all packed up and ready to go, reflected upon what I later realized was a very poorly cleaned bathroom mirror:

Central America packing list, fully packed
My first ever bathroom mirror selfie. Argh, I feel so dirty.

I refuse to retake the photo again under cleaner conditions, because I am of such noble character that I choose to accept my self-inflicted failure and render myself unto public scorn. Or I’m just too lazy. One or the other.

But yes, that’s all there is to it. A minimal quantity of items, and frequent laundering. That’s the “secret.”

Stuff I got for free

In the interest of full disclosure, a few of the items were graciously provided for free, for testing and review purposes. These were:

  • All the Tom Bihn gear, which included the main pack, the packing cube for clothes, the hanging toiletry kit, and a couple smaller organizer pouches.
  • The Bluffworks pants.
  • The Grayl water filtration bottle, and the purifier unit inside.
  • The Outlier linen towel.

All this gear was great, and I wouldn’t have traveled with any of those items if I didn’t love them.

Minor objections, and counterarguments

“But I want to look good!” is usually what people say. I’ve never understood this, as looking good is about the quality of clothing, not the quantity. Instead of bringing along 4 scruffy outfits like I did, just bring along 4 classy outfits, and you’ll look good all day, every day. Shouldn’t that be easy? Especially if it’s regular clothing you just plan on throwing in a laundry machine anyway?

I actually met a girl towards the end of the trip, who was on an even longer adventure than I was, with a pack just as tiny as mine. But she brought nothing but fashionable clothing, so she looked ready for a fancy night out at all times. So not only can girls do this too, but they can look every bit as nice as they want. Just don’t bring ugly clothing! Done and done.

Well, hopefully this’ll help someone, even though I’ve never managed to convince anyone of any of these ideas at all. But somewhere, someday, I shall meet a loyal disciple, who packed one less thing than usual, and I shall rejoice.

And though I usually travel just so I can accumulate awesome travel gear, I also had lots of fun there. Here’s a list of things I enjoyed in Guatemala, which you probably will too.

About SnarkyNomad

Eytan is a pretentious English major whose rant-laden sarcastic tirades occasionally include budget travel tips and other international nonsense. You can follow his every narcissistic word on Facebook or Twitter.

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77 Comments on “Backpacking through Central America with just a carry-on”

  1. Hey Eytan,

    Great perspective on minimalist traveling. I generally travel without checking in luggage if it can at all be helped. My focus as a product guy has been designing for minimalist travel from a functional and aesthetic point of view. Would you mind taking a look at the carry-on I designed to see if it’s something you might be able to feature?

    http://kck.st/1rrEvqP

    Thanks!

    John

    1. That looks pretty clever. I’ll just leave it right there so people can find it. I like the vertical modular design better than the “extra daypack” design that most oversized “travel packs” usually use.

      1. I watched the video and it looks pretty cool. Not sure I care about the built in battery pocket (i would just put the battery in my pocket with my phone) but I like that is a daypack with an extension.

        1. Ha! I do accumulate quite a few things this way, so occasionally I prefer just to share new gear with readers, rather than get more and more things. I can’t accept everything, because then I would never get a chance to use everything more than just a couple times.

  2. I’m looking forward to the towel review. I use one of the synthetic (I don’t remember what material) backpacking towels from REI, I like the weight, but don’t like the feel of it when I dry myself off.

    Why do people like the Bluffworks pants? I have a pair, and they are nice for work in the summer, but because of the material they look like work pants.

    1. If you get them in brown I think they look like very casual khakis. The other colors look very office-appropriate, although I think the grey could double as casual wear too.

  3. Eytan

    Have you looked at Quiksilver Amphibian hybrid shorts?
    They are great as the look like walkshorts but made from boardshorts material, look good even when wet due to the trendy cut and dry really quickly.
    You can wear them in the sea and in town, therefore only one pair of shorts needed.

    1. Those look nice. Quick-drying shorts work nicely as swimwear, which is why I’ve never seen the point of cotton shorts.

  4. I recently went to Costa Rica for two weeks with nothing but a carry on bag that fits within the contradictory limits for a free “personal item” on both Frontier and Spirit. That and my scottevest for hiding gadgets, papers, and money. It was kind of a sport, see if we could escape baggage fees entirely. Used one of those cheap little daypacks that crushes down to the size of a softball. Wear one pack two, mostly synthetics washed in the sink, Internet via iPhone 5S and iPad mini. It worked fantastically well with one minor hiccup: NOTHING dries out in Monteverde. Ever. Luckily we were in that region only for a few days.

    I’ll be curious to read your towel reviews. I love my REI ultralight towels (not the dry skin hostile fuzzy kind) but consider them “consumable” due to the inevitable funk.

    1. Yeah, go with a linen towel. I’m actually questioning the use of polyester in general, because certain naturally-derived materials seem to do just as well. Tencel, for example…the miracle fabric that no one uses…actually dries faster than polyester. It’s amazing. If only someone would start using it dammit.

      By the way, if you get a fairly spacious towel, you can squish your sink-washed wet clothes in the towel (after wringing them out), and the towel will take maybe half the moisture away, so the clothing will dry out in half the time. Not saying it’ll fix humidity problems completely, but it’ll cut them in half.

      1. That’s exactly what I did, rolled my clothes into a towel burrito and wrung them out. I might have exaggerated a little – my synthetic shirts and underwear (squeezed in the towel) did indeed dry out after about 10-12 hours. For comparison, they’re bone dry in about 2 or 3 hours back home. My wife’s cotton t-shirt and our REI towels took almost a full 24 hours to dry, and the hotel-provided cotton towels never really dried out. Only Monteverde was that humid. Manuel Antonio and La Fortuna were sweaty too but not like that!

        If you’re going to do wear 1 pack 2, the towel trick will more than make up for the negligible extra packed weight. Plus you can use it on the beach or as a lap blanket on the plane. Douglas Adams was right: always know where your towel is.

        I much prefer nylon to polyester. Nylon is tough, dries quickly, and is mostly immune to the polyester funk. For some reason it seems to be used only in clothes for the bottom half though. Don’t think I’ve heard of tencel before. Maybe I should look into it.

  5. Out of curiosity, what size packing cube did you use there? I looked at the Tom Bihn site but they have a large number of options.

    1. Yes, they’re custom-made for specific bags, but the Synapse doesn’t have custom-made options, probably due to its curvaceousness. But that one is the Tri-Star Medium, and it’s the perfect width for that main compartment. You could actually get two of them in there, depending on how overstuffed each one is, but I only needed one for this trip. I was able to fit three changes of clothes in there (three each of t-shirts, underwear, socks, pants/shorts), plus a button-up shirt. It was a tight fit, but it worked.

      1. Thanks – I’m trying to decide if I want to take some packing cubes on my next trip or try out some stuff sacks or compression sacks. It seems like the packing cubes are good initially but as you get dirty clothes it might be more useful to have clothes in a clean bag and a dirty bag.

        1. Yes, this is true; the solutions are you can just get a cheap plastic bag from any store, and stuff the dirty clothes in there. It packs down small when you’re not using it, and it won’t cost anything. The other solution is a double-sided packing cube (Eagle Creek makes one, called the Clean/Dirty cube), and Tom Bihn has something called the Travel Laundry Stuff Sack, which is a double-sided stuff sack. Since it’s a stuff sack rather than a packing cube, it’s good for stuffable things, like t-shirts, socks, and underwear, while your fancy buttoned shirts and nice pants can be folded nicely elsewhere.

  6. Hi, I am one of your fans. Physically I am a young traveler, and i’ve been planning a 6-12 month backpacking trip(several areas) wandering what size (in L) would you recommended for my Pack.. What size in liters are your backpacks ?

    1. The one in this photo was 25, and it was pretty tightly filled, so you can look at the gear list and get a pretty good idea of what 25 liters of gear looks like. The airlines will let you bring a maximum of 45, so you can bring a lot more. I would say that if it’s your first time, you might not have all the smallest, lightest gear, and might instead just bring regular clothing, so you might want a little more room, but I would say 45 should be the maximum, so you can still bring the backpack onto the plane with you. That’ll carry about a week’s worth of clothing, and you can do laundry once a week and travel forever.

  7. Looking forward to seeing your full review of the Outlier linen towel – I’ve had my eye on one for a while. Did you find that the large size packed down relatively small? It must have, I suppose, if you were happy fitting it into a 25L backpack.

    1. Actually, it’s a little big. The fabric itself is about as thin as a typical travel towel, but they give you a generous unfurled size; I think this is actually a feature for the ladies, as you can wrap yourself up in the towel and both your upper and lower body will be covered, whereas a lot of other travel towels try to be fairly minimal, and they’re too skinny to do that, so you can only cover up one or the other. This means that it’s bigger than a lot of others. When it’s all rolled up about as tightly as I can get it, it’s about the size of 2 soda cans stacked on top of each other (you can make it shorter and wider, of course, but that’s a good visual estimate). But I was using the towel to wrap up wet clothes and wring them out, so I was happy to make use of the extra size. You can find smaller travel towels (MSR PackTowl Ultralite is the thinnest I’ve found, and it feels good) but this one is generous enough to work as a beach towel, a full-body wrap, a wet clothes wringer, and so on. Aside from the price, the extra size is literally the only downside, but it’s a pro & con sort of thing, and it might come in handy. I will probably never go back to polyester unless I’m really running out of space.

      1. So I also bought the full sized one and I’m using it as a primary towel at home… it’s .. ‘okay’ functionally wise, because it will dry you, but it does miss on the softness of the traditional cotton towels. It’s a bit like drying yourself with a table top linen cover (well, same material anyway). I suppose for travel purposes it retains less water and as it’s thinner, it will dry faster as well.

        1. Yeah, using it at home isn’t the best use for it, since a plush cotton towel can be found for maybe $10 at any department store, and if you have a laundry machine and a dryer, then quick-drying fabric doesn’t matter so much. It’s better to compare it to a travel towel, in which case I think it’s more comfortable than most existing options. This is really something to throw in a backpack, for traveling or in a gym bag or something like that, in which case it works great. Leaving it on a towel rack in a bathroom at home doesn’t take advantage of its packability.

    1. I still use it, though I haven’t gone on a trip since then, so it’s been a daypack at home. Still love it. I haven’t noticed any smell, but that’ll probably vary from one person to another, but since the back panel is nylon (pretty sure) then it’ll dry out fast and won’t smell.

  8. Nice! I am very intrigued with minimalist packing, as I feel like I am always over burdened with my things, but I can never get the hang of it. I am currently packing for an extended backpacking trip and I am feeling like I have way to much, but I don’t know what to get rid of. Thanks for the inspiration though, I never do a checked bag for trips shorter than a few months, it’s a waste of time at the airport and I’d rather keep my stuff with me :)
    Katie

    1. It’s certainly worth a try. I think of it as something of a game, because I can’t possibly carry heavy packs without going crazy. Versatility is really what you’re looking for. If everything goes with everything else (whether it’s color or just fitting together easily), you don’t have to coordinate anything, for example.

  9. Nice. After a number of international and domestic adventures, plus 9 months recently living out of a campervan, I’m well on my way to being a minimalist traveller.

    I’ve got a 38L full harness backpack that meets carry-on size restrictions, mesh packing cubes, roll up vacuum storage bags, a pair of enclosed hiking shoes and a pair of flip flops, and a few pairs of essential clothes that should last me 3 months in Chile and Brazil later this year. I figure worst case scenario that I need anything else I will always be able to buy a cheap item of clothing etc as I need it over there. Last time I checked people in Chile and Brazil wear normal clothes too. ;)

    My biggest “?” will be a bodyboard, swim fins and wetsuit (in a bag with shoulder straps) that I will probably bring over with me, as I get free check in luggage on my international flight and boards are 50% more expensive over there as they are here in Australia. I would love to have just one small carry-on bag, but I figured a 7kg check in bag and a 4kg carry-on bag will be manageable enough compared to some people I see with massive 15kg+ backpacks.

    1. Yeah, I’ve seen people with giant surfboards and full-size guitars and things like that, and there’s just no way around having to deal with all that extra size. If you’re only surfing a little, I suppose you could rent something.

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