Tag: #travelbadassery

Two Weeks in Barbados With Only an Underseat Carry-On Bag

On By Widow BadassIn Badassery, Travel Badassery55 Comments

Well, I’m still feeling tough with this cold. A full week after coming back to Canada and about 10 days in since I started feeling symptoms. Enough already! I am becoming so weak from inactivity that I am forcing myself now to log more steps and do more things, no matter how tired I get. Yesterday I pushed myself hit to 5,000 steps (usual for me is 10-15K per day), and I finally started doing my vacation laundry. Those 2 things exhausted me. I have decided that tomorrow I resume my normal life no matter what. This is my last “sick day”. Wish me luck. Anyway…

People are mostly surprised when I tell them I only take carry-on luggage for my annual 2 week vacation in the tropics. I don’t get it because really, how many clothes do you need when it’s 28 degrees Celsius and you’re on the beach for 6-8 hrs/day?

When I worked, I only took a carry-on bag when I had to fly anywhere for business. Work travel was stressful enough without having to wait at the luggage carousel, hoping that your bag shows up.

But I am also a go-with-the-flow kinda person, so if my travel buddy is checking luggage, I’ll probably do the same.

My first trip with CJ to Barbados, I assumed she would be checking a bag as most people do. I will never underestimate her again! Imagine my shock when she showed me the tiny pink bag that she shoved under the seat ahead of her, that contained all her worldly goods for our vacay. Mind blown! She was definitely the Badass Boss of that trip. Meanwhile, I had actually checked my bag for a change, figuring “might as well – no doubt she will.” WRONG. I did not like keeping her waiting as I was impatiently scanning the carousel for my bag to show up. And wouldn’t you know, my bag was the absolute last to be off-loaded after we arrived on the island! I confess I had visions of having to buy myself everything due to my luggage being lost. Never again.

I have been using the typical carry-on size luggage for this vacation ever since – the type that gets stowed in the overhead bin. However, these winter get-away flights are typically very full and sometimes it’s hard to find room above your seat due to inconsiderate souls putting more stuff than their regulation-size carry-on in those compartments. Like their winter gear. So I started looking for something even smaller. And because I love the challenge of seeing how little I can actually pack and still have a great vacation. Enter the underseat carry-on bag.

Left: my regulation-size carry-on bag. Which looks ginormous compared to… Right: my new underseat carry-on bag. CJ was so tickled by it that she bought the same one as me, but in a different colour.
This Travelon bag comes with a matching small duffel bag. Did not use the duffel on this trip to Barbados but did use it on my last trip to Vancouver Island. Because I needed to pack more and bulkier clothes, natch.
Arriving in our room at the hotel with all of my luggage 🙂 Including the travel mascot (Spot!) and new luggage tag (with attitude!) as part of the retirement gift package from my work buddies.
What was inside my little purple bag, clockwise left to right: hat, bag containing cotton swabs, clothes pins and towel clips, snorkel and mask, bar of laundry soap, water socks, pink bag containing cables and chargers for electronics, liquids, non-liquid toiletries, beach bag, iPad Pro, sunglasses, spare plastic storage bags, GoPro camera, cell phone, assorted toiletries and meds, compression sacks full of clothes, sandals. Still in bag: wipes for electronics and cameras, some tea bags. Ignore the cell phone – was not in the carry-on.

What did I pack for clothes, you may be wondering? Here’s a list:

  • 1 quick dry underwear (I was wearing the only other pair)
  • 2 two-piece bathing suits
  • 1 Eddie Bauer travel skort
  • 1 tank top
  • 1 beach cover-up (Land’s End) that can also double as a housecoat or even a dress
  • 1 bikini top that also did double duty as a bra
  • 1 pair summer-weight pajamas

For the flight down (and back) I wore a pair of light-weight travel pants from Eddie Bauer that could be rolled up and fixed to become capri-length (thanks again to my Badass Boss travel buddy for twigging me onto this and the Eddie Bauer travel skort!), my only other tank top over a stick-on bra, a rash guard that doubles as a full-zip hoodie/jacket, a scarf, my Sash bag (containing all my $$, cell phone, air pods, Canon G7X camera and ID), and a light puffy jacket. With a pair of Vans on my feet. That outfit kept me comfortable enough in either of the climates I was travelling in.

While I was in Barbados I fell in love with a simple dress I saw in the hotel gift shop. I tried it on and couldn’t resist it.

My $16USD wonder of a dress. So floaty and comfortable!

Now I not only had to fit everything I brought to Barbados back into my bag but also this dress. What was I thinking?

How am I going to manage to get all of this stuff back into the bag?
Done! Thank you compression sacks!

Things to note: I did hand-wash some items every day during the trip (hence the laundry soap and the clothes pins). If that takes away from your vacation experience, this type of travel is not for you. It doesn’t bother us. We buy a tube of body lotion to share once we are at our destination (along with some grocery items for our room). I tried solid shampoo and conditioner bars this trip. They were OK, but I think going forward I am fine with whatever toiletries the room provides.

Other things I learned this trip: I much preferred one bathing outfit to the other and wore it almost exclusively. It was one I put together from a swim top I picked up at WalMart, paired with a “swimshort” from Land’s End. I bought a pair of these to test drive on the vacation and I am a convert! I put them on first thing in the morning with a tank top (and bikini top as bra) for my morning walks, and then swapped the tank/bikini top out for the swim top after breakfast, and I was set for the day – until it was time to shower and dress for evening. Easy peasy. Clothes that do double duty make this kind of ultra-light packing work! Another eye-opener: I could blog easily from my new iPad Pro, meaning I could leave the bigger laptop at home. This is old news to some of you, I know – but it was my first-time using an iPad this way, and I was chuffed.

I hope this post was entertaining at least, if not helpful. For me the best vacation is the one with less hassle. And less stuff to lug around = less hassle in my books.

Rock on,

The WB

P.S. I did find room in the overheard compartment for my bag, during this trip. But I knew I could stuff it under the seat ahead of me if I had to – and that, my friends, is EVERYTHING.