another male here...

I traveled to Africa for 3 weeks and only brought a carry-on. I looked really cool in my mostly Banana Republic safari ware and never wore underwear with holes in them. Did I look fabulous? I gets thats a relative thing.

 

Yes, and a vast majority are women. And of course after I answer it is invariably followed by muttering about shoes that I largely ignore and a "you just wouldnt understand." Or at least I think so. Once the conversation hits the shoes part the rest becomes fuzzy very quickly.

But they are all right, I dont understand. I went for 10 days with a computer bag (which is no bigger than your average samsonite computer bag sold at best buy), I went for three weeks with a travelpro shoulder bag, and anything longer gets either my 18 incher possibly accompanied by the shoulder bag if I have a special need for it or if I am going to be in one place for a very extended period. The absolute best thing said in this thread, imo, is by stimpy. Asia and the middle east are two places where you can get clothes for next to nothing and laundry isnt all that expensive anywhere but western europe where everything is expensive.

Then again, this isnt limited to women. My dad went on a car trip to see his sisters one time. He asked me to load the suitcase, which I did, and he promply scolded me for not loading all of them. All of them? He was going for three days, how much of "them" are there? Well, there was three. One for his underclothes, one for his outer, and one for his shoes. So I shrugged my shoulders, put them in, and once again heard "you just wouldnt understand."

 

My wife is a super light packer for the outbound portion. We also always end up buying a large soft bag to make room for all the new addtions bought during the trip. I wonder if the forst leg will qualify?

 

i've been traveling a lot over the past two years and have learned:

-if you check baggage often, casualties are a certainty
-making the mad dash to hk station isn't too fun with ~100 pounds of baggage
-6-8 week stretches of road living aren't very kind to clothes
-a new $10 shirt is preferable to a war torn $200 shirt

so here's what i did:

-stashed suits and shoes at all of my main ports of call (sha, sna, sfo, was, bos, nyc, pdx)
-resolved to adopt a ross-focused shirt strategy; i buy 'em where 'em, pitch 'em (cheaper than hotel dry cleaning and a real space saver)
-bought a flash disk (and recently got a gmail account) to reduce my dependence on my laptop

now, i can go pretty much anywhere in the world with an 18" rollerboard and still bring back gifts. in case you're curious, i use the space i do have for: loads of socks and underware, excercise clothes + sneakers, pants, personal items, and maybe a laptop.

afic the main benefit of traveling light is mobility. i can escape a hotel in a matter of minutes and cover 2-3 city blocks in a pinch if necessary. thanks to my ins pass, i can also be from plane to curb in less than 5 minutes upon my return to the US. then of course, there's the issue of not having to trust airline companies to my stuff; losing baggage in asia is no picnic.

so, in conclusion, yes, imo super light is the way to go if travel plays a significant role in your life.

edited to add: i just realized the whole gender slant at play here (i also suggest you march on over to that ladies forum). anyway, while i'm not a female, i dare say that women could potentially benefit from some of the tips mentioned here. though i'm somewhat dubious because tmk women, in general, are a bit more attached to their clothes than us lads, there must be some potential here. i guess i think it would be interesting if you told your readers to try a week on the road with an 18" rollerboard and see how they fare; once they realize that the sky hasn't fallen, they may well convert.