If you plan to go hiking or backpacking in a foreign country or travel out-of-state by plane, here are 10 packing tips to help guarantee that your backpacking gear does not get lost, destroyed by luggage handlers, stolen, or confiscated by airport security.

1. Don't Check Luggage If You Can Avoid It

Pack light, pack small, and carry your backpack on the plane with you instead of checking a bag for the luggage compartment. If you have to, suck it up and pay extra for carry-on luggage if your airline charges extra for it. Your gear is far more likely to arrive with you if it never leaves your possession.

2. Wear Your Hiking Clothes on the Plane

Don't pack your hiking clothes in your pack; wear them, especially the bulky ones. This will give you more space in your backpack. If you're too warm, you can take off any extra layers once you're boarded. The airline can't charge you for being heavier than normal just because you're “overdressed.”

3. Buy What You Need When You Arrive

If you're having difficulty reducing your pack size or weight, eliminate everything you can buy at your destination, such as food, which is quite heavy, toiletries, and even extra clothing items like underwear, socks, and t-shirts.

4. Send or Ship Gear to Your Destination by Post or Express Shipping

Absolutely need a certain kind of food? Worried about your hiking poles? Send them to a B&B using DHL (best for international packages), FedEx, or UPS or have it held at the post office. Many countries have postal services that will hold a package for you at the post office (called General Delivery), which you can pick up with a picture ID like a passport. Search the web for county-specific instructions and allow adequate time for your package to arrive before you travel. This works really well.

5. Don't Buy a Travel Backpack

If you're a serious backpacker, don't be tempted by so-called travel backpacks like the Osprey Packs Porter 65  or Farpoint 70 that have hideaway straps or wheels for rolling around airports. While convenient for business trips or touring out of hotels, they're too heavy and awkward to use for backcountry backpacking.

6. Carry Irreplaceable Items

If you must check a bag, separate irreplaceable or expensive items like your backpack, sleeping bag, tent, GPS, etc. and carry them on the plane with you.

7. Pack your Backpack in a Duffel Bag

If you must check your backpack, pack it in a cheap duffel bag to protect its straps and compartments. Why a cheap duffel bag? – so you can discard it when you reach your destination and not feel too bad about it. You really don't want to lug an empty duffel bag on your hike. It also helps to cover the duffle with colored tape or ribbons so you can spot it quickly at baggage claim, and so no one mistakes it for their own.

8. Don't Carry Stove Fuel or Trekking Poles

Don't try to carry any stove fuel on the plane, including ESBIT cubes. It's flat-out illegal. Don't even carry an empty liquid stove fuel bottle if you can avoid it, since it may contain residual fuel or fumes and may be confiscated by security authorities. Trekking poles are often confiscated as well, so pack them in your checked baggage or ship them to your destination.

9. Switch to an Alcohol Stove

If conditions permit, use an alcohol stove on your trip. Denatured alcohol, methylated spirits (or “meths”), and ethyl alcohol (190 proof or better) are available worldwide, so you don't have to pack fuel, like an isobutane canister, or worry about finding it at your destination. If you decide to use canister gas, carefully research where you can buy it when you arrive.

10. Don't Carry a Knife

Don't bring a knife, a multi-tool, or a machete. Easy to forget if you're packing on autopilot, but Take Stuff Away (TSA) can take it away, so leave your blades at home.

See Also:

• Can You take Esbit Fuel Tablets on a Plane?
• Hiker Resupply and Mail Drops
• Gas Station and Convenience Store Resupply Guide

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