How to Pack for 5 Months of World Travel... in a backpack
- Mom
- Nov 21, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Simple. Minimalist. Everything you bring, you have to carry! We chased the sun on our route, that meant we could pack light-weight summer clothes. And a fleece to layer if it got chilly.
What We Packed For Each Kid:
14 short-sleeve T-shirts
1 long-sleeved T-shirt
5 shorts
5 leggings (3 shorts, 2 pants)
1 sweatpants
2 summer dresses
3 swimsuits
1 waterproof packet
1 Columbia fleece
3 PJs (2 long sleeve, 1 short)
10 Undies
Sunglasses
Hat
Micro-fiber towel
Sneakers
Crocks
Water-shoes
Diapers & Wipes (for night-time sleeps)
The secret lies in packing cubes. Easy access and labelled! And basic clothes that can easily match. Any t-shirt, any shorts and boom you have an outfit. Now we were not the most fashionable insta-family but it worked. And lots and lots of laundry. We did laundry every 5 days at most. These kids went though 2 outfits a day so we certainly did a lot of laundry!
The Medical Kit:
When traveling with kids, we had to be prepared. So we packed a medical kit to ensure we were ready for the worst. And we used a lot of bandaids!
Here's what we packed:
Fever reducer (Voltarin)
Pain Killer (Panadol / Calpol chewable tables)
Probiotics (Entrogena)
Electrolyte packets (for dehydration)
Nausea relief
Anti-itch cream
Antihistamine (Zyrtec)
First Aid Kit (with lots of band-aids
Strollers:
We also brought 2 Yo-Yo strollers with us. We couldn't have lived without them. Yes they were a little bulky but these kids got tired quickly so we were just able to throw them in the stroller and push them through all the places we visited. As a family we love to explore on foot so the strollers were key to allow us to walk for 10's of kms a day without having to carry the kids. When we were only using 1 we would hang the second stroller on the first one so it was manageable. The Yo-yo's are so light weight and compact that it was the only way we could have managed.
