Packing for a weekend getaway

Being a landscape and travel photography enthusiast, every now and then, I spontaneously book myself on a weekend getaway with the sole purpose of switching off from work, and experiencing a destination while bringing back images and memories.

I’m defining a weekend getaway as being where one finishes work and leaves on a Friday immediately after work (late afternoon or early evening), and returns back home on a Sunday (late afternoon to late evening). On such a getaway, one will literally spend no more than 48 hours at a destination.

Cheap flights are not too hard to find, but they do come with the catch of travelling carry-on only, with very stringent rules.

I used to face the challenge of what to take and what to leave behind. Over time, I’ve discovered what I’ve used, and what I’ve never touched on a trip… to a point where I now have a list of items that make it into my backpack. This is a list that I adhere to (with some margin for compromise, depending on the destination and the sort of images that I hope to capture or expect to return with).

I now manage to pack everything I need into a single Osprey Metron 35 travel backpack – and all of it weighs under 10kg (or 22lb)!