Introducing Kim
Welcome to an exciting new episode! Get ready to be inspired as we sit down with Kim Giovacco, the founder of Veg Jaunts and Journeys, a renowned tour operator that specializes in organizing small group tours internationally for vegans. With over 25 successful tours under her belt, Kim has become a master of the craft, creating unforgettable experiences for travelers all over Europe and the US. But her expertise doesn’t stop there. Kim has spent almost two decades perfecting the skill of attention to detail, honed during her time at a branch office of Singapore’s Economic Development Board.
If you’re a health-conscious traveler looking for an adventure, you’re in for a treat. Kim works with a chef partner to provide whole food plant-based, no-oil tours in locations near national parks, where eating a healthy plant-based diet is a challenge.
Some of you may be familiar with Kim’s previous appearances on our show, where she shared her experience on a fam trip to Korea and discussed the pros and cons of group travel. But did you know that Kim is also a pro at packing? She is renowned in our vegan travel community for her minimalist packing skills, and we can all learn a thing or two from her.
So sit back, relax, and take out that notepad. Get ready to soak up some valuable knowledge from one of the industry’s top professionals!
Are you tired of lugging around heavy suitcases on your travels? Do you dread the thought of waiting at the luggage carousel or worrying about lost baggage? In this highly-anticipated episode, we dive into the topic of packing carry-on only with the expert herself.
Our guest shares her top reasons for ditching the oversized luggage, including the money you’ll save on pesky fees and tipping, the peace of mind that comes with not having to worry about lost luggage, and the precious time you’ll gain by avoiding check-in lines and waiting at the carousel.
But the perks don’t stop there – packing carry-on only is also incredibly convenient, giving you the freedom to easily manage everything without assistance and navigate stairs without breaking a sweat.
And let’s not forget about the luggage itself. Our guest spills the tea on the types of luggage she recommends for effortless travel. Plus, you might be surprised to hear what she chooses to pack and what she leaves behind – it’s a game-changer!
So grab a notepad, sit back, and get ready to revolutionize the way you travel. This episode is not to be missed!
In this episode we discuss:
- Reasons for packing carry-on only:
- Saves money (no luggage fees, no taxi fees, no need to tip anyone)
- Saves stress (no worries if luggage will get lost)
- Saves time (no need to stand in the check-in line at the airport, no need to wait for a luggage carousel, might be the difference between catching a bus/train or having to wait a half hour)
- It’s convenient (you can easily manage everything without assistance, easy to walk up and down stairs if no elevator/escalator)
- Recommended types of luggage
- Things she carries and doesn’t (it might surprise you what she chooses to carry and what she doesn’t carry)
Learn more about what we talk about
Other World Vegan Travel content connected with this episode
- First Ever VEGAN Korea Trip? | Verena Erhart, Kim Giovacco & Donna Zeigfinger | Ep 85
- S 2 Ep 8 | Pros and Cons of Group Travel | Kim Giovacco
- Ultimate Vegan Carry on Packing List with Free Printable PDF Checklist
Connect with Kim Giovacco
Transcript
Brighde: Hello, Kim. Thank you so much for joining me on The World Vegan Travel Podcast.
Kim: Thanks so much for having me again, Brighde. It’s really good to be here.
Brighde: I’m so pleased that you are going to be talking to our listeners on this topic.It’s a question that a lot of people ask about, that is, how we can go on longer trips with just a carry-on. Before we get into that, I want to draw the listener’s attention to a recent episode we did together which was episode 88 on a trip that we did to Korea together. Kim was on our podcast a long, long time ago when we were talking about the pros and cons of group travel. Before we get into how to travel with a carry-on, Kim, would you mind telling our listeners about who you are, and what you do in the vegan travel space?
Kim: My company is Veg Jaunts and Journeys, and we organize small group tours internationally, mostly right now in Europe, and the US.The tours that we’re doing in the US are specifically whole food plant-based, no oil, and they mostly take place near the national parks where it’s very hard to find vegan food.
Brighde That is a fantastic idea. As you say, there’s not a lot of vegan food in Yellowstone and Montana, and we have a lot of people asking us about oil-free travel. At the moment we don’t offer that. That’s great that you are doing that for that group of people.
Kim: These tours have become pretty popular even with people that don’t follow that way of eating. The tours are a little bit different because we don’t stay in hotels. We rent on usually two very large houses that are right near each other, and we bring a Chef along where all the meals are cooked at the house.There are a lot of people that just like the idea of staying in houses instead of hotels, and they said that’s why they’ve joined these tours.
Brighde And as well as being close to national parks, I’m guessing, that these tours incorporate some hiking and some nature activities?
Kim: We have a lot of hiking and some boating activities if they’re nearby.Then depending on where the national park is, there could be cultural activities too. So for instance, we’re having a tour, in coastal Maine, and we’ll go to Acadia National Park just for one day, and visit lots of towns along the coast of Maine.
Brighde Wonderful. I’m so pleased that you are offering these tours, Kim. It’s just so wonderful. And what other tours do you have on the books for this year?
Kim: This year we have some tours that we’ve done before, including Portugal, which we do every year. That one is always pretty quick to sell out like Scotland, Italy, and Iceland. Our first tour coming up for the year is at the end of April, and that’s in Utah, Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon. That tour sold out about a year ahead of time. We have Rocky Mountain National Park, Maine, as I said, and the first week of October, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and that will be during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta which is supposedly one of the most photographed events in the world.
Brighde Sounds amazing. I’m guessing you’re going to be packing carry-on luggage for all of these trips, Kim?
Kim: Absolutely. Even though the houses always have washing machines, sometimes even two, that makes it very easy. I try to encourage our travellers to pack only carry-on as well because we sometimes have to worry about how much room we’re going to have in the vans that we rent. As you can imagine, a lot of times the national parks are located kind of far from major cities where we can get groceries.We have to buy as much of the food as we can, the day the tour starts, and to have a week’s worth of food for 12 or 15 people. It’s a lot. It takes up almost one van on its own. The food has priority over the luggage.
Brighde I will say that Kim, amongst our little network of vegan travel professionals, you are known amongst us as being the “ninja packer”. I think people are becoming more and more excited to pack with just a carry-on, especially after the sort of the bruh haha last summer with flights, when many people’s flights were canceled or postponed and so many people’s luggage was delayed. A lot of people started getting interested in only using a carry-on. Why is it that you decided that this was going to be an approach for your packing for trips?
Kim: I have to say that it’s very easy for me because I live in a tiny house of only 400 square feet. I don’t have a lot of clothes, to begin with, and I had a couple of experiences where my luggage was delayed. About 20 years ago I decided to start packing carry-on only. One was on a trip to Hong Kong, and one was on a trip to Poland. Luckily my bags did arrive the next day, but it was still a little bit inconvenient because for instance, in Hong Kong, I was switching hotels the very next day, and in Poland, the day after I arrived, it started snowing. I didn’t have the right footwear with me that was in the luggage. So, yeah, it’s been about 20 years since I packed a bag. I just think it has a lot of advantages. You could save money upfront because there will be no luggage fees. You’ll be very easily able to use public transportation once you arrive at your destination. You won’t have to pay for a taxi. It’ll be very easy to take trains, buses, or subways.If you have relatively light bags, and smaller bags, you don’t have to worry about going up and down steps to get down into the subway, and back up to street level, and as we know, there are a lot of hotels in Europe that don’t have elevators.If you can easily carry your luggage, you don’t have to worry about that. If you don’t have a lot of bags, and you can handle your bags all on your own, there’s no need to use a bellhop, and tip them. Those I think are the reasons for saving money, and you save a lot of stress if you don’t have to worry if your luggage is going to get lost. I have an example of why I decided to start traveling carry-on, and this was also on this trip to Poland that I went on in 1999 where English was not widely spoken there at that time. I always use a purse that’s like a cross-body bag. I have noticed that lately the airlines are becoming pretty strict, and you can’t have that bag on you or across your neck during takeoff. Years ago it wasn’t a problem. They didn’t care if a small bag was in your lap, but the last few times I’ve flown, they’ve always said you have to put it under the seat in front of you during takeoff. I was on a flight to Poland, the day that I was leaving to come back to the US, and the flight attendant told me to put my bag up in the overhead. So I did, but it was a little bit behind me, and I couldn’t see it. When the plane landed, and we had to get off, the bag was not there, and everything was in it. My passport, my money, my credit cards, and my cell phone which weren’t even a thing then. Everything I would’ve needed to leave the country was in it, and I started panicking. I’ve always been the type of person, I can honestly say in my entire life, I have never misplaced my keys. I never lose things.There was a bit of a language barrier, and the flight attendant kept saying that I must have put it in a different bin. She helped me look for it a little bit. It was nowhere to be found. It was a small airport, and you had to get off the plane, and then take a bus to the terminal, and basically, I was not going to get off that plane without the bag.Then she said, “get off the plane, get on the bus, and I’ll make an announcement if anybody has your bag.” So I agreed to do that, and she didn’t make an announcement. Then the bus got to the terminal, and just about as everyone was going to scatter in different directions, I heard this woman say to this man, “that’s not my bag.”It turned out that this couple that didn’t know each other was sitting behind me, and when the plane landed, he just assumed it was her bag. Being a gentleman, he decided to carry it for her, but it wasn’t her bag, it was mine. If I had not heard her say that at that exact time, I have no idea what I would’ve done. Another important thing is, don’t ever get separated like that from your really important belongings. You have to keep them on your person, or under the seat in front of you. I just feel like the fewer things that you have to keep track of, just the easier it is, and you can also save a lot of time if you are only traveling carry-on. A lot of times if your flight’s going to be delayed or even canceled, and the airline will give you the option to take a different flight, the first question they always ask is, “did you check any bags?”. If I did, I’m not sure what would have happened. You have to wait to get your bags back, or they somehow have to pinpoint exactly where they are right then since bags aren’t supposed to travel on a plane without a passenger. If you have everything with you, that just makes everything super easy. You can be much more flexible. You don’t have to wait at baggage claim. I used to fly in and out of Boston regularly, and there were sometimes, I was standing there for 45 minutes just for the bags to start coming out.It’s just a notoriously slow airport for some reason. You also wouldn’t have to wait in line when you arrive at the airport to deposit your bags. I hate standing in line. I like to just get a coffee, relax and go straight to the gate, and then say you did have to wait for a baggage claim, and you were taking public transportation, and it’s a bus or a train that only departs every thirty minutes or every hour, that could mean that you just miss it.Once you get your bags, you might have to wait a while for the next bus or train to come. I think that even when you get to your destination, and if you’re in your hotel room, just the fewer things that you have to keep track of, the better the chance that you’re not going to leave something behind. I can honestly say, I’ve never left something behind at either end because a lot of my things stay packed all the time. My toiletry bag is always packed, and things that I would need internationally, or on an international flight, it’s all stored. I have two suitcases. One of them is just a storage one, and the other one is the one that I use. Before I go on any trip, I go through the storage suitcase just to see what I might need in there. Everything is double-checked against the list that I have on my phone. I think that makes packing a lot less stressful. I would bring five or six outfits no matter how long the trip. So whether it was five days or it was a month, it wouldn’t make any difference. I don’t think that people are paying attention to what I’m wearing when they’re discovering a new country. I don’t hesitate to have the hotel do laundry if there aren’t any self-service facilities available in the hotel because it might be about thirty dollars to have a load of laundry done. To check a bag internationally or an extra bag, I don’t really know how much it costs because I haven’t done it in such a long time, but I think it could be fifty or sixty dollars.I think that very much evens out, and if you have time during your vacation to do laundry, it could be a good local experience going to a local laundromat. So those are all the reasons why I think packing a carry-on is just such a good idea.
Brighde Something that Seb and I just invested in recently, is this little tool called a “scrubba”. It’s like a little waterproof bag, like when you’re going kayaking.You want to put your things inside to keep them waterproof. Inside, it’s got these nodules sticking up. You put your clothes inside. It folds up quite small, the size of a phone. It’s light, and you fill it up with water and a little bit of detergent, and then those little nodules scrub the clothes quite well for just sixty or ninety seconds. This is something that I want to do more of.. washing in the hotel room. It can be challenging when you are leading a tour to be able to do the washing – if a hotel does not offer it, for example. So this scrubber is quite a cool little tool.
Kim: That sounds fabulous. I did forget to mention that I do a lot of hand washing, and with that you just have to make sure that you’re going to have enough time for the clothes to dry if you’ve only had a hotel for a couple of days. We know too that a lot of times there are heated towel racks in bathrooms in Europe, and then you can dry clothes quickly by using those.
Brighde What are the things that you very purposefully do not bring with you that other people might think is essential?
Kim: I only have the shoes that I’m wearing. I never pack other shoes. So, if I have to be a little bit uncomfortable some of the time, I don’t mind because shoes take up a lot of space. For instance, when I go on a tour of the National Parks in Utah, I will just wear the hiking boots that I need during the day.I’ll just wear them on the plane, and I’ll just wear them all the time. Even if we’re not going on hikes, they’re very comfortable. I’ve worn them in cities before in the winter, and all of our tours, especially the ones to the national parks, are so casual. There’s no reason why somebody would need another pair of shoes.One thing that I’m very happy about now, which has taken me a couple of years to get to this position, is that my toiletry bag doesn’t have any liquids in it anymore. So for every product, I’ve managed to find a solid version.
Brighde: That’s a big one. That’s a big thing if you want to travel carry-on, you’ve got to minimize those liquids.
Kim: A lot of times, especially if you’re going for several weeks, you might run out of some of the liquids that you need if they’re in pretty small containers. I noticed that sometimes I was having one bottle in the toiletry bag, and then a kind of extra supply somewhere else in the bag, then I thought this is getting crazy. It would be better if I could just switch to solids for everything. I’m really lucky that I don’t have a contact lens solution. I have short hair. I can use solid shampoo and I don’t have to worry about liquid shampoo. I have to say, I always bring my toiletries with me because I don’t want to be using non-vegan things that might be in hotels. I’m always really happy when I see vegan versions, but frankly, I’m just so used to using my things now, and I have it down pat about how much I should bring with me.I just normally stick with my stuff. It has taken a while to get to that point, but there are two companies that I think are great, that have a lot of solid products. One is from New Zealand. They have very reasonable shipping costs and save a lot of time, and then another company that I just found this year is called Meow Meow Tweet, and I found them in a brick-and-mortar around here, but then I went on their website and saw how much they have.
Brighde: Do you keep your toiletry bag stocked the whole time with these products so that you just take that toiletry bag and pack it?
Kim: Yeah. And things like my cables too. I always have a set of cables and charging things in my purse which is actually quite a small purse. I normally have some more cables in my backpack as well, just in case something was to get left behind.This way I don’t have to be scrambling when I’m packing. The cables are already in the bag, ready to go.
Brighde: Are there any other things that would surprise people that you don’t take, do you think?
Kim: I’m always laughing when I see people carrying pillows on planes. I just would never go through that trouble.I have a neck pillow, but it’s a blow-up one to fit in a carry-on bag. I always bring my blanket. I have one that just stuffs into a fairly small bag. For vegan meals, I invested in collapsible bowls, and I remember when we met in Paris, I saw that you had them for takeout. I had high hopes of using them, but I will say I’ve scaled down the bag so much now that it would be kind of hard to fit them. I would just bring some snacks on the plane, but I don’t worry about bringing a whole meal.One idea that I came up with just a couple of months ago, I think it must have been when I was leaving North Carolina in November, and it was still fairly warm here. I was going to Iceland, and then I needed a winter coat.It was kind of a drag having to carry the coat with me through the airport. It was too hot to wear, but I just got a bungee cord. I just folded up the coat and put a bungee cord around it on the outside of the suitcase.That worked so well.
Brighde: So this carry-on bag that you have, I’m sure you have a favorite, and it’s your favorite for a few different reasons. Tell us about your bag, and what’s special about it, why you like it so much?
Kim: I have to say that I have an addiction to suitcases and luggage. I am literally sitting in the airport and looking for bags that could be better than mine and I sometimes asked people where they got their bags. I’m oftentimes very disappointed if I see a really good bag in Europe, and I do see a lot of really good bags there. I know it’s going to be pretty difficult for me to find that brand in the US, especially for a good price. It’s also taken me quite a while to find the perfect bag, but I’m very happy with the one that I have now. It’s kind of very sleek. It’s not very bulky, but I have to have outside pockets. I would never use a hard-sided case because there are no pockets on the outside, and they don’t even really seem to me to have very good pockets on the inside.I generally don’t have anything that’s very breakable. I don’t see any need for a hard side case that has more structure, so you couldn’t put as much into them if need be. This one that I have now is kind of fabric on the outside, and then it has two really large pockets. I always have a backpack with me, but I’ve even scaled that down lately because, frankly, I don’t like having the backpack under the seat in front of me, and then there’s not any room for my legs or my feet. I was sometimes having to shove it underneath the seat, and worry if it was going to fit, and then I wouldn’t be able to stretch out at all. I have a slimmer backpack now that’s pretty flat, and then there’s plenty of room when it’s under the seat in front of me. I do always have a small purse as well. I’ve noticed that lately, the airlines are super strict about having only two bags, so you have to make sure that the purse, at least for when I’m boarding the plane, will either fit in the backpack or the suitcase. Years ago, I sometimes just traveled with a big backpack that wasn’t on wheels. I feel a bit too old to do that now and I’m not very comfortable doing that. That has its advantages if you’re going up and down steps, but I always kind of found it a pain in the neck to be taking this heavy backpack on and off. If you’re going into the restroom, or if you’re just sitting down, or if you are on public transportation, just so much easier to have something on wheels, and just be able to roll it and deposit it somewhere.
Brighde: So, it’s like a flexible little suitcase with a handle?
Kim: There was one point where I had one of those suitcases that have the four wheels that can roll in both directions, but I didn’t see many advantages to that. I read some articles where travel agents gave their thoughts about that, and they said they prefer the two wheels. I think there’s also less of a chance of the two wheels breaking. I think they might just be bigger or stronger.
Brighde: I think the four wheels are good if your bag is very heavy. If your bag isn’t heavy, which it probably wouldn’t be if you are just using a carry-on, then maybe you don’t need the four wheels.
Kim: Then in terms of inside the bag, I used to use packing cubes that were kind of mesh on the top, which I thought were fine, but now I’m using more. I would call them envelopes. They’re just much narrower than the packing cubes, and I have different sizes. So basically when you open up my suitcase, there are rows of items. Everything is in an envelope in terms of clothing, and then anything lost in terms of cables would be in the outside pockets. I have nothing to worry about if TSA security ever wanted to open up my bag, like there’d be nothing. They would just be able to take out these five envelopes and see everything, and everything would be put back so neatly. Lately, I have to say, often I’m not even unpacking when I get to a hotel, even if I’m there for a week or something, I just feel it so easy to stay organized with these envelopes that have a zipper on them. Normally if I have to wear something I might just hang it out or air it out, and then the next day I’m putting it back into this envelope and taking something else out.
Brighde: Can you describe these envelopes a little bit? I’m just trying to imagine what they look like.
Kim: It’s just really like a rectangle with two zippers on it. One zipper is to put the things in, and then there’s another zipper on the bottom that kind of tightens it up. I wouldn’t say that they’re space-saving. I don’t feel that they’re much smaller when you do this double zip thing, but it’s very easy to just open up the top of it, and be able to see your things lined up. Whereas in a packing cube, you open up the top, but you can only see what’s right on the top. You would have to go through the pile to see what’s under the top piece of clothing. These ones are rectangular and just the top opens, you can see everything at once.
Brighde: Are you somebody that rolls your clothes?
Kim: In the packing cubes when I use those, yes. But, you wouldn’t roll with these new things that I’m using. You would just fold, make a stack, and then put the whole stack in, like from the top down.
Brighde: Got it.
Kim: Kind of like stuffing a manila envelope.
Brighde: You mentioned that you also have a backpack I’m guessing you use that as a day pack when you are going around and about in the city or for the day. What kinds of things are you keeping in there? Because I will find, like my day pack on a travel day is big and full of things like my laptop and some tech stuff, and it does get quite heavy.
I’m kind of wondering what’s in yours?
Kim: The backpack that I take on the plane, or that I’m using during traveling is not the backpack that I would take while out sightseeing. That one is very lightweight, folds inside itself, not very strong. Just for putting in like a bottle of water, and a sweater or a jacket or something like that. The foldable one obviously folds up pretty small, and in case there was an emergency, and for some reason, you were coming back with more things than you left with, you could check one of the other bags then, and have this as an extra bag if you needed to. If I didn’t bring an extra one, then I’d have to be unpacking the transit backpack, and then everything would be getting disorganized. So, I would rather just bring this foldable thing that doesn’t weigh anything. I did forget to say, I always have a refillable water bottle with me that has a kind of filter in the bottom of it that’s just like a capsule. You couldn’t use it in certain developing countries where the water wasn’t good at all. But, it’s good for improving the taste of water. I have no trouble using water that comes out of a bathroom tap because this capsule makes it taste much more like drinking water. I’m a big coffee fiend and I don’t know if I’m walking through an airport or something, like carrying a paper cup with a lid on it that has a chance of spilling. I found this very cool cup at REI, it’s actually a plastic cup that’s about 14 ounces, which is like an insert, and then it has a fabric kind of shell with a handle.The handle is totally like a handle that would be on a shopping bag or something like that. It’s just made out of fabric, so it takes up no room at all. But when you’re drinking the coffee, it’s strong enough that you can just hold it with this fabric handle. I don’t understand how it can hold a full cup of coffee, but it does. You can even carry it. The plastic insert has a lid on it. I’ve even tipped it on its side, and it doesn’t leak or anything, so it’s super lightweight. Normally I’m not a plastic person. I don’t have any plastic in my kitchen, but I made an exception for this one.
When I’m in an airport, if they won’t fill a coffee directly into this cup, I just get a paper cup, and then pour it into this cup and get rid of the paper cup. Then when you’re just getting on the plane, you don’t have to worry about spilling this paper cup. It’s just so strong and secure.
Brighde: Wow. Interesting product. I do carry a coffee-to-go cup too, but it is a full-size one. It doesn’t collapse or anything like that.
Kim: Yeah. And you could just like easily hook this onto a bag on the outside if you needed to with a clip or something like that.
Brighde: So, Kim, I have on our website a packing list, and I’ve tried to make it as all-encompassing as possible for everybody. Some people will look at this and say, “I’m not going to pack that,” and some people would look at this and say,” no, no, I want to pack that.”
I would be very curious to know if you pack this, and maybe you have them stored digitally, or maybe you have a particular way or a particular thing that you are going to pack it. So, the first item is a camera.
Kim: No.
Brighde: No. So you just use your phone.
Kim: Yes.
Brighde: Okay. Hair dryer.
Kim: I bought a very small hair dryer, but every hotel I’ve gone to lately has one, you know, overseas. So, I wouldn’t take it overseas, but I would take it in the US on our house tours because every bathroom is not going to have a hair dryer.
Brighde: Now you have short hair, so I know you don’t use one of these, but a curling wand or hair straighteners is something that a lot of people feel like they need to take.Our friend Colleen packs a carry-on as well, and she always takes her curling wand. So, you can have a few little sorts of, you know, products like this, and you can still travel, but you must check your voltage because if you are taking your curling wand or straighteners from home where it’s one hundred and ten volts, then taking them to Europe, that will be bad. It will blow up or break. So that’s not related, but something that I wanted to share. What about a travel adapter for different plugs and what have you?
Kim: I used to have a set that had six for all different parts of the world, and now I have found one that’s, I think, covers every country in one. So it’s a little bigger than the other ones, but it has USB ports as well, and there are extra ports on it.I would highly recommend those because then you don’t have to get out the regular set before every trip and figure out which ones you should be bringing with you.
Brighde: What about things like paperwork, like I’m thinking.. travel insurance documentation, copy of your passport, driver’s license. What do you do for those things?
Kim: Digital. The credit cards. I have a backup credit card, and a backup ATM card, just in case. It’s kind of strange though. I mean, I hate paper. I only have seven pieces of paper in my house, and it’s my house title, my car title, and my rabies certificate, seven pieces.
So, for the longest time, all of my travel documents were just digital. But, once I started leading tours, I didn’t want to take any chances. If I have tickets for our group, I print those out just in case. Sometimes I need paper for something, so invariably I’m able to show the ticket on my phone, and I printed out the paper for nothing, but it can just be used as scrap paper. I will say, I never travel with a laptop.
Brighde: As someone that also leads tours, that blows my mind.
Kim: I know, and I’m just thankful that it’s worked. I mean, there might have been one time in the past several years that I had to access a website while I was on tour that I couldn’t access with my phone or that was too hard to read on the phone, and usually, now hotels have a computer in the lobby.
It’s been fine, but I’m lazy. I refuse to carry that weight around with me, and my laptop is really small, to begin with. It’s only a Chromebook.
Brighde: Blows my mind, Kim, I blow my mind. Okay. Other things that you may or may not take.A basic first aid kit?
Kim: No. I just have bandaids with me, and some pain relievers, and I have to say I’ve never even had to use those. The only electronic that I would take is a Kindler, or an E-reader because I do love the idea of having my whole library with me.
Brighde: Okay. Blackout eye mask.
Kim: No.
Brighde: I take one of those. I’m sensitive to the light coming in, so I do have one of those.
Kim: I don’t even have one on my bedroom windows. I have a hill right behind me, and nobody’s ever on this hill, so one of my bedroom windows doesn’t even have any curtains or shades on it.
Brighde: I’m feeling very, very precious all of a sudden. There’s me thinking that I was a pretty good traveler, and I’m talking to Kim for half an hour, and I’m just questioning everything. What about an umbrella?
Kim: It’s a collapsible one, but not one of those teeny ones that like just blows inside out at the slightest wind. It’s, kind of very slim, but it’s probably twice as long as the really small collapsible ones, and I rarely have to use it, but it doesn’t take up much room. It fits in the backpack.
Brighde: And do you have a rain jacket as well?
Kim: It depends on where I’m going.
Brighde: I see. All right. Well, lots of nuggets there for everyone.
Kim: Yeah.
Brighde: Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of these tips and tricks for trying to get our packing down to the absolute bare minimum.
I’m not sure whether I will get to your level anytime soon, but I think I can certainly be moving in that direction. So before we finish up, would you mind telling our listeners again how they might get in contact with you, follow you, and learn about the tours that you have?
Kim: The website is vegjauntsandjourneys.com, same on Facebook, and Instagram, and my email is [email protected]
Brighde: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today.
Kim: Thanks so much. It was really fun.
