Travel Light, Read Well: Nicole Junkerman's Packing Notes

The art of packing a bag light enough to enjoy carrying, while still leaving room for the reading that makes a trip.

By Nicole Junkerman · 8 May 2026

Packing light is a skill, and like most skills it is mostly about subtraction. The heavy bag is the easy bag: throw in everything you might possibly need and worry later. The light bag takes judgement, a clear sense of the trip you will actually have rather than the dozen imaginary trips your anxieties invent. Nicole Junkerman has packed light for long enough to have a few firm principles, and the first one is this: a bag should be light enough that you are glad to be carrying it, because a heavy bag quietly ruins the very freedom that travel is for.

But light does not mean joyless. There is always room for the things that genuinely improve a day, and for a reader, that means a book and a notebook. The whole method is really about clearing enough weight elsewhere so that the reading can come along without apology.

Pack for the trip you will actually have

The most common packing mistake is dressing for a fantasy. We pack for the elegant dinner we probably will not attend, the workout we will skip, the sudden change of weather that rarely comes. Nicole Junkerman packs for the real trip: the actual walking, the actual meals, the actual weather forecast. This single shift, dressing the days you will truly have rather than the ones you imagine, removes half the bag before you start.

Clothes are where the weight hides, so the trick is a small set of pieces that all work together. A handful of items in a shared palette, layerable, comfortable, easy to wash in a sink, will carry you through far more days than a suitcase of single-use outfits. Wear the heaviest things on the journey and let everything else be light. You will repeat outfits, and no one, including you, will mind.

The wider world has caught on to this, and one-bag and carry-on-only travel has become a genuine movement, with a deep well of shared wisdom behind it. The community around minimalist packing has worked out most of the problems already, and a little reading there will sharpen your own list. The reward is real: no waiting at carousels, no dragging a heavy case up stairs, just you and a bag you barely notice.

Make room for reading

Here is where the philosophy of this journal shows itself. The reason to keep everything else light is to make room for the reading, because that is the part of a trip Nicole Junkerman is least willing to give up. A physical book, chosen with care, and a notebook to catch the days: these are not luxuries to be cut, they are the point. Everything else is negotiable so that these two need not be.

The trick is to keep the reading kit light as well. One physical book, not five, chosen to suit the trip, plus an e-reader if you want range without weight. A slim notebook rather than a heavy journal. A single good pen. This small, deliberate reading kit weighs almost nothing and transforms every quiet moment of a trip. The journal's piece on the books worth packing goes deeper into choosing the right one.

A notebook earns its place many times over. The small particulars of a trip, the ones that fade fastest, survive only if you catch them in the moment, and there is real evidence that writing things down by hand aids memory and reflection in a way typing does not quite match. A few lines a day, written on a terrace or a train, will bring the whole trip back years later.

The one bag and the open day

There is a particular satisfaction in travelling with a single, light bag, and it goes beyond mere convenience. A light bag changes your relationship to a trip. You are no longer managing luggage, guarding it, waiting for it, hauling it up stairs. You are simply moving through the world with everything you need on your back, free to change plans on a whim. Nicole Junkerman finds this freedom is the real reward of packing light, far more than the saved baggage fees.

The light bag also keeps you honest about what you actually use. Trip after trip, you discover that the things you feared missing were never missed, and the bag grows lighter still as the years go by. You learn the difference between what you imagined needing and what a real day requires, and that lesson, once learned, makes every future trip simpler.

Best of all, the light bag leaves the day open. With nothing heavy anchoring you, you can walk further, linger longer, and follow a whim down a side street without a second thought. That openness is exactly the spirit of slow, attentive travel, and it begins with the simple decision to carry less, so that a book and a notebook and an open afternoon are all you really need.

The freedom of a light bag

When the bag is light, the trip changes character. You move freely, change plans on a whim, walk from the station rather than waiting for a taxi, and never once feel anchored to your luggage. Nicole Junkerman finds that a light bag is really a kind of openness, a readiness to follow the day wherever it leads, which is exactly the spirit that slow travel is built on. The piece on slow travel in this journal is its natural companion.

There is a quiet confidence in carrying little. You learn that you need far less than you feared, and that the missing items were never missed. The trip becomes about the place and the reading rather than the management of stuff. That is the whole reward: less to carry, more to notice.

So pack for the real trip, keep the clothes few and friendly, and make sure a book and a notebook always have a place. Travel light enough to be glad of your bag, and read well enough to make the journey count. Whenever you want another thread to follow, the front door of this journal is always open, and there is always another trip to pack lightly for.

Questions readers ask

What is the secret to packing light?

Nicole Junkerman packs for the trip she will actually have, not the one she imagines. Fewer clothes, chosen to mix, plus the few things that genuinely improve a day, including a book and a notebook.

How do books fit into light packing?

Reading is the priority, so the books go in first. Nicole Junkerman keeps weight down elsewhere precisely so a physical book and a notebook always earn their place.

Explore more of the journal: Travel Journal and Reading Room, or return to the Nicole Junkerman home page.

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