The Europe Carry-On Packing List

The limits you are actually packing against

A transatlantic flight on a legacy carrier is the easy part: the published US and BA cabin boxes are generous and only BA publishes a weight cap, at 50.7 lb. The trip gets decided by the intra-Europe hop you booked for forty dollars.

Two things stand out. Ryanair publishes the smallest box in this table — smaller than the standard US carry-on — and the tightest weight cap at 22 lb for bag and contents together. And easyJet, despite a box substantially bigger than the US standard, publishes a cap of 33.1 lb.

So the European packing problem is a weight problem. The full international limits table has the rest, and which bags clear the European boxes ranks the bags themselves.

Start with an empty weight you can afford

On a 22 lb Ryanair allowance the empty bag is a real line item. The Osprey Fairview 40 publishes 3.44 lb, leaving 18.6 lb. The Eagle Creek Cargo Hauler 40 publishes 1.81 lb, leaving 20.2 lb. A 9 lb hardside case leaves 13 lb, which is not a serious two-week allowance.

Both bags above also publish dimensions inside the standard 22 × 14 × 9 in box, which matters because the Ryanair box is narrower than the US one in one dimension and shallower in another. Buy for the tightest box you will meet.

The list

Written for seven to fourteen days with one laundry stop, which is how most European trips actually work.

• Clothing — five to seven changes, in two cubes. A medium cube publishes 18 L at 0.32 lb, which is where the bulk goes.
• One warm layer and one shell. European weather in spring and autumn is a rain question, not a cold question, and a packable shell is worth more than a thick coat.
• Shoes — one pair worn, one packed, and make the packed pair the flat ones. Cobbles and 20,000 steps a day are the reason to prioritize this over an extra outfit.
• A Type C adapter, or a universal one. Continental Europe uses Type C, E and F sockets; the UK and Ireland use Type G, which is a different plug entirely. Which adapter covers what is the reference.
• Liquids under the quart rule, decanted. EU airports enforce the 100 ml rule as strictly as US ones, and several have removed the scanners that let you leave liquids in the bag.
• A flat money belt or hidden pocket for the documents you cannot replace on the road. A published 0.1875 lb is a rounding error against a 22 lb cap.

Packing to a weight cap, not a volume

Most packing advice optimizes volume, because most US carriers publish no cabin weight limit. For Europe, reverse it: pack the bag, then weigh it, then remove things until it is under the tightest cap on your itinerary.

• Weigh at home. A luggage scale is about ten dollars and the only way to know before the gate.
• Wear the heavy things on the budget legs. Boots, jacket and the heaviest jeans go on your body when you fly Ryanair; they go back in the bag for the transatlantic leg where the cap is generous or absent.
• Buy toiletries there. Liquids are heavy and a pharmacy exists in every European town.

The two-week method is the longer version of this, and Ryanair’s published rules are worth reading in full before you book the fare, not after.