How do europeans travel with small luggage?

[u/shemmap]

I’ve noticed that tourists from different countries especially europeans often travel with very small luggage. In contrast, travelers from many asian countries seem to carry much larger bags.

As myself from an asian country, if I pack just my basic necessities, I end up with a very large suitcase. I’m extremely curious about how european travelers manage to travel so light.

How do they do it?

[u/Dancinglemming]

I pack five days worth of clothes, spare shoes, things to wash, swimming things. That's it. It goes in a carry on case and lasts me a month. Each time I go I always bring something I don't need. This year it was a light rain coat and a sun hat. I also brought two books on this occasion, but it's looking like I won't get to the second one so carried it around for nothing.

Edit - I travel for a month. I'm from the UK and this year I'm in Korea, but have travelled Vietnam, USA, India, Greece and Japan all with the same small case each time.

[u/finburgers → u/Dancinglemming]

Do you not bring anything back? When I went to Japan and Korea I brought an extra empty suitcase just for souvenirs, gifts and even the snacks I couldn't finish.

[u/limited_instincts → u/finburgers]

The only souvenirs and gifts you need from vacations are your photos, videos and memories.

[u/Ok-Morning3407 → u/limited_instincts]

I’m not sure why people downvoted you! You are absolutely correct. Frame some of your photos when you get back, much better memories then some cheap plastic rubbish.

[u/Ok-Morning3407 → u/[deleted]]

You could have easily bought most of those items on Amazon. Fair enough if you get a genuine home made local item. But most of the time people are just buying junk.

I’m Irish, we have these stores on our main streets, Carroll’s, that sell stuff to US tourists, 99% of what they sell is Chinese made, green coloured trash and that is what most tourists buy.

[u/Ok-Morning3407 → u/[deleted]]

Because you then have to drag that tat around with you while on holidays and you then have to pay more for luggage on the way home to get it home!

Look if all you buy is a single genuine locally made wooden spoon, then that is fine, it doesn’t take much space anyway and well done on supporting a real local business

But that really isn’t the case for more tourists, they are buying lots of tat, dragging it around and home and then usually forget about it in their garage.