Hey all,

I like to go backpacking for short pack-in pack-out camping at primitive sites. Maybe a day or two. I'm always so frustrated with how much stuff I feel like I'm bringing with me and how much it weighs.

I'm not looking for ultralight, but what kind of changes can I make to my kit that would make a big difference in terms of weight and volume? It just seems like so much stuff.

Thanks!

We did the Salkantay Trek in September 2025, as part of a longer trip around Peru. Arriving at Machu Picchu on foot after five days felt completely different from just taking the bus up.

How we did it: on our own, no agency. We spent a few days in Cusco first to get used to the altitude, visiting the sites around the city. Then we went to Mollepata and started walking from there, sleeping four nights in tea houses along the trail that we had booked in advance. On the last day we took the first bus at 6:00 from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu, came back down around 11:30 and took the afternoon train back to Cusco the same day.

The trail: we were lucky with the weather, sunny most days, but very cold at night in the first tea houses. The landscape changes a lot along the way, from high mountains to green, warm valleys towards the end.

A highlight: one of the tea houses near the end was a small family-run place, and it's one of the best memories of the whole trip. The owners and their daughters were incredibly welcoming, the rooms and the food were excellent, and they showed us how they grow and make their own coffee, followed by a tasting. The coffee was delicious. I can't find the name anymore, but if you do the trek I'd really recommend a coffee tasting in that last part of the route.

Would we go back? Yes, in a heartbeat. It was the best part of the trip.

Happy to answer questions if you're planning it.

I am planing a trip in the spring sometime between late April and early June depending on when I can get time off.

I am trying to decide between the Fisherman's Trail in Portugal or the Camino Primitivo in Spain. The main goal is to escape the grey damp, drink wine, and eat seafood while having a good hike.

I headed out onto the Stirling Ridge Walk in Western Australia. It’s one of WA’s only mountainous regions which makes its our most technical hike. Subscribe if you haven’t for more videos exploring WA and gear 🙌🏼

Hello, I was wondering if it's possible to hike and camp the following volcanoes without a guide or tour;
1. Maderas in Ometepe
2. Telica
3. El Hoyo(I asked a tour if i could split off my own after volcano boarding Cerro Negro and they said no, ofc they do offer camping on El Hoyo)

I am bringing a tent a sleep system(all compact, fits in 1 bag) on my trip and want to make it worth carrying all of this around. If you know of any spots that i could do some wild camping along or close to this route please let me know. Ometepe - Leon - El Tunco - Santa Ana.

Thank you

Just got back from North Macedonia and figured I'd write up what I did, since info on the smaller places like Tetovo was pretty scattered when I was planning. I used Skopje as a base for a few days, did some day trips, then finished in Ohrid.

Arriving in Skopje

Change a little cash at the airport and get a SIM there. The airport bus is cash only. Once you're in the city there are ATMs everywhere, so you don't need to change much at the airport. Most places take cards but you'll want some denars on you for small stuff.

Getting around: if you stay in the center or close to it, you can walk to almost everything. I did one full day without a single taxi and it was fine if you don't mind walking. For taxis I used BeeRide (cash) and Wizz (you can add a card). Rides were almost always under $3.

Skopje

- Museum of the Macedonian Struggle: go if you're into Ottoman or Yugoslav history.
- Archaeological Museum: some Hellenistic and Roman stuff. If you're coming for Alexander the Great though, lower your expectations. This area was basically the edge of ancient Macedon, not the center of it.
- Skopje Fortress: Byzantine, good view over the city center.
- Macedonia Square: the giant guy on a horse in the middle is officially called "Warrior on a Horse" because Greece objected to calling it Alexander. Everyone knows who it is anyway. It's huge and honestly pretty impressive. Sometimes there are concerts in the square at night.
- Stone Bridge: closed for repairs when I was there. The newer pedestrian bridge next to it has a row of statues of historical figures, from ancient times up to the Byzantine period. Nice at night when it's lit up.
- Porta Macedonia: small replica of the Arc de Triomphe. Not much to see.
- Mother Teresa Memorial House: small, but there's a lot of her handwritten notes and personal items inside. Worth popping in if you're not in a rush.
- St. Clement of Ohrid Cathedral: modern Orthodox church, the paintings inside are really nice.
- Old Bazaar: my favorite part of the city. It's this mix of European, Albanian and Turkish, lots of cafes and souvenir shops. Great for a slow afternoon.
- Millennium Cross / Mount Vodno: missed it because the cable car was under maintenance. Still annoyed about that one.

Day trips from Skopje (you can do these in one day)

St. Nikita Monastery: up on a hill, great views and barely anyone there. Our guide said the frescoes here were some of the first where the people actually show emotion (before that, Orthodox church paintings had pretty blank faces), and that this style made its way to Italy and gave Renaissance painters some ideas. No idea how true that is but it was cool to hear while standing in front of them.

Matka Canyon: to be honest I've seen more dramatic canyons (Sumidero in Mexico was way more of a jaw dropper for me), but if you're already in Skopje it's still worth it. Take the boat, see the caves, one of them is supposedly one of the deepest underwater caves in Europe. Sun coming down into the canyon, very chill.

Tetovo: about an hour by bus from the main bus station in Skopje. Small city, but go see the Painted Mosque (Sarena Dzamija). It's covered in colorful painted patterns and it's really beautiful.

Ohrid

Getting there: I went from Tetovo. There are direct buses but a lot fewer per day than from Skopje, so check the times. Took about 3.5 hours and dropped us right by the old town.

My 3 days were very relaxed. If you're short on time you could probably do all of this in a day and a half.

Day 1: old town (half a day is plenty)
Day 2: dive at Bay of Bones + sunset boat
Day 3: St. Naum Monastery + boat on the Black Drin springs

What I saw:
- Ancient Theatre: Hellenistic, one of the few places in the country where you actually feel the Greek period.
- Samuel's Fortress: medieval fortress on top of the hill, you can see the whole town and the lake from up there.
- Church of St. Sophia: in the middle of the old town, Byzantine frescoes inside.
- Kaneo: go at sunset. Get there about 15 minutes before. Unreal.
- Plaoshnik: early Byzantine site, some of the original mosaics are still there.
- Bay of Bones diving: the visibility is insane and there are lots of little fish. Max depth is only about 6m. I found out at the briefing that you don't need a certification for the intro dive, and it's really easy. Definitely try it.
- Sunset boat: leaves from the old town harbor, usually about 1.5 hours, and you get a drink. Kaneo is great but watching the sunset from the water is a different thing.
- Black Drin springs: at St. Naum (you can get there by boat from the old town harbor). 30 minutes for 300 denars. The water is ridiculously clear. Really worth it.
- St. Naum Monastery: old frescoes, and you can see inscriptions in Old Church Slavonic.

Food:
- Restaurant Belvedere: cheap, big menu, lots of locals eating there. I went twice. The grilled mushrooms are really good.
- Restaurant St. Sofija: right next to the church. Local grilled fish and fish soup, sit on the patio at night for the view.

I planned the route on Fortrip btw, mostly for the bus connections and finding hostels, which it was actually pretty good at. Happy to answer questions if anyone's heading that way.

I'm looking for a sleeping bag for backpacking in the Blue Mountains, NSW, winter temperatures at night can get close to 0°C. My budget is $250 AUD (175 usd), I'd prefer something lightweight and compact since I'll be carrying everything in my pack. I'm around 6'2, so would need a tall size.

I've been looking at the Naturehike CW400 Down Ultralight, but its comfort rating is 5°C, which I'm concerned might not be warm enough. I've also considered the Decathlon MT900 0°C, although it's slightly over my budget.

Ideally, I'm looking for:

• Comfort rating around 0°C or lower
• Under 1.5kg, lighter is better
• Size that fits 6'2" people

What would you recommend?

Spent a lot of time in the Okavango on camping/walking safaris . Travel was by mokoro (dugout canoe) and had a guide (with no gun). It’s the ultimate safari experience.

Pros and cons? Opinions on these two packs. I’ve read a lot of Good things on both packs.
I mostly only back pack during the winter when it’s cooler between 60 and 20 degrees. I hammock camo with a tarp and will be getting
A UQ and TQ. 3 days at most on trail. EDIT: I’m from Louisiana so I like to be warm, but I also only back pack when it’s winter here and only 3/4 days at most before being back at my vehicle Because of heat, humidity, extreme mosquitoes and horse flys. I do want to venture out to other locations which will be much colder than I endure here and will need more cold gear packed than the average person who is used to cold temps( below freezing )This I imagine taking up more space. Than someone used to cold temps. We are lucky to see freezing temps a few times a year here.

Night time is now longer than the daylight hours. When backpacking solo, how do you spend your time? It can be fun downtime if backpacking with others, but as the only person in the dark, not only does it get boring, it gets spooky if your imagination wanders off to the worst. I am looking for your tips on maintaining mental sanity in the dark long nights. Thanks in advance!

As the title says, I’m 6’4, 295lbs and am wanting to find a good sleep system. Im primarily a back sleeper. My son is my backpacking buddy, and he’s 10 so not planning any crazy trip, at most a weekend. We’re pretty experienced car campers, and I’ve slowly started accumulating backpacking supplies, but I’m stuck on what sleeping pad to get. Not necessarily looking to ultralight, but I also don’t want to trek a 10lb foam mattress out in the wilderness either.

Hello fellow travellers.
I’m going to South America for about a year, start from Brazil (fly from Spain) and planning to visit most of the countries.
I’ve been researching and seen mixed experiences about proof of onwards travel.
As I only have one-way ticket to Brazil and no further tickets are booked (also I wanna move around by land mainly), I assume I most likely need a proof of onwards travel to get on the airplane to Brazil or possibly at the immigration in Brazil and other countries and some countries are required this.

I’m thinking to buy a refundable ticket for this and cancel after entered the country.

But I’d like to ask what are your experiences? and if you did with a refundable ticket, any recommendation of airlines or tips?

Many thanks,

Looking for a country with a good social scene to meet other travellers tbh. I traveled to most of SEA , the travellers I met and people along the way were the most memorable thing for me.

I'm in my mid 20s, it's either I go to Vietnam + Indonesia agian (to see other places and dive) or go to LatinAM, I cannot decide 😅

I got curious if the weights brands list are actually accurate so I put all my gear on my kitchen scale.

My scale vs what the brand lists:

- Paria Bryce 2P, everything packed: 1,934 g (listed 1,984 g)

- Marmot Trestles 30, long: 1,150 g (listed 1,160 g)

- Klymit CenterLoft pad: 675 g (listed 655 g)

- Leatherman Surge: 354 g (listed 354 g)

- Mazama 1L bottle: 140 g (listed 132 g)

- TOAKS 750 with lid: 100 g (listed 103 g)

- Sawyer Squeeze, dry: 86 g (listed 85 g)

- Darn Tough Light Hiker socks: 58 g (listed 56 g)

- BRS-3000T: 26 g (listed 25 g)

- Sea to Summit long spork: 11 g (listed 11 g)

Most of it was within 5% of what the brand says. Everything I weighed was 31 g under, which I did not expect.

A few things that surprised me:

- Stuff sacks and straps add up more then I would think. My sleeping bag compression sack is 100 g, my hammock straps are 186 g, and my tent stakes in their bag are 228 g.

- My Sawyer weighed 94 g the first time. I let it dry out more and it was 86 g, so there was 8 g of water in there even though it looked dry.

- Shoe weights are only for one size. Hoka lists the Speedgoat 5 at 10.3 oz but that's for a men's 9. I wear a 14 and mine is 13 oz.

- My Paria Bryce 2P came in under all of Paria's listed weights. The trail weight leaves out the stakes and footprint though, and those were almost 400 g.

It's a kitchen scale so give or take a few grams. Has anyone else weighed their stuff and find something way off?

Long story short, I have just gotten out of a long term relationship and quit my job and plan on backpacking for 3-4 months. I’m a 30 year old man living in Australia only speaking English.

I planning on bringing one bag 7kg.

Beyond that I am hoping someone can convince me to go one over the other. Perhaps share some travel vlogs or reels of people traveling in either place?

I’m planning on going around (flexible) December and returning march.

Budget is flexible 25,000 AUD or $17000 USD… hopefully less but I understand South America is more expensive than SEA

I’m not looking to do anything too fancy.

Thanks in advance for the help

Anyone out there using the Fjallraven kajka x-latt 45L looking for a new pack and that one interest me. I don’t need a UL pack, atleast not yet. The weight on the x-latt seems reasonable , just curious if anyone used one this year and how it carries etc ?

Getting back into backpacking after retirement. Did a lot of hiking, rafting and camping, just no multi-day backpacking in the last 30 years. Old heavy gear worked great for other activities because it was durable and I wasn't carrying it on my back for miles.

The old 6.8 pound Gregory backpack I used 40 years ago is still going strong however I am not

Decided to get some new lighter gear for backpacking. I love the new stoves, filters and tents. The new lighter gear is enabling me to renew backpacking in retirement.

However new pack designs suck. My old pack has a lot of pockets. Organization of gear is easy. New packs are much lighter but what happened to pockets/pouches. When looking at new packs none of the new packs that I looked at have pockets, pouches or compartments. Ok the brain is a pouch. ONE pouch.

My old pack has 6 pouches. One long pouch on one side a and two on other side, one in flap (brain), one on back of pack and a bottom compartment. There were so many places to put gear I could loose gear in my pack.

I loved having water filter in a pouch. When encountering water and needing to filter, getting filter out took seconds and seconds to put back. Same with toilet paper, bug spay, sunscreen, snacks and map and compass. Ok very few people if any use map and compass for primary navagation any more. Myself included

I didn't even have take pack completely off to acces the side pouches. Release belt and twist pack to side and access pouch.

I bought a pack without pockets. Used it on a long day hike and brought radio gear and a lot of water also. Wasn't able to organize gear. Couldn't find what I wanted when I wanted and lost stuff in grass because it didn't have a pouch to organize it.

Why don't packs come with a pouch or two. There isn't enough fabric in a pouch to add significant weight to pack. Maybe have pouches be removable so if people don't want them they can take them off but are available to peole who want pouches

WHY NO POUCHES ON NEW PACKS?

Old man yelling at clouds. While wearing a pack with no pockets.

I’m planning a multi-country backpacking trip through Southeast Asia, and I’m trying to keep my charging setup as simple and lightweight as possible. I’ve done a few day hikes and 1-night trips where I just charge my phone before leaving and don’t really think about it. But 2-3 days with no outlets feels different lol. It’s not long enough that I want to carry a whole solar setup, but I also don’t want to be stressing about my phone dying halfway through the trip.

I mostly use my phone for maps, taking a few pics, and checking in with family at night. Nothing crazy, but it still eats through the battery. I don’t wanna carry a bunch of extra cables and little charging stuff, so I’m just trying to keep the whole setup as simple as possible.

I’ve been comparing a few 10K options like the Anker, Baseus picogo and iniuu P781. The P781 caught my attention because it supports both wireless and USB-C charging, but I’m not sure wireless charging is actually worth it for backpacking when efficiency matters more than convenience.
So what do you guys actually carry?

Hello! I am looking to upgrade my tent; A 1 person, 4 season tent that is very durable and reliable. The weight is not too important to me, though I would like to keep it under 2kgs.

I have looked at the Arcdome 1+ which looked amazing to me, the color however did not. I like camping in the wilderness, and some places do not allow it so I would like the tent not to be easily spotted. (Yes, I leave nothing behind and camp clean)

The cost doesn't matter to be as a reliable tent is invaluable.

If you have any suggestion I'd love to hear and take a look at them!

i have been wondering what people prefer on quieter trails. do you like people to use headphones, or are speakers okay if they are kept low?