We have a 4×4 and private guide at our disposal for our entire time in Morocco, and a rental car and villa arranged for Spain. It’s actually a fairly well-planned and luxurious undertaking (for what we’re paying for the hotels, etc. I’d be pretty pissed if our toilet handle broke for instance).

We just don’t want to bring a lot of extraneous crap, since we won’t be in the same place for more than 2 nights at a time.

Joe: sounds like a cool mask - I’ll have to check it out.

Crissy: of course it’ll be travel sized everything. And I’ll probably nix cold meds etc. Advil and Immodium are the only two things I wouldn’t travel without, because when you need them, you need them *now*.

Ellis: Apparently North Africa doesn’t really have the same mosquito problem as Central and South Africa. And I do have a tiny bottle of 100% deet anyhow, from last summer’s camping trip.

Riann: good call on the Lush solid shampoo - I’d forgotten they have that, and I quite like it!

Jeremy: good idea re: Foreign Affairs!

Carlos: I wish we could take a Leatherman, but it’ll negate the whole carry-on thing.

- dump the wipes. My fiance and I found that having one of us carry a small roll of TP with hand sanitizer in the roll (and put in a zip lock baggie) helped in a jiffy.

- bring a selection of zip lock bag of various sizes (the sandwich size and the big size whenever you want to take some food with you). A small tupperware container (sandwich size) helps for misc gear and food as well.

- a multitool like a Leatherman, can be very handy, especially when the toilet handle breaks in the middle of the night and your body is kicking your ass. Needless to say, a lifesaver.

- a trash bag folded up helps in case it rains or you need to seperate your dirty stuff from the clean stuff

- take a toilet roll (sans TP) and wrap some duct tape around it. Stick it in the corner of your luggage. Use when something breaks, like a zipper.

Only take what you need … liquids add a lot of weight.

You can likely nix stuff like cold medication - if you need it, just pick it up a pharmacy over there.

We go to Europe 1-2x per year and we have pretty small backpacks - we always make do just fine! You’ll find that you won’t use a lot of the stuff you’re taking, I bet. Every time we go (we’ve been there 8x so far), we pack lighter and lighter.

Oooh, I’m so excited for you!!