Visiting Europe has almost become a staple on every American’s bucket list. This summer my best friend and I fulfilled every American college kids dream. For a month we studied in Barcelona and after the program ended we packed our one backpack each and traveled around to eight other countries in Europe bouncing around from city to city with nothing but a lists of things we wanted to see and a slight plan of where we were going next.

When I started to tell people that I would be living out of a backpack for a month, showering in community showers and sleeping in cabins and 16 person bunkrooms, they laughed in my face. One of my friends asked me how I was going to pack the entire salon’s worth of facial products I have in my bathroom. Another friend commented on how my suitcase for a week long spring break trip was bigger than the backpack I would be carrying a month’s worth of clothes in. As far as most things go, I’m a pretty easy going person, but I have been coined as high maintenance from time to time. Does that mean that I couldn’t be just as good of a backpacker as anyone else? Better yet, could I prove all the books and blogs and TV shows wrong and still be a well maintained, girly, but practical backpacker?

There was definitely no guide book for two sorority girls from Alabama backpacking through Europe by themselves. In fact, female backpackers were in very low numbers compared to male backpackers in general. I believe this is not because of lack of ability, but because of lack of the right guidance and motivation.
So, fear no more you girly, maybe a little prissy young woman who has been too apprehensive about the idea of not washing your clothes and the rumors of gross hostels and ill European hygiene, I’m here to tell you that you can eat your cake and have it too. Because who said backpacking was only for the makeup-less and outdoorsy types?

So here it is, how the “high maintenance” girl survived Europe and tips to help you be a sassy backpacker too.

Pick a Hair Tool

You might be like my best friend Caroline, who I traveled with, and have incredible hair that you can wash and sleep on and wake up looking like a Garnier Fructis model. I however, was not blessed with these genes. Without a blow dryer and straighter, or a curler I look like Anne Hathaway in the beginning of Princess Diaries, but I knew two to three full sized hair tools weren’t going to cut it.

Pick one! If you’re someone who would absolutely die without your straighter, bring that. Although not ideal, you can always air dry your hair and worry about straightening it after. I bought a travel-sized blow dryer that folded in half and took up about the amount of space as a water bottle. Most backpacking guides will tell you to lose the hair tools-I say why sacrifice good hair.

The Demi Bun

While studying in Barcelona Caroline and I met Demi, this gorgeous little fashion blogger from California who looked like a model and was always dressed to perfection except for one thing..she always had her hair in a messy bun. always. In class, out to dinner, at the clubs. This was such a foreign concept to us because we’ve always associated looking nice with doing our hair. Having said that, Demi could rock that messy bun.

Now I know this is contradictory to my first tip, but believe it or not there are times when we couldn’t get to a shower, stayed out all night and had to catch a train in the morning or decided to save our money staying on a camp ground with no outlets instead of an actual hostel. This is where the “Demi Bun” comes in. I love a good messy bun just as much as the next girl, but the inner diva inside me was cringing as I walked around Venice with an unwashed bun on top of my head. The point is, own it. Don’t second guess it or worry about it, whatever you missed that shower for was probably worth it. So throw a cute sundress on, plop your hair on your head and rock your bun like Demi.

Travel-sized toiletries are your best friend

While we were still in the study portion of our summer Caroline and I decided to take a weekend trip to Morocco, Africa. This required us taking a very small, cheap flight where we were only allowed one carry-on bag and like any plane, we could not pack any liquids. I’m not really sure why we didn’t think about this before, but this posed a bit of a problem when we showed up to our Moroccan hotel hours out from civilization with no shampoo, soap or face wash.

Learn from our mistakes. Travel-size soaps are crucial! No, they’re not your favorite shampoo brand and they take up a little more room in your bag, but you can bring them on any plane, have them with you for any emergency situation, and unlike big soaps and shampoos, they rarely ever open and spill in your bag.

Febreze saves lives

We washed our clothes exactly two times in the month we were backpacking. Sounds a little gross right? Unfortunately there are no washers and dryers in hostels and even if there were, who has time to spend doing laundry when there’s all of Europe to explore! Laundry mats are expensive and hard to find, don’t waste precious sight-seeing on washing your clothes every week.

At the end of every day Caroline and I sprayed the clothes we wore that day with Febreze and hung them up for the night. Thanks to our great packing skills we really only wore everything 2-3 times, but Febreze saved us from smelling like a sweaty Parisian on a hot summer day.

The packing cube/military roll combo

Out of all the things I had to limit, stop using or get rid of before we left for our trip I have to say choosing a backpacks worth of clothes that I would be wearing for a month was the hardest. Guide books will tell you to pack minimal amount of necessary clothing that’s versatile and comfortable. Although I agree with that, minimal amount of clothing just wasn’t going to work for me. I wanted options and to be prepared for every situation with the right outfit.

Solution: Packing cubes and rolling the clothes. The mesh packing cubes we bought not only enabled us to organize and categorize our clothing, but the mesh kept the clothes aired out and made it easy for us to find what we needed. Instead of folding everything inside the packing cubes roll them up. This helps eliminates wrinkles and gives you at least double the amount of room to put more clothes.

The midnight shower run

Believe it or not there are things worse than a community shower in a European hostel. A dirty community shower in a European hostel that you have to wait a line for and rush/have cold water once you are in there.

I don’t want to scare you, this won’t be the case in most places you go, but just to be on the cautious side there’s an easy tactic to avoid this nightmare of a shower situation. Shower in the middle of the night. Might sound a little creepy, but you’ll get hot water and some privacy and be able to do your whole night time regiment without sharing the bathroom with a bunch of randos.

Maxi Skirts and Sundresses

A lot of places in Europe such as museums, churches and bars have dress codes. This gets a little complicated with a limited wardrobe. Caroline and I lived off of maxi skirts and sun dresses, which are stylish and versatile. They don’t take up a lot of packing room, they’re cute, they’re formal enough to get into almost everywhere and they’re comfortable.


Now is the time ladies. Take your sass and your new backpacking knowledge and go travel the world.

Carlye Poljacik
AU Senior