Packing list generator
Almost every packing list on the internet was written once and never touched again, which is why the same list comes back for Oslo in January and Bangkok in July. Give us the city and your dates and the list is built from what that place actually does in those weeks — as counts, not nouns, with anything that cannot legally fly flagged before you pack it. Press generate and we'll email you a printable copy to take to the case.
Packing for — leave on Anyone to see everything
Laundry
Trip type — pick any that apply
Bags
Pick a destination to start.
Why the dates change the list
The season at the destination decides the clothing entirely, and it is the one input nearly every packing list ignores. One “Cape Town packing list” cannot be right for both January and July, and the southern hemisphere breaks the pattern outright — July is winter in Melbourne, and colder there than it is in London in April. So the band this tool packs against comes from the destination's own monthly climate record for the months you are travelling, never from the calendar month. Where a trip spans two months with different bands, the colder one wins: a jumper you did not need beats a jumper you did.
Trip length decides the quantities. “Socks” is not a packing list. Six pairs, or three with a laundry stop, is — and the reason sits under the count so you can disagree with it intelligently. There is no correct number of t-shirts, which is exactly why a number with no logic behind it invites you to distrust the whole list.
A climate normal is not a forecast, and we say which we used. Beyond roughly a fortnight there is no forecast to have. The figures here are five years of observed daily highs, lows and rain days for that city, averaged by month, and the copy labels them as normals every time it shows them. Where the daily range is wide — mountain, desert and high-altitude destinations swing hard between afternoon and night — the list says so and adds the layers, because “average 22°C” has sent a lot of people to Johannesburg in a t-shirt, where the July night is 14°C below the afternoon.
214 items across 226 destinations in 131 countries. Weights are approximate and exist to produce a credible bag total, not to weigh anything. Legality verdicts are read from our prohibited items dataset rather than restated here, so the two pages can never disagree. Climate normals from the Open-Meteo ERA5 archive, 2020–2024. Item rules re-checked quarterly alongside the baggage rates. Guidance for planning — security officers apply local discretion and your airline has the final say.
Lists by trip type
These are genuinely different lists, not the same one with a word swapped. Each opens the tool already shaped for that kind of trip.
The rest of the answer lives in the other tools
This list owns no rules of its own — it reads the tools that do, so nothing can disagree with itself.
Packing — common questions
What should I pack for a week?
For a week without laundry: seven sets of underwear and socks, three or four tops, two bottoms, one warm layer and one pair of shoes beyond the ones you fly in. With a wash midway that halves to three or four of each, which is the difference between a cabin bag that closes and one that does not. The reason quantities beat a checklist is that the same seven days needs a coat in Oslo and none in Bangkok, and no static list can tell you which.
Can I take a power bank in my checked bag?
No. Power banks and spare lithium batteries are refused in checked baggage and must travel in the cabin — the opposite of what most people assume, and one of the most common reasons a bag gets pulled at the belt. Up to 100Wh is fine in hand luggage, 100–160Wh needs airline approval, and above 160Wh cannot fly on a passenger aircraft at all. This list flags every item the prohibited items dataset knows about, in the row itself.
How do you know what the weather will be like?
We do not, and we do not claim to. Beyond about a fortnight no forecast exists, so the tool uses climate normals — five years of observed daily highs, lows and rainfall for that city, averaged by month — and says so in those words next to the figures. That is enough to decide whether you need a coat, which is the only question a packing list has to answer. It is not a forecast for your dates and it is never presented as one.
Is a generic packing list wrong for the southern hemisphere?
Usually, yes, and it is the most visible failure in this category. July is winter in Melbourne, Cape Town and Buenos Aires, and much of the tropics runs on wet and dry seasons rather than four seasons at all — where a monsoon is a more important packing fact than a temperature. This tool takes the season from the destination's own climate record for the months you are travelling, never from the calendar month, so hemisphere is not a special case it can get wrong.
How much does my luggage weigh?
The tool gives an estimate: an approximate weight per item, multiplied by the count, added up. It exists to tell you whether the list has quietly become a bag you cannot carry — not to weigh anything. If you are near an airline limit, check the real figure on a scale, and use our excess baggage calculator to see what going over actually costs on your carrier before you get to the desk.
What can't I take in my hand luggage?
The recurring ones are liquids over the cabin limit, anything with a blade or a point, and lighters and matches. The recurring surprises are full-size sunscreen and toothpaste, aerosol dry shampoo, and corkscrews. Every item on the generated list that carries a rule shows it in the row — cabin only, hold only, restricted, or not at all — taken straight from our prohibited items dataset rather than paraphrased.