my wife and myself will be spending a month between melborne, tasmania, and port douglas. She wants to bring every article of clothing she owns, and I think we should pack light and buy what we need locally, any comments. ps. will we need any warn cloths for tasmania. coming from the shores of lake seperior in michigan we have plenty of warm garments to chose from. any comments will be appreciated. thanks,

What time of year will you be going?

Pack light!

I haven't been to Australia yet, but I've been around to lots of other places, and every time I go I take less. In another decade I'll probably just have a spare pair of underpants in my jacket pocket. There is NOTHING worse than schlepping huge bags all over the place.

It's true that a month is a long time, but you will still want to take HALF of what you think is a reasonable pared-down list. Make sure everything is washable, packable, and coordinated with everything else -- don't take anything that only works in one outfit. And do your laundry; it's not that hard. Find a laudromat in an interesting neighborhood.

I can tell you that when I go at the end of next month, I'm bringing one international size carryon (smaller than US size) and a very small shoulder tote -- that's IT. Internationally you can ALWAYS spot the Americans who haven't been overseas before, standing in the middle of a dozen matching bags, while the experienced travelers breeze past with one small bag.

I strongly recommend www.onebag.com and www.travelite.org for packing tips.

Ignore this if you can afford to have porters and valets everywhere you go! Otherwise, you will be sorry if you bring it all with you.

fnarf999 is spot on. 1 smallish wheeled bag + a cabin bag per person, irrespective of the length of trip.
Each person to handle his/her own luggage. (This rule is very effective if strictly enforced)

Unless you're climing Mt Fuji, there will be shops if you're desperate for something you missed bringing .

You will need a windcheater/jacket for Tasmania and probably Melbourne in the evenings.

thanks for the info, we will be in austrailia for the month of feb, and the more I read, the less I think I will carry.

Onie1 - it's the east coast's hottest month, IMHO. www.weatherbase.com

Enjoy

And remember that Australians tend to dress casually - as another poster was advised, "smart casual" is fine for even the fanciest restaurants in Sydney, and the opera, although I wouldn't recommend shorts in those settings.

Tasmania not so sure. I went in March and got caught out without enough warm clothing. Well to be honest, without ANY warm clothing.

In Sydney you can pick a cheap sweatshirt at any number of bargain basement stores but in Tassie they charge like a wounded bull outside of Hobart.

So bring at least some long pants, jeans and a jacket. No woolly stuff, it will never be freezing. Just mid season sort of stuff. But not too much

On a longish trip covering a number of possible temperature ranges it is tricky. But if you going to be somewhere (Tassie) that is likely to be colder than all your other destinations - then pack a good lightweight jacket. Pack a fleece and some layers that you can dump when you leave. You know, oldish stuff - just donate it to a clothing bin when you move on to warmer climes.

Unless you plan never to carry your own bags then there is NOTHING worse than travelling with too much stuff.

There are temperature websites you can visit to check the detail, but in February in Tassie and MLB I doubt if it would ever get below 10C at night. If you are going tramping in Tassie, or camping out, then you might want to pay more attention to cold weather clothing, but if you just going to wander around the urban centres and the tourist spots during daytime - then discardable stand-bys are the way to go.

Have fun.

Layers work really well, especially if you are going to have a variety of weather. After having luggage go missing for 5 days on one trip, we have decided we are only doing carry on - no matter what. So doing laundry becomes necessary and thinking about coordinating clothes. If you need to take a jacket, but won't be wearing it for much of the trip, try the packing bags. Rick Steves has some great ones on his website that really work. I used two of them for our recent Africa trip - one for my coat that I was going to need for morning game drives and one for my pillow, which I always take with me. Squeeze out the air and they take up much less room.