The Ultimate Packing Guide

October 14, 2010
1011_packingtips
Michael Mohr
From essential space savers to wrinkle-fighting tricks, Budget Travel readers—worthy competitors, all—share their top tips.

When we launched the World's Best Packer contest in May, we expected a healthy response. But the entries were even more creative than we'd anticipated. From slide shows to videos to a Frost-inspired ode titled "The Suitcase Not Taken," each was full of smart advice for better-loaded bags. We assembled our favorite suggestions to create this handy manual. —JD Rinne

TOP LAYER

All-weather items like a poncho and a hat go on top, in case you need them right away. In a pinch, the poncho can also help protect your suitcase from rain. —Andrew Doukas, Portland, Maine

Bring a deck of cards for entertainment on the road. Winner Larry Swingen opts for Mini Uno.

Toss in a collapsible, lightweight bag to fill with souvenirs or laundry. —Velma Greene, Harpers Ferry, W.Va.

MIDDLE LAYER

Use your shoes as packing cubes: Stuff them with small items like socks or even a travel alarm clock. —Ilana Berner, Caesarea, Israel

Save space by choosing a good-looking jewelry pouch that can pass for a purse. —Phebe Schwartz, St. Thomas, U.S.V.I

BOTTOM LAYER

Position heavy items near the wheels of your suitcase to keep the bag from toppling over when it's upright. —Ivana Rix, Vienna, Va.

Rolled clothes are less likely to wrinkle, and they create a flat surface for layering everything else. —Inga Carmack, Port Orchard, Wash.

Double-duty items are key. Bring pants that zip off into shorts, a sarong (for use as a beach towel, scarf, skirt, or cover-up), or a little black dress that can be toned up or down. —Amy Zimmer, Murrells Inlet, S.C.

MEET OUR WINNER!

Larry Swingen of Malta, Mont., took first place in our contest for the World's Best Packer with more than 17,000 votes. He and his wife, Barb, walked away with a six-night trip to Egypt, courtesy of Foreign Independent Tours, and a six-piece set of American Tourister luggage. Congratulations, Larry!

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World's Most Haunting Cemeteries

EDINBURGH Two buildings in this Edinburgh graveyard were shut down because of an uncanny abundance of ghostly apparitions. Thousands of 17th-century graves lined with creepy carvings of skeletons and ghouls make Edinburgh's Greyfriars Kirkyard one of the world's most haunting cemeteries. While a stroll through these eerie environs is shivering enough for some, Greyfriars's real draw lies in two on-site structures: the prison where more than 1,000 members of the Covenanters religious movement were imprisoned in 1679, and the adjacent mausoleum where "Bloody" George Mackenzie, who oversaw their persecution, is buried. Local authorities locked both buildings in the 1990s after a wave of paranormal sightings spooked one too many people, but local writer Jan-Andrew Henderson has been permitted to lead tours of both sites, where hundreds of visitors swear they have encountered the "Mackenzie Poltergeist." 88 Candlemaker Row, 011-44/131-225-9044, blackhart.uk.com, daily tours Easter–Halloween at 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., Halloween–Easter at 8:30 p.m., $15. CAIRO Newcomers to Cairo are often surprised to find the living existing among the dead in this town set within a cemetery. Egyptians know the four-square-mile stretch of land running through densely populated Cairo as simply al-Qarafa (the cemetery), but to hundreds of thousands of locals, it is much more than that. Many of the city's poorest residents actually live inside this 1,300-year-old cemetery, creating homes, shops, and even schools next to and inside mausoleums, with faded gravestones serving as lawn ornaments. Local authorities have recently discouraged promoting the site as a tourist attraction and are blocking access to large groups and buses, but it's still possible to visit with Casual Cairo detours, an outfitter that takes no more than three people at once. But time to see this one-of-a-kind neighborhood may be running out—the Egyptian government is studying plans to relocate residents, raze the cemetery, and turn it into a public park. 011-2012-415-2726, casualcairo.com, call for prices. LONDON London's Highgate Cemetery has been the backdrop for numerous horror films. Dug into a hillside overlooking London, an imposing Victorian-era archway overgrown with shrubbery leads into a stone tunnel lined with catacombs, the darkness eventually giving way to a circle of sunlit vaults staged around a 300-year-old cedar. It's easy to see why this oldest segment of Highgate Cemetery has been used in many horror films, including Taste the Blood of Dracula and From Beyond the Grave, and it's accessible only by tours, which also visit the graveyard's newer reaches, a maze of decaying tombstones covered in dense greenery and topped by oversize statues ranging from the carved-stone grand piano above one musician's grave to the gigantic bust of Karl Marx adorning his own resting place. Swains Ln., 011-44/20-8340-1834, highgate-cemetery.org, hourly tours weekends Mar.–Oct. 11 a.m.–4 p.m., Nov.–Feb. 11 a.m.–3 p.m., weekdays Mar.–Nov. at 2 p.m., $11. BALTIMORE In Baltimore, Edgar Allan Poe's final resting place looks as if it's straight out of one of his tales. The raven-topped monument to macabre author Edgar Allan Poe is what brings most visitors to downtown Baltimore's 18th-century graveyard , but look a little closer at Westminster Burying Ground and you'll find a scene that could be pulled right from one of his eerie tales. Three years after Poe's death, much of the graveyard was paved over to make way for a Gothic church, which was built on elevated brick legs that arch over the graves. Today, tours of the property include a visit into the creepy catacombs that now hide below the church's lower level. 519 W. Fayette St., 410/706-2072, westminsterhall.org, tours Apr.–Nov.first and third Fridays at 6:30 p.m., first and third Saturdays at 10 a.m., $5. NEW ORLEANS Lafayette Cemetery in New Orleans, with its chilling collection of aboveground tombs, was the setting for Interview with the Vampire. In a city set below sea level, there is no hiding the dead underground, so in New Orleans, cemeteries are collections of aboveground tombs, a creepy novelty that attracts many visitors to these Gothic graveyards. Concerned about disrepair, local licensed guides volunteer their time to give tours of two of New Orleans's oldest graveyards, Lafayette Cemetery—setting for Interview with the Vampire—and St. Louis Cemetery No. 1—where you'll see "voodoo queen" Marie Laveau's Greek Revival tomb. All proceeds are donated to Save Our Cemeteries, a group that works to preserve and restore the city's graveyards. Lafayette, 1400 block of Washington Ave., Mon., Weds., Fri., and Sat. at 10:30 a.m., $10; St. Louis No. 1, 501 Basin St., Fri., Sat., and Sun. at 10 a.m., $12; 504/525-3377, saveourcemeteries.org. LOS ANGELES L.A.'s Hollywood Forever Cemetery seems like something you'd see in a film noir. Clad in a vintage black evening gown, dark sunglasses, and carrying a black lace parasol, Hollywood historian/tour guide Karie Bible appears to have stepped right out of a film noir movie as she leads guests through L.A.'s Hollywood Forever Cemetery. With the Paramount Studios Water Tower and Hollywood sign peaking out above the grounds, Bible tells tales of famous residents like director Cecil B. DeMille, '50s horror hostess Vampira, and rocker Johnny Ramone. 6000 Santa Monica Blvd., 818/517-5988, cemeterytour.com, most Saturdays at noon (check website for exact dates), $12. SAVANNAH The Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah is best known as the site for the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. If graveyards were created by set designers, they would all look like Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery, where elaborate, ivy-covered crypts are guarded by disturbingly lifelike statues, and mausoleums are laced with stained glass, all set among the mossy oak trees and blooming gardens of an 18th-century plantation on a bluff overlooking the Wilmington River. The scenic graveyard's popularity boomed after it appeared in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and many guides now offer driving tours of the 100-acre cemetery, although you'll miss the charm of wandering through its many hidden corners. Instead, follow the Bonaventure Historical Society's self-guided tour, available at the weekend-only visitors center. 330 Bonaventure Rd., 912/352-1885, bonaventurehistorical.org, free. ROME This cemetery in Rome seems to cast a spell over visitors—Percy Bysshe Shelley was so taken by its eerie beauty that he extolled its merits in a poem and was later laid to rest here. Wedged between a towering, 2,000-year-old pyramid entombing a Roman dignitary and a surviving section of the 12-mile-long brick wall built to protect ancient Rome, the Non-Catholic Cemetery is a serene oasis in the middle of this modern metropolis. One of Italy's most enchanting urban settings, the graveyard's stately cypress trees, poetic statues, and oasis-like ambiance, inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley to write, "It might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place." Shelley got his wish, and his grave is something of a pilgrimage for writers, many of whom, similarly enchanted, have opted to rest here themselves. The cemetery's English-language tours ensure you won't miss any of the boldface names and—in case you fall for the spell yourself—yes, it is still possible to be buried here. Via Caio Cestio 6, 011-39/06-574-1900, protestantcemetery.it, openMondays and Saturdays 9 a.m.–5p.m., Sundays 9 a.m.–1 p.m., tours $4 (by appointment only,minimum of five people). PARIS Graveyard guards have their work cut out for them at Paris's Cimetière du Père- Lachaise, where fans of the many celebrities buried here go to great lengths to pay their respects. Irish aesthete Oscar Wilde would undoubtedly be pleased to find his sphinxlike tomb at Paris'sCimetière du Père-Lachaise covered in hundreds of red-lipstick marks from admiring fans. (Graveyard guards are less amused—fats in the lipstick are causing the structure to deteriorate) Many outfitters include a brief stop at this 109-acre walled compound in Paris's northeast corner on longer city itineraries, but it's worth grabbing a self-guided tour map from the conservation office and spending a day finding the many famous graves—from Jim Morrison to Chopin—hidden among the cobblestoned paths and grassy expanses. Don't forget to pack a lunch—macabre as it may sound, Parisians love to picnic inside the cemetery, one of the city's largest green spaces. 16 rue du Repos, 011-33/1-55 25-82-10, free. BUENOS AIRES In Buenos Aires, the resting place of Eva Perón is at once opulent and melancholy. An ominous black door, guarded by a melancholy young woman carved from marble, leads into a spacious room where a single grave is topped with an ornate sculpted rose. It's just one of the many opulent mausoleums at Recoleta Cemetery; burying the dead here is a posh afterlife status symbol practiced by Buenos Aires's wealthiest families for 200 years. A trip inside is topped only by hearing the myriad stories among Recoleta's 6,000-plus temples, pyramids, and castles—in this case, the rose-topped tomb was erected to assuage a family's guilt after a young woman slipped into a coma and was buried alive. Nearby you'll find the flower-strewn grave of Eva Perón; she was buried below 27 feet of steel and cement as a precaution since political rivals had previously stolen her corpse. Calle Junín 1790, 011-54/11-4804-7040, English-language tours Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11a.m., free. WASHINGTON D.C. One of the most overlooked sections of the Arlington National Cemetery in D.C. is also the most haunting. While thousands of D.C.'s daily tourists zip across the Potomac River for quick photo ops at Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknowns and the Kennedy family plot, a few venture farther from the tour bus to explore the graves of the 300,000 other people buried here. Grab your walking shoes (but not your wallet) and join DC By Foot's free, 1.5-mile walking tour, which takes visitors through lesser-seen stops inside the vast burial ground, such as the segment of the cemetery that once housed a village of freed slaves and the memorial to Confederate soldiers. 214 McNair Rd., 202/370-1830, dcbyfoot.com, tours Mar. 20–Nov. 14 onSaturdays at 10 a..m, free.

The Latest Top Tech Tools

E-READER Save: Amazon Kindle The new 8.5-ounce Kindle forgoes splashy graphics, banking instead on its antiglare e-ink display, 3,500-book capacity, and ability to run up to a month on a single charge. amazon.com, $139. Splurge: Apple iPad Consider it the ultimate in-flight entertainment device. Movies, music, video games, and a library's worth of book titles: Apple's 16-gigabyte touch-screen tablet delivers it all in full color. apple.com, $499. NOISE-CANCELING HEADPHONES Save: Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3 A solid starter set, these headphones shut out up to 90 percent of ambient noise and come with three sizes of earbuds—our favorite old-school way to block sound. shopaudiotechnica.com, $100. Splurge: Sony MDR-NC300D When you're staring down a red-eye that's crawling with infants, every decibel counts, and that's why Sony's 98.4 percent noise reduction elevates this item to a higher plane. sonystyle.com, $300. DSLR CAMERA Save: Nikon D3100 Part camera, part teacher, this 14.2-megapixel DSLR has a guide mode that displays the technical specs of each shot—so you can learn to replicate the best results on your own. shop.nikonusa.com, $600. Splurge: Canon EOS Rebel T2i For a professional-quality camera, the 18-megapixel T2i couldn't be less intimidating, thanks to intuitive controls and a screen that automatically dims when you opt to use the viewfinder. usa.canon.com, $900. GPS Save: TomTom Ease Basic directions don't need to cost a fortune. TomTom's nearly four-inch-wide dash-top device distills GPS to its essential function—getting you where you need to go—and keeps the price low. tomtom.com, $119. Splurge: Garmin nüvi 3790T Finally, a GPS that lets you talk back. The 3790T's speech-recognition feature (example: "Go home") makes navigation safer and easier on solo road trips. buy.garmin.com, $450

The 5 Best New Pie Shops in America

BROOKLYN, N.Y. Sisters Melissa and Emily Elsen got their start in the family restaurant back in Hecla, S.D., and this year, they opened their own place, Four & Twenty Blackbirds, in the emerging Brooklyn neighborhood of Gowanus. From the café's pressed-tin walls and communal tables to the fresh berries sourced from a friend's backyard, the transplants have managed to cultivate a true sense of small-town charm, smack in the middle of New York City. 439 3rd Ave., birdsblack.com, slices from $4.50. PORTLAND, ORE. It's not that Gregg Abbott broke the pie mold with his handheld Whiffies Fried Pies—it's that he never used one to begin with. Since 2009, he's been experimenting with form and filling at his trailer in the city's Cartopia street-food center—to sublime effect. Take his Mounds of Deliciousness pie: The highly indulgent chocolate-and- coconut empanada can explain his thousands-strong Twitter following in one bite. SE 12th Ave. and SE Hawthorne Blvd., whiffies.com, from $3. WASHINGTON, D.C. With its signature triple-X crust detail and late-night hours (open until 3:30 a.m. on weekends), this Washington outpost of an old Baltimore favorite, Dangerously Delicious Pies, is a perfect fit for D.C.'s edgy Atlas District. Owner Rodney Henry's recipes range from savory BBQ pork pies to the sweet—and tongue-in-cheek—White Trash Crème Brûlée, and marionberry pie topped with rock candy (zing!). 1339 H St. NE, dangerouspiesdc.com, slices from $6.50. CHICAGO Done up in seafoam green and gingham, Paula Haney's pint-size Hoosier Mama Pie Company in Chicago's Ukrainian Village seems cribbed straight from a 1950s sitcom. In keeping with the nostalgic theme, it's Haney's meticulously crafted classics that have drawn diners since 2008: a chess pie made from single-origin Venezuelan chocolate, and a banana-cream slice whose topping reveals real flecks of vanilla bean—not extract. 1618½ W. Chicago Ave., hoosiermamapie.com, slices from $4. SAN FRANCISCO The Southwest-inspired green-chile-and-apple pie in a cheddar crust at Chile Pies (& Ice Cream) didn't fall far from its culinary tree: Owner Trevor Logan's New Mexican restaurant Green Chile Kitchen is just a block away. In his new, dessert-centric shop, Logan has more room to mix things up, as proven by his latest sweet treat: blended pie milkshakes that contain a whole slice per serving. 601 Baker St., greenchilekitchen.com/chilepies, slices from $5.