The Newest Travel Trend? Flying 'Naked'
Less stuff, less stress (but you still have to keep your clothes on).
Move over, rawdoggers. There’s a new air travel challenge trend, and thankfully, this one doesn’t involve forgoing all entertainment, food, and toilet trips on your next flight.
This time, all you need to give up is your stuff.
Welcome to “naked traveling,” the practice of getting aboard an airplane with just the clothes on your back. No checked luggage. No carry-on bags. No bulky neck pillow or overstuffed purse. Just you, breezing onto the plane with nothing but what’s in your pockets (for most people, that’s a phone and wallet with ID or passport—or, even better, a phone wallet). A charger and headphones are OK, too.
Proponents of the practice say naked traveling (our word, not theirs) is liberating. Just think: You won’t have to fight for overhead bin space or worry that your checked bag will miss its connection. Not to mention, it’s way better for your back, especially when you consider that a backpack alone can put a force seven times its weight on your spine, according to this study.
“Getting on a plane with no carry-on bags is the weirdest feeling,” Australian musician Seb Szabo said on Tiktok. “It’s like you’re just hopping onto the local bus, and a little while later you get off in a completely different city.”
Unlike rawdogging, which requires travelers to endure the unrelenting boredom of long-haul flights without any sort of gadgets or distractions (including food, drinks, and, for some reason, bathroom breaks), naked travelers can use their phones on flights; they just won’t have much else weighing them down.
“No checked bag no carry on just vibes,” said Tiktoker Alan King, whose Tiktok page has more than 5 million likes.
Of course, the real challenge begins when the plane lands. That’s when these luggageless vagabonds must get by with what they have—or buy and borrow what they need. Shopping means accumulating future baggage for your return trip, so if you want to fly home as “naked” as you came, get only the essentials (or plan to ship any purchases).
Talk to anyone who’s done it hardcore—like travel writer Jonathan Yevin, who arguably pioneered the practice in 2006 when he traveled the world without any bags and wrote about the experience—and you’ll quickly learn that traveling ultra-light isn’t just about convenience; it’s about adventure.
In his many articles on the topic, Yevin sings the praises of minimalism, explaining how touring the world without bags encourages spontaneity and serves as kindling for connections. After all, asking a stranger if you can borrow toiletry is bound to be a memorable opening line.
“Begging for toothpaste, it turns out, is a great way to make new friends,” Yevin wrote in this article for Budget Travel.
For those who just want to strip down for the flight, there are plenty of companies that’ll ship your luggage to and from your destination—so, you know, you can enjoy your tiny, cramped airplane seat without a carry-on stuffed between your feet or a checked bag to claim when you deplane. It’s not cheap—on Luggage Forward, for instance, it costs $134 to ship a suitcase from Los Angeles to New York (more than twice the checked bag fee on most major airlines). But breezing through the airport like it’s a spontaneous walk in the park? Priceless.
In case you want to join the club, there are three basic kinds of “naked” traveling:
Totally Bare - These people bring only the basics: their phone, a charger, and a wallet. They’re also not the ones shipping their luggage or Amazon-ordering anything to meet them at their hotel. They’re doing it for the challenge.
Pocket People - These travelers are chipmunking it. They’re filling all available pockets with items they might need, including headphones, extra clothes, and toiletries. Cargo pants and zipper pockets are their friends.
Delivery Crew - These people are only going luggageless for the sake of a smooth flight and airport experience. Their bags will be waiting for them at their final destination thanks to luggage delivery services or UPS.
Need more tips on how to do it right? Veteran luggageless traveler Rolf Pott has tips on his website. He started a No Baggage Challenge website in 2011 when he traveled the world with only what he could pack in his pockets—which included a toothbrush, an iPod (remember those?), and a few extra items of clothing.
Now the author of five books inspired by his journeys, including “The Vagabond's Way” (Ballantine Books, 2022), Rolf gives pointers on how to travel luggage-free on his website.
“A popular phrase among those who seek to live simply is ‘make sure the things you own don’t end up owning you,’” Potts wrote on his site. “I think the same notion can apply to travel: Sometimes the things we pack for a journey can get in the way of what we’ve come to experience.”
So take a load off.