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Though it might be nice to travel with my cowgirl boots and electric curling iron, I know there are bigger benefits to packing light: speed and mobility. If I can carry my own bag easily, I can be out the airport door and in a taxi or shuttle before other passengers have finished loading their baggage carts. This means I use the same tote-able bag holding just enough stuff for a week - no matter where I go or how long I plan to be on the road. After a week, I head for a laundromat, a good spot to meet locals. In places where hotel laundry services are cheap - say, Mexico or India - I treat myself by sending my dirty clothes out.

Regardless, there's always a lot of stuff drying in my hotel bathroom, hand-washed in the sink using freebie bath and shower gel. And I never leave home without a rubber sink-stoppers because you never know when you'll need one.

- Susan Spano

In the good old days, airlines used to give long-haul flight kits even to economy-class passengers. I always found the contents - lotion, socks, toothbrush and toothpaste, earplugs, sleep mask, etc. - invaluable, so now I make my own. Besides the familiar stuff, it contains eye drops, nasal spray, scented hand wipes and dental floss.

On a long flight, I eat dinner fast, then head for the restrooms bathrooms while everyone else is still chowing down. The toilets toilettes are usually still clean and there's no line, so I can spend as long as I want.

Susan Spano

I love my rolling backpack because it has lots of pockets, but I hate trying to remember later which pocket I shoved something into. My system borders on obsessive-compulsive, but here's what I have to do: Each pocket is labeled on the inside for the items that go in it.: The jewelry and passport must go in the innermost pocket; the dirty underwear goes in the outermost;. rReading material gets its own slot; electronic accessories (cellphone charger, extra batteries, battery charger) get their own place. And then I never vary, even when I'm in a hurry.

- Catharine Hamm

Red-eye flights are my friend; with a little Tylenol PM and a pillow (I take a little one), I can be in Washington, D.C., in time for rush hour. But I also can't stand to sleep without washing my face, so I usually shove a handful of makeup-removing towelettes, cut in half - some brands I've tried include Oil of Olay, Clearasil and Dove - in my carry-on bag. These are especially handy if you're staying at cheap hotels that don't believe in washcloths or if you ever happen to be a guest at my house, where there is a perpetual shortage.

- Catharine Hamm

Ever since an insane innkeeper's wife in Portugal took my passport hostage for four hours, I always carry a photocopy of it to leave at the front desk of a hotel. Also, before you travel, make a computer scan of your passport, birth certificate and any other important documents and e-mail them to yourself at a web-based account (such as Gmail or Hotmail) that you can access on the road.