When choosing items of clothing to pack you will need to take into account:
- The destinations,
- The climate
- What activities you have planned eg.
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Skiing
- Walking
- Business meetings
- Special Events
- How long you are travelling = How much to pack
- I find that if I am travelling anything less than a week I pack enough clothes to get me through the entire time with no washing required.
- For a trip up to 2 weeks I allow for 1 or 2 trips to the laundrette.
- For long term travel I only pack for a maximum of 4 days
- Long term travel you are usually limited with the amount you can carry
- You move onto the next location within a few days (no-one will see you in the same clothes twice anyway)
- I hand wash underwear and T-shirts (pack laundry soap or similar) and once a week head to the laundrette to wash everything.
You will need to pack a set of each of these clothes for each person travelling.
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A Clothing Packing List
The best tip I can give you is choose mix and match items, to give you as many outfits with the fewest possible clothes.
- The travel outfit.
- Make sure it’s loose fitting and comfortable.
- Take a light jumper as aeroplanes, buses and trains can get chilly – don’t expect that there will be enough blankets to go around.
- Underwear and socks.
- Enough to rotate through the wash.
- Footwear –
- Walking shoes/sports shoes
- Dress shoes
- Thongs/flip flops
- Sandals/all terrain shoe that are suitable for the water
- You may be able to use these instead of the walking shoes and thongs (2 shoes in 1
- I bought a nice looking pair of all terrain sandals recently that even look OK with my evening skirt.
- Consider the topography of the destination eg. cobbled streets or 3rd world pot holed streets
- Day wear
- T-shirts or top
- Shorts, 3/4 Pants, long pants/jeans
- Skirt/dress or trousers (to dress up for dinner)
- I take a skirt (even when I’m backpacking) that goes with my T-shirts and then I feel a bit smarter when I go out for dinner
- Jacket, jumper, pashmina (even if you are travelling to a warm climate to one just in case)
- Consider the weather
- Consider what you will be doing.
- Sightseeing or visiting friends.
- Hiking, walking or sitting in a car.
- Consider how easy these items are to launder.
- Coordinate to mix and match clothing.
- Dress outfit.
- Have at least one nice skirt/dress or pair of trousers and top/shirt to wear to dinner with the appropriate shoes.
- Special activity gear
- Water/swimming gear, I have a full swimming packing lists HERE
- Hat, swimming costume, thongs/terrain shoes.
- Ski Clothes
- Thermals, gloves, Jacket
- Water/swimming gear, I have a full swimming packing lists HERE
- Accessories
- Jewellery
- Watch
- Belts
- Scarfs
- Gloves
- Hat
- Baby and Toddler extras
- I have a full list of all the baby paraphernalia that you need to pack HERE
More Travel Packing Lists
Of course you need more than just your clothes packed when you travel; here are some more travel packing lists
Honestly, I think packing is the hardest part of any holiday. I always manage to take a ton of clothes and then only wear a fraction of them. It isn’t too bad if you can predict the weather but we go to a lot of places where it can be really hot one day and really cold the next. Right now we’re in Alaska and there is a heat wave.
Packing for 2 climates Lyn is the trickiest in keeping the packing list down – think about layering – that way some clothes only get used for the warm climates but become the underneath layers in cold climates.
We find that traveling light makes life easier when we go off with our little ones. One big travel backpack for each adult, and a small carryon for each kid. I’ve started making a travel capsule wardrobe for myself for every trip to minimize what I pack! I even have a post up on my blog to help get you started 🙂
The travel capsule wardrobe sounds like a great plan Melissa – will check it out.