Budget Travel Tips – Pack Clothes to Travel Light
What clothes should you pack when you have to carry all your luggage yourself and want to travel light? Take a minimum of “naked” clothing with you. Dress comfortably and casually. Choose your clothes for their practicality. In hot weather, loose-fitting, lightweight cotton clothing will feel better against the skin than clingy synthetic fabrics and tight-fitting clothing. If you plan to visit tropical regions, you can protect your skin from excessive exposure to strong sunlight and disease-carrying mosquitoes by resisting the temptation to wear as little clothing as possible. You’ll be much more confident in long-sleeved shirts, high-necked tops, and long pants. Only wear lightweight, light-colored natural fabrics and loose-fitting clothing to maximize the comfort of your clothing.
Casual, comfortable clothing, especially if you veer toward the unkempt, will also lessen your chances of being marked as a rich target by local thieves working the tourist spots. If you want to look a little dressier for evening, add a thin, lightweight, colorful scarf to your simple, neutral-colored daywear. Leave your jewelry at home. It is heavy, bulky and could attract thieves. If you like clothes, try to resist the urge to pack one set of clothes for casual daytime, a dressier set for restaurants at dinner time, and a third set for a dressy night out. You will simply exhaust yourself trying to be fashionable if you have to drag all these outfits from one place to another. Don’t worry about being seen wearing the same clothes two days in a row. No one but your travel companion (or the hotel receptionist) will see you more than once anyway, and if your companion is practical, he or she will also wear a set of clothes for the entire trip.
When it comes to clothing options, I generally wear a loose-fitting, comfortable pair of casual pants and assume that if I get caught in the rain, it won’t kill me. I’ll dry soon. I pack without spare parts. Extra pairs of pants or skirts can add considerably to your baggage load. Pick something in a neutral color that matches whatever else you’re going to wear. Pants with lots of pocket space are a plus, especially if you can pick up little things at souvenir shops, or a bit of junk food, as you stroll through the sights every day.
To travel light, I only carry a spare top or two that are light, comfortable, and can be easily rolled up, since folding them causes more wrinkles than rolling them up carefully. I pack just two pairs of underwear and socks for a complete trip. It’s easy enough to wash underwear, socks, and shirts in hotel rooms and hang them out to dry, and then wear them again during the same trip. The choice is simple. For a two-week trip, you can pack fourteen pairs of underwear wherever you go, or you can pack just two and wash them regularly with soap and water in a hotel room sink. I suggest packing two pairs, not one, so that there’s still some fresh change on hand for the days when you might arrive somewhere overnight and plan to move to another city the next morning, allowing for very little drying time. When you arrive in a larger city like Paris, London, or Rome, where you plan to stay for at least a couple of days, you can catch up on all your washing and know that your clothes have plenty of time to dry, even if the air is humid.
Pack thin, lightweight natural cotton underwear and socks that breathe and don’t require as much drying time as heavier cottons or other fabrics. In summer, clothes can dry out very quickly. In the cooler, wetter months you may be using a radiator and that can double as a heat source for drying. Just be careful not to put wet things directly against radiators or appliances, and be careful, too, not to let wet clothes drip onto hotel room carpets. Drain the clothes well and hang them in the shower until they no longer drip. Don’t wear new, brightly colored clothes that may leak colored dyes that could stain bathroom floors, rugs, or hotel rugs.
Pack lots of plastic bags. They take up little space, are light in weight, and will come in handy in a hundred different ways, from storing open packaged groceries to keeping clothes neatly organized. For example, I will use one bag for clean clothes, such as underwear and socks, a separate bag for dirty clothes (if I have to move before I can wash and dry my clothes), plus a third for clothes that have been washed, but they’re still damp when it’s time to vacate a hotel room and set out on the next leg of a journey. At the next stop they can be hung to finish drying. By the way, washing clothes with regular soap eliminates the need to carry any kind of additional cleaning agent.
If you need some kind of warmer clothing to wear on colder days or cool nights, take just one item of clothing. It can be used whenever you need it. Keep it light, wrinkle-free, and fuss-free. For example, a comfortable sweater or sweatshirt in a color that won’t show dirt is a very practical, soft and warm option, much more practical than a bulky jacket (unless you’re going to be in really cool weather or traveling in winter). . When not in use, you can tie your sweater around your waist. That way you can take it with you while sightseeing on days when the temperature is variable. If it stays strapped around your waist, you’ll feel it less than if you add it to the weight of your pack, and it can even double as a pillow on long, sleepy train journeys.
If you’re traveling at a time or place where you’ll need rain gear, a packable thin plastic poncho or raincoat is the least onerous thing to take with you. It can go right into your pocket and can be easily taken out in case of sudden rain. For city commuting it’s all too easy to hide under awnings or get into tents, making bulkier rain gear unnecessary. Sturdier rain gear or umbrellas are only needed for locations where heavy rain is expected or a lack of quick access to shelter.
Keep sleepwear light and minimal, too, and if you absolutely must have slippers to wear while in your hotel room, buy a cheap, thin, weightless pair of cloth slippers that can be slipped into your pack without adding additional volume.
Don’t pack an extra pair of shoes. Shoes are the ultimate in unnecessary extra bulk and weight when considering travel clothing. In movies, the male and female protagonist who go on a journey appear in different clothes and a new pair of shoes in each scene. They clearly aren’t lugging their own luggage around with them, and in fact, their bags never seem big enough to hold everything they use. So far the difference between movies and reality. I never wear extra shoes. I take a chance and figure if my shoes get wet, I’ll find a way to dry them. I just wear a completely broken-in pair of sneakers that offer good support on the soles. Nothing could be less practical than tight shoes or high heels, and the toll they take on your feet can severely limit your enjoyment of a trip. How long can you walk through picturesque towns or stand in museums when your feet hurt? Wear sturdy, but presentable, low-heeled shoes with solid arch support. Wear shoes that have already been worn and are comfortable enough for hours of daily walking, but be warned, even the shoes you’re used to walking in every day can cause blisters when you suddenly walk for many more hours each day. the normal. Have some Band-Aids or callus pads handy. Make sure that the shoes you choose for the trip are lightweight. Hold them in your hand and compare the different pairs of shoes you are considering for the trip. When you expect to take thousands and thousands of steps each day of a trip, in addition to carrying a backpack every time you travel from one tourist destination to another, it is extremely counterproductive to do so with a pair of shoes that in themselves are heavy and require more effort for each step you take.
Try some of these tips for traveling light by packing very little clothing, and then see what you think. You may never want to pack all kinds of fancy outfits ever again. You and your clothes can still look good, just focus on quality and not quantity. Look at your clothing more for function than fashion, and you’ll be free to enjoy the pleasure of traveling light.