The Imperfect Packing List for Longterm Travel for Women

by | Sep 29, 2018

There’s certainly no magic perfect longterm travel or round-the-world trip packing list because every trip is different, and everyone’s style and comfort level is unique. But there are some good general rules of thumb to follow: take less than you think you need (near impossible!), try to pack items that can all be interchangeably worn with most other items you’re packing, and think through the scenarios for which you’re dressing – and not just the big ones.

Let’s begin with that last one. When we were planning our year traveling around the world, we focused a lot of those plans on hikes and more athletic activities that we wanted to do. The majority of the clothing I brought was “athleisure,” which I quickly realized was a big mistake. We started the trip off in Europe, and while we did do a ton of hiking and even spent a week toiling away in the dirt on a farm (where they lent us some items and sent us to the local market to buy used clothes for a few dollars each), I pretty much neglected to think about what I’d wear when we weren’t doing those things. When we dined at nice restaurants or spent the day casually walking around town. When we wanted to blend in a little more with the other stylish Europeans shopping and enjoying beautiful sunsets. When we wanted to take photos that didn’t involve my Under Armour shorts in every one.

Yes, absolutely, these trips are about the experiences you have along the way, but when you’re self-consciously ogling everyone around you wishing you blended in to the setting a little better, it’s easy to see that packing in a slightly more self-aware way would make a significant difference in those experiences.

As we traveled, I wound up trading out some of my clothing for others based on filling in those items I was missing – as well as to replace some items that just didn’t hold up. By the end of the trip, I felt like I almost had the wardrobe with which I should have started the trip. Here’s my ideal (for me!) longterm packing list:

Dresses/Skirts

  • 1-2 long dresses, but very compressible. I loved my Alternative Apparel one because it worked as both a casual dress as well as for a night out, it packed up small, and wrinkles fell out of it quickly. I’d recommend one long dress and one long skirt (see next item), but a second dress is another option. For that, I’d recommend a more feminine flowy one like this, again where wrinkles either don’t matter or fall out quickly. Flowy dresses are great for beach photos and landscapy situations, and of course, Instagram.
  • 1 long casual skirt that can go with a nicer shirt or a casual shirt and that works to cover up knees and ankles in situations where that’s required.
  • 1 short casual dress that can work for walking around, as a beach cover up, or even for hiking when there may be swimming involved (which I’ve definitely done!)

Shirts

  • 2 nicer tank tops that can pair with a variety of pants, shorts, and skirts. I’ve been a big fan of the Everlane Air Cami since a friend turned me on to it.
  • 2 sportier tank tops that can also work with the bottoms you bring as well as for working out or sleeping. I was incredibly happy with my Athleta Shine Racerback Tank, which they don’t seem to sell anymore, but I think most Athleta clothing passes the endurance test. H&M also offers some decent options as does Target.
  • 2-3 short sleeve shorts that can go sporty or pair with the skirt. Alternative Apparel, Athleta, and Marine Layer all have good options.

Before we get in to bottoms, I’d recommend thinking about colors here. Almost all my bottoms were black, except my jeans. And a lot of my tops were black and grey or blue. That meant that in a lot of pictures, I was in a black shirt with black pants or shorts. It’s fine here and there, but it got overbearing after a while, and I wished I had a little more variety in my color palette. Towards the end of the trip, I was obsessively seeking out colorful shirts to brighten it up a bit!

Bottoms

  • 1 pair of Old Navy lightweight boyfriend jeans. Conventional packing wisdom says no jeans, but jeans were a staple for me, and they were great for nights out in non “travel” clothes.
  • 1 pair of Merrell Belay Slim 2.0 hiking pants. These are fantastic hikers, are water resistant, and also doubled pretty well as going out pants since they’re slim and smart-looking.
  • 1 pair of leggings. The struggle here is heavy or lightweight, and full leg or crop. This is a serious debate, and only you can decide…. I went with the warmer full-leg option but might not recommend the Athleta Ponte Moto pants I chose. They were super warm and comfortable, but they tended to fall down a bit throughout the day, and I was constantly hiking them up. If I were to do it again, I would skip the heavy leggings and opt for lightweight ones (I’m super happy with my side-pocket Baleaf leggings) and would have just layered those under the hiking pants for colder weather situations.
  • 1 pair of wide-leg flowy lightweight pants. These are multi-functional in that they’re good comfortable pants (nice for long travel days), and they can look more dressy than leggings and shorts, so they work well for sprucing up a bit with a nicer shirt.
  • 2-3 pairs of shorts. I started out with a heavy duty pair (denim cutoffs) and a pair of workout/sleep shorts, which wasn’t ideal because I would only wear them for exercise if I knew I could sink wash them the same day to be able to wear them to sleep also. But I lived with that and also wound up adding in a pair of Billabong shorts that were great for the beach and hiking, although I wish they had back pockets as well because the side pockets are a little shallow for a phone.

Swimsuits

  • 1 reversible bikini (space saving plus more bang for your buck!) or 2 bikinis that work together to give you even more pairing options.
  • 1 one-piece if you like having that option as well. I got so many compliments on my Becca Color Play “swimming costume”, it almost made up for how embarrassingly sporty the rest of my wardrobe was! Almost.

Outerwear

Shoes

This is another area where your plans really really really affect the shoes you should pack! I limited myself to 3 pairs when we started the trip, but wound up with 4 by the end of it. (FYI, our trip was focused mainly on warmer weather and water-centric destinations.)

  • 1 pair of Merrell hiking shoes. The thinking was shoes, not boots, because the latter would take up more space. But in actuality, every time we flew, these were my travel shoes because they basically couldn’t fit in my bag anyway. When we traveled by car or train, I could carabiner them onto the outside of my bag just fine.
  • 1 pair of Teva sandals that did triple duty – paired all right with my Alternative Apparel maxi dress, worked as water shoes, and sufficed as hiking sandals as well. My only problem with these was that the construction of the backstrap was not ideal, and a few times they rubbed blisters onto the back of my ankle.
  • 1 pair of minimal walking/dressier sandals. I started out with super comfy and cute Ahnu Maia yoga sandals, and I loved how they looked and fit, but they were completely wrong for longterm travel. The inside is some sort of suede material that holds in all the odors, and they quickly reeked! So those bit the dust. I replaced them with a cute pair of Steve Madden sandals.
  • 1 pair of basic flip flops. I didn’t start out with these, but when we got to Southeast Asia, I got super tired of strapping and unstrapping my Tevas every time I wanted to just pop into a store quickly (since in many places it’s respectful/required to remove your shoes before entering a building) as well as on the beach. So I bought a $3 pair of flip flops, which did the trick perfectly until I had a blowout impromptu-hiking in them (I know, serves me right) in Nicaragua.

Socks

Underwear

Accessories

  • Hair wraps/scarfs/bands – anything that can have a big impact on your look but takes up minimal space in your bag. This is a great opportunity to bring in colors and patterns!
  • 1-2 compressible/packable hats
  • Also just think about different ways to style your hair so when you look back on photos, you don’t look the same in each one.
  • 1 larger (but thin!) Turkish towel/scarf that also works great as a beach towel, picnic blanket, or yoga mat – I opted for a grey one here, and I wish I had used this an opportunity for a pop of (dark because it will get dirty!) color – something that complimented the majority of my wardrobe’s color palette, but added something else to it.

Other general tips

  • Wash and dry everything you’re bringing at least once before you go and then make sure it still fits and works. Outside of Europe, 99.9% of our laundry was done through easy and cheap drop-off services, where there’s no way they’re going to remember to not throw that one adorable linen jumper in the dryer with the rest of your clothes. (BTW, it’s not a bad idea to bring a super compressible laundry bag as well!)
  • Add a sachet of something that smells good to your suitcase or pack – it will help with the dirty laundry, etc. odors.
  • If you want to ditch something on the road, ask around for somewhere to donate the item – you’ll often be able to help someone else out with the article you no longer want or need.
  • You’re not going to get it 100% right. But picking up new items while traveling can be part of the adventure and can make a unique souvenir!

 

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