My Summer Travel Wardrobe 2015

My Summer Vacation Travel Wardrobe

If you're anything like many of my clients the thought of packing for a vacation is stressful. Do you typically pack too much and not wear many of the items you've taken? Or find you've forgotten items that would have been really useful? Learning what to pack to give you just the right outfits without weighing yourself down takes a bit of practise, but is well worth the effort.

Hopefully, sharing what I packed for my summer vacation in the UK and Europe, together with pictures of the outfits I created, will give you ideas to make packing for your next trip faster, better and less stressful!

Travel Packing Considerations

You'll need to know:

• The weather at each of your destinations. I visited the UK at the end of May/beginning of June (highs between 12C-18C; some of the nights went down to around 9C -- brrr!); Greece, Turkey and Italy during June and July (highs from mid-30s to 42C on one heatwave day!)

• Likely activites and events.

  • In the UK I was visiting family and friend in country areas and only went out on a couple of evenings, the rest of the time I needed casual comfortable clothes with lots of layers for when it got chilly!
  • In Greece and Turkey I was on a friend's catamaran with 5 others. We swam, sailed and went sight seeing during the day. In the evenings we socialized on the boat and dined at local restaurants.
  • In Italy we went to the beach, sight seeing, or walking during the day and went out to nice restaurants most nights

• Formality level of activities. Most of my activities were casual. However, I did have a few evenings when I went to nicer restaurants and dresed up a bit.

• Duration of stay at each destination and how often you'll wash your clothes. I was away for almost 7 weeks in total: 2.5 weeks in the UK; 2 weeks on the boat; 2 weeks in Italy; 4 days in transit. I wanted to wash clothes about every 5 to 7 days.

The Travel Packing Process

Something like this is how I suggest you think about what items will be in your final travel wardrobe:

1. Taking into account the considerations above pull candidate clothes and accessories out of your wardrobe
2. Then put back items that are: too similar to each other, for example, pants that are similar in color and style; tops should go with at least 2 or 3 bottoms, and vice versa. You want to be able to create a variety of outfits
3. Create outfits for each location and activity. Note the number of outfits. Have you got something to wear for each likely activity? Have you got too many outfits? Or too few? Make adjustments as needed

What I Packed

Tops

• 4 Long sleeved tees
• 5 Camisoles
• 1 Tank
• 3 Tees
• 4 Dressier short sleeved tops
• 1 Long sleeved shirt

Bottoms

• 2 Long pants
• 1 Pair of Shorts
• 1 Skirt

Dresses

• 3 Dresses
• 2 Tunics (worn as tops or dresses)

Outer Layers

• 2 Drapey cardigans
• 1 Sweater
• 1 Cape
• 1 Waterproof and windproof jacket

Beachwear

• 2 Tankinis (these are bikinis with a long top to cover the torso -- they look like a one piece, but I find them more comfortable and practical)
• 1 Turkish towel (a light weight, cotton towel that can double as a beach wrap or sarong)
• 1 Pair swimming goggles

Footwear

• Ballet flats
• Sandals
• Hiking boots

Accessories

• 2 Scarves
• 1 Sun hat
• 7 Necklaces
• 7 Earrings
• 2 Bracelets

Underwear

• 2 Bras
• 1 Strapless bra
• 7 Panties
• 1 Slip
• 1 Pair of sheer tights
• 3 Pairs of knee high sheer tights
• 1 Pair of hiking socks

Vacation Purchases

Apart from the waterproof sandals, these purchases were fun souvenir purchases, rather than essentials! One thing to watch with such purchases is that they will actually work for you back home. It's easy to get carried away and buy items that work well on a Greece beach, for instance, but that you won't wear again back home!

• 1 pair of waterproof walking sandals
• 2 tees
• 1 dress
• 1 kaftan
• 1 jump suit

My Summer Travel Outfits

In the UK

In the UK at the end of May and early June I mostly needed lots of layers for warmth! I've just realised my brown textured cape is missing from these photos -- I used it as an additional outer layer over cardigans and on the plane. The photos are in reverse order of when they were taken. The last photo in this section is what I wore on the plane.

As you can see, I took most outfit photos here, mainly because my time in the UK was less about going out and seeing things and more about spending time with family and friends.

(The photos below are on Instagram, so if anything isn't displaying properly please look at them here.

On the Boat -- Greece and Turkey

I took less photos of my outfits on the boat. This was partly because I was too focussed on getting on with the holiday, but also because my outfit range during the day shrank to shorts and tees, bathers and cover up. However, we always changed into something nice for evening.

Italy

Hmmm...I really had got out of the habit of recording my outfits by the time I got to Italy! It was so hot that I wore the minimum level of layers: shorts or skirt and tees; or tunics; or swimwear and cover up. Again, I always changed for evening -- I do like dressing up a bit for a night out!

The verdict!

The 1 top I didn't wear

I was very happy with the items I took and how they worked out. There was only one small top (shown to the left) that I didn't end up wearing (mainly because I'd intended it as a choice for evening with shorts or skirt, but because I wore those during the day I didn't want to wear them at night as well).

I also wished I'd taken one other light weight day dress -- it had been in my candidate selection, but I edited it out of the final cut! Of course I managed fine without it, but a couple of times I caught myself thinking it would have been nice to wear.

Related article

I hope this article gives you some ideas for what and how to pack for your next summer vacation. You might also like this travel packing case study.

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