In this article, we’re going to share tips, tricks and hacks that will help you pack better for your next upcoming trip. In preparation for your next getaway, the first thing you need to do is make a vacation packing list. The top four things you want to consider is your trip duration, destination, weather, and occasion.
If your duration is only going to be for a week, you don’t need to pack your entire wardrobe. Also, planning ahead for the weather will help you avoid any mishaps that could occur. And, of course, keeping your occasion in mind will help you to remember important things you need as well as avoid packing things you don’t.
The areas we’ll focus on are:
- Vacation Packing List (The Essentials)
- What to Pack For a Weekend Trip
- Cold Weather Packing List
- Warm Weather Packing List
- Cruise Packing List
- Final Thoughts
Vacation Packing List (The Essentials)
When it comes to being on vacation, there are few worse situations than realizing that you forgot to pack something that’s essential. An important item that, without it, could make or break your vacation. Most of us have been there, done that and don’t wish to repeat it. Regrettably, there aren’t any foolproof plans that will help us completely avoid such mistakes, but having a vacation packing list, that you’re likely to curate over months, is probably the closest we’ll get. If you don’t know where to start, consider organizing your list into categories. These are the seven that we recommend:
- Travel Documents
- Clothing / Shoes
- Toiletries / Hygiene
- Medicine / Medical Directives
- Safety Items
- Technology / Equipment
- Miscellaneous
These categories will help you to organize your thoughts and streamline your packing efforts. We suggest that you get started on your vacation packing list as soon as you know you’re going on a trip. Even if you haven’t purchased tickets and you’re only in the planning stage, get started on that list! The more time you give yourself, the less likely you are to forget anything essential that you’ll need.
Another thing you’ll want to do is, check your airline’s baggage size dimensions and size restrictions before purchasing your luggage. It’s not fun spending a lot of money on fancy luggage only to find out that the dimensions are larger than what the airline allows.
And no! The airlines are not universal when it comes to their baggage weight and size restrictions. So, don’t make any assumptions. Although this is more of a concern for international trips rather than domestic, you still want to be safe rather than sorry.
Make sure you weigh all of your bags! That’s right. Both your carry-on and checked bags. Not all airlines weigh carry-on bags but as carry-on bags often have weight restrictions too, you don’t want your bag to be overweight just in case they decide to check. It happens.
What to Pack For a Weekend Trip
The first thing you need to think about is what you’ll be wearing on your travel days. This is not to be vain but practical. Travel days can be long or short. They can even extend past a 24-hour period. And if you have connections, time constraints, small children, airport signs in foreign languages, an so on, travel days can be extremely stressful.
Considering all of that, you definitely don’t want to wear something that will restrict your ease of movement. Wearing heels may look nice, but are they practical when you have to run through an airport to try to catch your connecting flight?
Not likely! So, make sure you have a comfortable outfit for travel. It doesn’t matter if you’re traveling by plane, train, boat or car, you’ll want your outfit for travel to be something that you can wear for many hours because, you very well may have to.
Unless you have extraordinary circumstances, special equipment, or anything else along those lines, you really shouldn’t have more than a single carry-on bag and maybe a personal item with you for a weekend getaway. That’s it. One of the biggest mistakes we all make is overpacking. So let’s avoid that.
When it comes to what to wear for a weekend trip, it depends on your destination, the weather, the occasion and any special equipment or items you may need. The reality is, you don’t need to have a completely new outfit each day. You should mix and match your tops and bottoms! So for a weekend getaway, we recommend:
- Two bottoms to alternate (Pants, shorts, or skirts)
- One fancy outfit for dining out (Dress, suit, etc.)
- Four tops
- Four changes of underwear
- No more than three pairs of shoes (one for the fancy outfit and two casual)
That’s it! All of those items should comfortably fit in a carry-on luggage with your small bag of toiletries, especially since you’ll be wearing one of the outfits and one of the pairs of shoes on your travel day. At most, you could pack both bottoms in your bag and wear a third pair of bottoms on your travel day, but anything more than that is overkill.
Cold Weather Packing List
It goes without saying that what you pack depends largely on what the weather will be like at your destination. When it comes to packing for colder climates, people tend to really overdo it. So if you’re interested in packing light for cooler climates, check out our cold weather packing list based on a 7-day period:
- Jacket / Coat (It’s best to purchase a packable jacket. But if you don’t want to buy another jacket you can either wear the jacket you already own on your travel days or stuff it into a pillow case to turn it into a pillow.)
- Gloves, hat and scarf (Either worn or stuffed into your jacket.)
- 4 pants
- 1 pair of slides or flip flops (Thongs for Australians.)
- 1 pair of fancy boots (We recommend ankle boots. You can wear them with your fancy dining out outfits.)
- 1 pair of comfy Boots (Something like a pair of Uggs would be great. It’s best to wear your boots if possible on your travel days to avoid them taking up too much space in your luggage. But if you must pack them, you can stuff your socks, underwear and toiletry bag in them to save some space in your luggage.)
- 3 sets of thermals
- 6 tops
- 7 pairs of underwear
- 2 sets of pajamas
- 1 toiletry bag (Be sure to include your sunscreen and lip balm along with your hygienic items.)
- 1 pair of sunglasses (You’ll need them. The sun reflected off the snow makes everything brighter.)
- 3 fancy dining out outfits (Either 3 long sleeved dresses with thick stockings, or one pair of dressy pants and 3 nice long sleeved tops.)
And voila! That’s it.
Packing cubes are really helpful to keep your items organized and could help you squeeze all of those items in a single carry-on bag. (This has been tested so we know it works!)
However, you’ll need to know how to fold pants for travel in order to get the space you need.
If you do need to pack a check bag, then we recommend that you pack at least two of your outfits in your carry-on just in case your checked bag is delayed or worse—lost! At least you’ll have a couple of outfits you can wear.
And when it comes to your expensive electronics, always, always, always pack them in your carry-on luggage. You never want to put them in your checked luggage lest they get damaged or stolen.
Pro Tip: Before an international trip, be sure to purchase and pack appropriate power adapter converters for your phones, laptops, curling irons, hair dryers and anything else you’ll need to plug into electricity. Plug outlets are not universal. And avoid frying your electronics overseas by checking the voltages for your destination prior to traveling. Some countries have higher voltages than the U.S. and therefore, it may be unsafe to plug in your devices.
Warm Weather Packing List
You might have discerned a theme with our packing lists, we tend to lean more toward the minimalist side of things. Packing light will make your trip more enjoyable because you’ll have fewer things to lug around from place to place. Plus, an added bonus of having a vacation packing list is, you’re less likely to leave things behind because there are fewer things to remember. Especially, if you keep your original list with you. You can just go through and check things off your list prior to your return trip home.
To keep things light and cool, here’s the warm weather packing list we recommend for a 7-day trip:
- Undergarment money belt
- 1 sweater or breathable jacket (You never know if you’ll find yourself in a cold airport, plane, hiking trail, etc.)
- 4 bottoms (Shorts, skirts, and at least one pair of pants. All should be breathable materials.)
- 1 pair of foot supported walking sandals
- 1 pair of fancy shoes (Consider a dressy open-toe shoe that is breathable rather than a closed-toe shoe.)
- 1 pair of comfy shoes (Breathable sneakers or hiking shoes that have good support.)
- 6 tops (Again, with breathable materials that are preferably oder resistant to help against body oder and sweat.)
- 7 pairs of underwear (Consider a few extra pairs if you’re prone to getting sweaty.)
- 2 sets of pajamas (Consider short sets and night gowns.)
- 1 toiletry bag (Be sure to include your sunscreen and cleansing wipes along with your hygienic items.)
- 1 pair of sunglasses
- 3 fancy dining out outfits (Consider dresses, skirts, or dressy shorts with nice blouses. Again, made with breathable materials if possible.)
The good thing about packing for warmer weather is, you can usually pack a tad bit more since warm weather clothing tends to be less bulky than cold weather clothing.
And again, packing cubes are a great addition to your list, especially for warm weather travel. Oftentimes, we may not be able to wash our clothes. Packing cubes help us keep our sweaty and smelly clothes away from our clean fresh ones.
If you don’t want to dish out the coins to purchase packing cubes, you can always use plastic bags to keep your sweaty and smelly clothes separate. Oder causing bacteria can spread like wildfire in your luggage so definitely make separation a priority.
Cruise Packing List
Unlike other types of vacations, it’s even more important to pack all of your essentials on a cruise because it’ll be much more difficult to purchase the items you need if you forget anything due to the very nature of this type of vacation. You are isolated on a boat surrounded by water.
Sure. You have excursions where you can make purchases, but items that are sold at and near cruise ports tend to be much more expensive. Also, if you need anything outside of food, souvenirs, liquor, clothing and over-the-counter medicines and supplies, you won’t likely find what you actually need if you forget to pack it.
We know that there are cold weather and warm weather cruises but it seams that the most popular types of cruises are tropical weather cruises so that’ll be the basis of our cruise packing list. So, without any further adieu, this is our 7-day tropical cruise packing list:
- Travel Documents (Besides your tickets, having a government I.D. or passport is a must. But nowadays, you may even need to bring your vaccine card. Check with the cruise line or your travel agent to be sure.)
- Undergarment money belt
- 1 sweater or breathable jacket
- 4 bottoms (Shorts, skirts, and at least one pair of pants. All should be breathable materials.)
- 1 pair of foot supported walking sandals or 1 pair of comfy shoes for walking with good support.
- Magnetic hooks (The walls in your cruise cabin will likely be metal so magnetic hooks may help give you a bit more storage space.)
- Luggage tags (Luggage tend to look the same and it can get confusing, so having tags that stand out is a game changer.)
- Waterproof phone pouch (Best for excursions or even when going to the pool on the cruise ship. You can also put your cruise card in there.)
- 6 tops
- 7 pairs of underwear
- 3 pairs of bathing suits
- 2 sets of pajamas
- 1 hanging toiletry bag (Why hanging? The cabin bathrooms are quite small with limited vanity space. So having a hanging toiletry bag will be convenient and allow you to hang your bag in the bathroom. Be sure to include your sunscreen along with your hygienic items.)
- Motion sickness and sea sickness medication
- 1 pair of sunglasses
- 1 large beach bag (Great for excursions to carry a change of clothes, snacks and to carry back any souvenirs you purchase.)
- 2 fancy dining out outfits for the formal/elegant nights (Consider sticking to dresses and suits.)
- 1 pair of fancy shoes (Something that will go with both dressy night outfits is best.)
- 1 Clutch and jewelry (To complete your outfits for the formal/elegant nights.)
So there you have it! That’s our cruise packing list. However, we would be remiss if we did not mention that if you’re traveling with family or a group, each of you may want to consider packing a cruise shirt to add to the fun.
Final Thoughts
We hope that you found helpful our ultimate vacation packing list for 2022 and beyond. But be sure to check this list frequently as we promise to keep it up-to-date. And we welcome your suggestions so please tell us what we could add in the comment section below.
When it comes to a vacation packing list, it can be overwhelming but we hope that our tips, tricks and hacks have helped reduce the overwhelm. Just remember, organizing your list into categories will help you collect your thoughts and reduce the possibility of your leaving out essential items.
Taking into consideration your destination, trip duration, the weather and the occasion will also help you pack what is necessary and leave out what’s not. If you’re traveling to a place that you’ve never been before, make sure you research weather conditions and local events that’ll take place at the time of your vacation beforehand, as those are the two situations that can have a significant impact on how you enjoy your trip.
It could also help to talk to a travel expert like Dawn Cunningham. As a travel agent with two decades of experience, she could not only help you plan for your next trip but she could give you pro packing tips based on your destination. Learn more about Dawn and her travel agency, Just Pack and Go!
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