How to Pack Minimally for a Warm Weather Vacation

After having kids, packing for any kind of trip can feel like a real production. Before, you had yourself to think about and maybe, maybe a few things for your partner. Now, planning for the family involves a lot of list-making and overthinking. No longer can you throw in a few pieces here and there ‘just in case’. Instead, packing as simply and lightly as possible becomes a necessary exercise.

If you’d like to get packing for a warm-weather trip down to a fine science (even better, if you never want to pack a bag bigger than a carry-on again), here’s a streamlined way to pack for a trip south during the colder months.

1. Choose a colour palette and stick with it.

Choose two to three neutrals and one to two accent colours to keep things simple. Three to four total colours are great. Some examples of colour combos that work well: black, white, gray, red; navy, white, coral; army green, cream, yellow.

2. Create a versatile travel-day outfit.

When you’re heading from cold weather to warm weather, your travel outfit will be complex to figure out. That’s why we suggest creating it first and using it as the base to build the rest of your vacation wardrobe around. There are two key things to think about when creating this outfit: one, you want to layer, layer, layer so you can take pieces off and on as temperatures change; two, you want to be able to use all your travel pieces when you get down south. Here’s an example of a great travel outfit:

white jeans (a great piece to wear to dinner if needed)

tank top

thin layer (likely a sweater of some kind)

open layer (a loose cardigan works well)

a waterproof light-weight jacket

comfortable (yet stylish) walking flats

neutral-coloured pashmina (worn as a scarf in cold weather and evening shoulder cover in warm weather)

sunglasses

tote bag (used as purse for travel and beach bag on vacation)

3. Lay out the rest of your clothing pieces.

Once you have your base travel outfit, start laying out other pieces that will work while you’re away and will go with all the pieces in your travel outfit. Starting with bottoms can be helpful, because there are usually fewer to choose from, then move on to tops and then dresses and then swimwear. All of these pieces should mix and match together so you can wear each piece more than once. Here are the pieces you might want to consider for a one-week vacation:

6 more tops (bring one top per day including your travel top, even though you technically have one per day you will wear each one more than once. You might want a mix of day and evening tops.)

2 more bottoms

2 dresses (the easier they are to transition from day to evening the better!)

2 swimsuits

1 beach cover-up

4. Add pops of interest with accessories.

Accessories are one of the easiest ways to change up and outfit, and quickly change it from day to evening wear. Here’s what we recommend:

1 pair flipflops

1 pair of heels

1 sun hat

1 bracelet and/or necklace

1 funky jewellery piece

1 evening purse (smaller than a day bag/beach bag)

5. Consider extra activities.

If you know you will be going for a run everyday, you’ll need to pack clothes/footwear to do that. Take stock of any activities you plan to do while you’re away and pack accordingly.