International Travel Packing List: Clothing, Essentials & Pro Tips

It starts with how much luggage allowance you have, how long are you travelling for, what season, where in the world. Honestly there is no one answer fits all. But what I do know, is what we have in our suitcase, that has done us perfectly all over the world over the past almost 2 years! From full winter, to full Europe summer, to what is meant to be summer in the UK, but wasn’t, SE Asia and everything in between.

So here is a list of what is in our suitcases for us, all seasons, all attractions – cities and nature, and usually around 23kg per bag limit x2 (plus backpacks, but they don’t count as they are filled with camera gear, laptops and schoolwork haha)

• Shirts x 4
• Shorts x 2
• Jeans x 1
• Tights x 1
• Lightweight pants x 1
• Jumpsuit, dresses, skirts x 4
• Trackpants x 1
• Jumper x 1
• Puffer Jacket x 1
• Rain Jacket x 1
• Beanie, scarf, gloves, hat: 1 of each
• Thermal pants x1
• Swimmers x1
• Shoes – Hiking boots, sneakers, thongs, (ugg boots just added recently)

• Shirts x 5
• Shorts x 3
• Jeans x 1
• Trackpants x 1
• Jumper x 1
• Puffer Jacket x 1
• Rain Jacket x1
• 1x beanie, gloves, 2 x hats
• Thermal pants x1
• Swimmers x1
• Shoes – Hiking boots, sneakers, thongs, (ugg boots just added recently)

• Shirts x 6 (short sleeve)
• Shirts x 3 (long sleeve)
• Shorts x 5
• Jeans x 2
• Tights x 2
• Dresses x 4
• Trackpants x 1
• Jumper x 1
• Puffer Jacket x 1
• Rain jacket x1
• Beanie, scarf, gloves, hat x1
• Thermal pants x1
• 1 x swimmers
• Shoes – Waterproof boots, Joggers, thongs, (ugg boots just added recently)

• We have a power board from Aus, with 4 x 240v plugs and 2 x USB C and 2 x USB A plugs – this covers our charging needs (but unless you carry the camera gear we do, you won’t need this much). Plus adaptors for EU, UK, USA.
• We carry Laundry Detergent sheets for clothes washing and shampoo and conditioner bars (no liquid spills or heavy liquid bottles)
• Hard-drives to back up photos and videos. I am always paranoid that my cloud storage will be compromised so I back up to a hard drive also. (Yes, I am at hard-drive number 4 of our overseas trip and they aren’t small drives).
• Medium sized plastic container that has an excellent seal, plus a plastic fork, knife and spoon and a couple of clip lock bags and rubber bands/hair ties. You wouldn’t believe how many times we had had random left overs on travel days, packed sandwiches into the container on explore days, used the cutlery when I have grabbed a salad from a supermarket or even used the bowl for cereal for my breakfast in a hotel room or needed to through some snacks in a bag or tie up a packet.
• Travel Pillow – highly recommend the Cocoon Travel Pillow, best and most comfortable one I have ever had.
• Travel Towels – we carry a sand-free beach towel from Apricate that we can also use as a bath towel, or on a picnic chair etc as needed. We have one each as they are compact and light weight.
• We have a small sewing kit – a couple of threads colours, a couple of needles and a safety pin. I have used it a few times over the past 2 years.

Travel Pillow

Travel Towels

Hair Care Bars

Packing cubes

• We use Samsung Tags for tracking our bags. We have them in suitcases and backpacks. They have been brilliant and haven’t let us down yet, expecially on the one occasion our luggage was ‘delayed’ in transit.
• Layers are your friend for clothing and interchangeable/multi-use tops and bottoms make everything versatile!
• Waterproof and comfy shoes are the best, you don’t need heels, not even for dinner.
• Bring your medications (and a script as a backup) for however long you’re away for plus a little just to be sure, for travel delays or loss. You can’t get the script filled in most places, but it helps with getting a new one if needed. We also carry a small and basic first aid type kit with a few band-aids of various sizes etc, a few different common meds like trava-calm, paracetamol, etc.
• Don’t worry about looking like a tourist is particular clothes and shoes etc. You will look like a tourist if you are at tourist attractions, taking photos and videos, looking at maps etc, it isn’t going to be your clothes that make you look like a tourist.
• I pack into packing cubes as this keeps everything organised and easy to take in and out as needed. I group each of our clothes into one each, then one for electronics, medication, etc. We also roll our clothes individually as you can always fit more when rolled and they are easier to find!

• a power bank – Yes there has been an odd occasion that we could have used one, but even with all the photos and videos we take, we have managed without. We do have good phones, with good battery life and put onto power saving mode if we are going to have a big day out exploring with no recharging along the way.
• Luggage scales – we generally know what is in our suitcases and we generally don’t buy souvenirs however they would have come in handy a few times as we do carry left over food items (dry good/GF) sometimes so knowing our weights would have been good.

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