Category: Travel

Travel: Walking, Wind, and Waves!

Published on by jamielanelleLeave a comment

Oliver and I recently went on yet another international vacation – this time to Greece. We decided to change up our usual modus operandi and try out a cruise ship. I have a lot of thoughts on that (let me know if you guys want a blog post just about this?) but this post is about what I wore and why I brought it.

Now if you’ve read my post about Tahiti, I definitely decided that next time we were planning to travel to somewhere warm (and believe me – Greece was HOT the entire time we were there) that I was going to bring copious amounts of sundresses. And so I did, to the detriment of my backpack.

My collection of proposed packing items (almost exactly what I ended up bringing minus a few last minute cuts, and the “geriatric nurse” outfit that I wore for the plane. Supremely comfortable, and perfectly warm if not my most stylish travel ‘fit.

I want to stress that trip packing is not a one-and-done deal, but that there are always new lessons to be learned and new tweaks to try. We took some of the lessons from Tahiti and applied them to great impact on this trip:

  • We made more room for sunscreen by bringing shampoo/conditioner bars and reducing other liquids.
  • We brought straight up /better/ sunscreen and were more religious about applying it
  • I packed more with the idea of comfortable in mind than I did when we went to Tahiti – for example I brought looser clothing (sundresses) and remembered bike shorts for my poor thighs

The red sundress I wore in Crete and the sunflower dress I wore in Rhodes.

I learned some new lessons on this trip, however, when it comes to clothing.

  • The benefit of not sundresses is layering – of course this comes into play with style, to keep outfits feeling fresh, but this also comes into play with smell. Dresses get smelly, and when one is too smelly it takes a whole outfit out of play instead of just one piece. I did hack this a bit by hanging my dresses inside out in the closet while on the cruise ship, which allowed them to air out some.
  • The type of shorts I bring are very important, and bike shorts are my real heroes: they keep my thighs from rubbing together and don’t move, they are comfortable, they are thin enough to work under a dress but thick enough to work as bottoms on their own, they pack small. For real, if you’re mid-size or bigger, try bike shorts on your next vacation.
  • Long sleeves didn’t necessarily equate to hotter, and it was sometimes nice to have a loose fitting long sleeve shirt to wear to save myself some sunscreen effort.
  • I need to prepare for not being able to wear my dresses some days, or that I’ll want to change up my look, and bring more layering pieces in the future.

The striped shirt and bike shorts I wore in Mykonos, and the t-shirt and bike shorts I wore in Olympia.

Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty of what I brought, what worked, and what didn’t.

** Skincare/Hair Care **

I have been working on clearing up some pretty rough acne and I know that sunscreen and dirt and sweat can make this worse, but I also wanted to cut down on liquids so here’s what I ended up with.

What I Did: At the time I was using Curology (I’ve since stopped using their products, but they did a decent job on this trip) so I brought their cleanser and moisturizer. Greece has a limit on how many prescription products you can bring, so I did not bring my medicated cream. In addition, I brought these face wipes from BusyCo which are really awesome, work well, smell great, and are compostable! They also pack super small which is convenient. For hair care, I brought this set of shampoo and conditioner bars which I got from Grove Collaborative (but you might be able to find elsewhere).

What Worked: In contrast to Tahiti, I wasn’t having to bug spray at night, so I actually did my most intense washing in the afternoon when we stopped by our room to shower off the day’s sweat and rest. This worked very well for me, and I think would be easy to replicate with any skin care regimen. My skin was pretty rough before we left, but actually cleared up a bit while on the trip. The shampoo/conditioner bars were honestly better than I expected though it did take a bit of effort to figure out how, exactly, they worked. If you can put up with a bit more work in the shower, I say look into some bars because they save on liquid space. I put ours in soap savers I got for like $6 from Ross, so they also dried out well between uses and packed without leaving grim on anything.

What I Would Change: Honestly, not much. I think I really hacked what worked well for me this time.

The floral dress I wore in Corfu, and the red dress worn again under one of my layering tops for Santorini.

// Hair Sidebar – Accessories //

Since I knew we wouldn’t really be swimming on this trip, I brought a few more accessories.

What I Did: I brought a whole host of cute bobby pins, a couple of clips, and two big scrunchies, and two small scrunchies.

What Worked: This setup was a quick and easy grab, especially since I have short hair right now. These were all tested items that I use every day at home, so I knew they would do roughly what I wanted them to.

What I Would Change: THERE WAS SO MUCH WIND IN GREECE. Legit, I almost made Oliver learn to French braid while we were on the cruise ship. If you were wondering why my hair is such a mess in all these photos – for real, the wind was a problem for my short curls.

** Shoes **

What I Did: I brought my Vionic leather sneakers and this pair of Tiva sandals.

What Worked: After our very first international trip to Paris, and again tested in Tahiti, I have really figured out what shoe combination works well. The sneakers were better for our city roaming days, and the sandals were better for scrabbling about the dusty ruins. I am a firm believer in bringing two pairs of shoes – even better if they are pretty different from each other – so that when things start to rub or blister, you can change it up and give your feet a break. I saw this in full force on this trip. Also, it should be noted that my Vionic sneakers held up much better than my Aerosoles I previously used as my travel shoes, and they had better support than either the Aerosoles or the Soludos. If you’re looking for a solid pair of well made travel shoes, I highly recommend checking out Vionic.

What I Would Change: My main concern was that neither pair of shoes had a really good grip for the loads of marble or the dry, dusty climate. I wasn’t anticipating that Greece would be so dry in general, and I might hunt better grip shoes for our next foray into arid lands, but overall both pairs of shoes did exactly what I needed them to.

Athens days one and two. The striped shirt and shorts was by far my least successful outfit – in future trips I probably won’t bring these shorts again. The dress was fine, but I felt a little weird about how see through it was.

** Clothing **

What I Did: I brought on this trip four sundresses, three t-shirts, one long sleeve shirt, one sweater, one pair of sweat pants, three pairs of bike shorts, one pair of looser athletic shorts, two long tanks, one crop tank (tight fit), light rain jacket, one swimsuit.

What Worked: As I mentioned above, the bike shorts were the real heroes – even though the sundresses were a lot flashier. I’m very glad I brought two long/loose tank tops, as these did all the real sweat mopping work under my cute dresses. The tight top wasn’t super practical – I’m not positive I would bring this one again.

I purchased another sundress from the locals and once again, this was the perfect thing for this climate. It’s almost as if the people who live there know how to dress for it! Also, as I mentioned a bit in the caption above, I frequently had some concern about how see through some of my dresses were. Fun fact: the Greek people do not care ONE BIT about you seeing their underwear through their cute sundresses so this was entirely my own self-conscious issue. Once I got over this, I was a lot more comfortable in the heat.

What I Would Change: Definitely some of the items I brought were just too heavy. Specifically the turquoise t-shirt; while it’s a very cute layer and did do that job well, it was a bit thick for the heat. So when I was layering it over things, I was often just too hot. I also probably needed to bring one more pair of regular shorts (maybe the denim ones I cut from the first picture in this post) and maybe one more t-shirt. I forget that my travel outfit is usually completely wasted by the time we arrive (I get so smelly on planes)! Also, I didn’t need to bring the raincoat at all — the only day it rained, we didn’t have our coats and my sundress dried out just fine. Plus the wet was a welcome reprieve from the hot sun and dry wind.

The sundress I bought in Greece, my go-to cruise ship outfit, and Oliver in his favourite outfit – linen pants and floral button down shirt, paired with his dad hat and sandals (of course).

** Final Thoughts **

I really love travel, and while I complain endlessly about it, I also love the challenge of travelling out of a backpack as a fashionista. It feels like such an accomplishment when I implement new lessons each time, and learning and growing always feels so natural when it comes to trip fashion. At the end of the day, I love to look good and I love to see new things, and the combination of the two is *chef’s kiss.*

I feel like each time we go on a new international vacation, I also start to hone in on what is important to me while travelling, and it’s comfort – hands down. I really need to be able to move well and look cute while doing it. In this sense, the sundresses do a lot of work. But I also need to bring items that pack efficiently, and use what little space I have to the best of my ability. The sunflower dress was so dang cute and pretty comfortable to wear, but took up about half of my space. If I had swapped that for some smaller items, I could likely have fit at least two other full outfits – dresses or tops & bottoms – and this would have been to my advantage.

Finally, I want to talk a bit about colour palette: I’ve proven, handily, that you can bring a whole host of colourful patterned items that all work together. To all the people out there who want to try a capsule wardrobe or want to travel out of a backpack but aren’t really into plain-jane clothing and neutrals – it can be done. I never once felt like I was trying to make colours or patterns go together that just didn’t work. The whole palette made sense. My best helpful hint for how to do this is to lay all the items out that you intend to pack (like I did in the first photo of this post) so you get a quick visual on things that just don’t work together. In the future, thought, I might not put the strict ban on black clothing like I did this time. I have some really fun sundresses and shirts that were quickly ruled out as packing options which might have worked better than some of the items I brought.

I hope all of you get to travel soon, and that these fashion debriefs are helpful in your own packing adventures.

What are your go-to items for vacations? Do you bring multiple suitcases or just backpack it like we do? Planning a trip and don’t know what to pack? Let me know in the comments below.

Travel: Style Blind Spots & Nature Travel

Published on by jamielanelle2 Comments

Recently, Oliver and I were able to travel to French Polynesia for a ten day vacation. It was an exciting trip filled with a lot of firsts: our first major trip mid-pandemic, our first nature focused vacation, and our first trip to an island. We were so excited to have a chance to get away from everything and go somewhere remote and warm for a bit.

As you may know, Oliver and I are strict believers in carry-on only when we travel (you can read my review on our Osprey bags here or check out my how-to for packing here) and this trip was no different. However, this going to an island in the middle of their summer was a big highlight on a style blind spot for me: summer clothing.

I have never been great at choosing summer clothing. Growing up in Colorado, summer clothing was very much about “how can I stay as cool as possible” but I spent a lot of my summers in my bedroom at home, and not really out doing things because it was just too hot, so my summer clothes were whatever was comfortable from the thrift store. As I grew older, my style evolved for other months but my summer style stayed largely the same: comfortable t-shirt and shorts. I had a few years of summer dresses that I really enjoyed, but they were fleeting at best.

Now, I live in Seattle where our summers are still relatively cool. There is maybe one month of 80’s and sunshine, but a lot of the other days are still 60’s and overcast, so investing in a lot of summer clothing that I just really won’t wear seems like a waste. Therefore, packing for a trip to a hot island mid-summer was setting itself up to be pretty rough. As I told Oliver while packing, my job was almost made easy by how few summer clothes I really have.

To be honest, some of these choices were pretty optimistic…

While I didn’t necessarily have a wealth of choice in the clothing I brought with me, I did choose things intentionally:

  • Three crop tops: I picked these because they are light and comfortable – basically very easy to wear. Crop tops are a flattering fit on me, and they are cut a bit looser which I (correctly) assumed would be important in sweaty, humid heat.
  • Two regular t-shirts: this was more of a just in case choice that I imagined would mostly be plane wear to be a bit warmer.
  • The only summer dress I have (which, turns out, does not fit anymore)
  • Red check shorts: a pair that I’m not super attached to, but dries quickly and fit well. I always try to bring a set of clothing that can get ruined while travelling, just in case.
  • Purple patterned shorts and brick colored shorts: both are lightweight cotton pairs that fit well, look cute, and are comfortable to wear.
  • Linen striped shorts: not necessarily practical color (they can be a bit see through) but with intelligent underwear choices, these would be the most practical fabric-wise. Linen is cool and quick drying.
  • One tank top: mostly as a plan warmth layer, but ended up serving other uses.
  • One pair of thigh savers: my thighs rub together, especially in shorts, especially when sweaty, and I thought these would get a lot more wear than they did.
  • Two pairs of shoes – my Soludos sneakers for travel days, and Tiva sandals for when we were on the island.
  • Both swimsuits that I own

Honestly, going in I thought I had packed very well. The outfits were easily comfortable and classic; they were all roughly in the same color palette so they would mix and match well giving a lot of flexibility in outfits. I definitely learned a lot during this trip and would pack a bit different in the future. Below I’ll talk about each section, things I did well, and things I would change.

** Skincare/Hair Care **

I’m not a high maintenance person in this area, but I did bring more this trip than usual, and I do have some level of skincare routine that I feel is easy to replicate for other carry-on travelers.

What I Did: I brought these facial cleansing wipes, a day moisturizer, and a night moisturizer (both from No B.S. skincare line). I would cleanse deeply with a wipe, moisturize, and head to bed. If I felt the need to cleanse throughout the day, I would repeat with the day moisturizer. For hair, I have curly hair and a lot of maintaining curls is keeping the natural oils in the hair. I assumed the salt water would do a good job of stripping it, so I brought a lot of shampoo/conditioner sets.

What Worked: My choice of skincare routine worked pretty well even on a face that was dealing with an entirely new environment. At night, we were both pretty exhausted, so it was good that my routine was simple and easy. I use these face wipes – which did a good job of cleansing. About halfway through our trip, my skin started to clear up really nicely even which was neat to see in spite of the sand, sunscreen, and bug spray caked into it. Having a lot of conditioner was also great! I feel like my hair did pretty well until the very end.

What I Would Change: In the future, I probably wouldn’t even bring shampoo to a destination with salt water that we are swimming in every day. I used it maybe once, and the rest of the days I just cleansed with conditioner.

** Swimwear **

What I Did: I brought initially two swimsuits, as well as two extra period swim bottoms (I’ll talk about those more later).

The super cute front of the swimsuit… and the impractical back of many straps.

What Worked: Definitely having multiple swimsuits was a good idea, and in future I would bring at least two again. Things would not dry overnight, unless they had been in the hot sun for a bit and since we were sometimes swimming in the evenings to cool off before bed, our swimsuits often weren’t dry the next day. Having a few interchangeable swim pieces to work with made swimming more enjoyable day to day.

What I Would Change: If we did a trip like this again, I would purchase entirely new swimwear for a couple of reasons.

  1. The swim wear I brought was very old, and three of four main swim items did not fit well. This made each day of swimming unnecessarily uncomfortable.
  2. The swim top that I brought which fit best has a lot of straps at the back. This made it both inconvenient to put on/take off each day (especially if it hadn’t dried all the way) and particularly uncomfortable over my (inevitable) sunburnt back.
  3. The four main pieces didn’t really match, and weren’t interchangeable. It would be nice for future trips if I could mix and match pieces throughout the week.

** Period Items**

Getting down and dirty for a minute here, but I wanted to specifically talk about my period underwear and swimwear.

What I Did: I brought six pairs of period underwear – two heavy flow, two medium, and two light flow. I brought two pairs of period swim bottoms.

What Worked: Honestly, all of these items were a god-send for many different reasons. I highly recommend that women wear a pair of period underwear on long haul flights, whether or not they are actually on their period. Since they are designed to help wick away moisture and contain things, they help immensely with staying comfortable in a situation where bathroom breaks are scarce and you will be sitting for a long period of time. I use Thinx for the underwear. The period swimwear were also amazing – in addition to providing comfortable bottoms to replace those that didn’t fit well, they worked marvelously well in a situation where bleeding in the water was potentially dangerous. They were easy to clean, dried well, and held up even after long days of activity. The ones I brought are these from Ruby Love.

What I Would Change: not a lot to say here, except that either from bugs or other conditions, my older pairs of period underwear got rather destroyed. So maybe keep this in mind if you’re travelling to a similar, bug ridden and humid locale.

** Shoes**

What I Did: I brought my Soludos leather sneakers and this new pair of Tiva sandals.

The sneakers were perfect for skipping about, and my sandals were great when I wasn’t enjoying the super soft sand.

What Worked: Overall, both of these choices were pretty solid for their given purposes. My sneakers held up well and were comfortable for hurried airport running and walking all over the city, and my sandals did exactly what I asked of them both on land and in the water. I ended up using my sandals exclusively in our bungalow because there was just dried coral for the ground – practical in the mind of the owners, but not great underfoot. They were comfortable, easy to clean, and quick drying. The sneakers also gave an added benefit of protection and comfort for my bug-bitten, sunburnt feet on our last day of travel.

What I Would Change: this was, honestly, the first place I have bene to where flip-flops are actually a practical choice of footwear. I ended up pushing down the backs of my sandals and treating them as slide on shoes for a lot of the trip because you’re in and out of shoes a lot. Being light, small, and easy to pack I think a pair of flip-flops would have been a welcome addition.

** Clothing**

What I Did: you can see the list of clothing I brought above. Add to that a light jacket (not waterproof) and a thin raincoat (both from Outdoor Research) since we knew it would be wet season, and while we were there I purchased a sundress from a local shop.

Two of the crop tops which made multiple appearances. Also featured, the red checked shorts that doubled as sun-blocking swimwear, and the brick red shorts that were super comfortable. Light rain jacket in the first photo.

What Worked: The crop tops were a GREAT choice. Since they have a looser fit, they didn’t rub or cause any issues with my sunburns. They also provided better airflow than my longer shirts, which fit tighter near my butt. All being made of thin cotton, they dried quick, and I wore them many times. The two t-shirts also worked well for their intended purpose – flight clothing. Since I didn’t want to wear them during the week, I ended up having a nice clean shirt to wear going home which felt really good.

The shorts ended up working nicely as well. The red checked shorts were perfect for swimming on the days where we wanted a little extra protection from the sun. The brick colored shorts (United by Blue brand – highly recommend) were awesome, and I wore them most of the days because they were just perfect – not too fitted, very comfortable, just the right length, quick drying… etc.

The sundress I purchased from the locals was, no surprise, very well suited to the environment. Perhaps a bit of a poor color choice for Tahiti, it will make a great summer dress for Seattle.

First photo shows my flight outfit – arguably the least practical.
The second photo shows my super cute local dress – arguably one of the most practical.

What I Would Change: The plane to Tahiti I wore the light jacket and a pair of leggings. While this worked well flying out, I just could not stuff my swollen, sweaty legs back into my leggings. I also could have gone without the linen shorts – they are a bit less soft, so they bothered my sunburns and I was really only able to wear them on my last day. Not a practical choice for an 8 hour flight home either, but I had little choice since my other shorts were straight up gross after 7 days of wilderness living and my leggings weren’t happening. In the future, for flight wear I would bring a looser pair of sweats or joggers that still look nice and keep me warm, but would be easier for end-of-vacation me to wear.

I didn’t need the chub rub shorts, and definitely didn’t need two pairs. Since they take up little space, I would probably bring one again but not both.

I would also have appreciated more sundresses, especially that fit comfortably. It would have been nice to just throw on a dress over swimwear and sunburns, rather than having to pull shorts or a shirt over every time. Also I forget how much I enjoy wearing them, and I think long term I just want to work more sundresses into my wardrobe.

In the future, I would have just brought the rain jacket. While it’s not better than the other light jacket for flying, I didn’t use the light jacket at all while we were there, and I didn’t even use it for the return flight. The rain jacket, however, worked very well as both rain and sun protection.

** Final Thoughts **

Overall I learned a lot about myself this trip, but especially so about my fashion choices and I’m feeling re-invigorated to spruce up my summer wardrobe come the warmer months. I definitely want to add more sundresses to my wardrobe, and I need to find a few more practical swimsuits.

I also realized that a lot of my assumptions of why clothing would or wouldn’t work were correct – which feels good when going into a trip with very few options. When we go on our next warm weather vacation, I’ll have bolstered confidence in my packing skills, and a lot better of an idea of what I’ll need.

How do you pack for nature-focused vacations? Do you have any wardrobe blind spots? Questions for me about travel, fashion, or any of the products I mentioned in this post? Comment below!