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.
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).
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
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.
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!
Curly.Curvy.Candid 