Packing for cold and hot weather

Two colour, red and black, lightweight, wheel on suitcase. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

.I start packing for a trip two months in advance, usually in the wrong season. It used to be simple. 

Winter Clothes Packing

You pack your winter clothes in a suitcase, or two, or three, and put it in the attic. When winter comes, all your thin and sleeveless tops go into the suitcases. Out comes the thermal underwear and heavy jumpers and warm winter scarves.

Now I keep all my clothes around me. 

Packing For Hot & Cold Weather

But I also buy in the wrong season. I need some warm and some light clothing whatever the apparent weather at my destination. I know that I can find cold weather in summer, on top of a mountain, out at se, late at night, or indoors in air conditioning. 

I can also find warm places in winter, rooms with lots of people, a house where the thermostat has gone wrong and we are permanently overheated.

Charity shops and second hand stores are good places to look for out of season clothes. People give away items no longer needed. Next season they will buy new, or bury for their new size, having put on weight or, sometimes, lost weight.

Here is the story of an attempt to deal with some of these problems. Thrift Plus.

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https://thrift.plus/our-story

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What to pack and wear in colder weather

Cold Weather Walking Tour Clothes

I check weather and decide when I want to do walking tours. I can get out my ski jacket and gloves. I remember one year it was really cold in England and I thought, I'd like to do a walking tour but who goes walking this time of year in the UK - it's freezing.

That's a metaphor. It isn't freezing. This time last year (I thought then) I was in the USA in a ski resort where it was literally freezing.  I walked around in snow and sat outside drinking hot drinks. How did I manage?

Col Weather Clothes
Simple. I wore ski jackets and ski gloves and thermal underwear. The moral is, in winter always pack thermal vest and gloves and hat. If room in your suitcase, or wear it on the plane, add a warm jacket.That way, if the weather turns cold, or you want to go on a walking tour, you are prepared.

I thought everybody would laugh at me when I turned up in luminous ski wear for a walking tour of London. But nowadays on the London underground you have people from all over the world in all sorts of outfits.

Nobody cares what you wear. They are more interested in their friends' texts and safety announcements and getting on the right train.

Cheapest places for thermal underwear? Try Primark. Sports shops. Travel wear shops. Or camping shops. The nearest department store. Some online companies offer next day delivery.

Finally, sunglasses, especially if you have varifocal and light sensitive lenses. Take your prescription. Email it to yourself so it is on your computer and phone and can be picked up at an internet cafe if your glasses are lost or broken or you have an opportunity to buy a new pair. You might need them in the sun, on the snowy mountaintop or at sea. Goggles which fit over glasses are also useful if you go skiing.

A sudden chance to extend your stay, take a new route home, might mean you have a coupe of days at a change of climate and don't want to spend all your precious holiday time on shopping. (Maybe you do, and a list of what you already have at home is useful. Get it out. Those gloves which now look shabby, the hat with the hole - a chance to replace at the cheap store or sale time at your destination.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and author