We are travelling very light for this trip and I have spent much time pondering what clothing to take. We have a mixture of travel – safari, desert, city, tour group touring. My go to clothes are linen and merino wool. Also, in Egypt, I have to be sensitive to local customs where women need to have shoulders and arms covered, legs covered to below the knee and a scarf ready for a head covering. I generally have three categories of clothes, but they can be mixed if necessary. The categories are Airplane Travel, Daytime and Evening. Here are the clothes I am taking.
AIRPLANE TRAVEL
Technical pants with belt
Compression socks
Light hiking shoes (only pair of shoes I am taking)
2 long sleeved Icebreaker wool tops
Light down jacket
Scarf
Buff in a pocket
Icebreaker light wool undies
DAYTIME
Linen pants (brown)
Ankle Socks
Solbari beige SPF long sleeved shirt or Icebreaker light wool 3/4 length sleeve top (coral)
Scarf
Icebreaker light wool undies
EVENING
Linen pants (blue)
Ankle Socks
Icebreaker 3/4 length sleeve top (blue)
or
Linen skirt
Tank top covered by a linen shirt
Shoe socks
OTHER ITEMS
Flip flops (to wear in hotel rooms)
Sunhat
Swimsuit
Emergency Rain Poncho in a little bag (only at 24% chance of rain always)
Old pair of socks to climb sand dunes (will get thrown out after)
The reason to divide clothes by daytime and evening is that the daytime clothes get dirty and sweaty whereas the evening clothes do not. So the daytime clothes get hand washed more often. Both linen and wool dry quicker than cotton. The daytime clothes are safari colours – brown and beige. And yes, I am going to wear my colourful light hiking shoes with my skirt.
Basically, I am taking 3 pairs of pants and 1 skirt and 5 tops plus a linen/tank top combo. Three pairs of socks plus the compression socks. Over the years, I have determined that three pairs of undies work just fine. For warmth and decoration, a down jacket, 2 scarves and a buff. I am leaving all my jewelry at home except one pair of earrings that always stay in my ears and my Timex travel watch. The technical pants can be used for daytime or evening if the need arises, like on a clothes wash day.
I do take extra clothes for the airplane rides. Sitting and not moving for hours on end, makes me chilled so I need to take extra clothes to stay warm. And then there is sometimes the out of control air conditioning that we experienced coming home from Bonaire. It was so cold in our seats, I had to ask the flight attendant for a blanket. I will never again travel without a down jacket and buff.
So that is the clothing that is sitting in my bag or in a pile to be worn. My bag is pretty light right now and I want to keep it that way, so hopefully I won’t add any last minute items.
On the main header menu, click on Packing Lists for an idea of what to pack. The list is all inclusive so what I do is cross out items that I know I won’t need (Long Underwear when going to Africa) and refine from there. Have fun!