Minimalist Packing : Clothing for a 10-Day Trip

What to wear and what to pack?

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Carolyn Donovan and Wan Chi Lau in RainyDayClothing, RainyDayThoughts // 0 Comments

Pleasure travel is awesome, but sometimes it is awful. When things go wrong, they often go wrong because of factors completely out of the traveler’s control — security lines, weather, etc.

When we were in lock-down during the pandemic, we vowed that we would travel more when it was over, regardless of the known-but-uncontrollable factors, and control what we could.

Beautiful Scottish countryside, plus three bridges and a firth (you’ll have to look it up).

One Bag

The one thing we knew we could completely control in our travels was how long we waited for checked baggage, by making it “none.” So, we chose to travel with only one bag that fit in the overhead compartment.

Having a single bag meant that what we took with us had to be light, versatile, and not take up a lot of room. This goes for the bag, the clothing, and anything else we planned to take on the trip (camera, toiletries, etc).

Starting the trip as the “T” in Boston.

Travel Clothes

In a multi-part series, we’ll be looking at the clothes we packed, the type of bags we used, and the gear we brought with us on a 10-day trip to Scotland.

First up: CLOTHING

We took the following articles of clothing on the 10-day Scottish excursion:

It might not seem like a lot to take for 10 days, but it was actually plenty…and we will tell you why! All of the items were chosen for very specific reasons:

Light, comfortable, but tough
Quick drying, hides dirt, resists wrinkling
Mix & match, suitable for most occasions

This really was enough for a 10-day vacay.

We picked the Mott & Bow jeans because they (Mercer Straight, Barclay Slim) were lighter than the Levi’s we normally pack. And also, the Mott & Bow jeans have a bit of stretch and give, making them more comfortable to wear on a flight than the less forgiving 501s.

The belt is from Anson. We have been wearing this belt on and off for a year, and it has grown to be our favorite. The micro-adjust is easy to use, sets securely, looks great and well made.

A good pairing indeed.

The long-sleeve Graphene-X LayerX and Wool & Prince Raglan are light, can be hand-washed, and “really do drip-dry.” The most amazing feature of both of these tees? They can be worn for days without picking up odor or wrinkles!!!

“Smell ya later – NOT!”

Travel Shoes

We consider footwear to be inside the Venn diagram of “clothing.” The ones we brought with us on our 10-day Scottish jaunt were:

We picked the OOFOS because they are light, offer incredible support, and are waterproof. They can be worn as indoor footwear, on the streets, and even for light hiking.

Don’t be an oaf – get yourself some Oofos!

We chose the Oboz Bridger Mid hiking boots because they are completely waterproof and extremely comfortable.

Can be worn for hours, whether wandering Edinburgh’s Old Town or circumambulating a loch.

Final Thoughts

We wore everything we brought with us on this trip, and everything performed extremely well. Neither the Graphene-X LayerX or the Wool & Prince Raglan long-sleeve tees needed to be washed during the ten days and were still oder-free at the end of the trip! Both pairs of Mott & Bow jeans were extremely comfortable and stayed stain-free the entire time.

The only thing we wished we had done differently was to have worn-in the boots a LOT MORE prior to the trip. They fitted well, but were very stiff for the first three days. After walking in them for 10 days, they became way more comfortable. Even though the boots were stiff, we experienced no blisters, which was amazing given the amount of walking we did on the trip!