Minimalist Travel Wardrobe - Beach Holiday Essential Items

It is possible to look chic and glamorous on a beach holiday, and  you only need to take the following items to keep your beach holiday wardrobe minimal yet practical.

The items that I consider essential for a chic and minimalist beach holiday wardrobe are as follows:

• For protection against the sun:  you need sunglasses, a packable sunhat, and a  long sleeved, thin cotton shirt. 

• For protection against insects in the evening:  Once the sun has set, the biting insects (mosquitoes) come out to play, and you need some form of protection against them. So for your evening stroll or dinner at your favourite beach restaurant, I recommend covering up in style with a pair of long linen trousers and a stylish long sleeved evening top.

  

• For the beach and pool:  A simple and chic swim suit, sarong and flip-flops, beach bag and the all important suncream and aftersun.

  

• For sight-seeing: A pair of shorts and t-shirts, and flat shoes, such as converse, worn with the hat and sunglasses.

The advantages of travelling light

• Yesterday's post was my introduction to travelling lightly with a chic yet minimalist wardrobe, which you will see has many advantages:

•  It cuts down the cost of travelling.  I often travel within the UK or to European destinations with budget airlines such as EasyJet or RyanAir. These airlines allow each passenger to take a small item of luggage into the cabin with them. I usually take a small holdall or pull along suitcase. If you wish to take any more luggage with you they charge you extra. I don't like paying out more money than I have to and this is definately a good incentive to pack light.

• It saves you time and makes life easier when you at the airport.  If you take a large suit case, you usually have to check it in at the check in desk, often having to wait in long queques. I like to check-in on line, and by taking a small piece of hand luggage can avoid the check-in queques, quickly go through security, before finally entering the where I can relax and read or enjoy a glass of wine.

• It saves you time and makes life easier when get off the plane and depart the airport. If you take a large suit case, you usually have to wait for it at the carousel, often having to wait  at least half an hour. By taking a small piece of hand luggage you can quickly go through security, before finally leaving the airport. 

• By choosing to travel light, you force yourself to only take the necessities. With time you learn what works for you, what you need to take and what you don't. For example, I have travelled to several  hot and tropical countries and quickly came to realise that shorts or trousers work better for me than skirts, as your legs tend to get sticky, and trousers offer protection against biting insects, such as mosquitoes, in the evening. 

• It is good from an environmental point of view, as you need to buy and own less items.

I like these suitcases on wheels, they are stylish and the size permitted by the budget airlines to fit into their over-head cabin lockers. They are all available from Amazon.com. If you would like to find out more details or purchase one, simply click on it's photo and you will be taken to Amazon's website.

Minimalist Travel wardrobe

Over the next few days, I will be writing a mini series on The Chic and Minimalist Travel Wardrobe.

I will be covering:

• The advantages of travelling light.
• The importance of planning your Chic and Minimalist Wardrobe.
• Inspiration on the type of clothes you may wish to take. 
• A list of basic wardrobe essentials for going on holiday

Whilst some people like to take several suitcases away with them on holiday, I pride myself on being able to pack light, usually much to other people's disbelief or amusement.

My first memories of being a light packer are being aged 19 or so and going on a college trip to Paris for a week. Whilst my college friends took a huge suitcase each full of clothes and items such as hairdryers and make-up, I took a small black leather overnight bag, with a carefully thought out small selection of clothes and make-up. My college friends could not believe how little I was taking.

The funniest part was that when we  returned to the UK and we all went through customs, I was singled out by  two customs men who stopped me to search my bags. They wanted to know what I had in my bag as they could not believe that I had only taken a small bag  for a weeks trip to Paris.

I just smiled politely and explained that I simply liked to travel light and walked away leaving them scratching their heads in disbelief.

Since those early days, I still like to travel light and apart from getting stopped at customs there are many advantages.

My next blog postings will include the following:

• The advantages of travelling light.
• The importance of planning your Chic and Minimalist Wardrobe.
• Inspiration of the type of clothes you may wish to take. 
• A list of basic wardrobe essentials

 I have also found a couple of books on packing which you may be interested in. They are available from Amazon.com. For further details, please click on the images below.