We will be gone a total of 25 days. The initial thought was we would just bring a carry-on and that would be enough. I know, Floridians, right? In my defense, you can fit a bunch of shorts, t-shirts and sandals in a carry-on for 25 days! Of course we didn’t consider that Fall in Scotland calls for layers of clothes to be worn in a single day. The temperatures will range from day to night, and from where we happen to be at the time. Most nights will be in the 40’s, but days can get into the 60’s. However, temps can dip into the 30’s in the Highlands and warmer in the Outer Hebrides, so what to pack???
Well, I have packed and repacked our bags 7 times thus far. Fine-tuning what we needed was challenging for me. I looked others’ travelers blogs and tried to match it to our needs but most of them were staying in one, or a few places. We are traveling the span of almost the entire country, from Edinburgh to Glasgow, up through Highlands to Inverness, over the to Islands and then off-shoots East and West. We will be everywhere. I had no idea what to pack, but I did know it wouldn’t fit into a carry-on.
Honestly, what helped me was to visualize with actual outfits, and then to count how many times I used that piece of clothing. Took a bit of time, but I was able to weed out a bunch of stuff. The best advice I found was to stick to a color palette so everything can be essentially worn together. As we are in Scotland off-season, and we are traveling mostly in a rented camper van, we are not sure of when, or if, we will be able to do any laundry. I know we can hand wash some items, but they have to be thin enough to dry in the damp autumn air – so essentially underwear only. Therefore, we needed bigger suitcases to carry more items. Bryan’s suitcase is a 28″ and mine is a 24.” I really should have done 28″ too but I took into consideration that I will have to transport this through Edinburgh/Glasgow streets for the few days we stay in hotels. So I didn’t want anything too cumbersome for me to lift.
Anyway, here is our Pack List that we are going with and the Outfits I figured out that helped me decide what was making it in the suitcase. I am posting this because I honestly could not find any comprehensive list anywhere else, and maybe it can help someone else?
