Winter trips – how to travel with a carry on and still look fabulous

Hey hey! A thing that you might don’t know about me is that I am a light traveler. Meaning that I always travel with a hand luggage only. It doesn’t really matter if I go for 3,5,7 or 14 days. I prefer the luxury to have my trolley with me in the cabin and to be able to walk around with it in case I don’t have where to leave it. It is easily achievable for a short trip or for a long summer trip, but is is quite challenging when it comes to winter destinations. I’d like to share with you my hacks for winter trips or how to travel with a carry on and still look fabulous.

I might be a light traveler, but I always travel with style. You would never see me walking around a city with sport clothes just because they are suitable for a long walks. That is jut not me.

Fashion is a big part of my life. When I was a kid while other kids wanted to be policemen or singers, I wanted to be a fashion designer. With the time I gave up on that dream, but I never stopped loving fashion. Nowadays I use clothes as a way of expressing myself and who I am. This applies to my travels as well. I always want to have a perfect outfit, but still comfortable to travel with. As I told you, I love taking pictures or posing for them, so it really helps when you are dressed cute. After all I don’t want to come back and look at my beautiful pictures and ugly outfits.

Of course this doesn’t mean that I will wear prom dresses or ridiculously high heels, not at all. Clothes could be pretty, but still comfortable. It just takes a bit of imagination and voila! And again, some of you might think that this is quite superficial, after all it doesn’t really matter how you look. But the truth is that it does matter, to me at least. Not because of what other people think, but because I do it for myself and it gives me joy.

My winter fashion tricks for traveling with just a carry on:

1.Plan your daily outfits.

What I usually do is to plan what I will be wearing every day. Not which day exactly, but just one outfit per each day. I also take a couple of fancy clothes for a night out in case we decide to go wild. It doesn’t hurt to be prepared! If the trip is longer, make sure that the bottoms or the tops could be used in another combination, this definitely helps to avoid repeating the exact same outfit twice. P.S. I am only talking about the clothes that are exposed to the public, won’t mention anything about underwear or socks, it is up to you 😀

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See, here I am wearing the same combination on the top, but I use different bottoms which changes the perception of the outfit completely. The first look could be easily suitable for a night out as well. I can’t pick a style for myself, I like to be a chameleon. You can see me wearing street style as well as more girly cloths, I love to experiment.

2. Select different colors.

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This advice is pretty funny coming from me. If you know me or you follow my posts you’ve might already noticed that most of my clothes are blue. There was a time when all of them were blue, but I am getting better now! There is almost always something blue in my outfit, but I try to combine it with other colors I like, such as white, pink, etc.

Going back to my advice – this one is really important. Why? I will tell you why. If you travel to a very cold destination this requires having a big fluffy warm jacket. Have you tried to pack a jacket in a carry on? You can do it, indeed. But there will be space for two more things and that’s it. So most probably you will have to wear the exact same jacket every day. This means that if you want to look different on your pictures, you have to rely on your pants and accessories. And here is where colors are crucial.

Look at my pictures up. Here I am wearing the same jacket but you can still notice that the pictures are made on a different day. I use this trick quite a lot during the winter. I am living in Barcelona and I don’t really have a lot of winter clothes. Especially jackets, I don’t really need them. And this blue jacket is my life savior when it comes to going to the cold north.

3. Match your shoes and outfits

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Packing winter shoes in a carry on is almost as difficult as packing a winter jacket. Especially if you go to a snowy destination. If you are lucky you might have space for one additional pair of shoes and that’s all. When selecting your outfits for each day make sure that they match your boots as well, or if you have many, just pick the most universal one, this will save you space and make your packing way easier!

In case you go to a sunny place like Barcelona, wearing sneakers during the winter wouldn’t be an issue. You can use the additional space to take a couple of light jackets that will help you look different every day.

4. Combine your accessories.

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Matching the shoes is not enough, you have to take in consideration your accessories as well. I usually take only one, maximum two purses with me. This is why I make sure that I can combine it with more than one accessory. Some people like to match the whole outfit from head to toe. I like to play with it. If my bag happens to be a different color than my shoes, I don’t stress about it. I just make sure that I have another accessory that matches my bag, a hat, a belt, even earrings. Of course all the colors should go well one with the other, not some sort of insane combinations or color explosions.

* If you like the bags I will recommend you to look at Parfois web page. I am obsessed with this brand and I buy things from them quite often!

5. Pack several hats.

I am a big fan of hats. I have several at home and I can say that this is my favorite winter accessory. Every year I try to buy a new one to add to my collection. Yeah, that’s right, I don’t use them for just one winter. I love shopping, but I also take care of my stuff and use them for several seasons. There is enough garbage in this world, we can easily reuse the things that are still in perfect condition. Hats are easy to pack, don’t take a lot of space and they change your look completely. Take a few with you and you won’t regret it!

6. Use scarfs

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I am not a big fan of scarfs in general, but I like the winter ones. Especially those that look like a blanket! First, they are really useful as they keep you warm and you can cover half of your body and second, they can change your outfit completely. This is definitely helpful when you have only one jacket for the whole trip. And one secret – I’ve used them as a blanket when I moved to my new apartment and I forgot to buy a blanket for the first night. Five of those make miracles 😀

To sum up, traveling with just a carry on is not a mission impossible. Having limited space will help you realize that you need a limited amount of clothes to be comfortable while traveling. I bet everyone has traveled at least once in their life bringing a big suitcase full of things that they haven’t put not even once. Don’t lie, you did it! But it is never too late to realize how much easier is to be a light packer. It just requires a little imagination and a common sense.

What about your tricks, do you have any? Share them with me in the comments below!

For more travel tips, visit my Tips and Tricks section.

See you soon!