A few weeks ago, I took a trip to sunny North Carolina to spend a week at the beach. I packed for 8 days of travel in just a carry-on duffel bag, and in the video below, I’ll share what I packed and how I kept things under control. By sharing a video instead of pictures, you’ll be able to get a better idea of how everything fits in.
I’m a big proponent of traveling light. Besides some of the practical benefits like cost, there’s something liberating about not having literal baggage with you, and being able to stow everything you need in just a small bag. I feel I don’t worry and stress as much when I don’t have as much stuff with me.
Admittedly, this post is a bit awkwardly timed. My vacation was late in the beach season, plus it took me a couple of weeks to get the video and post together. Still, I hope this will be helpful if you’re planning a trip somewhere warm this winter (or anytime!).
Here are a few more details not in the video:
One of the most important things about packing light is making sure your pieces are as versatile as possible. You can’t see it in the video, but I made sure that all of my tops and bottoms coordinated well with one another. I could wear any combination I wanted, which gave me plenty of choices even with a limited number of items:
As you can see, I stuck pretty strictly to a consistent and cohesive color palette, which was exactly the goal.
Living in a small town out west, my travel days are crazy long to get back east. Door to door, I was in transit for about 13 or 14 hours each way, and one way is pretty much always a red-eye. So, I always try to be as comfortable (and warm!) as possible for those long, miserable days. In the past, I’ve usually ended up traveling in lululemon wunder unders and a scuba hoodie, but this time I ended up in Alala. Since you can’t see it very well in the video, here’s how my travel outfit came together:
As I mentioned in the video, the combo ended up being awesome both in looks and comfort. I even got a compliment from a TSA agent, of all people. I wore this on both travel days.
Overall, my packing list turned out to be pretty much perfect for my trip. I always felt like I had something to wear, and it was a totally manageable amount of stuff. I ended up with plenty of extra room that I never had to use.
If you like this post, you can subscribe to the AA YouTube channel for more videos, and you can check out my archived post about packing in a carry-on for winter traveling. Below I linked up my packing essentials, either the same things I took with me or something similar. Happy packing!
Shop my packing list
Beach
Casual
Travel
You just made me order those Aala pants, and I do not need more black pants! Like, ever!! I love that whole outfit —
I like to pack light as well, and I pick one neutral color as a base and pack around that.
But they’re different from most other black pants! ;) I hope you like them, I love mine!
I finally got the Aalala pants today, and you are right, they are different!! I’m the same size as you but I’m almost 5’10”, so I figured they’d end up being short for me and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they’re not. They are a really nice weight and stretch, and not cheap-feeling at all. Thanks for the tip — I love them!! (I wish there were other colors…)
Ahhhh yay!!!! I wouldn’t have expected the length to still work for you since you’ve got a solid 7″ on me, but I’m really glad to hear that they worked out. :)
This is great! We lived overseas for 6 years so travel (unless, sadly, for a funeral) usually equated to 2-4 weeks being gone. So packing light is new to me!
That travel outfit is great, the blue is a really beautiful, saturated color. I WANT those alala pants but cannot justify!
Yeah, much harder to pack light for >2 weeks, for sure. Sometimes Alala has good coupon codes, so maybe you’d be able to pick them up that way. :)
That bag holds a lot more than I expected.
Two staples I have been considering for a while : a lulu bag and a scuba. Both are expensive and I end up talking myself out of it.
Yes, it actually does hold quite a bit! A lot of other active duffels are either much larger or much smaller, but this one is a nice middle size. I almost didn’t buy this one but am glad I did! Scubas on the other hand, I have a hard time justifying too. I’ve only paid full price for one.
Really making the Weekend Warrior bag a must-have! Do you know how often that style comes available? I didn’t see it on the site and wasn’t blown away by the options on ebay.
The weekend warrior has come out in late fall/winter for the past two years, so if it’s coming back, it should be soon! The ebay prices are usually pretty rough unless you check frequently, so at this point I would probably just wait and see if it comes out this season. If it comes out in some pretty colors I might get another one…
Thank You!
I have been wanting that weekend warrior bag after you first showed how you use it as a carry-on. I wish Lulu would release it again! I aspire to pack like you. My latest trip was a big fail on the packing front, with me bringing so much more than I actually needed.
Yes, for whatever reason the deep zinfandel in particular became particularly sought after. It’s such a lovely color, and the contrast lining is beautiful too. The colors last year weren’t bad, but nothing I liked enough to buy. I’m hoping they bring it back again this year–it’s been released late fall/winter previously, so there’s definitely still time!