How many outfits do you take on holiday?

How many outfits do you take on holiday?

This is another question that’s been cropping up a lot in my search referrers lately, but in order to answer it properly, I’d need to first of all ask a bunch of supplementary questions. How many outfits you should take on holiday, you see, will depend on various different factors, the most important being:

• Where are you going?
• How long are you going for?
• What will you be doing when you get there?

The answer to this question will also depend on what type of person you are. I, for instance, am a chronic over-packer – by choice. It’s not that I CAN’T pack light: it’s that I don’t really want to. On every one of the the occasions when I’ve planned and packed a suitcase full of mix n’ match items, carefully following the rules for packing light, I’ve been so bored with my clothes that I’ve ended up hitting the shops much harder than I really should have, just to get some variety. I’m not proud to admit it, but I like to feel fully prepared when I travel, and I like to have a decent amount of choices, so I’d rather cram my case full, and know I’ll feel comfortable with what I’m wearing when I get to my destination, than spend two weeks feeling frumpy and wishing I’d packed more things.

But that’s just me. I don’t recommend over-packing as a general principle, and most of the time it’s just not practical, anyway. Between weight restrictions on your luggage allowance, and the fact that you’ll probably want to bring home some souvenirs, which you’ll need to leave space for, it can definitely be a good idea to work out how many outfits you’ll need, and to pack accordingly. How do you work out how many outfits you’ll need, though?

Well, in my case, I start by thinking about the kind of things I’ll be doing while I’m on holiday. This differs from trip to trip, obviously, but for a typical beach holiday, my daily routine would probably involve one outfit to wear during the day (for sightseeing, or wearing to the beach/pool), and then another outfit to change into in the evening, for dinner and drinks. If I didn’t want to repeat outfits (or have to do laundry!), a seven-day holiday would therefore require 14 outfits, although if I was planning to spend a lot of time relaxing by the pool or at the beach, I’d be able to get away with less, because I’d just need something to throw over my swimsuit on the way there and back.

As far as shoes go, meanwhile, the fact that I’ve been doing my Shoe Challenge for most of my recent trips has prompted me to over-pack in that department, too, but if I wasn’t on a mission to wear as many pairs of shoes as possible, I reckon I could easily get away with around three pairs: two in my suitcase and one on my feet.

As I said, though, this is the kind of question which will probably have a different answer depending on who you ask, so I’m curious to know what YOUR answer would be. Say you were going on a one-week beach holiday: how many outfits would you take?