How to Pack for a Winter Trip | Cold-Weather Travel & Layering Tips

What up nomads? In this video I'm sharing my best tips to pack for a winter trip so you're warm, stylish, and don't have to pay for multiple checked bags. Let's go! Now packing for a trip can already be a difficult task, and packing for a winter trip is even harder in my opinion. Sweaters are bulky, boots are kind of hard to pack, and after you've put a coat in your suitcase, you pretty much have no room for anything else. To make it work, you have to be strategic and adopt some pretty smart layering tricks, and you also have to be honest with yourself about the nature of your trip and the weather you're going to encounter. What you do on your trip and just how wintry your winter trip really is will help you decide on your footwear and your outerwear, and in my experience these really are the two clothing items that have the biggest impact on how comfortable you'll be when facing winter elements. I tend to see winter packing on a grid. Cute and functional, warm and cold. On the cute and warm quadrant, we're talking places where there's basically no snow and no real need for waterproof boots and coats. You can get away with a pair of brogues, leather sneakers with socks, and maybe a cute suede boot if you're feeling a little wintry. For coats, you can probably get away with some wool layers and a nice coat that's more for fashion than function. On the cute and cold quadrant, maybe you need some actual snow boots and a puffy coat, but you can also layer a beautiful wool coat and just bundle up with extra layers and winter accessories like hats, scarf, and mitts. I often look at New York winter street style for this type of outfit. On the warm and functional side, I'd pick some practical hiking boots, maybe sneakers, and just keep it simple with outdoor friendly clothes, but that maybe aren't really geared towards sub-zero temperatures. This packing list might also be well suited for places like the Pacific Northwest, where it's more rainy than it is cold and snowy. Now for cold and functional, well this is my jam since I live in Canada. For this one, you can't compromise on real winter coats and boots, so I mean like puffer coat, lined waterproof boots, and all the winter accessories. If the place you're visiting uses salt on the streets, bring some boot wipes to keep your boots clean at the end of the day to prolong the wear of your leather and suede boots. When packing for a winter trip in one carry-on, I can usually fit two coats and two pairs of shoes. So one outfit that I'm wearing on the plane and one combo in my suitcase. Often for me, that's been one wool coat and one down coat because I feel like these two types give me the most versatility on a trip, and if I have a more oversized wool coat and a thin down coat, I can usually layer one under the other for additional warmth. This really only works if the down coat that I pack actually kind of compresses into a smaller space, but it's surprising how big coats can actually squish down if they're made from the right materials. For shoes, it's typically two pairs of shoes, likely it's two pairs of boots, or one pair of boots and one pair of alternative shoes like a leather sneaker or a leather brogue. If I wear the bulkiest boots on travel days, I can sometimes sneak in another pair of shoes in my carry-on. Okay, let's move on to clothes. People often talk about adding extra layers on top to dress more warmly, but for travel, my tip is to layer under. Everything starts with the base layer. I'm a big fan of merino wool base layers, so long johns and long sleeve shirts that are made from really high quality merino wool. I love layering these under most of my outfits in the really really cold winter days. Now, merino wool isn't the only fabric that's awesome. I also have base layers that are made from silk, and these can be super luxurious and silky and quite a bit thinner than the wool ones, so a really great option if you want to be warm and comfortable, but maybe not too warm and it's more of a mild winter day. My new favorite pair of merino wool leggings are from a brand called Wool And, and I'll leave a link below so you can check them out. I've owned a couple of pairs of the Uniqlo Heat Tech base layers before, but I would say that I don't love them as much as I do my natural fiber ones like wool and silk long johns and undershirts. If you tend to be quite active in the winter or you perspire a lot or you tend to overheat more, then I would recommend avoiding cotton base layers. I get a lot of my winter packing cues from backpackers and cross-country skiers and even people in the army, and they all confirm that when cotton meets moisture, it is useless. Cotton really isn't a winter-friendly fabric for your base layers since it retains moisture, it doesn't add heat properties, and it will end up making you feel kind of damp and cold more than anything else. This is especially true for socks. Merino wool socks are so worth it, and I'm going to leave a couple of links to my favorite brands below. If you want to take it one step further and are looking for merino wool underwear, I highly recommend the new line of undergarments from Allbirds. I've been a fan of Allbirds wool sneakers for a while. I just recently bought one of their t-shirts, and I really like their underwear as well, so you can check that out. For pants, I still wear jeans in the winter, even though they're cotton, but for really cold days, I choose pairs that have a thick denim composition and enough room to wear over my merino wool base layers. You'd have a hard time finding a Canadian woman who has never worn tights under their jeans before, but even better than jeans are wool trousers that I absolutely love in the wintertime. They are cozy, they have a little bit of extra warmth because of the wool, and just overall are a really smart addition to my winter packing list. Another outfit I really like in the winter is to pair extra thick wool tights with a dress. I know it sounds counterintuitive to wear a dress, fashion's breeziest item, in the winter, but I actually really love it. When paired with smart base layers and good boots and a good coat, it can be a really great winter outfit. The other piece of clothing I can't live without in the winter is turtlenecks. I layer these under dresses, under shirts, under blouses, other sweaters. I swear, a thin turtleneck under a normal sweater or top is really all you need, as long as they're made from good fabrics and you're pairing it with a good winter coat on top of everything. The great thing about all these thin merino base layers, things like turtlenecks and dresses, is that you can bring a ton of variety in your outfits and they're all pretty thin, so you can pack a lot of these and a lot of options without taking up a ton of room. You can also mix and match and just create a ton of outfits that way. All right, let's move on to winter accessories. Every winter, I tend to have my favorite accessories that I just am feeling that season, so picking a hat and a scarf really just depends on my mood and the color scheme that I'm feeling for that outfit or that season. Now, a big cozy scarf can be a wonderful way to kind of wrap yourself up, and it can also add some nice pop of color to an outfit, but if you want to have something that's a little bit smaller and more efficient, a small snood can have the same impact and bring the same protection from the elements and take up less room at the same time. For gloves, it really depends on how much time I'll be spending outdoors. On a scale from these are just for fashion to I need these to survive, there's quite a range. Keep in mind that mitts and gloves are so easy to lose, so when you're traveling with these kinds of accessories, pay extra attention to where you put them down, and I don't recommend kind of shoving them in the sleeve of your coat if you've taken your coat off. It's happened to me before where I put my scarf, my hat, and my gloves in the sleeve of my coat, and as I was taking them out of the overhead compartment in the plane, you know, things were falling down and I, you know, misplaced a glove, and these things can happen so easily when you're traveling in the winter, so just keep in mind that if you have mittens and you have a hat, do always put them back in your bag as you're traveling. So after going through my recommendations and picking out your layers, your coat, your boots, and your winter accessories, I hope you're feeling more confident in packing for your winter trip. If you feel like you're running out of room, wear your bulkiest clothes on the plane and organize your clothes in packing cubes to maximize your space and apply a little bit of compression to your items. Or as a last resort, but a good option nonetheless, use one of those vacuum bags to suck out all the air from those thick winter knits to pack even more in your carry-on. Remember when packing boots to always pack them with a bag over top so no dirt gets on your clothes. Hope these tips were helpful and that you stay warm this winter and have very happy travels. Thanks for watching this video until the end. For more content like this, make sure you subscribe to The Capsule Suitcase and turn on notifications so you get all the fresh content as soon as it comes out. 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