Men's City Trip Packing List & Capsule Wardrobe
9 Pieces. 21 Outfits. Men's City Trip Packing List
Does anyone find packing for a trip stressful?
Somehow the excitement to travel new places becomes the very thing that adds stress and more tasks to the never ending to do list in our lives. Packing for the trip becomes a blunder of dos and don’ts with the internet sending you in a multitude of directions on how to pack for a trip. To simplify this, I had the ridiculous idea that I can just bring the largest carry-on bag I own with everything.
I packed all my shirts, all my sweaters, pants, sweatsuits, two jackets and a suit with dress shoes. It didn’t matter that I was splitting my trip between the city and the amazon. For all I know the tribes in the amazon are very formal tribes, that indeed would be offended if I didn’t have an all-white linen suit with Gucci slippers. I mean how un-American it would be of me to not travel with excess baggage and learn to live with less. However, with the rising costs of baggage fees my check in being overweight would be almost the cost of another ticket.
So, without further ado I present to you the smart way to pack for your travels for a city or if you’re going to the Amazon or Trekking around a country.
If you don't feel like reading the breakdown, click here to see the 9 pieces!
Why a Capsule Wardrobe Works for City Travel
As mentioned before there are a ton of videos and ideologies for packing from the women’s perspective. As for men we only have the military method and that’s it. Now this can work, however I want to be able to have some decent clothes while I am out enjoying the nights of a city and not be stuck only wearing packable hiking clothes at restaurants. I do believe that the capsule collection method worked best and I was surprised with how many outfits that I was able to make with 9 pieces of clothing.
Let’s break this down by first laying out the clothes in the order you will wear them like in the picture below. With nine pieces of clothing, you can almost make 20 different combinations. Now color palette could be a whole other debate but for this trip in Peru I stuck with earth colors because that’s just how I roll.
Men’s Travel Packing List: The 9 Pieces
Shirts:
You can over pack shirts for a trip and I usually just get a pack of black t shirts and white t shirts from Nordstrom Rack. I find that these get worn down so quickly and honestly at this point they cost about ten dollars a shirt which isn’t that much different from nicer quality cotton shirts.
Never underestimate bringing a quality white t shirt that can go with anything. Now you can just get some Hanes but if I am only bringing one white t shirt, I want it to be something that will not fade after a couple washes.
Brown Shirt- This is just my preference but same idea whatever color you choose like grey or green make sure it can interchange with multiple outfits.
For the first two my favorite place is Uniqlo. I will say they have become more expensive over the years I have been shopping, but they have solid choices for any occasion.
Black Merino Wool T Shirt- Lastly, I think anyone who is traveling for an extended period should invest in purchasing merino wool. Now I admit the price tag is high but it’s worth it. Merion wool is odor resistant and temperature regulated. This for me is important on travel days and if I am out all day and won’t make it back to change. I also like that you can wash and hang dry it for a quick dry!
Over Shirts and Layers
An over shirt should be able to complete the outfit but also be packable. I really like the work shirt looks that can look good with dress pants, casual pants or a great overshirt for hiking.
I really like the work shirt pictured I got from Uniqlo a few years ago, but unfortunately they don’t carry it anymore, so I found this one that is close!
I decided to go with a heavy utility one in brown then went for a nice white cotton jacket and finished with a light blue linen shirt in case I am in a warmer climate.
Pants
This is the most challenging part of packing in my opinion. I traveled for six months before and didn’t pack a pair of jeans which I think was the one item I missed most while traveling.
The pants are hard to get right with every outfit, but I decided to go with:
White Barrel Pants that are really for the dressy night outfits or any occasion where I want to be dressier
The last pair of pants I brought were a dark brown wide legged utility pant. I really like how these pants had drawstrings on the bottom so if you want to take for a hike, you can tighten the string around your ankle or wear baggier as a comfortable day pant.
These combinations worked perfectly with the over shirts or if you're more casual with just a nice crisp tee and jeans.
With these 9 pieces of clothing, I was able to make almost 20 different outfits!
Packing doesn’t need to be stressful, it just needs a practical attitude and realistic approach to something we forget to do daily in our lives and that's to keep things simple. Control what you can control and don’t overthink it or overpack it. I hope this is helpful to anyone reading and if you’re fortunate to travel then book that ticket and refer to this page!
