Summer weather in Hermanus, South Africa

How do you pack for two kids traveling 6 months on the road?

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The first thing I did was to plan our itinerary so that we would be traveling through most countries during Spring/Summer. I mainly stuck to cotton clothes, and not specialized travel wear, as taking clothing they were already used to wearing made the transition to traveling easier for them (one less change to cope with). I anticipated doing laundry every week, so packed 9 outfits, to account for accidents that may happen along the way.

Amy liked to pick out the same outfit as her sister. No wonder I kept getting asked if they were twins!

I also knew that we could buy clothes as we traveled, so I didn’t worry about it too much. To keep the packing light, I also kept the footwear down, meaning Crocs and hiking boots didn’t make the list (we didn’t do a lot of hiking anyway). Each girl had their own set of packing cubes so they had some ownership and responsibility over their clothes.

What did we pack?

Each girl’s packing list looked like this:

Girls in their nightgowns on Christmas morning.

• 3 pairs of capris
• 6 pairs of pants
• 3 pairs of shorts / skorts
• 3 long-sleeved tops
• 2 hoodies
• 6 short-sleeved tops
• 1 summer dress
• 9 pairs of socks
• 9 pairs of underwear
• 3 long-sleeved nightgowns / pajamas
• 3 short-sleeved nightgowns / pajamas
• 1 fleece
• 1 windbreaker
• A pair of shoes
• 1 pair of flip flops
• 1 bathing suit
• A beach towel
• Toiletries (including sunscreen, and enough Disney Princess Bubblegum toothpaste for 6 months!)
• Snorkel gear

How did it work out?

This worked out fairly well, however; my biggest tip is that you can never pack too much underwear, particularly if your child is under 6. We ended up mailing back one of the snorkel sets because my girls didn’t really take to snorkeling. We kept the other set as Amy still wanted to use the flippers.

Pisac, Peru with the infamous hoodies

In terms of lost/left behind clothing, the girls left their fleece hoodies behind at a house in Peru…on our second week of the trip! We made do without the hoody until we got to Italy, the only country where it was winter. We bought them another hoody/zippy at the OVS in Rome, along with some more long-sleeve tops and pants. Luckily, none of their luggage got lost, despite the over 20 flights we took.

New bathing suits from Kenya!

In terms of what we picked up along the way, the girls turned out to be quite the shoppers. That’s part of the fun of traveling, after all! They got new bathing suits (Kenya, Malaysia), a sundress (Australia), long-sleeved dress (India), dress shoes (Thailand), nightgowns (Thailand), short-sleeved tops (Malaysia), undies (Malaysia), long-sleeved tops, pants and a new hoodie (Italy)!

There’s our packing list and tips. Again, if you’re going to winter destinations to ski, then your packing list will look different. This list works well for Spring/Summer travel. The two things I recommend adding to the above list are summer hats and sunglasses. I couldn’t get my girls to wear these, but they really should have.

If you found this helpful and want more packing tips, check out Sabrina’s Packing List and Anthony’s Packing List.

If you have any questions/comments/suggestions, please leave it in the comment box below.

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