Little Black Guidebook

^{Photo by Emiliano Granado}

Look at the photo. Those pants don’t look like travel pants do they? They certainly don’t look like bike pants. They don’t zip off and you wouldn’t think she was going hiking in a few minutes would you? But they shed rain and dirt, dry fast and resist wear and tear which makes them perfect travel pants.

I know they cost an arm and a leg, but pants I can wear to work, a meeting with a button down shirt, walking around and still sink-wash and dry-overnight might just be worth it. Available from Outlier for both men and women.

Does your Valentine love to travel? Or, do you need an excuse to treat yourself? Here are some treats I love in price order.

Chocolate Walk – We tried to take the famous Paris Chocolate Walk, but our stupid Italian train conductor decided to take a 3 hr coffee break and we missed it. If you happen to be taking the ultimate romantic trip to Paris this Valentines you could sign up for the real thing or invent your own.

Take your sweetie on an adventure of your own, sampling chocolates from the local shops and seeing a little more of your home-town. In Fairbanks, Alaska we have a tiny little downtown, but even that has a smattering of coffee shops and a little chocolate shop called the Fudge Pot.

Lush Travel Shampoo – I wish I had enough of this to use all year round, it makes my hair smell wonderful and takes the place of both shampoo and conditioner liquids when I travel. (Amazon or Lush $9)

This jersey cardigan is just weighty enough to feel like its wrapping me up cozily on a flight. I have one in black which I love as an airplane cover-up, night-time wrap, and scrunchable cardigan which never wrinkles. (Anthropologie $98)

Wanting to capture memories together screams: “I Love You.” Loud and Clear. I used to think that having my phone be my camera, video camera, music player PDA, etc. etc. etc. was great until I realized that once its battery goes dead I can’t do anything. Now I’m looking for small gadgets that do things well. I’m looking at this Flip HD camera for low-tech, high quality video capture of our upcoming trips together. This one captures 120 minutes of HD goodness at a time and dumps onto any device with a USB port. (Amazon $193.94)

Want to hear something you might consider grody? I haven’t changed my socks in three days. I was so behind on life and laundry that I got to the bottom of the sock drawer and then went to my stash of travel clothes to find socks. This shoebox size tupperware contains my Exofficio underwear and Smart Wool socks. Now the Exofficio underwear belong in the travel box because they are admittedly quite ugly and should really only be used under circumstances where you need quick dry hotel sink friendly clothes, but why oh why have I left these socks in there that long? They are awesome. And while they are overnight dryable after sink washing, they are also WAY oder resistant, and they are plain comfy walking socks. If I don’t need fancy slack socks these would easily replace 3-4 pairs of my normal everyday jeans/casual wear socks and they last forever.

So, I’m now going through my drawer of yoga socks, running socks, hiking socks, life socks, etc. and ruthlessly purging all discolored, holey, or otherwise subpar socks and pulling my Smartwool socks permanently out of storage.

They come in a variety of styles, but my all time favorites is the Smartwool Adrenaline Light Mini Crew Sock which is the perfect combination workout/light-hiking/travel/casual sock. $16 so not cheap, but really does last and really does wick moisture and not stink.

Here is my first pass at a packing list for our upcoming trip to Hong Kong and Singapore. I long for uber-cute outfits and tons of accessories, but I know from experience that without the budget of a travelista who is going to have a driver carry her bags and a single hotel to stay at, all that cuteness comes with a price. It weighs you down.

My biggest struggle is to find nice linen or cotton items which layer, don’t cost a ton and sort of color coordinate so I don’t have to bring as much. The expected temperature for the time of year we are going is 85-90F so I also had to call a friends to find out whether sleeveless was appropriate and if I really needed a suit in Singapore, the answer to both was yes.

I have two days of meetings which require a suit and at least one formal dinner to attend all while sink-washing. I did find a nice drip-dry suit, but it is black and tropical wool is really a pain. I opted instead for linen with a lining for the suit, which I will not wash, but just wear for the two days. If packed properly it won’t wrinkle before I wear it. When I get around to actually shopping for the trip I may opt out of packing a jacket for the suit. I picked a pair of linen pants which looked like they wouldn’t wrinkle too badly, but I’m still looking for the perfect pair of travel khakis which are sink-washable, but don’t look like they should zip off at the knees. I also picked a swimsuit which can be worn as a top when used as a seperate.

So here it is, 11 days, 2 countries, and 13 possible outfits for a one bag travelista. 

Asia Trip(1)

And here it is broken down into outfits. Ocassions covered: formal dinner, business meeting/conference, comfy/cute on the plane, working out in the room, site seeing.

Asia Trip (2)

Tonight I’m off to Florida for a weekend meeting. I have 3 evenings to myself and my hotel is inside Disney World. We’ll see if I can look up a friend who is nearby and spend some time hanging out. Simple weekend trips call for a 4-wheeled rolly bag and a handbag big enough for a few magazines and possibly a laptop. I love this leather bag from Lovegrove & Repucci. It is inexpensive and has a cute detail of the key ring.

Vegetable tanned leather. Red nylon liner, inner zip pocket, magnetized closure. Saintly ring attached to red cord to always keep things close by.

8 3/4″ x 10 3/4″
$49.00, Buy it here.

I subscribe to Gwyneth Paltrow’s newsletter GOOP. Her surprisingly down to earth newsletter has me watching new movies, trying different workouts and generally thinking that celebrities can be more down to earth than I ever thought possible. Her most recent post was about her Spring looks. While I won’t have the budget to buy a $750 dress from Burberry on a whim, I was inspired by her looks and came up with a couple cheaper looks of my own. These two outfits would be perfect for Spring. I’m hoping the weather will cooperate and allow skirts in the near future. If I hit my 10% weight loss goal before it sells out, this purple dress will be heading my way.

Gwyneth Paltrow Inspiration

I stayed with a good friend in DC last year. She was off to Italy for 2 weeks with 2 checked bags and two carry-ons. That was me 4 years ago. Her ratio of items was totally different from me though. She had one checked bag of toiletries and another with three-quarters shoes and one-quarter clothes. I would have had two bags almost completely full of clothes, you know, just in case I got invited to a wedding or something. Now I have always struggled with the shoes thing, finding the perfect pair to go through many outfits is a toughie and deserving its own post. But an entire suitcase of toiletries? Sure, if you’re moving for a year to Africa maybe.

The fact that I’ve come a long way was emphasized this weekend when I followed a friend into the hotel I was staying at in Salt Lake. I asked her if she was extending her stay after the conference she was attending over the weekend and she said “No, I just like my gels.” as she dragged in a suitcase almost as big as she was. When she looked at my small roll-on, she was astounded and asked how I do it. So here you go, my two cents worth.

Basic daily must-haves for purse size makeup bag are: pressed powder compact, travel-size cleanser, moisturizer and sunscreen combo, lip balm, lip color, mascara, travel-size hand sanitizer and breath mints. Anything more is probably extra and hard to justify. Ask yourself why you need it.

1. Need a facial scrub? Grab packets of regular white sugar from the restaurant. Just lather up your face with a cleanser, then scrub in the sugar using your finger tips in small circular motions.
2. Q-tips work just as well as brushes, don’t pack a ton of brushes.
3. Don’t pack blush. You can use a great lipstick color as a cream blush or buy a lip/cheek stain. Choose lighter shades and blend on after foundation but before powder.
4. Shampoo & conditioner are available in 99% of hotels. If you’re going the hostel or couchsurfing route I would suggest solid shampoos from Lush rather than fooling with more items in your 3-1-1 bag.
5. Don’t use the size of your toiletries as an excuse. You can alway repackage them. You can find some really cute toiletry bottles to repackage everything in. The ones below are from the UK, but you can get them almost anywhere.
6. If you really need to scrimp, your hotel can probably provide you toothpaste and a toothbrush once you get there, but I wouldn’t chance it.
7. Use hair conditioner instead of shaving cream.

The items above are a picture of my typical travel toiletry bag for trips less than 3 weeks. In addition to the list above, I usually add in hand lotion, undereye concealer and deep cleaning wipes. The wipes are great when on a plane because really, who wants to wash their face in an airplane bathroom? All the liquids easily fit in a single quart-size bag. Take a look at your toiletries, and you’ll probably be able to trim it down to the point where you can fit it all in your carry-on. When I travel these days I fit all of my toiletries, wet and dry in my 3-1-1 bag if its a less than 1 week trip. Unbelievable to think.