Bon Voyage! What I’m Packing for Two Weeks in Europe
We’re about to head off on our long awaited European vacay, and by now, friends and followers alike have well-earned a resounding, “freaking finally!” from the amount of time we’ve spent talking about it over the past few months—and even more realistically—years. Back in the days of 2020, Peyton and I had our hearts set on a European honeymoon immediately following our October wedding. Of course, this was a very strange and unpredictable time in the world, with borders opening and closing, and even travelers getting stranded across the Atlantic even if they were able to squeak through customs. So, we decided to spend a delightful couple of days just a few hours from home at our beloved Grand Hotel in Fairhope, AL, all the time dreaming of the day when we would get to spend a longer amount of time on our more formal “honeymoon” trip.
Flash forward 3 years and one Masters degree later, and it’s finally happening! I’ll spare you the details of all of the many roadblocks that we encountered on the way here, but this trip will be loads more meaningful in spite of them. A couple of months ago, we were on a family Zoom cocktail hour (if this isn’t already a family tradition of yours, I highly recommended adding it to your monthly lineup!) just catching up on life, when my parents proposed the idea of spending a week on a river cruise of the Rhine! If you know my parents at all, this was more of an “announcement” than a “proposal.” So, of course, we cleared our schedules and toasted to the upcoming Shaw family vacay!
It didn’t take us too long to connect the dots as we were already planning on visiting France later in the fall, and we figured it made a whole lot more sense to simply extend the family vacation into our belated honeymoon, all in one! So, we immediately set our plan into action to spend a week on the Rhine with my family, then say our goodbyes and transfer over to Paris for a week just the two of us.
We’ve spent the better part of the summer studying up on everything we could possibly learn on French culture. We are both admittedly pretty OCD travelers, but we are also very much looking forward to being pretty “hands-off” for the first part of our trip. So, we channeled most of our energy into planning the latter half which will exclusively be spent in France! Our time on the Rhine will cover Switzerland, a few spots in Germany, France, and The Netherlands—which is just information overload! We’re very much looking forward to going with the flow on that leg of the trip and letting my parents do the planning.
YouTube is one of our favorite resources for travel, as it feels like you’re able to get more of a realistic “walking tour” of wherever you’re visiting. We became fans of two channels (The Earful Tower and Get the Margarita) which both offered a dedicated video walking through each of the 20 Arrondissements (or districts) of Paris. Maybe it’s very “American” of us, but we almost like to feel like we have been to the destination before we have even set foot on foreign ground! We love to make the most of every moment, plan our daily itinerary by the hour via the infamous Google Doc, to get us to the “right” areas and points of reference. However, we always enter in with an expectation of throwing the itinerary out once we inevitably stumble upon something charming and undiscovered in our path. What can I say? We’re nerds for research who just don’t want to miss a moment!
If you don’t think I’ve been planning my outfits with as much attention, I’m afraid you don’t know me at all! To be fair, I am a bit of a notorious over-packer. However, thanks to my trusty Canva Trip Lookbook (newsletter subscribers know all about this!), I at least know what I’m getting myself into! I do plan on re-wearing several outfits to make up for the otherwise lost luggage space between the two parts of our trip, and I really hope my sweat situation stays minimal as we won’t have access to laundry services the entire time. (Maybe I should add a portable fan to my Amazon cart after all…) Full disclosure: If you’re looking for tips on how to pack without checking a bag, you’ve come to the wrong place.
I’m so excited to reveal more specific outfit details when the time comes, but for now, save the following list to help pack for your next big trip abroad! À bientôt!
Europe Packing List
For Two Weeks Abroad
Clothing + Accessories
2 pairs of sunglasses
1 pair of sneakers
1 pair of sandals
1 low-heeled “going out” shoe
(Those cobblestone streets are killer!)
Crossbody bag
“Going out” bag
Tote bag
Plain white tee
Denim shorts (not distressed!)
Linen Maxi Dress
Linen Shift Dress
3 Other Daytime Dresses
White Linen Pants
Black Tailored Shorts
Linen Shorts
1 Layering Sweater
4 Basic Tops to Mix & Match
6 Dinner Dresses
3 pairs pajamas
1 black belt
Everyday jewelry
Hair accessories (ribbons, headbands, claw clips, etc)
For the Airplane
Book
Neck pillow
Earplugs
Headphones
Eye mask
Sanitizing Hand Wipes
Dramamine
One day’s outfit + necessities
All cameras, jewelry, medicine, keys
International currency to have right when we step off the plane, just in case!
(We ordered around $200 in Euros from our bank before we left and can always grab more later.)
Necessities + Tech
Packing cubes
Dirty laundry bag
Air Tags to track checked luggage
14 pairs of underwear
10 pairs of socks
Nippies (2)
2-3 bras
2 Pairs of Spanx underwear
2 pairs of shorts to wear under skirts/dresses
(You won’t find me without these on the Metro.)
Extra (small) checked suitcase for shopping
Film camera + film
Tripod
Outlet converters
Portable phone charger
Regular phone charger
Steamer
Water bottle
Hanging Cosmetic bag + necessities
Travel-Sized Containers for Shampoo + Conditioner
Makeup bag
Prescriptions
Liquid IV
Hair dryer
Curling iron
Small umbrella
Passport + copy of passport
ID + copy of ID
