Cold Weather Traveling?

A cold weather question from a fan.

"Hi guys-

I was directed to your blog by a friend who spent this past summer backpacking across Europe, and she swore by your site!

My boyfriend and I are getting set to do some of our own traveling in Europe toward the end of February and through March. My question is how to properly pack for the cooler weather at the beginning of our trip without weighing down our packs. Do you have any tips on how/what to pack for this time of the year?"

"The first step I would take is to visit www.weather.com or the local tourist web site for the countries you’ll be visiting and find out exactly what the temperatures will be (look at past year averages). I haven’t done much traveling in cold months, but I have traveled to cold countries. Scotland will be much different than Italy and Greece different than Switzerland.

The quick and easiest answer for you is layers. Even when I was exploring in fall and spring, evenings can get very cold and I always had the option to wear a t-shirt, long sleeve t-shirt, long sleeve/collared button down shirt, hooded sweatshirt, windbreaker/rain jacket and my pajama pants under my jeans which always kept me pretty warm when I needed it to. Doing this meant I really only got the layer closest to my body dirty.

One bummer with the cold is your outer garment will be the same in every photo you take, and you won’t have room for two winter coats. Even when it was cold, my wife always took off her rain jacket for photos. Her being a style aficionado, she would also recommend to make sure everything matches to either black or brown, so if you take an extra sweater, make sure it goes with everything.

Companies like The North Face and Arc’Teryx (among many, many others) make all kinds of cold weather shirts, pants, coats and hoodies. They are specially designed from fabrics to keep the body warm when extremely cold and cool when it gets warm. The fabrics breath easily and help whisk moisture away from the body. These items are great but they get very expensive. These are made for weight conscious people when every ounce in your pack counts. You can easily drop $50-100 for one shirt. However, if you plan to do more traveling or you like hiking and camping, a couple of these might be worth the investment, but I’m always about saving money when traveling, not spending hundreds before you leave the country.

Like I said with my packing list of layers above, I would also take a sweater so when I was in a museum or at dinner, I didn’t have to wear my hoodie all the time. I would also take one pair of gloves and one hat and if you’re a scarf person take one of those too, but I wouldn’t do more than one of each. I might also change my normal pajama pants for thermal long-underwear. Granted this stuff is not heavy, but it is bulky.

I have received many emails and comments about cotton hoodies vs. fleece. Like every person in the US, we all own a hoodie with our high school, college or favorite sports team name on it. I own one of these so I took that and not fleece. Many avid campers and hikers have told me that fleece is much warmer than cotton, dries quicker if it gets wet and also much lighter. I have personally never done field research on this, but I believe what I've been told. I chose my hoodie because it had a hood instead of taking a hat, a nice front pocket instead of gloves and most importantly, I already owned it.

Do some research with the temperatures and try out my list of layers to see if it keeps you warm enough. (granted if you live in Florida it might be hard to recreate the English winter). I personally would not take a “winter coat”. What I mean by “winter coat” is one that is heavy and warm enough to only wear a t-shirt underneath and be warm. My packable wind/rain resistant jacket was great and it packed up very tiny. When you go inside a place for a meal or internet café, it packs up to fit in your day pack instead of having to lug around a big coat.

Safe (and warm) Travels!!!!

p.s. A little word or warning, it might not happen to you, but it did to me a few times, especially in eastern Europe, but the trains did not have heat. During the day I didn’t notice it, but when it was dark and I was trying to sleep, it was bitter cold.