What I Actually Packed for 4 Days in Spain

Closet Content Analysis: Items for a 4-Day Trip  

Choices: Things I Didn't Need

NICE          NECESSARY          NEED

We left Spain on Friday, after four days of Rioja wine tours, tastings, long lunches and pinchos/tapas for dinner. It was cooler than we had hoped for. Checking the weather is very important for short trips and limited baggage space.

I wrote about my planning and packing in a previous post. This is what I actually packed and the "bullets" suggest that I either didn't wear it or it could have been optional for this particular trip:

travel clothes to Spain: skinny blue jeans, white cotton sweater, black loafers 
black North Face "Summit Series" hooded jacket 
black skinny jeans
• black knee-length walking shorts
• beige/camel linen wide leg pants 
black v-neck short-sleeved t-shirt
white v-neck short-sleeved t-shirt
• 2 striped Armor-Lux tops 
black blazer
• black sleeveless sheath dress 
cashmere shawl
pyjamas
• cotton jacket-length bathrobe
black loafers
• black sandals
beige loafers
underwear
return travel clothes: black shorts, striped Armor-Lux top, black loafers

I didn't wear the black sleeveless sheath dress because we never went to any upscale restaurants. Perhaps if it was warmer I could have worn it when we went for "pinchos" (AKA tapas) one night but that might have been considered overdressed. I didn't need the two striped tops, even though I did wear them both, one would have been fine. I did wear but really it wasn't necessary to have my shorts, but that was because there was definitely a spring coolness to the breeze when the sun went behind the clouds. I never did wear my sandals. I only wore the beige pants once because after the first wearing the olive oil couldn't be camouflaged and so I probably won't bother with them for such a short trip.

NICE: I was glad I took a blazer, it made me feel comfortable in the higher end bodegas. However I would take a patterned or coloured blazer next time because I had too many black pieces.

Photo Source: North Face

NECESSARY: I definitely needed my North Face jacket and my shawl. Mine is in classic black and I wear it in the spring, summer and fall and layered in the winter. This is one of the best purchases I have ever made.

NEED: Because I had so much black, I definitely needed some scarves for colour. Next time . . . 

Packing and Wearing Travel Tips:  

1. If you take white or beige pants, plan to wear them on the last days of your stay. I wore mine the first day and for our pinchos tasting in the evening. By the time I arrived back at the apartment, I had two moderate splotches of olive oil on both knees. Obviously the tiny paper wipes (you can't even call them serviettes) did not serve me well while eating pinchos.

2. For those who are a tad squeamish, wear closed in shoes when you go for pinchos in the evening. The slips of paper wipes end up on the floor around the area where people are standing, eating and drinking (that's right - no containers for garbage). As I noted the debris up against the bar, I did think of an acquaintance who probably would not have been very comfortable with the prospect of a stranger's serviette being tossed upon her manicured toes. Everybody's "grunge tolerance" is different.

3. If you are traveling by car or train between places, choose dark clothing that is easy to wash as your travel clothes and use them only for that purpose. It depends on your number-of-wears-comfort-zone but at least this way you will know that you will have a set of relatively clean clothes for your travel days.