When you’re traveling to a place that gets particularly cold, you have to pack a lot more than you normally would for a warm, tropical location. This is because the clothes you are packing are going to be thicker and heavier, and you’re also going to want to pack plenty of layers so that you have a few options as the temperature changes inside and out. Here is how to pack for a cold weather vacation.
- Buy a sturdy pair of waterproof shoes. Whether the place you’re traveling to will be raining or snowing, you are going to need a nice pair of rain boots or some other kind of waterproof shoes. If the soles of your shoes are not tightly secured, or if there is any way for moisture to leak into your shoes, your feet are going to be freezing, and you could even suffer frostbite. So it’s always good to test your shoes before you start packing.
- Pack plenty of socks. When you’re walking around with thick socks and waterproof shoes on, your feet are going to get sweaty very quickly, and oftentimes that sweat will start to get very cold. If this happens, you are going to want to change your socks immediately. That’s why you always want to keep an extra pair of socks in your bag wherever you go, just in case you need to swap them out in the middle of the day.
- Don’t forget to bring a nice, warm coat. It’s always best to dress in layers when you’re traveling to a cold location, but you have to be sure that you have at least one very warm, reliable coat. You want there to be a little bit of space for airflow so that your body heat can warm up that air, but you don’t want to have any wide sleeves or other openings that will let all of that warm air out.
- Make sure you have a hat, scarf and gloves. No matter where you go, you should always wear a hat, because the majority of your body heat will be leaving your body through your head. So keep as much of that body heat in as possible with a nice warm hat. You also want to have a scarf to keep your neck warm, and it will also keep cold air from flowing in and out of your coat. Lastly, you always want to have a nice pair of warm gloves to wear so that you don’t have to keep your frozen hands in your pockets all day.
- Select a great hotel. Of course, you won’t be able to fully enjoy your vacation if you don’t have a great hotel with a nice warm furnace. If you’re looking for hotels in New York, you’ll want to do a NYC hotel search making sure that the hotel you choose isn’t too far from the destinations you plan to visit, and you want to make sure that the rooms stay plenty warm.