How to Pack for a Month in Europe

I’ve been pondering how to pack for a month-long European vacation for some time now. It felt particularly challenging as my June trip will involve three different countries with very different climates. A couple of weeks in Italy (hot weather), a week on a cruise to Norway (cold weather), and a week in England (probably the gamut of temperatures!) Though I’m not super interested in trying to fit everything into just a carry-on bag, I still want to figure out the best way to pack light for this long trip. I think I’ve finally nailed it!

The usual Europe packing list tips always suggest bringing items to layer and checking the weather forecast, both good ideas, so that was my plan. Since the weather forecasts don’t extend out over a month, I checked the average temperatures for each of the places I will be visiting. You can find average temperatures for each date of the year on this website.

To try to get a clear overview of what I should bring, I laid out all of the possibilities and made sure everything still fits me! Then I whittled them down.

I plan to buy a new sweatshirt or fleece zip-up jacket in Italy to keep me warm in Norway (and possibly England), so I am not packing anything like that.

Next, I set out each bottom with the tops it/they would go with. By doing this, I realized the green floral short-sleeved shirt really only went with the jeans, so I pulled that out.

Next, I figured out what to wear on the plane. A pair of sneakers and a pair of jeans since they are the bulkiest; a t-shirt and cardigan and pashmina scarf so I can add or remove based on how cold or hot I am.

I decided to only bring the four pairs of shoes in the picture on the right below (plus flip flops for the beach). All are worn in a bit, super comfortable and go with many outfits I’m bringing. I am not going to deal with heels! Life is too short to wobble around on cobblestones in high heels!

This is my first time trying out compression packing cubes. Usually, I roll my clothes and place them in regular packing cubes. With the compression packing cubes, I decided to try the “stack and fold” method (ie. laying all the similar items on top of each other and then just folding them all together to try to reduce wrinkles.)

I closed up the suitcase and weighed it, and happily, it was only about 22.5 lbs (10.2 kg), well within weight limits. Now I just need to add the toiletries, a hat and travel gear like an adapter, clothesline, etc.

Click here to see my entire Woman’s 30 Days in Europe Packing List!

I’ll update this post with my actual results after the trip! Please let me know if you have any good ideas for packing for different climates!