What I’m packing for Halifax, Nova Scotia

It’s rare that I book a trip without several months of thoughtful reflection. But when Expedia invited me to try their Add-On Advantage service – which I’ll tell you more about in the coming weeks – I booked a flight almost the same day. My destination: Halifax, Nova Scotia. I made all of my reservations two weeks ago, and now, I leave in one. But since I actually love travel planning and preparations as much as actually travelling, I’m not worried about the rush.

This won’t be my usual holiday. I’m travelling with my mom rather than Ian, for a start, which means I’ll be the one behind the camera instead of in front of it. And since he won’t be with me to carry my giant suitcase when my arms get tired, which inevitably happens at least once, even with my super light Herschel luggage, I’m going carry-on only. When I was younger, especially during our European travels, I went carry-on only all the time. But it’s been about five years since I’ve done it for anything other than a business trip or a weekend getaway. Putting together my Halifax packing list has proven to be easier than I expected, although it did take some creative thinking. But I have everything sorted now, so I thought I would share what I’m packing in my carry-on for a five-day trip…

(Yes, I really do arrange all the pieces I’m packing for a holiday on the rolling rack in my office about a week before we leave. There’s something so satisfying about seeing all the pieces together. It makes me feel ready for an adventure – a fabulously chic adventure.)

Tops
L’Academie white blouse
Zara white knit tank
Sezane black silk tank
Mango short-sleeved blouse
Zara camel sweater

Bottoms
Mango white jeans
Levi’s black jeans
Mango black trousers
Aritzia black culottes

Shoes
Diego’s espadrilles
Sezane lace-up sandals
M Gemi black flats
Nike sneakers

Extras
Aritzia black midi dress
Massimo Dutti crossbody bag
Louis Vuitton Speedy 25 bag
Anine Bing sunglasses
Zara cat eye sunglasses

My approach to planning outfits for this trip was different than usual, because I focused less on individual outfits and more on the versatile basics that can potentially create a lot of different outfits. I don’t need ten individual looks when I might take one set of outfit photos in five days. I do need shoes I can walk in comfortably, because our activities aren’t meticulously planned and a surprisingly long walk can easily happen on holiday. Since it’s summer, I chose breathable, lightweight fabrics as much as possible. But since we’re going to the coast, I made sure to add a sweater for cool evenings by the water.

It’s funny, because when I look at the list, it doesn’t sound like much. But when I actually started gathering up the individual pieces, it was immediately clear just how many outfit options I actually have. That’s partly because I stuck to a very minimal colour palette, which I always do. But speaking objectively, it’s also a very sound strategy when you’re packing a small amount of clothes but going away for a long-ish amount of time. In fact, if I’m honest, I could probably sacrifice one of my pairs of pants – but I won’t, because I love options.

What’s your travel packing strategy?