9 Things to Bring for a Winter Trip

The Christmas/December season is upon us, and to most of us, that usually means travel plans to cold winter countries. And we get it, you’re excited to be able to finally spend the white Christmas you’ve been looking forward to the entire year, but heading for a winter trip requires a bit more planning than a regular one. Without proper planning, a happy winter trip can easily and quickly turn into a painful cold experience. Here’s our recommendation of 9 things to bring for a winter trip based on our Singapore food blog & travel blog‘s personal experience.

-Ear Muffs and Gloves

When we think about prepping for winter, we often think about those big ticket items like which winter jacket looks the best in our pictures etc. However, we often forget that in cold weather, it’s usually our smaller body parts that freeze first. Body parts such as the ears and fingers are where we personally have found to be the ones that hurt the most when that happens. Bring along ear muffs and gloves to keep them from freezing.

-Inner thermal wear

Forget bringing the dozens of tshirt you were planning to wear. Chances are that because you’ll be in your winter jacket most of the time, the tee shirts you wanted to bring would most likely not even see the light of day, much less the camera. Choose instead to bring more inner thermal wear so you’ll be able to switch between days.

-Medication

You can prep all you want, but sometimes the body is just not used to the sudden drop in temperature. Prep for the worst by also bringing along fever, cold, flu pills etc, so in the unfortunate situation that you do fall sick, you would be up and about soon enough, and the the sickness wouldnt ruin your entire winter trip.

-Cap

Another area often forgotten is the top of your head which has a widely exposed area of skin (especially if you are balding). This is especially important if the country you are heading to is snowing. Snow flakes that land on your head not only drops your overall body temperature, but also increases the risk of you falling sick etc. So do bring along a cap especially if your winter wear doesn’t come with a hoodie that covers your head.

-Socks

Be it when you’re heading out or just trying to sleep in your hotel room at night, Socks are both a necessity and a luxury to have in winter countries. Because of the number of nerves around our feet area, a wet feet will directly impact our body temperature and drop it drastically.

-Waterproof shoes/Boots

In the same vein of keeping our feet dry, waterproof shoes are also very important. We often forget snow is in fact just frozen water. When snow lands on our feet, it gets absorbed into our clothed shoes and would soon enough seep into our socks and toes. Boots are also preferred to help protect your ankles in case u slip, and also if you step into snow layers that are thicker than expected.

-Lip Gloss/Chapstick

We can try to protect alot of areas of our body from the cold, but one part that we can’t really do anything about is our lips. While cold lips doesnt affect our core temperature etc, but over time, it’ll lead to cracking and we all know how painful cracked lips can be.

-Moisturizer

The Cold dries out our skin pretty rapidly. Apply moisturizer before bed every night to re-hydrate the dried out skin and prevent things like winter rash etc that would be a pain to deal with during your winter trip.

-Winter Coats/Jacket

Last but not least, the most obvious of the lot, is to definitely bring your winter coats/jackets along with you. Good quality winter jackets may be expensive, but that investment will definitely pay off when you bring it for your winter trips. The best part is that you can just re-use it again year after year.

However, if like me, you keep your winter jackets/coats in the store room and bring them out only once a year, do not be shocked if you suddenly find molds on parts of your jacket.

Honestbee‘s newly launched Laundry services on their mobile app is perfect if you ever find yourself in this scenario. It doesnt even matter if you are a late packer and only realize that there are molds or dirty patches on your jacket a week before your trip, as Honestbee offers same day pickup and has the fastest laundry turn over in the market. It only took them 2 days to dry clean my jackets and send it back to me.

They picked it up from me at my place on Sunday Night and sent it right back to me on Tuesday night. Easy, hassle free and i never even had to leave my house; all i had to do was just choose from the app what time I’ll be home for them to send/deliver the jackets. Which is very worthwhile considering they only charge $9.90 to dry clean a jacket and $19.90 to dry clean a winter coat.

But their quick turnaround doesn’t mean that they’ll just do a sloppy job and ruin your jackets you paid so much for. From the Honestbee app, you would able to choose if you prefer “Dry Clean” or “Premium Dry Clean”. For dry clean, Honestbee compensates up to 15X order amount (industry standard is 10X), whereas for premium dry clean, Honestbee compensates up to $1,000 per item, capped at $5,000 per order, which is the highest compensation policy in the market.

Want to dry clean your jackets for winter too? Use promo-code: TRAVEL15 at checkout which will entitle you to $15 off with min. purchase of $25 (for first purchase only, valid until 28 February next year).