The Ultimate Women’s Travel Packing Guide – Travel Her Way

Packing for yourself is a completely different exercise to packing for everyone else.

If you’ve spent years packing for kids, partners, or entire family holidays, there’s a strange moment the first time you pack a bag that’s just for you. No spare undies for someone else. No “just in case” items for a toddler. No negotiating suitcase space with anyone. It should feel lighter – and it will, once you know what actually earns a place in your bag.

This is the packing guide I wish someone had handed me before my first solo trip and the one I now share with every woman joining a Travel Her Way trip.

Why packing for group travel is its own skill

Packing for a women’s group trip sits in a sweet spot between solo travel and a fully guided tour. You need to be self-sufficient enough to manage your own bag through airports, transfers and hotel changes – but you’re also not carrying camping gear or catering for a family. The goal is a bag that’s genuinely easy to manage on your own, organised enough that you’re not the woman holding up the group rummaging for her passport and flexible enough to handle a climate that might shift completely within the same trip (hello, Peru – 30 degrees in Cusco by day, well below freezing at altitude by night).

That’s the brief for everything below.

The organisation system that changes everything

If there’s one packing upgrade that gets mentioned to me more than any other by women after their first group trip, it’s packing cubes. Once you’ve used them, you cannot go back to a bag where everything is one soft, collapsing pile.

I use and genuinely love the Bagsmart packing cube set – they compress down so you can fit more in and more importantly, they mean you can find a clean top at 6am without unpacking your entire bag onto a hotel bed. I sort mine by category (tops, bottoms, “smalls,” sleepwear) rather than by outfit, which makes repacking on multi-stop trips much faster.

The other one that’s quietly become non-negotiable is my toiletry bag (and I never thought I would be one to say this!). The Bagsmart toiletry organiser is genuinely amazing! It has pockets, different size compartments, unrolls or unzips to lay flat on one side and means your toiletries have a fixed spot rather than sliding around loose in a side pocket. On a trip with several accommodation changes, having one bag you can grab and go is a genuinely small thing that saves real mental energy. It also fits everything so you don’t need a bag for toiletries, make-up and medication – it all goes in one. Love, love, love!

A backpack that actually earns its keep

Your day bag matters more on a group trip than almost any other single item, because it’s the bag you’ll have on you for markets, museums, transfers and long days out – while your main luggage waits at the hotel.

I’m a genuine convert to the Bagsmart travel backpack 40L (or 38L)for this. What sold me is the sheer number of dedicated pockets – a spot for your passport, a spot for your phone, a spot for cables, a spot for your water bottle – so you’re not digging through one big cavern every time you need something. For solo and group travel especially, being able to find your passport in three seconds at a border crossing, without turning your bag upside down in front of everyone, is worth more than it sounds.

This Bagsmart travel bag on wheels is my go-to for a weekend away and/or carry-on only.

Laundry on the road

Nobody puts this on the glamorous packing list, but if you’re doing a trip longer than a week, a lightweight way to wash and dry a few things mid-trip means you can pack noticeably less. A pegless clothesline takes up almost no space, doesn’t need pegs (so nothing to lose) and works over almost any bathroom or balcony rail. Pair it with a small pack of travel laundry sheets and you can wash a few essentials in a sink and have them dry by morning – which means three tops can quietly do the work of six.

Power and connectivity

A universal travel adaptor is still the one item nobody remembers until they’re staring at an incompatible power point at 11pm. Look for one with both USB and USB-C ports built in, so you’re not carrying a separate adaptor for every device. If your trip spans multiple countries (Lapland plus Norway and Singapore on the way home, for example), double check your adaptor actually covers both plug types – they’re not always the same, even in neighbouring countries.

You will also want a portable charger with real capacity – for the days you’re out from 7am to 9pm and your phone is your camera, map, translator and boarding pass all at once. This one has worked well for me and had great battery length. I have the bright green one because it stands out in my bag when it is buried deep and I am struggling to find it.

Don’t forget bathers, even on a “cold” trip

It’s tempting to leave swimwear at home when a trip looks cold on paper, but women’s group trips have a habit of throwing up water moments you won’t want to miss – a Finnish sauna followed by a plunge, hot springs in the Andes, a beach afternoon built into a Sri Lanka itinerary. Pack bathers regardless of climate; you’ll regret the ones left behind more often than the ones you never used.

My go-to is my favourite pair of bathers – good coverage, actually stays put and doesn’t sag after a week of daily wear and salt water. Bonus for me is that they are made for women with curves!

Pair that with a proper travel towel rather than relying on hotel towels or a beach towel that takes up a quarter of your bag. I use the travel towel I recommend most – it packs down small, dries fast enough to go straight back in your bag and does double duty for saunas, hot springs and impromptu swim stops alike.

The extras that make you feel like you

These are the small things that don’t show up on generic packing lists, but consistently come up when I ask women what they were glad they packed:

• A lightweight scarf or sarong – sun protection, a layer for cold transport, modesty for temple visits and an instant outfit refresh, all in one item that weighs almost nothing. Heck, depending on where you are travelling you might use it as a privacy screen when toileting!
• A proper eye mask and earplugs – group trips can mean shared transport, early starts and hotel rooms you don’t control the light or noise in. Actual sleep is not a luxury, it’s what gets you through day six.
• A small, decent notebook – group trips generate stories you’ll want later and phone notes apps have a way of vanishing into the scroll.
• Comfortable shoes you’ve already worn in – never, ever trip-day-one your new shoes. Break them in at home first.

What I’d leave at home

Just as important as what to pack, resist the instinct to pack for “just in case” versions of yourself that don’t match this trip. A capsule wardrobe built around three or four colours that all mix and match will serve you better than eight outfits packed for eight imagined moods. If in doubt, lay everything out before you close the bag and remove one more thing than feels comfortable – you’ll almost never miss it.

Packing sorted – now for the harder question.

If you’re still working out which Travel Her Way trip actually suits you, start here.

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This post may contain affiliate links, including to Bagsmart, swimwear and travel towel products I use and recommend myself. If you purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.