The secret to a good tropical trip is a light bag. Warm weather asks for almost nothing, so pack for the holiday you will actually have, not the one you are worried about.
Nowhere is easier to pack for than somewhere hot. You do not need coats, layers, boots or bulk; you need a few light things you can rinse in a sink and dry on a balcony overnight. And yet people still turn up to two weeks of sunshine dragging a suitcase built for an Arctic expedition. Pack light and the whole trip gets easier from the airport onwards.
The short list
For a warm holiday the core wardrobe is genuinely tiny: a handful of light tops, a couple of loose trousers or shorts, one thing you can dress up a little for dinner, two swimsuits so one is always dry, and a light layer for chilly aircraft and the odd cool evening. Natural fabrics like cotton and linen breathe far better than synthetics in the heat, and they look better crumpled, which they will be.
Footwear is where bags get heavy, so keep it to two pairs: a comfortable pair for walking and a simple sandal or flip-flop for the beach and the pool. Wear the bulkier pair on the plane. Almost everything else you might reach for, a third pair of shoes, that fourth outfit, the just-in-case jacket, will sit untouched in your bag for the whole trip.
Wash as you go
The single trick that unlocks light packing is doing a little laundry along the way. A small tube of travel detergent, or even a bar of soap, lets you rinse out a shirt and a swimsuit in the evening and have them dry by morning. Pack four days of clothes for a two-week trip and simply cycle through them. Guesthouses and hotels almost always have a cheap laundry service too, so you are never more than a day from clean clothes.
Do bring the small things that are annoying to find abroad: any prescription medicine, a decent sunscreen, a universal plug adapter, and a refillable water bottle. Everything else, from toothpaste to a cheap beach towel, you can buy on arrival for less than it weighs in your bag.
Leave room to come home
The final reason to pack light is that you will want space on the way back. Markets and little shops have a way of filling a case, and it is far nicer to arrive with room to spare than to sit on your suitcase trying to zip it shut. Travel out with a half-empty bag, wash as you go, and let the holiday, not the packing, be the thing you carry home. ●
