As much I love when a guy offers to carry my heavy suitcase up the stairs, you have to admit that most of the time, we have to take care of things ourselves. So when I travel alone by plane, I make a point of packing light to make my life easier.
Packing for San-Francisco was relatively easy. I took two 4-wheel cabin suitcases and packed my camera, Macbook Pro and skincare/toothbrush in one to take with me in the cabin and packed my clothes in the second one that I checked in. Both were about 8 kg each which made it easy when I had to carry them going up & down some stairs.

I also aim to have a limited number of bags to carry so I basically have one suitcase in the cabin plus a shoulder bag like my Zadig & Voltaire clutch bag to fit my passport, purse and other small items. Personally I think more than 2 bags and you are bound to struggle carrying everything, will get stressed out and potentially forget one somewhere.

Air conditioning in long overhaul flights are a real bummer for the skin so I always take an extra bottle of water to sip water regularly and a moisturiser that I apply every two hours. I also like to wear something loose and comfortable like a slim legs jogger and comfy shoes like a pair of trainers (there is no point wearing pretty shoes, your feet will have double in size by the time your arrive).

While the weather forecasts were pretty good when I looked, San Francisco can become foggy and fresco pretty quickly so I packed my bag around two outfits.

Outfit 1 was a light, summer dress like this blond lace panel-dress or this embroidered cotton dress (which I’ve now ordered) to wear with these gorgeous sandals and a pair of Aviator sunglasses.

Outfit 2 was a pair of skinny jeans, a few t-shirts and a lovely textured cardigan in case the temperature would drop down.

To save space, I usually aim to take two pairs of shoes max on a short trip and build my outfits around them to make sure I have something that cover most occasions. My white cotton dress was great to wear today as it was boiling hot but would work in the evening too with a clutch. Talking of which, I also aim to take a flat clutch that can double up as make-up bag and evening clutch and a tote bag that will take hardly any space in my suitcase but will be useful to have when walking through the streets of San-Francisco. With its long shoulder bag, this indigo bag provides plenty of room while being light to carry.

My camera is a big, heavy mama but if you’re in the process of buying a new one, check out the Olympus Pen F which is a lot lighter and has wonderful features for Bloggers like a remote control setting to view the shot on your smartphone and a self-timer which makes taking fashion shots waaaay easier.

Packing light:

Oh là là tee-shirt | Aesop facial cleanser | Aesop anti-oxidant serum | flat clutch | Baggu half-moon pouch | No wrinkles extreme moisturiser | Olympus Pen F | cream cardigan | Star bracelet | skinny jeans | Stan Smith | Carter sandals and of course don’t forget a travel adaptor