Packing and Weather

 Packing for a 3-week trip is giving me no small amount of anxiety. I've actually been "worrying" about this topic for months now, and I still don't have any solutions.

I have read so many suggestions to pack only in carry-ons, to avoid lost luggage, or delays at the airport while waiting for bags. Great in theory, except that our airline only allows the *tiniest* of carry-ons. No luggage-sized bags...just something purse/laptop/small backpack sized. So, even if we just take our "carry-on sized luggage", we will have to check them anyway.

Okay, so that means any size bag is fine, right? Well, nope...

First, Trafalgar has a maximum allowed size for their tour.

Second, we will have at least 3 times in this trip where we will have to walk a mile or so with said baggage...possibly over cobblestone sidewalks?

So maybe the large suitcases are too big for this, and we should try to get everything into the 4 carryons we have. But will everything fit?  This is the question of my nightmares.

On a "typical" trip to Disney, where the weather is warm so we pack small things like shorts and t-shirts, we take the 1 giant suitcase, plus two carry-on sized bags for the girls and one backpack for our electronics, ID and meds that we take on the plane with us. This has worked for 10-day trips, and includes a small fan for the bedroom, and room for souvenirs to come home.

I'm hoping to convince my husband to leave the fan at home...but this might be a deal-breaker. He really doesn't sleep well - like, at all - without one. I will also be drastically reducing the normal toiletries we take (although we do need to remember to pack facecloths - apparently those are not provided in European hotels!), and plan to buy some items there on our first day.

The other factor is weather...if it's chilly, we need to pack bulkier items like pants and sweaters that we don't normally take to Florida. So I have been stalking the weather pages (yes, already!) and trying out various pieces of my wardrobe in "similar" temperatures we are having here. I don't want anyone in our group to be miserable because they're cold! 

And let's talk rain...is it just me, or does it seem like it's always raining in Europe!?! Do I care if I look like a complete dork in a rain poncho as long as I'm dry? What about waterproof shoes? Do we take just raincoats (which, by the way, is something neither of our children own) or umbrellas (more compact, but then we have to hold them)? 

And lastly, there's the option of doing laundry or not. Do we try to pack for double-the-longest-we've-ever-done-before, or do we just plan to find a laundromat in one of the towns we stop at in Scotland? Doing laundry wastes time on vacation and I truly abhor the idea. If it's necessary, though, then I'll suck it up. I just cannot decide if it's "necessary".

In the time since starting and finishing this post, I've decided to bite the bullet and buy 2 new "medium" suitcases (in the 24-26" range). Bigger than carry-on but smaller than the giant suitcase we normally take. I think this will give us more room, as a family, and each person can push/pull one bag wherever we need to go.  Once I get these into my home, I'm going to do a trial-packing-run to see how much we can fit. Then I can make the decision on the laundry/no-laundry call, and hopefully sleep again without visions of my family in filthy clothes in front of the Louvre.