As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I surprised the world (okay, mostly just me) by only packing a carry-on for our recent vacation to Australia. It was a departure from my norm of usually packing three times more than amount of outfits that a normal person would need for a trip, so this one required a bit more restraint. So I thought I’d show you every single thing I packed in my hard-shell suitcase that I ended up wearing during our week-long trip.
ON THE PLANE
It was tricky going from the dead of winter in NYC to the peak of summer in Australia. Lucky for us, the day we left happened to be warmer than normal so we ditched our winter coats and I ended up wearing a long cardigan, a comfortable t-shirt and my favorite pair of leggings. I recently got a new leather tote to store all of my personal items, like my laptop, my travel blanket and vacation reading material.
“STUCK” IN HAWAII
If you followed my Instagram stories (which you can still see archived on my profile), you know that we had an unexpected overnight layover in Honolulu. The joys of flying standby. Obviously, there are worse places to be stuck and we made our most of it by hanging out on Waikiki Beach, watching a hula dance performance and meeting up with friends who were coincidentally in town. We landed only a few hours after the false alarm missile alert, so it was fascinating to hear about the experience from some locals we met!
EXPLORING SYDNEY HARBOUR
We spent most of our full day in Sydney near the harbor. I wore this navy tie front dress and these rose gold sandals (you’ll be seeing them a lot in upcoming outfit photos). Surprisingly, these sandals are super comfortable to walk in. We walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge twice, around the Circular Quay and over to the Opera House for drinks. Side note: that Australian sun is no joke. We forgot to put on sun block during our first day there and I’m still peeling from sunburn! If you’re planning a visit, use lots of sunscreen!
COASTAL WALK FROM COOGEE TO BONDI
There’s an absolutely stunning coastal trail known as the walk from Bondi to Coogee. It’s about 4.6 km long (2.8 miles) and took us nearly three hours to complete (we stopped a lot for photos, breaks and reapplying sunscreen!). Knowing that we wanted to end up at Bondi Beach, we actually did the reverse and started from Coogee. There are a lot of amazing cliffs and a few more beaches in between that are way less crowded than Bondi. Once we got to Bondi Beach, I changed into this triangle bikini with high-waisted bottoms and we hit the Icebergs — a popular pool club — to relax.
A QUICK TRIP TO AIRLIE BEACH
One of the things on our bucket list was to visit the Great Barrier Reef, so we flew up north to Airlie Beach in Queensland. Airlie is one of the few great entryways to the reefs. From there, we took a three-hour ferry ride to Hardy Reef, where we snorkeled all afternoon. It was probably one of the most incredible experiences ever.
DATE NIGHT IN DOWNTOWN SYDNEY
You saw this outfit already and honestly, there’s nothing really special about it. It’s just an easy white, summery dress (for under $50!) that you can wear out during the day or to a dinner date night. One of the highlights of our trip was all of the incredible food we ate while we were there. A lot of Sydney’s cuisine has Southeast Asian influence, so we had everything from Thai to Malaysian to some sort of modern fusion that would make any hipster foodie proud. I’ll be sharing more about that in a Sydney travel guide coming soon!
HANGING WITH KANGAROOS AT TARONGA ZOO
On our last full day in Sydney, we visited the zoo. It was the only chance we would get to some animals native to the country since we weren’t going to explore the Outback. We got up close with koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, tigers and penguins! It was also blistering hot outside, so a flowy crop top (on sale for $25!) and high-waisted shorts was about all I could handle. We ended the day with a stroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens where we took these outfit photos.
And that’s it! I pretty much wore everything I packed, with the exception of an extra shirt or two. I’m pretty proud of myself for not getting too bogged down with clothes and luggage because it let me enjoy our trip to the fullest.
More to come about our Australia trip — including more outfits and travel tips about everything we did and ate during our time there. If there’s anything specific you’d like to see, let me know in the comments below!
Lovely inspiration ☃ ❄
Blog de la Licorne
omg australia is on my list of places i have to visit soon and i need to catch up on your trip! you look so chic and this packing post is so helpful!
kileen
cute & little
Love the navy tie from dress!
Lauren,
http://www.atouchofsoutherngrace.com
I love your itens.. i hope you had enjoyed your trip…
Xoxo from Portugal
marisascloset.blogspot.com
Perfect packing list, love those velvet trousers!
xo Annie
New England Romance