Packing light is easier on a short trip than people expect. Two or three nights in the hills needs less than a week anywhere else, and you will be carrying your own bag between a vehicle and a room, not across a city.
Clothes
- Two quick-dry t-shirts, which matter more than cotton if it rains
- One warm layer. Even in summer the altitude makes evenings cool
- A rain shell between roughly June and September, and honestly worth having outside those months too
- Comfortable walking shoes with some grip. Trails can be wet
- Sandals or slides for around the stay
- Warm socks. This is the item people most often wish they had
Useful, small
- A refillable water bottle
- A small daypack for the walking days
- A torch, or your phone. Power can be intermittent at a village stay
- A power bank for the same reason
- Sunscreen. Hill sun is stronger than it feels
- Basic medication you take, plus something for an upset stomach
What you can leave behind
Formal clothes, a hair dryer, a second pair of jeans, and most of the toiletries you were going to decant. Stays provide the basics.
Our recommendation: Pack for two days and add one warm layer. Nearly everyone brings too much on their first trip and then packs half of it on the next.
If you are on medication or have an allergy
Put it in the traveller form when you book, not only in your bag. The trip lead sees that, which matters if something happens on a hill road with patchy signal.
