How to pack for a Galapagos adventure and other activities

We used to pack EVERYTHING.  Not the kitchen supplies and the sink, but, alot.  The matching shoes to each dress/outfit; the large containers of all my bathroom stuff.  We wanted to ensure everything important arrived minimally creased, so we had a framed garment bag. Back when that was a thing.  Oh the money we spent on luggage!  What is most ironic of all is how incredibly challenging it was to find a way to donate these pieces of luggage.  It took ages.  Now we are learning to be a bit smarter about our packing.  In this post we share how to pack and how we are packing for our Galapagos trip in September.

Different Types of Vacations

One of the first things I think of when planning the clothing for a trip is: what are we doing, where we will be, and during what time of the year.  Seems obvious, but, if you don’t consider the variables, you may show up at the hotel on the beach without a swimsuit!  On the Galapagos cruise we have a few considerations:

• Warm, muggy weather during the day; 
• Cool and breezy at night;
• Quito (city travel wear); 
• Expedition cruising with more active excursions (hiking, swimming, snorkeling gear);
• Relaxed country club style evenings on cruise for drinks, dinner and socialising (summer dresses, slacks, tops, skirts, etc); and,
• Flight travel days (full days travelling on planes, in airports).

This is a fair amount of variety, particularly if you don’t want to overdo on your packing!  We want to have everything we want to have a great Galapagos adventure!

Excursion Gear

Fortunately, Celebrity Cruises Galapagos does include some gear for the excursions. The snorkelling and wetsuit gear for guests, raincoat, spf, binoculars, water bottle.  Going into detailed review of past guest posts, it is helpful to bring another water bottle along, possibly consider a long sleeve rashguard for under the wetsuit (if your swimsuit is a bulky one and doesn’t give that UPF protection); maybe your own snorkelling mask if you are partial to it or against using theirs; fin socks if that’s important to you; and so on.  What you decide to bring to supplement what the supply largely depends on what you think you’re going to do.  We know we want to do it all, so, we will take what we think may be needed to enjoy the full experience!

Quito and Cruise Wear

I loosely follow the 5-4-3-2-1 packing method.  This method is detailed on ‘She Packs Lite’.  I’ve been following it for the last two years of travel and it has worked out particularly well for our European trips.  There will be a few extras thrown in for this trip, including some water shoes, maybe a couple items for water activities, and maybe an extra pair of leggings for hiking. 

In order to accommodate the additional snorkelling gear (I think!) we will be packing 1 check on with the 1 carry on just to ensure we aren’t squishing stuff around too much.  As it is all transportation through cruiseline travel partners, hopefully we can rest assured that our checked bag will arrive with us.  If not, we have some wiggle room before we are onboard and cruising.  In addition, we will prepare our personal bag to have a change of clothing.

Toiletries and the Travel Medical Kit

My toiletries are pretty straight forward. I divide up my essentials into the containers in this kit. It seems to easily accommodate everything I need to take with me. If it isn’t in this kit, I’m not using it! For our emergency travel medical kit, take a look at our post on this here. This kit is fundamental to keeping me sane and comfortable when we travel. I know we will have what we need (most of the time!) to keep us feeling good so we can enjoy our Galapagos adventure!

Timing and How We Pack

We start planning our packing about 1-2 months in advance of any upcoming trip. This may seem excessive, but, it’s to ensure all the clothes are clean and ready to go and the luggage is in working order. Sometimes, we have to replace a piece of clothing or we need to change some of what we thought we were going to take with us.

Our packing follows the same steps everytime:

• get out the luggage
• clean luggage and make any repairs if necessary
• layout the luggage, open on a spare bed, counter, or the floor – it’s going to be like this for a bit, so, good idea for it to be out of the way of your day to day activities. And, out of the way or protected from any family pets!
• layout clothes
• cross pack in luggage (his & hers in all luggage so that one of you isn’t left without clothing if luggage is lost)
  • We use these compression packing cubes
• weigh

That’s it. Typically, the clothes packing portion isn’t until about 1-2 weeks before we leave, but, it does really depend on the type of trip and time of year we are travelling.

That’s how we pack for our Galapagos adventure and other activities. Check out our other travel planning activities and some of our adventures! If you are interested in regular updates, subscribe to our monthly newsletter –