ULTIMATE City Break Packing List
A useful guide to packing for a city break.
Getting ready for a trip is all kinds of exciting. Except perhaps when it comes to creating a city break packing list. No matter how far in advance you mentally prepare, actually figuring out how to narrow down everything you own so you can pack it into just one bag can feel overwhelming.
How many pairs of shoes should you take? What electronics do you need for travelling? How do you stop your luggage from being overweight on the return leg after all those holiday purchases? City break packing can be a real overwhelm. Let me reduce the amount of last-minute running around and planning you have to do with this ultimate city break packing list.
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Important: before you start packing for your city break
Before you even start packing anything on this list for your city break, check what hand luggage allowance your airline offers, as they’re all different. Here are some of the big carriers’ baggage policies:
Many airlines now allow you to take one cabin bag and one personal item with you (some may charge a fee). This is a great option for a city trip. Plan to pack a rucksack as well as your hand luggage suitcase. This will give you plenty of space for a three day city break.
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What should I pack for a three-night city break?
This city break packing list is based on a short visit of a few days and is designed around taking hand luggage only. If it’s a long-haul trip you’re planning, check out my guide to long haul flight essentials instead.
City break packing list
Documents and money
Top of your city break checklist must be to pack documents and money before you pack anything else. If you forget everything else, as long as you’ve got your travel documents and access to funds, you can manage on a city break. You might think you won’t forget your passport but I’ve seen it happen, so get that in your bag right now.
Passport and visa if required – check in advance that your passport is still in date and has enough time left to run on it to meet any rules of the country you’re visiting. The UK Foreign Office travel advice section has country-specific entry information.
Travel money – make sure you at least have enough cash to pay for any transport from the airport/train station to the city centre and to cover your first night’s food. Beyond that, I use a Monzo card, as it works like a debit card and doesn’t make any hidden charges for foreign currency exchange.
Download all the flight/train/bus ticket apps you need – I also email myself a copy of all crucial travel tickets, so if my phone breaks or is lost whilst away I can log into my email from a different device and still access all my tickets in one place.
Travel insurance – you hope you don’t ever need to use it but you’re blooming glad you got it if you do. Don’t leave home without a decent travel insurance policy. Make a note of the policy number and contact details on a piece of paper somewhere, not just on your phone.
EHIC or GHIC card (for those living in the UK) – provides emergency healthcare when travelling to certain countries and it’s free. Make sure you get travel insurance as well.
City break luggage
Lightweight cabin bag – a light suitcase is key if you’re only going for a few days and don’t want to waste half your weight allowance on your bag. This version from Samsonite weighs only 1.75 kilograms.
Crossbody bag – keep your valuables close to you and don’t risk carrying your phone around in your back pocket. The Adidas version combines style with substance.
Rucksack – use as your personal item on the plane and to take out as a day bag during your city trip. I love the colourful designs by Hype.
Tote bag – useful for separating out your dirty clothes from clean ones or keeping your holiday shopping in.
Digital luggage scale – oh so handy for making sure that your holiday purchases don’t mean you end up paying a huge excess weight fee for your luggage on your return journey.
City break packing list: electronics
A good pair of noise-cancelling headphones – I can’t go anywhere without access to music and these Sony headphones have great noise-cancelling capabilities. They won’t totally block out every sound but will dampen down the annoying plane hum and general noise. I can’t be without them on a trip now.
Ereader – similar to headphones, a Kindle is top of my packing list for a city break. No need to carry heavy books with you but plenty of reading material at your fingertips. The Paperwhite version makes it easy to read even on a sunny trip.
Bluetooth luggage tracker – if you plan to leave your luggage in left luggage storage at any point this can provide an extra level of reassurance.
Additional memory card – so you don’t have to spend precious time deleting your pictures on the go.
Worldwide travel adapter – avoid having to remember which adapter you need to take with a worldwide version.
Cable tidy bag – even with only taking a few electronic items the cables seem to always go missing. Get yourself a cheap cable tidy bag to save time hunting those cables down.
Indoor security pet cam – it’s not an item for packing but if you have pets then this might just be a revelation to you when preparing for your city trip. For less than £30 you can get an indoor security camera that connects via your WiFi, so you can see your pets in real-time whilst you’re away.
I’ve got the Blink mini model which is super easy to set up. You can choose whether or not you want to be notified of any motion detected and also connect to live view. Warning, you might spend more time watching your pets on this than that awesome sunset over the city you’re visiting.
City break packing list: clothes and shoes
The main thing to remember when going through your city trip packing list is that you probably don’t need to pack as many clothes as you think you do. Try to reduce down from whatever you start with. My suggestions, in addition to the clothes you’ll wear on the journey, are:
- 1 x jeans
- 1 x leggings
- 3 x lightweight strappy tops/t-shirts/shirts
- 1 x long-sleeved top
- Underwear
- Sleepwear
- 1 x smart trainers – Adidas Nizza are a comfy choice for spending hours walking a city in
- 1 x flip flops (of course, unless it’s going to be cold) – I love the North Face Base Camp Mini. The eggbox sole makes them the most comfortable flip flops I’ve ever owned.
- 1 x boots (if a colder destination)
- 1 x waterproof mac (depending on the location)
- Large blanket scarf
- 1 x sun hat or woolly hat – I’m a massive fan of the Sealskinz water-repellent bobble hat for any cold/wet city trips. It’s a game-changer for keeping your head warm and dry.
- 1 x sunglasses/glasses
- 1 x belt – to accessorize with clothes
- Jewellery – to dress up casual clothes for the evening
City break packing list: toiletries
When you’re thinking about what to pack for a city break it can be tempting with such a small carry-on liquids allowance to think you’ll just buy your toiletries at the airport, after security.
However, this can soon rack up the cost. Instead, try to swap out a few items for non-liquid alternatives e.g. soap bars, shampoo bars and face wipes. Everyone’s beauty routine is different but here are some suggestions of what not to leave out:
- Toothbrush and toothbrush protector cover
- Folding hairbrush
- Hair clips and bobbles (elastics)
- Cleansing wipes
- Simple light SPF 15 moisturiser
- Favourite essential makeup items
- Roll makeup brush bag
- Perfume atomiser
- Sun cream
- Lip balm
- Hand sanitiser
- Deodorant
- Feminine hygiene products
City break packing list: other essential items
If you struggle to sleep when travelling, these items will be city break essentials to include on your packing list.
- Ear plugs
- Eye mask
- Medications
- Small roll of sellotape or a few clothes pegs – useful for holding badly fitting curtains together at night, amongst other things
- Dodow sleep aid – a small disc-shaped device that emits low rhythmical light for you to breathe in time with, to help you drift off. It takes around a week to get into the habit of using it, so don’t leave it until your trip to try.
How should I pack for a city break? Packing tips
In terms of how many clothes and shoes you need to pack for a city break, I suggest you work on the rule of thirds. Lay everything out that you want to take and then put a third back.
You’ll inevitably wear your favourite item more than once and if you pack items that can be combined into different outfits you really don’t need to take that much at all.
When it comes to packing, roll your clothes instead of folding them. This will make better use of the space you’ve got and it’ll keep your clothes in good shape. You might want to invest in a few elastic bands to keep some items in place but many will stay rolled as you place other items next to them.
Leave small items like underwear and sleepwear until last and stuff these into any available small space, inside of shoes is a particular favourite of mine.
Wear your bulkiest outfit, biggest shoes and coat on the plane to save on precious packing space. Mr Flip Flops Included has been known to wear four pairs of trousers on a flight, although you might not want to go to quite his extremes.
I hope you’ve found this guide to what to pack for a city trip useful. If you’ve got your own top tips, let me know in the comments.
- For more travel item inspiration, check out my ultimate list of 71 travel gifts for couples.