Packing for a cruise

A cruise lines begin to travel further and cross more territory it can be difficult to work out what to pack – an evening dress and swimwear, something for active excursions and sweaters for the colder days … all to be fitted into what most people find to be very little storage space in their staterooms.

Here are some tips to help: Your bags will be taken from you at the terminal and may not appear in your stateroom until after dinner on the first day, so carry bathing suits, your first day’s dinner wear and your toiletries in your carry-on bag. Find out if there is a bag store or whether your cases have to remain in your cabin – if it’s the latter, you may find soft-sided cases work best as they can be crammed into corners of the room. Try to pick one main colour, say navy, and make sure that all your clothing works around that colour – a navy dress can be jazzed up with a pink pashmina one day, and a yellow belt and amber jewellery another, to give you a completely different look. T-shirts can be worn over swimwear one day, and with a long skirt another. Pick the smallest bottles of toiletries you can get away with – jumbo bottles take up space to no good purpose.