Summer is almost here; can you believe it? We’re so excited for the warm weather, and we’re sure you are too! Let us help you make the best of your summer with a few style and travel tips that can help make your vacation (or staycation) just a little more fun and fabulous. Here are our top 10 tips, check it out!
1. How to Wear a Sun Hat
Sun hats for women are a must-have for any summer excursion, not only because they help frame your face and add a touch of style to your outfit, but also because they provide you valuable protection from the sun.
When picking out a sun hat, start by finding the right size. You’ll want something that is proportionate to your body. If you’re on the taller side, try an oversized brim, if you’re shorter, try a smaller one. Look for neutral colors that can be styled with several different outfits during your summer vacation, like a patchwork maxi dress one day and a casual pair of jean shorts the next. A straw hat is a great sun hat to pair with any outfit including your swimwear. Just remember that your suitcase space is super valuable when packing for a trip, so make sure any summer hats you bring earn their space!
2. What to Wear with a Sun Dress
Speaking of suitcase space, a sun dress is a great way to create a fun summer look without loading your travel bags up with tons of different pieces. Pair this smocked tiered sundress with a simple heeled sandal and your wide-brimmed hat from earlier and you have a look you can wear out to dinner or to a summer barbecue in just three pieces. Swap the heels for a pair of summer slides and add some Ray-Ban sunglasses and you’ve got a more casual look perfect for the beach or shopping with friends. That’s two stylish looks with just one dress!
3. What is the Best Tote Bag for Travel?
When going on vacation, it’s always a good idea to err on the side of too much space. You’d rather find out halfway through your trip that you have extra space in your suitcase than realize you don’t have room for any souvenirs you may have picked up.
If you always find yourself scrambling to pack every pocket of your suitcase to make your vacation purchases fit, something like the Under Armour Women’s Essentials Signature Tote Bag could be perfect for you. When not in use, it rolls up and clips onto other purses and backpacks, staying out of your way when you don’t need it and providing you with plenty of carrying space when you do. You can use it to store dirty laundry, carry beach toys to the lake, stash sandy towels and so much more, and it barely takes up any space in your luggage.
If you need to use it as a carryon for your purchases during your trip don’t worry as it has a sleeve on the back where it will easily slip over a roller suitcase for easy traveling back home. Besides, who couldn’t use some extra tote bags?
4. What is the Best Purse to Travel with?
The best travel purses are the perfect middle ground between having enough space to hold all of your essential travel accessories and not being so bulky that it’s constantly getting in your way. Our solution? A mini backpack!
These cute bags can hold just as much, if not more, than your standard purse and keep it all right at your back as you go on whatever adventures you have planned for your vacation or staycation. They also spread the weight out over both of your shoulders, so you don’t have to keep switching your purse from one shoulder to the other all day long.
Our favorite mini backpacks for travel feature an outside pocket or two where you can stash lipstick or your sunglasses that you can grab at a moment’s notice as well as inside pockets that keep essentials like your passport and money safe.
5. How to Travel with Perfume
We’ve likely all seen firsthand how tricky it can be to travel with liquids. Even the most secure bottles can tip over and spill during the journey, covering your luggage in makeup, toothpaste, or, worst of all, perfume. The last thing you want on your summer vacation is for all of your belongings to have a super strong smell, even if it is your favorite perfume or cologne. So how do you travel with perfume? We recommend a refillable perfume atomizer like this one. It easily connects to your fragrance bottle to make refilling easy and is small enough to fit in your makeup bag, or airplane carry-on. Even if you aren’t traveling, it’s nice to keep on hand in your everyday purse for any occasion when you might need to reapply on the go. Another fragrance travel tip is to look for your favorite scents in travel size. This could mean a Versace EDT in a smaller, airplane-friendly spray bottle or a Nichole Miller rollerball, whatever fits the best in your makeup or toiletries case.
6. What is the Best Travel Wallet?
Just like with travel bags and purses, wallets that provide you with lots of space and plenty of pockets are the way to go. When traveling light, we like wallets like this one that are small enough to tuck into your purse or coat pocket but still have slots for all of your cards AND a zipper pocket for coins. That second one is big, especially if you’re traveling in Europe or other places that use coins more often than we do here in the US.
Another great option with a zipper pocket is the Anna by Anuschka Organizing Wallet. Both of these cute wallets also have clear ID pockets in addition to their many card pockets and zip coin pocket, providing you with all the storage you need for a trip of any length.
7. What to Pack in a Beach Bag
Whether you’re only spending an hour or two at the beach or an entire day, there are a few things you have to have in your beach bag like this cute Roxy beach bag.
The first, and most important, is sunscreen. You don’t want to deal with sun burns during your vacation, so bring along enough sunscreen that you can reapply throughout your day. You’ll also likely want to bring a water bottle or some other beverages so that you can stay hydrated. With those two important things out of the way, the rest is up to you.
We might pack pool slides or beach flip flops so that we don’t track sand into our car or hotel room, a book or magazine to read, a towel to sunbathe on, sunscreen, a camera to take pictures of the kids’ sand castles, snacks in case anyone gets hungry, sunglasses, our sun hat…needless to say we’re going to need a beach bag with a lot of pockets!
8. Can you Wear Slides to the Beach?
Absolutely! Pool slides are a perfect way to deal with the most annoying part of every beach trip: the sand. Just a few steps on the beach are enough to fill your sneakers or slip-ons with enough sand to get all over your car and home, even if you’re positive you shook every last bit out before leaving the beach. Sand is nature’s glitter; get ready to find it EVERYWHERE.
To avoid this, leave your sneakers in the car and throw on a pair of MUK LUKS pool slides before hitting the beach. Once you’re done soaking up sun for the day, rinse off your beach slides or toss them into a plastic bag until you can rinse them off at home. Use your towel to get any sand that’s still stuck to your feet off, and you’re good to go!
9. Is Moisturizer with SPF Enough?
That depends entirely on the SPF that your moisturizer provides. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends using a sunscreen or moisturizer with an SPF of at least 30, so it’s a good idea to check your daily moisturizer to make sure it’s up to that standard before hitting the beach.
We recommend the Olay Regenerist Whip Face Moisturizer with SPF 40, which is more than enough to keep your skin happy in the summer sun. The whip technology in Olay Whip SPF 40 offers you a light formula that transforms from cream to liquid on contact and absorbs quickly so that your skin is left feeling soft and breathable, making it perfect for everything from daily wear to your annual summer beach trip.
10. What Hats Should I bring on Vacation?
We’ve already mentioned why women’s sun hats are a necessity on a summer vacation, but if the oversized brim look isn’t quite your style, there are plenty of other summer and spring hats you can wear instead. One style that we recommend, especially for trips with activities such as hiking planned, is a baseball cap or trucker hat. These are great because they block your face from the sun and are often built to be breathable, meaning you’ll stay cool during your hike, beach trip, walking tour, amusement park day, and much more. If you have long hair, you can tuck your ponytail through the back strap to keep it off your neck too, which also helps to keep you cool on hot summer days.
Those are our top 10 style and travel tips for summer vacation; did we miss anything? Let us know your summer style hacks in the comments below and be sure to tag us on Facebook and Instagram!
