<p>I know I will get the best and quickest answers here! I’m taking a very long plane trip soon (think almost two days of travel). I’m trying to figure out the most sensible thing to wear for comfort. I’ll be leaving here in winter cold weather and arriving in a very warm climate BUT I DO need winter clothes for part of this trip.</p>
<p>I have a couple of thoughts…wear loose fitting winter slacks (cords with spandex), and loose fitting top…but warmish. Plan to change at one of the stopovers into something for the warmer climate.</p>
<p>OR I have really nice boot cut yoga pants. They are very comfy and soft. I would NOT, however, use these on the rest of the trip at all…so they would be for the travel portions only. </p>
<p>I usually layer for long trips with changing climate. I like to look good while traveling since I think you get treated just a little better if issues arise so I tend towards things like Chico’s travelers for pants. Really comfortable and yet always look good. For top I layer a light weight top with a loose cardigan sweater. In warmer climate the sweater comes off and the pants and top are still OK.</p>
<p>I vote for the comfy yoga pants so you can get some sleep. They are light and won’t take up much room in your suitcase while you’re away. You can wash them or get them cleaned and wear them on the return trip. When going from a cold climate to a warm one, I usually wear a short sleeved shirt with a soft jacket. You can put some sandals or flip flops in your carry on and put the on when you arrive.</p>
<p>OK…now I’m going to be picky. I HATE Chicos travelers clothes…just don’t like them…used to have them and got rid of them all.</p>
<p>Here is my latest idea.</p>
<p>Black yoga pants, loose fitting top, loose fitting sweater. I have a pashimini to carry and I’ll also be toting my fleece with goretex topper (need the goretex for the rain…the fleece will be for the winter parts of my trip). </p>
<p>But I’m also thinking my black jeans might be nice. They are very comfy too.</p>
<p>When we went to Australia several years ago, one piece of advice I picked up on the blogs that I consulted was just exactly this. We packed comfy stuff (yoga pants and sweater for me, light jogging suit for DH, and leggings and sweater for DD) in a carry-on. Once safely in the air we changed into the comfy stuff, and after breakfast but before landing, we changed back into our less comfy clothing. If you don’t want to struggle into your yoga pants in that tiny airplane bathroom, you could change once you are safely past security in the airport. Since we were traveling from summer in the US to winter in OZ, our comfy airplane gear doubled as warm p.j.s for several nights in cold locations.</p>
<p>I’d go with the yoga pants and sweater. Comfort should rule! </p>
<p>You might be surprised about using the yoga pants during your trip. I like to have something comfortable to ‘hang out’ in. Especially on long trips, I’ve given up fretting about how I look while traveling. Seems nobody else really cares, so why should I care?!</p>
<p>A vote against yoga pants… unless they have adjustable drawstring waist, like Juicy pants, or you had experience with sitting in them all day long. What is comfy for moving around may not be so comfy for prolonged periods of sitting. I agree with the advice of no dowdy-looking clothes - you would be amazed at the difference in treatment by some foreign authorities and airline personnel (e.g., people is business attire were not frisked as much as unkempt-looking folks at the St Petersburg airport).</p>
<p>BB, my yoga pants are VERY comfortable. I’m thinking those with a loose fitting sweater will be nice. I’ll actually look like I’m wearing nice black knit slacks…with a nice sweater. I also have a very nice pashmini scarf that matches it all to wrap around my shoulders. </p>
<p>How does that sound? I also have a pair of Chicos (not travelers but some other “model”) knit pants…but they are thinner than the yoga pants. Other than that…they look the same.</p>
<p>Thumper, that sounds like a great outfit. Another vote for sandals in the carryon: you do not want to pad around in your socks. Planes are germboxes!!! Pashminas are invaluable on planes.</p>
<p>I’m actually planning on carrying a full change of clothes (at least) in my carry on including my sandals. I’ll swap clothes sometime during the last leg of this trip and switch into my “warm weather” clothes…and sandals.</p>
<p>I have a pair of fleecy no elastic socks I’m taking to wear on the plane…to keep my tootsies warm.</p>
<p>Careful with loose fitting sweaters that are not cardigans if you are wearing them layered. My sister had to remove hers for the security line. Awkward at best. If it is a cardigan it is easy to remove if they insist but often I do not have to remove them. I don’t actually use travelers but have similar type of pants, just thought that was the easier way to describe them. If yoga pants are cropped and not full length I would opt for something else, particularly traveling abroad. . If they actually look like full length knit pants they sound good. Whatever is comfy and still good looking for long sitting is best.</p>
<p>thumper your plan is perfect, stick to it. The yoga pants/sweater combo is ideal and carrying a complete change of clothes, including underwear, is a must. I’d throw a toothbrush and tiny toothpaste in there too if I were you. If you are delayed or your luggage is misplaced, you’ll be ready to go. I’ve spent the night in a hotel without any of that and I’ve also gone shopping for clothes at the end of a long flight to Hong Kong. That bag arrived 3 days later!</p>
<p>I second Puzzled’s advice! Pack some easily washable, quick-drying undies in the carryon. We spent 2 nights in Saint Petersburg without our luggage which was lost by Air France, and having 2 pairs of quickly drying undies was a lifesaver. As I discovered later, even if I had tried to go shopping for clothes in that city… I would not have been able to find anything good looking for a 150-lb woman of average height (considered XL by the Euro standards).</p>
<p>This is a good point. It does seem random–I usually wear a sweater and about half the time I am told to take it off at the security line. It used to bother me but now I am pretty good at dissociating through the whole security process.</p>
<p>One other thing is that I was recently on a very long flight (13+ hours) and the plane was freezing. I was glad I had the sweater plus a fleece jacket, and the airline blanket. If you have layers available to put on, you should be fine, but I didn’t think about the temperature of the plane in my planning–I was just lucky I had the fleece jacket.</p>
<p>I like the Neon Buddha line of clothing for casual comfy wear that you can layer for long business trips. Do not wear jeans – you will want more of a yoga pant waist, esp when you sleep.</p>
<p>One thing to consider is clothing that has pockets where you can store essentials like passport / identification, credit cards, airline / hotel information, etc. on your person, rather than risk misplacing it somewhere or having it stolen from your baggage.</p>
<p>Even for carry-on baggage, there is the chance that you will have to gate check your bag because the carry-on storage is already full. There have been rare cases of theft from carry-ons during long airline flights as well. There was also a story of where, in a hurry to board, a man who took medication had his carry-on with the medication stored somewhere away from his seat; when he needed the medication, the plane needed to make a medical emergency landing, since no one remembered where the carry-on with the medication was.</p>
<p>But also note that you should not expect flight attendants to help you load your carry-on into the overhead. In many airlines, flight attendants are not covered for injuries sustained while doing so.</p>
<p>T1. When we travel from a cold place to a warm destination, we always take one more piece of luggage with us. We would put a set of warm weather cloth in that luggage.</p>
<p>Upon arrival, we would go change the cloth first.</p>
<p>So, comfort and easy to change are two things important in this case.</p>